Nell Fortner, a former college, WNBA and USA Basketball coach who has been an ESPN analyst since 2012, has been hired as the new women's basketball coach at Georgia Tech, it was announced Tuesday.
"I've coached for 28 years, at every level, and Georgia Tech was the perfect fit for me to get back in the college game," Fortner said in a statement. "Georgia Tech is one of those unique institutions that has both a premier academic reputation and a successful athletics program."
Our new @GTWBB head coach @NellOnWheels:
— Georgia Tech Sports (@GTAthletics) April 9, 2019
🐝 3️⃣0️⃣5️⃣ career wins
🐝 Olympic 🥇
🐝 2️⃣ conference titles#NellYeah
📰: https://t.co/H6XjJp75tA pic.twitter.com/N1ahRLK5GU
Georgia Tech fired MaChelle Joseph, who had been head coach for 16 years, on March 26. That followed an independent investigation after Joseph was put on administrative leave in February after complaints from players about verbal abuse and a "toxic" environment.
Joseph's attorney disputed the findings.
Fortner, who played basketball and volleyball at Texas, began her college coaching career in 1987 as an assistant at Stephen F. Austin and then Louisiana Tech. She was an assistant with the 1996 Olympic team, then became head coach at Purdue in 1996. She stayed just one season with the Boilermakers, going back to coach the U.S. national team from 1997 to 2000 -- leading the Americans to gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Fortner coached the WNBA's Indiana Fever from 2001 to 2003 and went back to the college game with Auburn from 2004 to 2012.
She has a 162-117 record (.581) as a college head coach.
