ROCHESTER, Mich. -- Oakland has hired Keisha Newell as women's basketball coach after she reached three straight NCAA tournaments at the Division II level with Lewis University.
Deanna Richard had served as Oakland's interim head coach since Jeff Tungate took an immediate retirement on Dec. 9. Tungate, who had coached Oakland for 12 seasons, also missed the majority of the 2023-24 campaign while recovering from a back procedure.
Oakland went 9-22 this season and reached the Horizon League tournament quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Green Bay 84-55.
Newell's Lewis team went 26-4 this season and lost to Wayne State in the first round of the NCAA Division II tournament. Her Lewis teams also went 21-11 in 2022-23 and 23-9 in 2023-24.
Before taking over Lewis, Newell spent four seasons coaching Roosevelt University, which at the time was an NAIA school.
She worked at the Division I level as an assistant coach at Loyola-Chicago from 2011-14.
