On the morning of April 6, Tech announced the hiring of head coach Karen Blair, the seventh head coach in Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball’s program history. Blair comes from the University of Maryland where she served as the associate head coach to Brenda Freese since 2020.
Aside from the seven years spent at Maryland, Blair’s resume includes three years at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) as associate head coach, assistant positions at the University of North Texas, University of Texas, Arlington and Colgate University, as well as 10 years as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at SMU. Blair was also a contributing player to SMU basketball teams from the 1990s and made three NCAA Tournament appearances from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
Blair accumulated many impressive honors throughout her career as an assistant coach. These accolades consist of winning the WBCA (Women’s Basketball Coaches Association) 2020 NCAA D1 Assistant of the Year award and being named to a list of Most Impactful Assistant Coaches in Women’s Basketball by media outlet Silver Waves Media.
The reason for these awards lies in the numbers. While at Maryland, Blair recruited four separate top-20 classes including notching a top three ranked class in 2019. Also, Maryland was 178-50 (.781) during her tenure which included six 23 win seasons. Even rewinding back to her time with the Rams, she produced a highly-rated recruiting class (top 30) and one year even eclipsed 23 wins.
Blair spoke fondly of Tech during her introductory press conference, highlighting what a unique opportunity it is for her here.
“You know I’ve been in this business for over two decades, and I’ve waited a long time but going through this process, it was really easy for me to see that this was the right fit for me. I value high academics and I want to be able to play competitive basketball and … be in a community that loves basketball,” Blair said.
In her most recent role, Blair took charge of many of the Terrapin recruiting duties as well as assisting in transfer portal conversations in order to assemble the roster. Blair will need to utilize these skills in order to continue the strong foundation that former head coach Nell Fortner worked to construct. Currently, only two Jackets are planning to return from last year with many sitting in the transfer portal mulling over their futures. Blair’s first duty as head coach will be working on retention and then recruiting players out of the portal to facilitate her style of play.
In terms of Blair’s goal and how she views the current Tech program, she applauded former coach Nell Fortner for her dedication to the program and believed the NCAA Tournament is the current bar.
“The legacy that she has not only built here but just her career … Nell has impacted so many people throughout her career. Players, coaches, I mean there’s just so many. I have the utmost respect for her. She’s set the standard that the standard is to go to the NCAA tournament. That’s [what] I want to continue to grow and that to be the standard for us going forward is that we’re … dancing in March.” Blair said in her introductory press conference.
Blair’s lack of head coach experience may draw concern. She has been a perennial assistant, working up the ranks for over 20 years and now has finally taken the opportunity to move up. Sometimes, these career assistants turn out to be something truly special, but sometimes you hit a roadblock and have to reset. While the hire could be risky, it is done with lots of upside in Blair’s future as a head coach at Tech and in general.
Blair ended her opening statement by directly addressing the Jackets fans, asserting that her leadership will continue to elevate the Tech program.
“I’m ready. I’m here to work … I want to compete and I want to lead with integrity. That’s what it’s about for me is we want to compete to win. We want to have a standard of excellence. That’s what we will work towards every single day,” Blair finished.