NORFOLK, Va. (ODUSports.com) – Former Old Dominion women's basketball head coach Marianne Stanley has been named a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022, the organization announced on Friday.
Hired by ODU at just 23, Stanley compiled a record of 269-59 (.820) in her 10 years in Norfolk and helped put the ODU women's basketball program on the map as the Lady Monarchs captured three national championships during her tenure.
The Monarchs won back-to-back AIAW national titles in 1979 and 1980. ODU went 35-1 during the 1978-79 season and defeated LA Tech 76-65 in the title game. The following year, Old Dominion rolled to a 37-1 mark and downed Tennessee 68-53 in the championship. In 1985, the Monarchs defeated Georgia 70-65 for their first NCAA title. ODU also won the WNIT in 1978.
Overall, the Monarchs reached the national semifinals five times, including 1983 when the NCAA Final Four was held in Norfolk's Scope Arena.
Stanley was the AIAW National Coach of the Year in 1979 and a five-time Virginia Coach of the Year (1979-81, 1984-85).
Stanley was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 1984. Regionally, she was the NCAA District III Coach of the Year in 1983 and Fast Break Mideast Region Coach of the Year in 1984.
Two of her student-athletes, the late Anne Donovan and Nancy Lieberman, are both in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Lieberman was a two-time Wade Trophy winner, and four of Stanley's student-athletes (Lieberman, Donovan, Inge Nissen and Medina Dixon) were Kodak All-Americans. Donovan was also the Naismith Player of the Year in 1983.
In 2002, Stanley was also inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She is also a member of the ODU Sports Hall of Fame.
Following her collegiate coaching career, Stanley has served as an assistant and head coach for several WNBA organizations and is currently the head coach of the Indiana Fever. She won a WNBA Championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019 as an assistant coach.
Stanley was also a finalist for the Class of 2021. She joins fellow finalists Leta Andrews, Swin Cash, Michael Cooper, Hugh Evans, Manu Ginobili, Tim Hardaway, Bob Huggins, Marques Johnson, George Karl and Lindsay Whalen.
