Hall of Famer steps down from Minnesota coaching job

Basketball Hall of Famer Lindsay Whalen is stepping down as the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the team announced.

She will remain with Minnesota athletics as a special assistant to the athletics director through April 12, 2025.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Lindsay," University of Minnesota director of athletics Mark Coyle said in a statement. "I want to thank Lindsay for her hard work and dedication as a player and as the head coach of our women's basketball program. 

"She is one of the greatest alums and ambassadors this University has ever produced and her legacy of being a Minnesota icon is etched in stone."

Whalen was hired to return to her alma mater as the team's head coach in 2018, a role she held down while simultaneously playing in her ninth season with the nearby Minnesota Lynx, according to SB Nation. Whalen earned an overall record of 71-76 and a Big Ten record of 32-58. 

Whalen should not be remembered for her recent coaching career but for her legacy as a player. 

The native of Hutchinson, Minn., was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame after five All-Star selections and four championships in her 15 seasons in the WNBA. She averaged 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game after she was drafted to the Connecticut Sun eight years after the league's founding.

She became a staple of the Lynx franchise and helped guide Minnesota to one of its most successful stretches in franchise history. Whalen, along with eight-time All-Star forward Seimone Augustus and a 2014 WNBA MVP in guard Maya Moore, won championship rings for the Minnesota Lynx throughout the 2010s. 

She was the Minnesota Golden Gophers' first three-time All-American in school history. She took the Gophers to the Final Four in 2004.