Episode 160: Lin Dunn, Ways To Help You and Your Team Reach Their Full Potential

Guest: Lin Dunn, Special Assistant to the Head Coach for Kentucky Women’s Basketball Team

Coaching legend Lin Dunn joins the podcast to discuss ways to help you and your team reach their full potential.

Lin Dunn is currently a special assistant to the head coach with Kentucky. Coach Dunn has had an incredible coaching career and is currently a special assistant to the head coach with Kentucky. She has more than 500 wins to her name and has served as a head coach for four different college teams and three different professional teams including being the 1st GM and head coach of the Seattle Storm, and including the 2012 WNBA title with the Indiana Fever.

A native of Dresden, Tennessee, Dunn graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1969. She coached for decades in the college ranks, amassing a 447-257 record in 25 seasons as a college head coach. In her tenure at Austin Peay State University (1970–1976), the University of Mississippi (1977–1978), the University of Miami (1978–1987), and Purdue University (1987–1996), she made the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship seven times, and the Final Four once, in 1994 with Purdue. She is in the Athletics Hall of Fame at both Austin Peay and Miami. Dunn also was president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association in 1984-85.

Dunn was abruptly fired at Purdue after the 1995-96 season but resurfaced in the pros with the American Basketball League's Portland Power in 1996. She was ABL's coach of the year in 1998, right before that league folded. Dunn then became the first coach and GM of the expansion Seattle Storm in the ABL's rival, the WNBA. Her folksy southern personality was a hit in Urbane, Seattle, with fans often wearing Dunn masks and quoting her rustic aphorisms. The team started with a dismal 6-26 season.

Dunn left the Storm just as it was starting to have success. New superstars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird led the team to the 2002 playoffs, where they were swept by the Los Angeles Sparks. Dunn then resigned, leaving the path open for Anne Donovan to build a championship team just two seasons later.

Dunn is a former head coach of the Indiana Fever. Dunn won the WNBA championship with the Fever on October 21, 2012.

On May 6, 2014, Dunn announced her retirement from coaching at the end of the year. On June 14, 2014; Dunn was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. On May 24, 2016, she was introduced as an assistant coach for Matthew Mitchell at Kentucky. In 2018, her role at Kentucky changed from special assistant to head coach.

Breakdown

1:00 - Mentoring and Working with Coaches

5:00 - Suggestion to Coaches

9:00 - Hiring Staff

13:00 - Holding People Accountable

18:00 - Process of Helping Coaches

21:00 - Ask People for Help

24:00 - Staff perspective

27:00 - Giving Ownership to the Assistants

30:00 - Simplifying Drills

33:00 - Example of Multiple Drill

36:00 - Women's Basketball Games