Fever coach candidates: Signs point to Stephanie White, but who else could be in mix? But after letting go of Christie Sides on Sunday, a month after the Fever’s season ended, it can’t be just anyone.
With six openings for head coaches across the league: there’s plenty of competition. Bringing in another first-time head coach after firing Sides, especially after Fever president Kelly Krauskopf said they want to be “bold and assertive” with their goal of a WNBA championship, wouldn’t necessarily make sense.
- More Fever news: What Christie Sides said after being firedThe Fever will need to aim big with an experienced head coach who can take Indiana deep into the playoffs.
- Letting go of Sides only makes sense if it’s for a well-experienced head coach that has had a lot of success in the league – and there are only a few coaches that fit that description.
- The obvious one, yes, as Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Sunday multiple sources expect White to take the job with the Fever.
White had one more year on her contract with the Sun, but Connecticut announced Monday that it had parted ways with the coach. White would be a perfect fit for the Fever. She has a long history with Krauskopf, as Krauskopf was the one to pick White in the expansion draft for the Fever in 2000,
hire her as an assistant coach and associate head coach under Lin Dunn, then hire her for her first head coaching gig for the Fever in 2015. White, who was an assistant when the Fever won the finals in 2012, brought Indiana back to the finals in 2015 in her first year as a head coach.
She left after the 2016 season for a college job at Vanderbilt, but got back into the WNBA as the head coach of Connecticut in 2023.
White could be exactly what the Fever need; she’s an experienced head coach at all levels of the game and commands respect from the rest of the league. She knows what it’s like to win in the WNBA, both as an assistant and as a head coach.
The Sun have been contenders in each of the two years she’s been in Connecticut, finishing second in the Eastern Conference and making it to the WNBA semifinals each year. Connecticut also hangs its hat on defense, finishing first in defensive rating in 2023 and second in 2024.
The Fever struggled defensively in the past two years, finishing 11th in the league both seasons. It’s something Indiana has long struggled with, and the Fever need a defensive coach to shore up that side of the ball.
White is also from West Lebanon, Indiana, and won Miss Indiana Basketball out of Seeger High School in 1995 and a national title as a player at Purdue in 1999.
