Named 2021 SEC Coach of the Year Joni Taylor as the eighth women’s basketball head coach in program history on March 23, 2022.

Taylor succeeded Naismith Hall of Famer Gary Blair and inherited a program that was one of eight schools in the past 20 years to have a national title. Over the previous 19 seasons, the program won five conference titles and reached the NCAA Tournament 16 times.

Taylor is fresh off leading the Maroon & White to a 10 win jump from year one to year two at the helm. It was tied for the biggest increase in victories in the SEC since the 1981-82 season with Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Carolyn Peck (Florida – 2002-04). She also led the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2020-21 campaign and its second-straight SEC Tournament quarterfinal trip. During her second year leading the Aggies, she was named as an assistant coach to the 2024 USA Basketball Women’s National Team, which will be competing in Paris in July and August of 2024.

In her first year in Aggieland, Taylor tutored two players to the All-SEC Freshman Team for the in program history. She also led A&M to the quarterfinals of the 2023 SEC Tournament, becoming the first-ever No. 13 seed to reach the quarters.

The Meridian, Mississippi, native spent the first seven years of her head coaching career leading the Georgia women’s basketball program. She amassed 140 victories with a .651 winning percentage and 64 wins in SEC play. Taylor took the Lady Bulldogs to four NCAA Tournaments, including top-four seeds in 2018 and 2021.

Taylor was named the SEC Coach of the Year and a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year after leading her team to a 21-7 record and 10-5 ledger in SEC action in 2020-21. She was the youngest coach of the year honoree in the SEC since 2010. In 2021, Taylor led the Lady Bulldogs to the SEC Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2004. Taylor, and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, became the first pair of African American female head coaches to coach against one another in the SEC Tournament title game.

She coached four players who were taken in the WNBA Draft, with Jenna Staiti and Que Morrison having an opportunity to add to that number in this year’s draft. She mentored the program’s only three SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year selections (Marjorie Butler – 2016, Haley Clark – 2018, Mikayla Coombs – 2022). Taylor saw a Lady Bulldog featured on the conference all-defensive team in each of her seven years at the helm of Georgia, including Morrison, who earned three all-defensive selections and was the 2021 SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Taylor led 19 players to All-SEC selections during her run at Georgia.

Taylor is no stranger to succeeding legends. She served as an assistant from 2011-12 under Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Andy Landers and was eventually elevated to associate head coach from 2012-15. After Landers’ retirement, Taylor took over the program as its second head coach in school history. Taylor went on to produce a 21-10 record in her first season as head coach and won the 2016 Maggie Dixon National Rookie Coach of the Year honor.

Before Georgia, Taylor served as an assistant coach at LSU (2010-11) under Naismith Hall-of-Fame coach Van Chancellor, Louisiana Tech (2005-07) and Troy (2002-05), and as an associate head coach at Alabama (2008-10) and Louisiana Tech (2007-08). At LSU and Alabama, Taylor helped recruit top-five prospects in 2010 and 2011, respectively. She carried that recruiting prowess into her career as a coach, where she signed three top-15 classes in the last four seasons, including the No. 7 signing class in 2022.

On the international level, Taylor has served USA Basketball on a variety of occasions. She started off as a court coach at the 2018 USA U18 National Team Trials and then won gold as an assistant with the 2021 U19 World Cup Team. Taylor won gold as an assistant coach for the USA Women’s National Team at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and when she head coached the 2022 USA Basketball Women’s U18 National Team to a 6-0 mark in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2023, she added a fourth gold medal to her USA Basketball resume with a spotless 7-0 record as the head coach of the American U19 team at the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Her fifth gold medal came at the 2024 Paris Olympics where she served as an assistant coach for the Women’s National Team, helping them capture their eighth-consecutive Olympic gold medal.

A four-year letterwinner at Alabama (1998-01), Taylor earned her bachelor’s degree in education in 2002. She helped lead the Crimson Tide to four postseason runs and recorded 716 points, 555 rebounds and 103 blocked shots, which ranks fourth in the Crimson Tide’s record book.

While at Alabama, she was recognized as one of the most influential African Americans on campus in 2001, earned three SEC Community Service honors (1999, 2000, 2001) and was awarded a post-graduate scholarship from the SEC.

The Meridian High School product was the 1997 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year. She also won three state titles in track & field and was selected as the school’s Homecoming Queen.

Taylor and her husband Darius have two daughters, Jacie and Drew.