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PROVO — Three years after legendary coach Jeff Judkins' announced retirement (that preceded a return to his alma mater Utah as a special assistant to then-coach Lynne Roberts), BYU is once again looking for another leader of its women's basketball program.
Amber Whiting stepped down as head coach Saturday after the university parted ways with the third-year BYU alumna with a 45-51 record that included a 10-26 mark in two seasons of Big 12 play.
Whiting was hired from the high school ranks, a two-time Idaho state champion at 4A Burley High who excelled on the club circuit, tasked with succeeding the all-time winningest coach in BYU basketball history.
Her recruiting acumen was strong, bringing in high-level recruits like Amari Whiting, Ali'a Matavao, Delaney Gibb, Kailey Woolston and a pledge from reigning Gatorade New Mexico player of the year Sydney Benally after flipping from Princeton.
But the talent never translated to the court as the Cougars progressed upwards in three seasons from the West Coast Conference to the 14-team Big 12 to a 16-team Big 12 that included Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.
Now the program will go searching again. Here are five potential coaches that the school may consider.
Taylor Wagner, Colorado Mesa
A native of Sandy who prepped at Alta High, Wagner has been the head women's basketball coach at Division II Colorado Mesa since the 2012-13 season, where he's led the Mavericks to six NCAA Tournament appearances, four Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships, a pair of Sweet Sixteen appearances, and an Elite Eight run in 2013.
Wagner's teams have gone 295-88, including a 25-5 mark this past season and a No. 4 seed in the South Central Regional of the Division II NCAA tournament.
The former two-time league defensive player of the year at Alaska-Anchorage from 1999-01 who served a two-year church mission in Switzerland also spent time at Otero Junior College, where he coached 10 all-region players, one All-American, and had close to 40 players move on to play at four-year institutions.
Dan Nielson, Utah Valley
A former BYU assistant coach and practice-squad player under Judkins, Nielson made his second appearance at Utah Valley as the program's second head coach in the Division I era in May 2019.
The Wolverines immediately went 12-16 with a 9-6 record in Wester Athletic Conference play in his first season, tied for second in the league and their best finish since joining the conference in 2013-14.
The Wolverines are 73-92 in Neilson's six seasons as head coach.
Lee Cummard, BYU
If the Cougars are looking to promote from within, Cummard would be the obvious candidate.
The former BYU standout and 2008 Mountain West player of the year played professionally in France, Japan and Belgium from 2009-16, before returning stateside to begin his coaching career with the BYU men's team in 2016.
Like Judkins before him, Cummard moved over to the women's team in 2019, where he helped the Cougars to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids in 2021 and 2022, and was the acting head coach when BYU went 3-0 with wins over Utah State, then-No. 17 Florida State and then-No. 22 West Virginia in 2021-22 while Judkins recovered from COVID-19.
When Whiting was named head coach in 2022, Cummard was immediately retained and eventually promoted to associate head coach. He ran BYU's offense this past year, averaging 67.9 points per game that ranked 11th in the Big 12 and 17.0 turnovers per game that ranked 236th nationally.
Morgan Bailey, Utah
Bailey joined Lynne Roberts' staff at Utah for the 2024-25 season and was retained when Roberts left for the WNBA and Gavin Petersen was promoted to head coach.
A former WCC Player of the Year and AP honorable mention who averaged 17.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game fro 2010-15, Bailey spent two years coaching the Cougars' posts (including all-time leading rebounder Lauren Gustin) and worked in the same role as an assistant at Utah Valley.
During her tenure at Utah Valley, she coached eight All-WAC players, two WAC All-Defensive players, a pair of All-WAC honorable mentions and an all-WAC newcomer. She also coached at Southern Utah and Snow College.
Nancy Warner, Lone Peak
If the Cougars want a supremely successful high school coach again, Warner is as good as they come.
The former BYU standout from Bountiful (née Seljaas) spent five years at Springville High and played for five straight state championships, winning three of them, before making the move to Alpine.
At Lone Peak, she's compiled a 191-86 record in 12 years, including four consecutive state championships — tied for the second-longest title streak in Utah High School Activities Association history.
Her seven championships is tied for the fourth-most in state girls basketball history.
