Meet the 6 coaches who will coach Unmatched groups this winter

Unmatched, a brand new 3-on-3 skilled girls’s basketball league tipping off in January, has introduced the six head coaches that can lead golf equipment this winter. The league, made up of 36 WNBA gamers, will embrace six distinctive golf equipment that can usually face off over the course of the six-week season. The golf equipment are named the Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom and Vinyl.

Every will likely be led by a special head coach, all of whom have a background in participant improvement. Gamers will likely be cut up into six pods, with every being comprised of both guards, wings, or bigs. The league’s coaches will divvy up the gamers into golf equipment, however gained’t know which membership they’ll be teaching till after rosters are set.

Right here’s who will likely be teaching in Unmatched’s inaugural season.

Teresa Weatherspoon

Teresa Weatherspoon, a WNBA legend with a breadth of teaching expertise, is one in every of six coaches headed to Unmatched in its inaugural season. Weatherspoon labored in participant improvement and was an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans for 3 seasons, earlier than turning into the top coach of the Chicago Sky final 12 months. Previous to teaching, she was an NCAA basketball star,

“We simply needed individuals who may relate to the athletes, that might assist the athletes enhance — that might faucet into mindset improvement as nicely,” Unmatched president Alex Bazzell instructed SB Nation. “She was a no brainer for us, to be fairly trustworthy.”

Phil Useful

Phil Useful is a long-time NBA assistant with a background in participant improvement. Useful performed skilled basketball abroad for 5 years earlier than starting his decades-long NBA teaching profession. He served as an assistant coach within the NBA from 2011 to 2024, profitable three NBA championships as an assistant.

For his first three seasons, Useful was a participant improvement coach for the Los Angeles Lakers beneath Mike Brown. He served as an assistant coach beneath Brown in Cleveland for five seasons, then as an assistant beneath Nick Nurse for one season. Most lately, Useful was an assistant coach from the Lakers from 2019 to 2024.

Adam Harrington

Adam Harrington is a former NBA participant with 8 years of expertise as an assistant coach within the league. Harrington was undrafted out of Auburn, however performed two seasons within the NBA earlier than heading abroad for 7 seasons. He was a taking pictures sofa on the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder throughout the 2014-2015 season, and an assistant on the Brooklyn Nets from 2016-2022.

Nola Henry

Nola Henry is a participant improvement coach on the Los Angeles Sparks. Beforehand, she was a guard for the Charleston Cougars, and the assistant basketball operations supervisor for the Connecticut Solar.

DJ Sackmann

DJ Sackmann is a former basketball participant and present NBA and WNBA abilities coach who works straight with NBA gamers. He based Hoopstudy in 2018, which is now acknowledged as one of many prime on-line basketball schooling corporations on the planet.

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean praised Sackmann for his experience in participant improvement.

“I’m 51,” Crean said. “I’ve been a head coach for 18 years, and I’ve discovered extra watching DJ in a single week, than I may have probably imagined.”

Andrew Wade

Andrew Wade is a participant improvement assistant coach for the Washington Mystics, and for the Washington Wizards’ G-League workforce, the Capital Metropolis Go-Go. Wade is liable for serving to manage apply constructions, creating exercise plans for gamers, and breaking down recreation movie for coaches.