Diane Richardson was introduced as Temple’s new head women’s basketball coach Wednesday morning by Temple President Jason Wingard and Vice President and Athletic Director Arthur Johnson.
You can listen to audio from Wednesday's press conference here:
Introductory press conference opener
Diane Richardson breakout session with reporters
Coming from Towson, Richardson led the Tigers to an 80-66 record during her five-year tenure, including a school-record 24 wins and the program’s second NIT appearance this past season. She also coached Towson to its first NCAA Tournament berth in 2019 after the Tigers won the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.
Those two postseason appearances were more than Towson had in its previous 49 years before hiring Richardson.
Prior to Towson, Richardson served as an assistant at American, Maryland and George Washington. She also coached at Maryland’s Riverdale Baptist High School to five national championships, including a team that had WNBA All-Star Jonquel Jones on it. Those four stops earned her the title of “the queen of the DMV” from two-time national champion, North Philadelphia native, and former Temple women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley.
Richardson also served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at West Virginia for the 2016-17 season. Prior to that Richardson was a 1980 Olympic-qualifying sprinter and Vice President of Bank of America.
“We want, at Temple University, excellence in all regards,” Wingard said. “We have hired now, a coach who is excellent in all regards and I couldn’t be prouder of who she is, what she represents, and what she is going to bring to our program here at Temple University.”
Similar to his consultation with Carolina Panthers former Temple head coach Matt Rhule for December’s hiring of Stan Drayton, Johnson involved Staley’s input for this coaching search.
“You can call me. Don’t worry about the games,” Staley told Johnson while preparing for South Carolina’s Final Four appearance that led to national championship victory over UConn.
“She was able to articulate some of the qualities that I should be looking for in a coach,” Johnson said.
In her opening statements, Richardson noted that Temple has a history of success in women’s basketball and that her goal is to simply bring that back.
“I want to be in the postseason each and every year,” Richardson said, “and I think we have the tools and resources to do it.”
Given her time spent in the Mid-Atlantic region as a coach, Richardson has many connections with the high school and AAU coaches of the East Coast. More Temple-related, she coached Temple guard Jalynn Holmes and Temple alum Tyonna Thomas while at Riverdale Baptist and recruited WNBA Draft prospect and former Temple forward Mia Davis while at West Virginia.
“We will bring in the best student-athletes, and we will win,” Richardson said.
Since Johnson was hired in October, he has replaced three head coaches: volleyball coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam, football coach Rod Carey, and now women’s basketball coach Tonya Cardoza.
Wednesday, Wingard reiterated that he and Johnson “want to make sure that we build a world-class program in athletics.”
“We’ve been there before and we’re gonna be there again,” Wingard said. “These kinds of hires, this kind of day represents exactly what we’re trying to do.”
When asked what her Temple program will be built off of, Richardson used the acronym “HABIT.” The H stands for ‘honesty,’ the A for ‘accountability,’ the B for ‘brand,’ the I for ‘integrity,’ and the T for ‘teamwork.’
She followed that up with a clear and concise message that should resonate with Temple’s fan base up.
“The coaches in the Big Five are some friends of mine," Richardson said, "but that’s gonna change real soon.”