WUNC basketball started in 1900 when the student Athletic Association was founded and actively recruiting members for sports. Twelve years later, the women showed interest to begin playing against other women’s basketball teams from the colleges around Greensboro. This interest would eventually lead to an AIAW sponsored team.
In 1963, the school decided to have an intercollegiate women’s basketball team and officially joined the intercollegiate competition for women (AIAW) (which would be under the umbrella of the NCAA some years later, in 1971). In that same year, WUNC finished fourth in the National Collegiate Tournament.
In 1981, the women’s basketball team appointed a new coach – Lynne Agee. In her first season, the women’s basketball team finished runner-up in the inaugural Division III championship in 1982. It was the first of seven straight NCAA trips for the team. Following her first year she led the team through 30 seasons before retiring. Some of her major victories included:
- Team finished third in the nation after entering the NCAA Tournament unranked in 1988.
- Claimed five straight Big South regular season titles in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997.
- Defeated top-seeded Georgia Southern, 75-68, in the SoCon Tournament and earned its first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament bid in 1998.
- On March 13 and 14, 2002, the women’s basketball team received their first-ever invitations to the WNIT.
- On January 7, 2004, Coach Lynne Agee wins her 500th game as a head coach. Agee became just the 23rd women’s basketball coach in NCAA history to achieve the milestone, joining the likes of legends Jody Conradt of Texas, Tennessee’s Pat Summit, UConn’s Geno Auriemma, Louisiana Tech’s Leon Barmore, North Carolina State’s Kay Yow and North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell.
- In December 2005, UNCG’s women’s basketball program enjoyed two of its greatest non-conference wins since moving to the Division I level. In a 12-day span, UNCG knocked off West Virginia at home and ACC member Wake Forest on the road. It was UNCG’s first-ever win over a Big East school and the program’s first victory over Wake Forest since 1977.
- In March 2006, the team made its first SoCon Tournament title game appearance since 2002.
- One of the five teams in North Carolina with 300 or more wins in the modern era.
The team is currently coached by Trina Patterson who is led the team to a 20-15 season in 2016 – the team’s first 20-win campaign since 2006-2007.
Head Coaches:
Jan Donahue 1977 – 1979
Robin Joseph 1979- 1980
Lynne Agee 1980 – 2011
Wes Miller (interim head coach) – 2011-2016(?)
Trina Patterson 2016 – Current