USF Women's Basketball Pre-Season Report 2023-2024, Part 1

The American Athletic Conference announced their preseason coaches poll and honorees leading into the 2023-2024 collegiate basketball season. For USF men’s and women’s basketball, the addition of six new teams in UAB, FAU, North Texas, UTSA, Charlotte, and Rice coming into the fold replacing the departing UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati means there’s plenty of room for parity within the AAC.

Previously, we looked at the new look USF men’s basketball program with a rebuilt staff and roster ahead of the Amir Abdur-Rahim era. On the flip side, we’ll look at one of the longest tenured coaches at USF with women’s basketball program and Jose Fernandez and how the offseason went for the ladies in regards to assistant coaches moving up, new players into the fold, and where the fellow coaches have USF women’s basketball placed. In part one here, we’ll take a look at the staff:

USF Women’s Basketball: Consistent as Hell

Background, Coaches, Extensions, etc.

To start, the USF women’s basketball program clearly didn’t need to do an overhaul in order to right the ship. Coming off a 27-7 overall record last season and going 15-1 in conference should be cause for celebration, however there were two major thorns that pronged the Bulls when looking back to the 2022-2023 season, the first being an untimely poor performance in the conference tournament against the 8 seed Wichita State, losing 53-65 which caused USF to be seeded poorly. The second was the result of that poor seeding, being locked in the NCAA Tournament bracket with a looming matchup against reigning national champion, number one overall seed, and eventual Final Four team South Carolina. Although the Bulls battled valiantly, it wasn’t enough to close the talent gap and they were thwarted 76-45.

With the previous season in the past, Jose set his sights to put together a redemption for two early tournament exits in an otherwise dominant season. As far as coaching goes, Jose had to replace a key member of his staff. Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Yolisha Jackson was named the 10th head coach in the history of South Alabama on March 24th, 2023, the school she was an assistant at for seven seasons prior to her arrival at USF in 2020.

With Jackson’s exit, Jose announced the hiring of Sheila Boykin to fill her shoes as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in June of 2023. Boykin, a former LSU standout women’s basketball player who played in over 110 games for the Tigers, has been in coaching for only a brief time. She spent two seasons as a grad assistant for San Diego State from 2018 to 2020. She was hired as an assistant at Cal State Northridge from 2020 to 2022 and then was hired at Loyola Chicago last season.

The other two assistants have stayed put as well, with Michele Woods-Baxter and Danny Hughes remaining on staff as Associate Head Coach and Assistant Head Coach respectively. Woods-Baxter is entering her 16th season on staff and works predominantly with the wing players. Hughes is on his 6th season, working with post and backcourt players and developing their talents.

One staff member was promoted in the offseason as well, with Tara Johns bring promoted to Assistant Coach and Director of Basketball Operations during the summer. Tara is entering her second season with USF where she was previously just the Director of Basketball Operations. With her new title, she’ll have be able to provide a more in depth look and provide additional guidance to the USF women’s basketball team while also handling the ops side of the business.

Finally, Jose added an Assistant Coach and Director of Global Recruiting in Gina Cerezuela Robuste, who was hired in October of 2023. Gina has been working in the coaching ranks since 2019 as an assistant coach for Femeni Maresme in Barcelona, Spain. She was also the head men’s basketball coach for the U17 Unio Esportiva Sant Cugat program in Barcelona during the 2020 season. Alongside her duties on the hardwood, she also worked with PickUS where she offered support and advice to aspiring student-athletes interested in attending American colleges, guiding them through the academic and recruitment procedures. Gina also played a role in facilitating home visits and assisting with visa applications.

With his staff finalized and bulked up, the last duty on the table was for the head man himself. On October 16th, VP of Athletics Michael Kelly announced an extension for Jose Fernandez through the 2028-2029 season. Jose, who is entering his 24th season with USF, has seen it all and has amassed a consistent successful program while leading his team both on and off the court.

In the next part of this series for women’s basketball, we will look at the roster that Jose has put together, and how he is planning on replacing two standout leaders and WNBA draft picks from last year’s squad.