The 2021-22 season marked Bobby McGraw’s eighth year in charge of the women’s basketball program at Slippery Rock University. McGraw became the 10th full-time head coach in program history on May 5, 2014.
He is the third-longest tenured coach in SRU women’s basketball history and has led the program to a total of 77 wins, ranking him fourth on the all-time women’s basketball coaching wins list at The Rock.
During the first five years of McGraw’s head coaching tenure, he led a significant turnaround for the women’s basketball program. The Rock’s 32-win improvement over that stretch was the second highest among all schools in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and was the sixth-best in the Atlantic Region. He also guided SRU to the PSAC playoffs in 2014-15 for the first time in nearly a decade in just his first season in charge of the program.
Since becoming head coach, McGraw and his staff have transformed the program in terms of both the culture surrounding the team and the results on the court. Slippery Rock won just 36 times in 158 games in the six seasons preceding McGraw’s arrival. Conversely, McGraw’s clubs won 65 games in his first six years on the sidelines.
Slippery Rock has had at least one player named to the All-PSAC team in all seven of the seasons McGraw has coached (SRU did not play in 2020-21 due to COVID-19), including five players that were named to first team All-PSAC honors and one player, D’Asia Chambers, that was named the Defensive Player of the Year in 2014-15. Chambers went on to a successful professional basketball career overseas after graduating from SRU.
McGraw’s squads have set single-season SRU team records for 3-point field goals made, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, blocked shots and field goal percentage defense. The Rock have also seen multiple individual records fall under McGraw, including the single-season rebounding record and the minutes played record that just fell last winter when Jamiyah Johnson grabbed 381 rebounds and Daeja Quick played an average of 39.6 minutes per game in 2021-22.
In addition to the on-court accolades earned under McGraw, The Rock have had 57 women’s basketball players named as PSAC Scholar-Athletes in recognition of maintaining above a 3.25 cumulative grade point average. SRU also had its first Academic All-America honoree in more than 15 years when Lexi Carpenter became just the fourth Rock women’s basketball player to ever be named as an Academic All-American after the 2016-17 season.
In total, McGraw has spent the last 10 years as a member of the SRU community, first serving as an assistant coach with the men’s basketball program in 2012-13 and then as an assistant with the women’s basketball program in 2013-14 before taking over as head coach.
As an assistant with the women’s team in 2013-14, McGraw played an instrumental role in the development of star forward D’Asia Chambers, who became the first Rock player since the 2004-05 season to earn first team All-PSAC honors. With McGraw’s guidance, Chambers had a breakout year by producing per game averages of 17.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.5 steals while shooting 51.7 percent from the field. Chambers, who also recorded 10 double-doubles, led all players in the 18-team PSAC in conference scoring, averaging 20.9 points per game against the PSAC West.
Prior to joining the women's program, McGraw served as a volunteer assistant with Slippery Rock's men's team during the 2012-13 season, where he helped lead the team to one of the best season's in school history. The 2012-13 Rock men's team finished with a 23-9 overall record, an appearance in the PSAC title game and a first round victory in the NCAA Tournament.
Before coming to Slippery Rock, McGraw was an assistant with the men's team at La Roche College from 2010-12. He helped lead the Redhawks to their first NCAA Division III tournament berth and an Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship in 2010-11, followed by an ECAC South Region final-four appearance and a second-place finish in the AMCC in 2011-12.
La Roche compiled a 44-12 combined win-loss record during McGraw's two seasons on the coaching staff.
Prior to joining the La Roche staff, McGraw served one season as head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at Karns City High School and one season as assistant varsity coach at Freeport High School.
A 1990 graduate of Mars High School, McGraw played two seasons at Butler County Community College and one season at Clarion University. He was a member of BC3's 1990-91 Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference and Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Conference championship team.
McGraw, a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps Military Police and the Pennsylvania State Police, received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Tiffin University. He has one son named Reed.
| Bobby McGraw's Head Coaching Career |
| Year |
W |
L |
Win % |
Notes |
| 2014-15 |
11 |
16 |
.318 |
PSAC Tournament |
| 2015-16 |
13 |
15 |
.464 |
Most wins since 2005-06 |
| 2016-17 |
9 |
19 |
.321 |
- |
| 2017-18 |
12 |
16 |
.429 |
PSAC Tournament |
| 2018-19 |
12 |
16 |
.429 |
- |
| 2019-20 |
8 |
20 |
.286 |
- |
| 2020-21 |
Season canceled due to COVID-19 |
| 2021-22 |
12 |
16 |
.429 |
- |
| Career |
77 |
118 |
.395 |
- |
