Hometown: Durand, Wis.
Birthdate: 08/19/74
Experience: 5th Season at SRU (6th Season Overall)
The 2013-14 season was the fourth at Slippery Rock for Tanya Longo as the eighth head coach in Slippery Rock University women's basketball history.
Longo owns a 19-85 record as The Rock's head coach after the team posted a 6-20 record in 2013-14. Not indicated in the final win-loss total are the strides the program made in 2013-14, recording three wins in the challengeing PSAC-West that included a top-five nationally ranked team all season.
Slippery Rock gave No. 2 Gannon a real scare in 2013 before the Lady Knights held on for a 76-73 win in the regular season.
Longo also guided the first player since the 2004-05 season to earn first team All-Conference honors when D'Asia Chambers was named to the first team All-PSAC West squad. Chambers led all players in the 18-team PSAC in conference scoring, averaging 20.9 points per game against the PSAC-West.
Chambers is set to return for her senior season in 2014-15, where The Rock looks poised to continue to improve.
In her first season at Slippery Rock, Longo led a Rock team that returned just three players who had played more than 15 minutes a game the previous season to a 3-23 overall record. Five of the losses came by less than 10 points.
The Longo-led Rock doubled their win total in her second season as head coach as they compiled a 6-20 record in the 2011-12 season.
The team was plagued by injuries in 2012-13 and settled for a 4-22 record.
Longo came to Slippery Rock after nine seasons at the NCAA Division I level. Her most recent position was at Southern Illinois University, where she served two seasons as an assistant coach.
Prior to joining the SIU staff in 2008, Longo served a one-year stint as head coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth (NCAA Division II).
That appointment was preceded by a seven-year run in Division I basketball with Santa Clara University and Drake University.
Longo was Santa Clara University’s top assistant coach from 2003-07 and helped guide the Broncos to a West Coach Conference Tournament title and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004-05, as well as a WCC regular-season championship and a Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) berth in 2006.
Prior to Longo’s arrival at SCU, she followed current University of Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone to Drake University, where she assisted on the sideline from 2000-03. She helped lead the Bulldogs to a 64-27 record, the 2001 Missouri Valley Conference championship and two NCAA tournament berths, including a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2002.
The 1998 graduate of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (B.S. degree in elementary/middle school education) entered the coaching arena in 1999-2000 working as an assistant under Stone at her alma mater.
Longo has an impressive lineage of great shooters to her credit.
At SIU, Longo tutored senior guard Christine Presswood, who finished second in the MVC in scoring (15.9) and ranks third in SIU history in 3-pointers made with 74. Presswood’s 3-point percentage ranked among the top 30 in the country.
In addition to Presswood, Longo coached Teri Oliver, a freshman guard in the same backcourt who garnered MVC All-Freshman Team honors and recorded 71 threes, ranking her third all-time among freshman in the MVC.
At UMD, Longo mentored Katie Freeman, a first-team All-NCC guard.
During her tenure at Santa Clara, Longo tutored 2005-06 WCC MVP Michelle Cozad, who led the conference in scoring (18.1 ppg) and steals and finished 10th all-time in single-season 3-pointers made per game.
Three other pupils garnered outstanding shooting accolades under Longo as Quinn Thomas, Chandice Cronk and Ashley Graham all contributed shooting records during their tenure at SCU.
Under Longo, two-time all-conference performer Quinn Thomas finished her career as the WCC's No. 3 all-time 3-point shooter with 226 made and was fifth all-time in 3-pointers made per game in a season.
From 2004-2007, Longo coached Chandice Cronk, who set a WCC record for single-season 3-point field goals made. Among the other accolades for Cronk include WCC All-Freshman team honors (2004-05), WCC scoring leader (16 ppg in 2006-’07) most 3-point FG’s made in a season (94) and first in 3-point field goal percentage (.451).
Ashley Graham led the WCC in 3-point percentage during the 2004-05 (.452) and 2005-06 seasons (.461), finished third all-time in the conference for career field goal percentage (.416) and fifth all-time in career field goals made (207).
While at Drake, Longo developed two-time first-team All-MVC point guard Stephanie Schmitz, who led Drake to its first Sweet 16 appearance in 20 years. Schmitz finished her career ranked fifth in 3-point field goals made (135), third in career assists (546) and fourth in career steals (220).
Longo also made her mark as a sharpshooter in college during her tenure playing for Lisa Stone at Wisconsin Eau Claire. In 1998, she capped off a four-year playing career by garnering Kodak NCAA Division III All-America honorable mention recognition.
The Durand, Wis., native earned All-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference first-team honors during the 1997-98 season and was selected to the WIAC All-Defensive Team three consecutive years.
Longo concluded her career with 1,022 points and currently ranks 12th in Blugold history. She also ranks 12th in assists (271) and 15th in rebounds (513). Longo owns the single-season Wisconsin-Eau Claire record for three-point shooting (.463), and career (.368) and the single-game record for free throws made percentage. She led her teams to the NCAA Division III tournament all four seasons, advancing to the Elite Eight on two occasions, including a national runner-up finish in 1996-97.
Longo is the wife of Sam Houston State football offensive coordinator Phil Longo, who served as The Rock's offensive coordinator for two years. The couple are proud parents of daughters Gianna and Macaria.
Tanya Longo Head Coaching Record
|
Year |
W |
L |
Notes |
|
2007-08 |
4 |
23 |
at Minnesota Duluth |
|
2010-11 |
3 |
23 |
|
|
2011-12 |
6 |
20 |
|
|
2012-13 |
4 |
22 |
|
|
2013-14 |
6 |
20 |
|
|
SRU Total |
19 |
85 |
|
|
Career Total |
23 |
108 |
|
