And then, there were none.
The last of the WNBA's head coaching vacancies were rounded out by former Chicago Sky assistant Sydney Johnson on Monday. Eight head coaches were hired in the span of a few months, according to a Tuesday article from Associated Press, meaning more than half the league will have a new face at head coach heading into 2025. They hail from all corners of the basketball landscape, including a decades-long collegiate career in now-Los Angeles Sparks coach Lynne Roberts.
The Sky hired a new head coach of their own in Tyler Marsh, who succeeded rookie head coach Teresa Weatherspoon after spending three years as an assistant in Las Vegas. Fellow Aces assistant Natalie Nakase landed a head coaching job with the Golden State Valkyries. Nakase, a former guard for UCLA and for the now-folded National Women's Basketball League, will lead the new kids on the block after winning two championships in Las Vegas. The Sky continued to round out their coaching staff with the addition of Courtney Paris, who served as an assistant for the Dallas Wings following a storied collegiate career at Oklahoma.
Sydney Johnson
Johnson was hired to take up the head coaching duties of the Washington Mystics on Monday. The former Princeton guard helped guide the Tigers was the Ivy League's Player of the Year in 1997. He had earned coaching stints as an assistant and head coach across the Ivy League, Metro Atlantic Athletic and Mountain West Conferences before landing his job as an assistant with the Sky. He has coached at the 3-on-3 ranks for USA basketball, including as the head coach of Team USA's Women's AmeriCup 3-on-3 Team.
Johnson will take a lead role on a Mystics squad that fell out of playoff contention for the first time since 2021. The Thibault era in Washington officially came to an end when both head coach Eric Thibault and general manager Mike Thibault were let go in October. Two former Sky bigs in Stefanie Dolson and Sika Koné will be under contract for the rebuilding Mystics in 2025. Along with the No. 4 pick in this year's WNBA Draft, Washington will be headlined by the defensive guard duo of Ariel Atkins and Brittney Sykes.
Stephanie White
White, who won an NCAA Championship with the Purdue Boilermakers in 1999, was hired to succeed Christie Sides in early November. She was an assistant with the Fever for four seasons and its head coach for two before her return to Indianapolis. The former Fever guard spent two seasons as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun, where she won the WNBA's Coach of the Year and gained an overall record of 55-25.
White will coach a Fever squad that saw its highest win total since 2015, her first season during her first head coaching stint with Indiana, last season. The Fever fell in the first round of the WNBA playoffs to White's Sun squad, who pushed ahead of Indiana behind the scoring of former Sky guard Marina Mabrey. The Fever will have a number of players, including their star-studded rookie duo and former Sky forward Katie Lou Samuelson, under contract heading into 2025.
Rachid Meziane
Mezaine will succeed White as the lead coach of a Connecticut Sun team that made the WNBA semifinals for two seasons in a row. He brings with him coaching experience from a variety of French teams, including as the head coach of ESB Villeneuve-d'Ascq of the French LFB. He has served as an assistant on the French and Belgian women's basketball teams. He would be promoted to head coach of the Belgian National Team in 2022.
The Sun have made the playoffs in every season since 2017, when a current Sky guard in Rachel Banham and a former Sky guard in Courtney Williams played on a squad that would fall in the second round to the Phoenix Mercury. Including Mabrey, the Sun will have three players under contract and have the second-most cap space in the league heading into 2025. Their star forward duo of Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner are listed as unrestricted free agents.
Karl Smesko
Smesko was hired to be the head coach of the Atlanta Dream in November. He has worked in the collegiate ranks since 1997. The 13-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year built his way up from the head coach of the Division II Walsh Cavaliers to the head coach of Florida Gulf Coast, where he helped guide the Eagles to a combined record of 479-91 and nine appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Though they made the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the Dream finished with a losing record for the sixth-straight year in 2024. All-Star guard Allisha Gray will be on the final year of the contract extension she agreed to with the Dream in 2023. She will be joined by guards Jordin Canada and Rhyne Howard.