{"id":235206,"date":"2025-10-23T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235206\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:06:10","slug":"dallas-wings-hire-jose-fernandez-former-usf-coach-makes-leap-to-wnba-to-lead-paige-bueckers-team-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/235206\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings hire Jose Fernandez: Former USF coach makes leap to WNBA to lead Paige Bueckers’ team, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Wings<\/a> were among the many WNBA franchises to enter the coaching carousel this offseason, firing Chris Koclanes<\/a> after just one season at the helm as they looked for someone new to take over a team featuring Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, word broke that they were hiring USF coach Jose Fernandez to make the leap from the college ranks after 25 years coaching the Bulls, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou<\/a>. Fernandez went 485-317 in his 25 years in Tampa, leading USF to 10 NCAA Tournaments, including in eight of the last 11 seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

USF released a statement from CEO of athletics Rob Higgins confirming Fernandez’s departure and thanking Fernandez for his 25 years in Tampa, building USF into a consistent contender for the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Women’s basketball head coach Jose Fernandez has informed me of his decision to pursue an opportunity to coach at the next level in the WNBA,” Higgins said. “While this is a bittersweet moment for our program, it is a well-deserved opportunity for Jose to realize a professional dream, and we are incredibly proud of him.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higgins also announced USF would elevate Michele Woods-Baxter to head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tempo to hire Sandy Brondello: Former Liberty coach will lead Toronto’s WNBA expansion franchise, per report<\/p>\n

\n Robby Kalland <\/p>\n

\"Tempo<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

For Fernandez, he’ll take over a Wings team that has talent, most notably Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale<\/a>, but struggled to a 10-34 record in 2025. His chief task will be building a contender around Bueckers and getting the most out of the talented young star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Helping Fernandez to get quick buy-in from his star player will be his close relationship with UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who coached Bueckers at the college level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think he’s a tremendous coach, obviously, as everybody knows, but he cares deeply about the game itself,”\u00a0Auriemma said<\/a> of Fernandez earlier this year. “He puts in the time and effort.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

What the exact roster Fernandez will have to work with around Bueckers will be determined this offseason. The Wings, like every other team in the WNBA, have a large number of players hitting free agency, as most players in the league timed up their most recent contracts to end in anticipation of pay bumps under the new CBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Wings were among the many WNBA franchises to enter the coaching carousel this offseason, firing Chris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[12201,49,48,3459,4658,82,630,4141],"class_list":{"0":"post-235206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-arike-ogunbowale","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-dallas-wings","12":"tag-paige-bueckers","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba","15":"tag-womens-college-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}