Photo via Florida Athletics

The first coaching change in the SEC women’s basketball landscape this offseason is official. After her fifth year at Florida, Kelly Rae Finley has been fired, the school announced on Monday.

Finley is coming off an 18-15 (5-11 SEC) season. The Gators are unlikely to make the NCAA Tournament, which would mean missing the dance for the fourth-straight season.

Finley’s best year came in her first season. During the 2021-22 campaign, she led the team to a 21-11 (10-6) record before losing in the Round of 64. Overall, she’ll finish 93-75 (30-50) at Florida.

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“I’d like to thank the administration for entrusting me with the development of Florida’s women’s basketball team over these last four-plus seasons,” Finley said. “I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with a number of amazing coaches, support staff and boosters during my time in Gainesville who believed in what we were doing to put Florida women’s basketball back on the map.

“I’m immensely proud of the work we put in and the things we accomplished together. But I’m most proud of our players. As much as college athletics is about wins and losses, for me it is also about developing young women. The opportunity to work with such an amazing group of players over the years here in Florida has been an absolute joy, and I’m looking forward to seeing the impact this current group of Gators will have moving forward both as amazing athletes on the court, and as high-character people throughout the rest of their lives.”

Now, Florida will undergo a national search for its next head coach. The program could draw some big names, as well, with coaches potentially unhappy at their current schools.

The most popular name to kick off the coaching search is Ole Miss’ Yolett ‘Coach Yo’ McPhee-McCuin. She has had success leading the Rebels, and has been a popular projected candidate in coaching searches the past few seasons.

If the Gators can pull away a sitting head coach, it could cause a chain reaction as dominoes fall across the country and potentially in the SEC.