By all accounts, the Indiana Fever exceeded expectations in 2024.
They went from having the No. 1 draft pick to competing in playoff basketball within five months, a turnaround that surprised many. However, this achievement is not sufficient for the Fever organization.
Drafting Aliyah Boston got the ball rolling. Drafting Caitlin Clark sped that ball up to Mach-22. Now, the Fever’s latest move has them eyeing down bigger — and shinier — things.
Who is Stephanie White?
Stephanie White represents a modern iteration of the player-coach archetype. Her basketball career took off in high school when she was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 1995 at Seager Memorial High School. She was recruited and accepted an offer to play at Purdue University, where she continuously improved year after year.
She made her mark in 1999 when she won the Wade Trophy, awarded annually to the nation’s best women’s basketball player. That year, she averaged 20.2 points per game on 43.7% shooting while leading Purdue to a national title. Her prolific performances in college would get her picked 21st overall in the 1999 WNBA Draft by the Charlotte Sting, where she played for one year before getting selected in the expansion draft for the newest WNBA franchise, the Indiana Fever. She spent four years there before retiring from the W in 2004.
Immediately following her retirement, White got into assistant coaching, starting at Ball State and moving around to various places. She went to Kansas State for a year and then jumped to Ball State for two more. Then, she returned to the WNBA as an assistant for the Chicago Sky from 2007-10 before returning to the Fever as an assistant in 2011. White would stay in this role for four years before getting her first head coaching gig in 2015. Lin Dunn retired from coaching, so White was appointed in her place, and she led the team to the WNBA Finals in her first year, falling to the Minnesota Lynx.
White’s College Arc
After a 17-17 season and a first-round exit in 2016, White accepted a job as the Vanderbilt Commodores’ head coach. Over her five years in Tennessee, White failed to replicate her WNBA success as she went 46-83. Not once did White have a winning record at Vanderbilt, and as such never made the NCAA Tournament. After a shortened season in 2020-21 due to COVID, White parted ways with the Commodores.
The WNBA, Pt. 2
In 2023, White returned to the WNBA as the head coach of the Connecticut Sun.
That season, White led the Sun to a 27-13 record, good for the third seed in the postseason. White and the Sun would deal with the Lynx in three games, but the 2nd seeded Liberty would end their season in four games. The following season, White won one more game, going 28-12 and once again slotting into the third seed. Like the year before, they took care of business in Round 1, taking down White’s old team in the Fever in two games. And just like the year before, the semifinal was their downfall, losing in five games to the Minnesota Lynx.
That loss and a crumbling Sun roster were the last parts of the chain reaction that led to this bombshell move.
Breaking: The Indiana Fever have hired Stephanie White as their new head coach, league sources told @alexaphilippou.
White spent two seasons with the Fever as head coach in 2015 and 2016. pic.twitter.com/2M7DFgUUQO
— ESPN (@espn) November 1, 2024
What Can We Expect?
White brings a lot to the table. For one, she brings coaching success, as she’s been to three Semifinals and one Final in her career. She also brings coaching experience— 2025 will be her 21st year as a coach in any capacity. White has been around and been at the mountaintop of women’s basketball, which is precisely what this young Indiana Fever team needs.
White’s biggest asset, however, is her prowess as a defensive coach. In her two years as Connecticut’s head coach, the Sun ranked first and second in Defensive Rating. They were fifth and sixth in the category during her first stint with the Fever. The team that White now inherits ranked 11th, only in front of the Dallas Wings’ historically lousy defense, which also got their head coach fired. With White’s arrival, the Fever faithful can expect to see much improved defensive play in 2025.
White is also inheriting an offense that has much more explosive potential than her last one. Connecticut ranked near the bottom in categories such as three-pointers attempted, three-pointers made, and points per game. In contrast, Indiana was top three in all of those categories. Like Alyssa Thomas, Caitlin Clark is a passing savant White can run the offense through. Indiana has several shooters that the Sun simply did not have, even after acquiring Marina Mabrey mid-season. Offense wasn’t the problem last season, but it doesn’t hurt to strengthen a strength occasionally.
The sky is truly the limit for the Indiana Fever. They could be a team or possibly the team to beat next season, and if they are, Stephanie White will be the driving force in more ways than one.
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