The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Schaefer names coaching staff for Women's Basketball
04.17.2020 | Women's Basketball
Johnnie Harris, Dionnah Jackson-Durrett and Elena Lovato will comprise the Texas staff.
Texas Women's Basketball head coach Vic Schaefer welcomes a championship-caliber staff with a combined 46 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Forty Acres, he announced on Friday.
Johnnie Harris and Dionnah Jackson-Durrett have been named associate head coaches, while Elena Lovato has been named assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Harris, Jackson-Durrett and Lovato each served in similar roles under Schaefer at Mississippi State.
"The first thing that comes to mind is that this is the A-Team," Schaefer said. "They're the best in the business. We're family. We've done so much together and had so much success together. They're not only great coaches, but great role models and mentors for our young players. They're not only going to represent The University of Texas in the best way possible, but they're going to be great in our community. For me, as I've always said, I'm smart enough to know that I can't do it by myself. This is a tremendous staff and we're very lucky to have them all here."
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Johnnie Harris, Associate Head Coach
The 2018 WBCA National Assistant Coach of the Year, Harris was a central part of Mississippi State's success the past eight seasons and is considered one of the nation's top recruiters. Harris, who has worked alongside Schaefer since 2007, will coach the post players in addition to coordinating all special situations such as inbounds, sideline and free-throw plays.
Harris helped Schaefer lead Mississippi State to a 221-62 [.781] record and five NCAA Tournament berths, including two NCAA Championship Game appearances. The Bulldogs won the program's first Southeastern Conference regular-season championship and SEC Tournament Championship.
Harris' reputation as a tireless recruiter grew as she helped ink some of the top signing classes in Mississippi State history, including the 2013 class that achieved 111 wins and the 2014 class that tallied a school-record 126 victories, four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, back-to-back national runner-up showings and an SEC title. In the fall of 2018, the Bulldogs signed the top-ranked class in program history with a No. 6 national ranking by espnW Hoop Gurlz.
Harris' pupils in the post were some of the best in Mississippi State school history, led by Teaira McCowan, who Harris mentored during McCowan's record-setting junior and senior campaigns from 2017-19. The 2019 SEC Player of the Year and a consensus First-Team All-American, McCowan finished her career as Mississippi State's leader in rebounds [1,502] and field-goal percentage [.597], while ranking second in blocks [271] and fourth in points [1,942] and field-goals made [770].
McCowan, the 2019 Gillom Trophy winner as the state of Mississippi's top women's collegiate basketball player, is the all-time leading rebounder in NCAA Tournament history with 240 career postseason boards. Her 544 rebounds as a junior in 2017-18 marked the most-ever by an SEC player in a single season and second in NCAA history.
McCowan was named the National Defensive Player of the Year by WBCA [2018-19] and Naismith [2017-18] and was a two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year. In 2017-18, she was named to the All-Final Four Team and was Co-MVP of the NCAA Kansas City Regional after pulling down an NCAA Tournament-record 109 rebounds [18.2 rpg].
McCowan was named to the NCAA Oklahoma City All-Region squad after leading Mississippi State to the 2017 Final Four with wins against Washington and top-seeded Baylor. Before the Bulldogs' historic NCAA Tournament showing, she earned the program's first SEC Sixth Woman of the Year Award after helping the Bulldogs to a school-record 13 league victories.
The individual development McCowan showed during Mississippi State's run to a second consecutive national title game caught the attention of the coaching community, as Harris was tabbed the WBCA National Assistant Coach of the Year for the 2017-18 season.
In 2018-19, Harris helped transfer forward Anriel Howard combine with McCowan to create one of the best front courts in the country. In her lone season with the Bulldogs, Howard earned first-team All-SEC recognition by the AP and league coaches after averaging 16.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. Both McCowan [No. 3, Indiana Fever] and Howard [No. 24, Seattle Storm] were selected in the 2019 WNBA Draft.
Another Harris product, Chinwe Okorie, was an integral part of the Bulldogs' runs to the Final Four and 2016 Sweet 16, and finished her MSU career sixth in program annals in field-goal percentage, shooting 52.1 percent over 109 games. She raised her scoring average and field goal percentage each season of her three-year career, capped by her 7.5 ppg average on 56.4 percent shooting as a senior.
Another of Harris' pupils, Martha Alwal, helped the Bulldogs make history in 2014-15 with their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2010. Under Harris' guidance, Alwal developed into one of the nation's top centers, earning First Team All-SEC and SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors as a junior. She also claimed a pair of second-team honors, three-straight SEC All-Defensive Team accolades and won the Gillom Trophy. Three seasons working with Harris helped Alwal become the second player in SEC history to lead the league in blocks four-straight years and just the third to claim 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocks for her career.
Alongside Schaefer, Harris helped guide Texas A&M to four Sweet 16 appearances in her five seasons, including the program's first national championship in 2010-11. During her tenure with the Aggies, Harris helped sign and mentor junior college All-Americans Danielle Adams and Tanisha Smith.
Adams earned MVP of the 2011 Final Four before being selected with the 20th pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars. Adams was tabbed to the league's all-star game in her inaugural season. Smith earned Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and conference all-tournament honors in 2009. The Seattle Storm selected Smith with the 22nd pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft.
Harris' recruiting ability was crucial in building the Aggies into an annual championship contender. She helped Texas A&M in signing classes that annually rated in the top 20 nationally.
Harris helped the Aggies land the nation's No. 2 class in her final season in College Station. That class included a pair of McDonald's All-Americans in Jordan Jones and Courtney Williams. Texas A&M's 2010 class, which included McDonald's All-American and the nation's top post player, Karla Gilbert, rated third nationally. The two years prior she helped notch the nation's fifth- and sixth-rated classes. Harris played a key role in signing the major players in Texas A&M's national championship team that claimed a school-best 33 victories.
Prior to her stop in College Station, Harris spent three seasons at Arkansas, helping land some of the Lady Razorbacks' top recruiting classes in program history. She signed Laura Ervin, a junior college All-American who went on to garner Second Team All-SEC accolades, as well as Freshman All-SEC selection Donica Cosby.
In 2007, she inked Gatorade state players of the year Whitney Zachariason [Arkansas] and Morgan Boyd [Kansas] as Arkansas finished with one of the nation's top-40 classes. Harris also recruited one of the top point guards in the nation in Shanita Arnold.
Harris has had the opportunity to learn from some of the game's top coaches, including Hall of Famer Kay Yow at N.C. State. She joined the program in the 2003-04 season and immediately helped the squad to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in two years. Harris and her fellow coaches helped the Wolfpack sign JUCO Player of the Year Tiffany Stansbury, who went on to play with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and Minnesota Lynx.
Her first recruiting class in Raleigh was rated as one of the best in the nation. She also garnered a commitment from Gillian Goring, the nation's No. 1 post player who went on to play for the Washington Mystics.
Prior to jumping to the Division I level, Harris made her mark on the junior college level as an assistant coach at Arkansas-Fort Smith, where she helped bring in key players who led the school to the NJCAA Final Four in 2004. In two seasons coaching under the legendary Louis Whorton, she inked the nation's No. 1 class and helped the Lady Lions to a 34-8 record. UAFS's 2002-03 team went 26-2 and won a share of the Bi-State Conference championship.
The Arkansas-Fort Smith position kept the Pine Bluff native in her home state after she started her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Little Rock. Her hard work at UALR earned her a promotion to a full-time assistant position in 2000.
Harris, a 2014 inductee in the Watson's Chapel High School Hall of Fame, also coached AAU basketball with the Arkansas Kamikaze. She began her playing career at Arkansas-Pine Bluff before transferring to Arkansas Baptist for her final two seasons.
Harris is the mother of two children, Marcus and Kiera, and the legal guardian of Lily. She also has two grandchildren, Samarah and Kaiden.
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Dionnah Jackson-Durrett, Associate Head Coach
Jackson-Durrett is one of the top young coaches in the nation who makes her return to the Big 12 Conference. A four-year standout point guard at the University of Oklahoma, she was a three-time All-Big 12 Conference selection, an Honorable Mention All-American and a first-round pick in the 2005 WNBA Draft.
Since she arrived in Starkville in 2015, Jackson-Durrett worked directly with Mississippi State's point guards. Under her direction, the Bulldogs recorded the top-three single-season assist marks in program history, including the school record of 602 during the 2017-18 campaign.
During her time at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs ranked inside the top-25 nationally and led the SEC in assists [three times], assists per game [once] and assist-to-turnover ratio [twice]. Jackson-Durrett coached and mentored the two best point guards ever to play for the Bulldogs in Jazzmun Holmes and Morgan William. Both received All-America Honorable Mention recognition from the Associated Press.
Holmes set the single-season record for assists with 202 in 2018-19, breaking the previous record of 181, held by William. Since the stat started being recorded in 2007-08, Holmes also claimed the NCAA Division I record for assist-to-turnover ratio after leading the country with a 4.81 clip. She finished second on Mississippi State's career assists list with 476 and became the only player in program history to record multiple games with at least 12 assists.
William is best known for her game-winning shot against No. 1 UConn that sent the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Championship Game appearance in 2016-17. She also set the Mississippi State records for career assists [656] and career assists per game [4.4]. William holds three of the top-five single-season assist totals in program history. The All-SEC selection became just the second player to ever lead the Bulldogs in assists for four seasons. As a senior, she finished the year third in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.7.
Jackson-Durrett made the move to Starkville following a two-year stint on the staff at George Mason, where she worked with the Patriots' offense and guards. She tutored Taylor Brown to the team's scoring title both seasons and second-team all-conference honors in 2015 after averaging 21.4 points per game and setting a school single-season record with 643 points.
Jackson-Durrett began her coaching career at Southwest Missouri State where she helped Kara Wright to the Ohio Valley Conference All-Newcomer Team and Bianca Beck to an overseas professional contract in her three years at the school.
During her playing days at Oklahoma, Jackson-Durrett played 131 games with the Sooners, averaging 11.4 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, 4.6 assists per game and 2.1 steals per game. She garnered Honorable Mention All-America honors as well as being named a finalist for the Wade and Naismith National Player of the Year Awards.
Jackson-Durrett wrapped her collegiate career in the top-10 in 17 of Oklahoma's 22 all-time records lists. She ranked second in assists [606], third in steals [265], fourth in rebounds [829], fifth in blocks [64] and ninth in scoring [1,491].
Her final season at Oklahoma saw her earn First-Team All-Big 12 accolades after landing second-team honors her sophomore and junior years. As a junior, she also was selected as the Big 12 Tournament MVP after leading Oklahoma to the second league title of her career.
In addition to the pair of Big 12 titles, the three-year starter at point guard and three-year captain led Oklahoma to the NCAA Tournament all four years, including the program's first Final Four and national runner-up finish as a freshman.
Jackson-Durrett was a first-round selection by the Detroit Shock in the 2005 WNBA Draft. In 2007, she was picked up by the Chicago Sky and also played in Israel for Maccabi Tel Kabir. In addition to her time in Israel, she played overseas in Switzerland and Greece.
A St. Louis native, Jackson-Durrett was the 2001 Missouri Player of the Year and a two-time all-state selection after leading Parkway High School to a 102-12 four-year record.
Jackson-Durrett earned her bachelor's degree in mass communication from Oklahoma in 2005 and a master's degree in higher education administration from Southeast Missouri State in 2013. She is married to Jon Durrett and the couple has a daughter, Laila Renee [2].
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Elena Lovato, Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator
Lovato served four seasons on Schaefer's staff in two different stints. She helped recruit some of the top classes in Mississippi State history that went on to earn four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, including back-to-back national title game appearances, and collected the program's first SEC Championship.
Most recently, she helped the Bulldogs ink the top signing class in program history, which was ranked No. 6 nationally by espnW Hoop Gurlz. Rickea Jackson, the fifth-ranked player in the country and Mississippi State's first McDonald's All-American, highlighted the group.
Between her two stints in Starkville, Lovato spent two years as the head coach at Arkansas-Fort Smith. At UAFS, she led the Lady Lions to a 37-24 overall record, including a 20-10 mark in the Heartland Conference. Her 2017-18 squad reached the 20-win mark and earned a spot in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
In Lovato's first two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs posted a 55-15 overall record and a 22-10 mark in the SEC. She helped Mississippi State to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, including the program's first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance since 2010.
Prior to joining Mississippi State, Lovato was one of the top junior college coaches in the country, recording a 113-8 [.934] record in four seasons at the level. She spent the 2012-13 and 2013-14 campaigns at the helm of Trinity Valley Community College, where her teams posted a 72-2 mark and won the NJCAA National Championship in each of those seasons.
Lovato was named the NJCAA Division I Coach of the Year after her 2013-14 squad went 36-1 and claimed a second consecutive national title. The previous year's team also went 36-1 en route to the national championship. Lovato mentored six NJCAA All-Americans at TVCC, including the 2014 WBCA Player of the Year Adut Bulgak.
Lovato served one season as an assistant coach at Omaha, an NCAA Division II program that was making the transition to Division I, and another as head coach at Grayson College in Denton, Texas.
At Grayson, Lovato took a program that finished 4-26 the previous year and led it to a 32-4 record, the NJCAA Region V Championship and a fifth-place national finish. She earned Coach of the Year accolades from the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, the North Texas College Athletic Conference and NJCAA Region V.
A year earlier, Lovato was an assistant coach at Trinity Valley Community College before being promoted to interim head coach for the final 11 games of the season. She led the Lady Cardinals to a 9-2 record and a sixth-place finish at the national tournament during that time.
Lovato was an assistant on Joe Curl's Houston staff in 2008-09 and, before that, was a graduate assistant at Pittsburg State in Kansas. The Albuquerque, N.M., native also coached at the high school level following a stellar playing career.
Before embarking on her coaching career, Lovato played two seasons at West Texas A&M before transferring to Missouri Southern State, where she was named a team captain and MIAA Newcomer of the Year.
She went on to play professionally in the Puerto Rican Women's Basketball League, earning First-Team All-League Honors after averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds in 2001. The following season, she averaged 18 points and eight rebounds. In 2002, she also played for the Chicago Blaze of the National Women's Basketball League [NWBL].
Lovato earned her bachelor's degree in university studies from Missouri Southern State in 2005 and her master's degree in physical education from Pittsburg State in 2008.
