The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
Calamity McEntire was hired as an assistant coach with the Texas Women's Basketball staff on April 30, 2021. McEntire owns more than 15 years of Division I coaching experience and joined the Longhorn family after five seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Dayton.
McEntire's time at Dayton featured three Atlantic 10 regular season titles (2018, 2020, 2021) and one conference tournament crown (2020). She helped recruit some of the top classes in Dayton history, including the 2020 class that ranked in the top-25 nationally. The 2018, 2019 and 2020 recruiting classes she helped piece together as recruiting coordinator all were the highest-ranked among Atlantic 10 programs.
McEntire helped coach the Flyers to NCAA Tournament appearances in 2018 and 2020. Dayton's 2018 squad was an at-large selection, while the 2020 team earned an automatic bid by winning the Atlantic 10 conference tournament. Dayton won 79 games over the last four seasons with McEntire on staff, including 25 during the shortened 2019-20 campaign – just the fifth time in the last 40 years that the Flyers won at least 25 games in a season.
Off the court, McEntire was selected to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) NEXT UP program in 2020. She was also selected as one of 50 Impactful DI Women's Basketball Assistants by Silver Waves Media in April 2020.
Prior to her time at Dayton, McEntire spent one season at Hawaii and four seasons at Arizona holding the titles of assistant coach and recruiting coordinator in Tucson. There, she helped the Wildcats sign a top-25 class in 2014, the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history at the time. McEntire's efforts on the court were to coach Arizona's guards. That group included Davellyn Whyte, who went on to become the No. 16 pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft after a year under McEntire's tutelage.
Whyte started and played in every game for the Wildcats during her season with McEntire and led Arizona in points (16.8), rebounds (6.3), assists (5.2), steals (2.6) and minutes (35.5) per game that year. Her 5.2 assists per game was a full 2.0 assists higher than her average the year prior to being coached by McEntire. Whyte also posted the first triple-double in Arizona women's basketball history with 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists versus Arizona State on Feb. 19, 2013, and scored in double-figures 28 times. Eight times Whyte crossed the 20-point threshold and she posted five double-doubles with her top-notch scoring and rebounding.
McEntire spent four seasons at Boise State before moving on to Arizona. With the Broncos, she served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. McEntire has also made stops at UC Santa Barbara (2006-08) as the Director of Women's Basketball Operations and at Fresno State (2004-06) as an assistant coach. She also gained a wealth of knowledge from legendary coach Pat Summit while she worked as an equipment manager at Tennessee from 2001-03.
A native of Kiowa, Okla., McEntire played two seasons of collegiate basketball at Eastern Oklahoma State from 1999-2001. She earned her associate's degree in physical education during that time, and later earned her bachelor's degree in sport management with a minor in business from Tennessee in 2003.
