Virginia Commonwealth University

Nineteen-year coaching veteran Jill Dunn entersher first season as an assistant at VCU after spending the previousnine years as the head coach at Jacksonville University. 

Dunn, who brings 11 years of head coaching experience to theRams’ bench, transformed Jacksonville’s women’sbasketball program into yearly contenders in the Atlantic SunConference during her tenure, including the most successful run inprogram history.

"Coach Jill brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to ourprogram," said VCU Head Coach Marlene Stollings. "Her previous experience as a head coach will play a vitalrole in the overall development of our young ladies as well as theadvancement of our program. Coach Jill will be instrumental inhelping us achieve national recognition. We are ecstatic to havesomeone of her caliber joining Ram Nation."

Dunn, who inherited a 3-24 Jacksonville squad when she was hiredin 2004-05, wasted little time reviving the program as she guidedthe Dolphins to an astounding 21-9 record in just her thirdseason.  Her squads went on to make three trips to the A-Sunchampionship game in four seasons from 2007-11, while postingback-to-back 20-win campaigns for the first time in program history(2006-08).  The Dolphins nearly made it three straight with a19-win season in 2008-09.  Jacksonville also made nationalattention in 2007-08, receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25Coaches Poll.

"I am thrilled to be joining the VCU staff,” said Dunn. “From the first time I spoke to Coach Marlene I wasimpressed with her vision for the program.  It is an amazingopportunity and I am excited to help build VCU into a team that isconsistently winning conference championships and advancing on thenational stage." 

The Dalton, Ga., native has a natural ability for developingtalent having tutored 20 all-conference selections, including anA-Sun Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year (first in programhistory), Defensive Player of the Year (first in program history)and a pair of conference tournament MVPs. 

Dunn’s Jacksonville squads consistently ranked among thebest in the A-Sun in several defensive categories, includingblocks, steals and rebounding (set school rebounding record fivestraight years).  During her first six seasons, the Dolphinsheld their opponent to under 50 points on 23 occasions, which onlyoccurred five times in five total seasons prior to Dunn’sarrival.  Her teams also made noise of the offensive end,finishing with the top two scoring averages in program history with67.7 ppg in 2007-08 and 64.0 ppg in 2010-11.

Prior to Jacksonville, Dunn spent three seasons as the topassistant and recruiting coordinator at Georgia State University,where the Panthers captured three straight A-Sun regular seasontitles and made back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2003and 2004.  Georgia State also compiled 59 wins during herthree-year tenure, including an impressive 40-16 mark in theA-Sun.

Dunn, who has also made coaching stops at Miami (Ohio), WesternCarolina (as both a head coach and assistant) and South Carolina,began her basketball career as a four-year letterwinner at GeorgiaSouthern from 1989-93.  While serving as team captain as asenior, she earned second team All-Southern Conference honors andwas selected to the league’s all-tournament team afterguiding the Eagles to a berth in the NCAA Tournament.  Amember of the Georgia Southern Athletics Hall of Fame, Dunnfinished her career as the program’s career leader in 3-pointfield goal percentage (.373), while ranking among the Top 10all-time in assists, 3-pointers and steals.

She received her bachelor’s degree in education fromGeorgia Southern in 1994.