BATON ROUGE — Bob Starkey, LSU’s women’s basketball assistant coach that guided the Lady Tigers to the 2007 Final Four, has been promoted to associate head coach, it was announced by head coach Van Chancellor on Tuesday.
“I have no doubt in my mind that in Bob Starkey we have the best assistant coach in the country,” Chancellor said. “He has brought so much to this program over the years and did an outstanding job leading the team to the Final Four this part March.”
Starkey, who enters his 10th season with the women’s basketball program, led the Lady Tigers to four wins in the NCAA Tournament as acting head coach. LSU defeated UNC Ashville, West Virginia, Florida State and upset top seeded Connecticut to reach the Final Four in Cleveland.
“We certainly appreciate Bob Starkey’s long time dedication to the LSU Athletics program,” LSU Senior Associate Athletics Director Judy Southard said. “And we are particularly proud of his accomplishments in the capacity of acting head coach during the 2007 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. This promotion is most deserving and duly recognizes his talent as well as his contributions to Lady Tiger Basketball.”
Starkey has been at LSU as a coach since 1990. The Charleston, W.V., native served as assistant coach for the men’s program for seven years under head coach Dale Brown. He then spent time as the administrative assistant for both the men’s and women’s teams before being promoted to assistant coach for the Lady Tigers in 1999.
The Lady Tigers have made the NCAA Tournament every season with Starkey as a coach, including the four Final Four appearances and two other trips to the Elite Eight.
In addition to the promotion of Starkey, Chancellor announced Joe Carvalhido will remain as the program’s Director of Operations.
Starkey’s promotion is pending the approval of the Board of Supervisors.