Debbie Ryan
FameRank: 5

"Debbie Ryan" is the former head coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Virginia. Ryan also coached the American women's basketball team at the 2003 Pan American Games. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2000 but is currently in remission. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. Ryan was also inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

The US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) awarded her the Coach of the Year award in 1991.

In 1977, Ryan had recently completed graduate school in Virginia when she was asked to become the head coach of the women's basketball program. She accepted, to become only the third head coach in the program's history. Ryan resigned after 34 years of head coaching duties at UVA at the completion the women's 2010-2011 basketball season. After her resignation, Ryan was a volunteer assistant coach of Seattle Storm for the 2011 WNBA season, reuniting with her former player Jenny Boucek, who is an assistant coach there.

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I thought defensively we did a really good job on a team that averages 83 points per game. I was very pleased with our execution at both ends of the court.

218

Our son wouldn't do something like this.

198

A 16-day break is extremely long and it clearly affected us in this game. We missed a lot of easy shots and our free throw shooting was abominable.

193

We were hitting tonight. We took good shots, and we finished.

186

I thought we did a nice job of forcing turnovers and that was a key to winning the game. They got within five and we had to force a few turnovers in order to put them away.

184

If we can be fortunate enough to win there, we'll have a chance to play at home again.

159

I thought they did a great job in the first half, especially finishing, making shots and driving the score up. I thought they read things well and really did a nice job finishing the game.

156

We rebounded well and played their tendencies extremely well. They really could not get shots off because when they tried to run their plays we knew what they were going to do. I think we did a good job of keeping them in check.

123

Sixteen days is way too long. It's a long, long time to wait to play.

83