Beth Burns

Mary Elizabeth Burns (born October 7, 1957) is an American basketball coach who is currently the women's basketball associate head coach at The University of Southern California. Previously, Burns was the head coach at San Diego State for 1989 to 1997 and from 2005 to 2013 and at Ohio State from 1997 to 2002. With a 295–186 record at San Diego State, Burns has the most career wins in school history. She guided San Diego State to seven NCAA Tournament appearances and earned five Coach of the Year awards combined from the Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference.

Career Burns played college basketball at Ohio Wesleyan from 1975 to 1979. On March 4, 2002, Ohio State declined to renew Burns's contract, which expired after a 14–15 season in 2001–02.

Burns founded BBHoops, a fitness and basketball instruction business in San Diego, after leaving Ohio State. In 2004, Burns joined Tara VanDerveer's staff at Stanford as strength and conditioning coach. San Diego State formally signed Burns to a five-year contract on August 30, 2005. Inheriting a team that went 8–20, Burns went 3–24 in her first season back in 2005–06, but her teams improved to 12–16 and 18–13 over the next two seasons.

Eight months after signing a five-year contract, Burns resigned on April 16, 2013.

In 2014, Burns joined USC as associate head coach under Cynthia Cooper-Dyke.

After three seasons at USC, Burns joined Louisville as assistant strength and conditioning coach.

Lawsuit against San Diego State On February 19, 2014, Burns filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against San Diego State University, alleging: "SDSU fired her in retaliation for her unwavering demands that SDSU put women’s basketball and men’s athletics on an equal footing." Burns also filed a similar claim against the California State University system in October 2013. Trial began in May 2016. In September 2016, Burns won the lawsuit, with an award of $3.35 million.

Head coaching record Sources: Ohio State, San Diego State