Jamie Craighead

Jamie Lynn Craighead Turner (born May 23, 1980) is an American college basketball coach who was most recently the head women's basketball coach at San Jose State. A basketball coach since 2002, Craighead was previously an assistant and head coach at Sacramento State.

Craighead grew up in Elma, Washington and played college basketball at the University of Oregon, where she was part of the 2002 Women's National Invitation Tournament championship team as a senior. Her first coaching job was as an assistant coach at Seattle Pacific from 2002 to 2005; she helped Seattle Pacific finish as national runners-up in the 2005 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament. Craighead was later assistant coach at Portland State from 2005 to 2007 and Sacramento State from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, Craighead got her first head coaching job at Sacramento State. Craighead's debut season had 15 wins, as many wins as the previous two seasons combined. Craighead led the 2012–13 Sacramento State team to the first winning season in 19 years.

Just two months before the season was to begin, Craighead was hired as San Jose State head coach in 2013. Her second season had San Jose State advance to the 2015 Mountain West tournament semifinals after an upset of no. 1 seed Colorado State. The 2015–16 team improved from eighth to fourth place in the Mountain West Conference standings and resulted in a contract extension for Craighead. After three straight losing seasons, San Jose State had 19 wins in 2019–20, the most successful season in 15 years. Although San Jose State entered 2020–21 picked by fellow conference coaches to finish second in the standings, the team ended its season after only four games due to repeated COVID-19 issues. Following a last place finish in conference standings, Craighead was fired in 2022.

Early life and college playing career Born in McCleary, Washington, Craighead grew up in nearby Elma. A 1998 graduate of Elma High School, Craighead earned four first-team all-league honors in basketball and was Washington 2A Player of the Year as a senior.

Craighead then attended the University of Oregon from 1998 to 2002. As a freshman, she played 12 games as a reserve, in a season where Oregon finished first in the Pac-10 and made the 1999 NCAA tournament. In her sophomore season (1999–2000), Craighead moved up on the depth chart, as she became the team's second-leading three-point shooter and played in Oregon's 2000 NCAA tournament first-round game, an overtime loss to UAB.

As a senior in 2001–02 under new coach Bev Smith, Craighead started 35 of 35 games and averaged 7.9 points and 2.4 rebounds, helping Oregon win the 2002 Women's National Invitation Tournament. In the WNIT title game, Craighead made a three-pointer with 1:20 left to put Oregon ahead of Houston, 51-50. Oregon would win 54-52. Craighead graduated from Oregon with a B.A. in educational studies.

Coaching career

Early coaching career (2000–2009) Craighead became an assistant coach at Division II Seattle Pacific University in 2002 under Gordy Presnell. By Craighead's third season on staff, Seattle Pacific made the championship round of the 2005 NCAA tournament.

Moving up to the Division I level, Craighead was an assistant at Portland State from 2005 to 2007 under Charity Elliott.

Sacramento State (2009–2013) Sacramento State promoted Craighead to head coach in 2009 after Muscatell resigned to become an assistant coach at Oregon. In her first season as head coach, Craighead led the Hornets to a 15–15 record with a 10–6 record in Big Sky Conference games, good enough for a three-way tie for second place. The season had as many wins as the past two seasons combined and was the first season with 10 or more wins since 1995–96. San Jose State hired Craighead on September 16, 2013 to replace La Kose. In her second season, Craighead led the #8 seed Spartans to the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament after an upset of #1 seed Colorado State, in a 15–17 season that also saw San Jose State break school and conference records by scoring 119 points against Columbia. In the next three seasons, San Jose State went 11–21 in 2016–17, 7–23 in 2017–18, and 6–24 in 2018–19.

In the 2019–20 season, Craighead had her most successful season at San Jose State with a 19–12 record (12–6 MW) and tie for third place in the MW standings. This was San Jose State's best win–loss record in 15 years. In April 2020, Craighead signed a new contract through the 2022–23 season.

Heading into the 2020–21 season, San Jose State was picked second in the Mountain West preseason coaches' poll. However, San Jose State played only four games, with a 2–2 (1–2 MW) record, before canceling the season in January due to repeated COVID-19 issues.

In 2021–22, San Jose State had its worst season under Craighead with a 5–25 (2–16 MW) record and last place finish in conference standings. On March 11, 2022, San Jose State fired Craighead with one year remaining on her contract.

Head coaching record