Theresa Grentz

Theresa Marie Shank Grentz (born March 24, 1952) is an American college basketball coach. Her coaching career spanned five decades, with over 680 career wins, multiple national and conference coaching awards, and a national championship. She is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Grentz grew up in Glenolden, Pennsylvania and played college basketball at Immaculata College, where she earned three All-American honors and was part of three consecutive AIAW national championship teams from 1972 to 1974. After graduating from college, Grentz was head coach at a recently created women's basketball program at Saint Joseph's College from 1974 to 1976.

From 1976 to 1995, Grentz was head women's basketball coach at Rutgers University–New Brunswick during a time when the Rutgers program was transitioning from the AIAW to NCAA levels. Grentz led Rutgers to the final AIAW national championship in 1982, after which Rutgers moved to the NCAA and joined the Atlantic 10 Conference in 1983. Rutgers won eight Atlantic 10 regular season and four Atlantic 10 tournament championships and appeared in nine consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and Grentz earned four Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year honors and three national honors. After Rutgers, Grentz was head coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1995 to 2007, taking Illinois to 10 postseason appearances and the 1997 Big Ten Conference regular season title. After a seven-year hiatus from coaching, Grentz returned to college basketball at Lafayette College, first as an assistant coach in 2014–15 then head coach from 2015 to 2017.

Outside of college basketball, Grentz also was head coach for the United States women's national basketball team for several international competitions from 1985 to 1992, including the 1992 Olympic bronze team.

Early life and education Born Theresa Marie Shank in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Grentz was raised in Glenolden, Pennsylvania and attended Cardinal O'Hara High School.

While a student at Immaculata, she played basketball for the Immaculata Mighty Macs. Under coach Cathy Rush, Grentz helped Immaculata win three straight AIAW National Championships between 1972 and 1974. The March 23, 1974 title game was the first ever live coverage of a US women's basketball game.

Illinois (1995–2007) In 1995, Grentz was hired as head basketball coach by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After going 13–15 in her debut season, Grentz led Illinois to a 24–8 record, no. 13 final national ranking, and Sweet 16 appearance in the 1997 NCAA tournament. In her final season, she won the Carol Eckman Award from the WBCA. In 12 seasons, Grentz compiled a record of 210–156, the 1996–97 Big Ten Conference regular season title, five NCAA Tournament appearances, and five WNIT appearances. Grentz went 10–51 in two seasons at Lafayette before being fired in April 2017.

USA Basketball coaching Grentz was selected as the head coach of the team representing the US in 1985 at the William Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan. The team opened with a lopsided 92–18 victory over the Philippines, then faced Sweden in the second game. The game was close in the first half, and the half ended with the game tied at 31 points each. The USA pulled out to a six-point lead early in the second half but Sweden responded by scoring thirteen consecutive points to take a lead they would not relinquish. The USA team next faced undefeated South Korea. The game was tied again at the half, but this time the USA took a lead in the second half and held on to the lead for the win. They next played undefeated Republic of China and managed to come away with a win by the slimmest of margins, 56–55. After defeating Germany, they had another challenge from Canada, who raced out to a 42–30 lead by halftime. The Canadians still had a twelve-point lead late in the game, but the USA mounted a comeback, and out scored their opponent 18–4 to win the game 65–63. After beating Brazil, they faced Japan in the final game of the competition. Japan was in the lead with five minutes to go in the game, but the USA came back to win with a two-point margin 56–54. The win clinched the championship and the gold medal for the USA team.

Personal life Grentz's father was an order selector at an A&P warehouse, and her mother was a nurse at the Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pennsylvania.

In 1974, Grentz married Karl Grentz. They have two children.