2014-15 UB Bulls Women's Basketball Preview: The Coaches

Basketball season is right around the corner, and you should know the coaching staffs as well as the players on the floor. Today we'll introduce you to the women's basketball coaches, two of whom are new to UB, and I'll hit the men sometime soon.

Felisha Legette-Jack

Felisha Legette-Jack was one of Danny White's first hires, coming aboard in 2012. Coach Jack has each year overseen an improvement in win totals, and was rewarded for her work last month with a contract extension that lasts through the 2018-19 season.

Before Buffalo, Coach Jack started her head coaching career at Hofstra before her success merited a step up. She most recently spent six years at Indiana, where she combined three years of 18+ wins and postseason appearances with three losing seasons before leaving Bloomington.

Coach also has experience as an assistant coach at Michigan State, Syracuse, Boston College, and USA Basketball.

In her time at Buffalo, Legette-Jack has established herself as a visible member of the UB Athletics community, passionate not just about her team but all of UB Athletics. In, frankly, a climate where not enough people care about UB, she does.

Ashley Zuber

Kourtney Brown has moved on from the Buffalo coaching staff, but her onetime teammate and colleague remains. Zuber's presence on the UB staff is not too different from the years that Turner Battle helped out Jarod Oldham and John Boyer at the men's point guard position: Zuber holds UB records for assists in a single game and assists in a season.

It's more a testament to Zuber's skill on the floor than a knock on her coaching that Margeaux Gupilan graduated without passing her coach's fifth-place mark in the UB books with 388 career assists.

Cherie Cordoba

Coach Cordoba is new to UB, but not to working under Coach Jack. A former professional player overseas, Cordoba enjoying a successful playing career that saw her win championships in Australia, the UK, and Spain. Before joining Coach Jack's staff at Hofstra, Cordoba worked as a police officer in Australia and coached two years at UNLV, her alma mater.

At UNLV, Cordoba is the single-season record hold in steals and three-point field goal percentage, while also holding the single-game record in steals, with 11. She'll pair up with Zuber this year to help with the guards.

Blake DuDonis

Blake DuDonis is the other newcomer to the Women's Basketball staff, coming to UB after two seasons at Gardner-Webb, his alma mater, where he started his coaching career after serving as a student assistant. After graduating from Gardner-Webb, DuDonis coached for a year at Merrimack College in Massachusetts before heading back to the Runnin' Bulldogs.

Gardner-Webb improved their win total by nine games from DuDonis' first season to his second on staff. He'll be coaching the post players this season for UB.

Paja Grasevova

Paja Grasevova isn't a coach, but we're going to highlight her briefly, anyway, as she's a well-known fixture of the Women's Basketball program. This year will be her ninth in Amherst, which makes her one of the longer-tenured members of the Athletics Department. As Director of Basketball operations, Grasevova is in charge of all the logistics surrounding the team. I can't even really go into detail about them because they're too numerous to list, but the short of it is without Paja the team doesn't go.