Tilley Named to Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame

From Sports Information Director, March 19, 2015 | Women's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College women's basketball coach Connie Tilley has been named to the 2015 class of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Tilley is the lone college coach in this year's class, which will be inducted September 26 at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.

Since arriving on the De Pere campus in 1977, Tilley has been the face of women's athletics at St. Norbert College. Wisconsin's all-time winningest college women's basketball coach regardless of level, Tilley's coaching tenures in basketball, softball and volleyball have impacted virtually every female athlete who's ever donned a St. Norbert uniform.

Her career record in basketball is 631-281 through 38 seasons at St. Norbert. Her teams have won 13 Midwest Conference titles and four Wisconsin Independent Colleges-Women's Athletic Conference championships. Tilley would also have three more Midwest Conference basketball titles to her credit if not for an arcane league rule that at the time awarded the league championship to the conference's post-season tournament winner.

Tilley has the 10th-most coaching wins in NCAA Division III women's basketball history at the conclusion of the 2014-15 season. Tilley has wins over 79 different schools, including every four-year school in the state except Wisconsin and Alverno, neither of which the Green Knights have faced. The last eight seasons have been the best of her coaching career, going 167-40 since the 2007-08 campaign with six conference titles and five NCAA Division III Tournament appearances.

Currently, Tilley's overall collegiate coaching record stands at 959-478 with 23 conference titles in 60 sports seasons. Only four of her teams have finished below .500.

Tilley's basketball teams have played in 12 NCAA Division III Tournaments, including one Final Four appearance in 1985, as well as four trips to the Sweet 16. Tilley led St. Norbert to its most recent NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2003, upsetting No. 5-ranked Carleton on the road in the second round of the tournament. She also engineered an impressive 14-point win over Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference power UW-Stevens Point in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Division III Tournament on the Pointers' home floor.

Tilley also spent nine years as St. Norbert's women's volleyball coach, going 130-76 from 1977 to 1985. She also led the women's softball team for 13 years, posting a 199-121 ledger. Tilley still points to the Green Knights' Midwest Conference women's softball championship in 1991 as one of her biggest coaching highlights.

After giving up the volleyball and softball coaching duties, Tilley completed her ninth season as the women's golf coach in 2004 and led the Green Knights to a third-place MWC finish in 2002, their best ever. In the spring of 2006, she took over the men's golf coaching duties and coached that squad for five years -- including a conference runner-up finish in 2009.

In addition, Tilley coached the UW-La Crosse women's tennis team one season while finishing her graduate work there - and the team finished seventh in the nation.

The Beloit native and Memorial High School graduate earned a bachelor's degree in health and physical education at UW-La Crosse in 1974. She earned a master's degree in public health administration from UW-La Crosse in 1976.

Tilley is a member of the St. Norbert College Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame and is the school's assistant athletics director.