Baylor women's basketball drops 'Lady' from its nickname

Baylor women’s basketball will no longer be referred to as the Lady Bears. The school announced on Friday via ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel that the “Lady” will be dropped from the program’s nickname and the team will now be referred to as the Bears.

“Baylor women’s basketball has solidified itself as one of Baylor’s most remarkable and celebrated programs,” the school said. “While the use of Lady Bears is still very much a part of the program’s decorated history, in an effort to be more consistent with the current nomenclature of the other 18 Baylor sport programs, the team will now be referred to as simply the Bears.

“This evolution is unique in that it creates consistency among Baylor teams while also highlighting the individual sport and contributions of its athletes and coaches.”

Baylor will have a new head coach when it takes the floor this season

Longtime head coach Kim Mulkey saw tremendous success as Baylor’s head coach. She took over in 2000 and completely turned the program around. In her career at Baylor, Mulkey coached to a 632-103 record. Baylor has won 20+ games in 21 consecutive seasons.

Mulkey won national championships with Baylor in 2005, 2012, and 2019. Excluding the canceled 2020 season, Mulkey led the Bears to a NCAA Tournament appearance in all but one season. That year, 2003, Baylor finished as the runner-up in the women’s NIT tournament.

This offseason, Mulkey left Baylor and will take over as the next head coach at LSU. Nicki Collen takes over following a coaching stint in the WNBA. Collen’s coaching career started in 2000, and she made five stops as an assistant in the college ranks. Overall, Collen’s collegiate teams had a combined record of 214-74. She made it to four NCAA Tournaments and reached the second round three times.

She coached two seasons as an assistant with the Connecticut Sun in 2016 and 2017 before she took over as head coach of the Atlanta Dream in 2018. In her first season as head coach of the Dream, Collen led the team to a 23-11 record and made it to the WNBA playoff semifinals while earning WNBA Coach of the Year honors.

Collen has shown that she is capable of leading a successful basketball program. Now, she will look to maintain the recent success that Baylor women’s basketball has grown accustomed to. For the first time, this season the program will simply be the Baylor Bears.