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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1966-01-22)January 22, 1966 (age 59) | ||||||||||||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| College | Vanderbilt (1985–1988) | ||||||||||||||
| Position | Center | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career | 1993–2007, 2016–2018 | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||||||||
| 1993–1995 | Tennessee (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Kentucky (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 1996–1997 | Purdue (assistant) | ||||||||||||||
| 1997–1999 | Purdue | ||||||||||||||
| 1999–2001 | Orlando Miracle | ||||||||||||||
| 2002–2007 | Florida | ||||||||||||||
| 2016–2018 | Vanderbilt (associate HC) | ||||||||||||||
| Career highlights | |||||||||||||||
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| Career coaching record | |||||||||||||||
| WNBA | 44–52 (.458) | ||||||||||||||
| NCAA | 129–87 (.597) | ||||||||||||||
| Women's Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||
Medals
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Carolyn Arlene Peck (born January 22, 1966)[1] is an American television sportscaster and former college basketball coach. She was the head coach for the women's basketball teams ofPurdue University and theUniversity of Florida, and also the first head coach-general manager in the history of theWNBA'sOrlando Miracle. Peck was also an associate head coach for her alma mater,Vanderbilt University.
Carolyn Peck was born inJefferson City, Tennessee. She has praised her family as her biggest influence, saying they showed her the importance of supporting each other. Peck says her mom and grandmothers taught her to work hard and appreciate life and family.[2] Her brother Michael also became a basketball coach, and Peck hired him as her assistant coach for the Orlando Miracle in 2001.[2] He is currently a coaching consultant.
As a senior at Jefferson County High School[3] in Dandridge, Tennessee, Peck, a 6-4 center, was named Tennessee's Miss Basketball after averaging 35 points and 13.2 rebounds per game. She played college basketball atVanderbilt University from 1985 to 1988, averaging 10.6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. She also blocked 180 shots, to break aVanderbilt women's basketball career record. She was team captain for her last two seasons.[2]
Peck graduated from Vanderbilt with aBachelor of Arts degree incommunications in 1988. She passed up an opportunity to play professionally inSpain to work as a marketing consultant at aNashville television station, as well as sellpharmaceutical products for aFortune 500 company for two years.
Peck returned to basketball in 1991, quitting her job to play professionally inItaly for three weeks, then forJapan’s Nippondenso Corporation for two years. During her second year in Japan, her team won the league championship. She was third in the league for rebounding in 1991 and 1992.[2]
Peck's coaching career began in 1993. She returned to her home state to serve as an assistant coach for theTennesseeLady Vols under coachPat Summitt for two seasons.[2] The Lady Vols posted 30-win seasons and won theSoutheastern Conference championship during both seasons: 31–2 in 1993–94, and 34–3 in 1994–95. The latter team lost to the undefeated,Rebecca Lobo-ledConnecticut Huskies in theNCAA Championship game, the school's and head coachGeno Auriemma's first national championship.
Peck went on to serve as an assistant coach at theUniversity of Kentucky during the 1995–96 season. After this season, she received another assistant coaching job, this time atPurdue University underNell Fortner, who had just replaced the firedLin Dunn. The Boilermakers finished 17–11 during the 1996–97 season and advanced to the second round of theNCAA tournament. At the end of this season, Fortner was offered the position of head coach of theUSA Women's basketball team for the2000 Summer Olympics and was leavingPurdue.[2] She handed over the reins of head coach to Peck, who became Purdue's third head coach in as many seasons. After time as a head coach and in broadcasting, in 2016 Peck joined Vanderbilt's women's basketball team as an associate head coach underStephanie White.[4][5]
Peck served as the assistant coach, under head coachGail Goestenkors, for theUSA representative to the 1997William Jones Cup competition. The event was held inTaipei, Taiwan during August 1997. The USA team won their first six games. Four of the six were decided by six points or fewer, including the semifinal game against Japan which went to overtime. In the gold medal game, the USA faced undefeated South Korea. The USA team played to a six-point margin early in the second half, but could not extend the margin. South Korea came back, took the lead, and held on to win the championship and the gold medal 76–71.[6]
During Peck's first season as head coach (1997–98), Purdue went 23–10 with an Elite Eight appearance. She became the third coach for Purdue's women's basketball team to accomplish an Elite Eight appearance in her first season as head coach.[2] Things appeared to be looking up for the following season; the bulk of the team was returning.
Meanwhile, in April 1998 the youngWNBA announced that it was expanding from ten teams to twelve, with one of the new franchises to be based inOrlando, Florida.Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the Orlando team-to-be, began his search to find a head coach–general manager. The original list of prospects had six candidates, including Summitt, Duke'sGail Goestenkors and Florida's Carol Ross— but not Peck. After all six candidates turned down the offer, Williams then called Peck upon the recommendation of both Ross and Goestenkors. In June 1998 Peck accepted the job with a four-year contract.
Despite accepting this new role, Peck was faced with a dilemma: having to return to Purdue to tell her team that they would once again have to play under a new coach. After she broke the news, some of her players felt betrayed and angry, some of them even telling her so personally. So after struggling with the idea of leaving Purdue after just one season as their coach, Peck again called Williams, asking him if she could remain at Purdue for the 1998–99 season and then go to Orlando for the start of the WNBA season. He granted her request.
In July it was announced that Peck would be the first head coach and general manager of the Orlando team (now named theMiracle), and coach at Purdue for one last season.[2]
The friction between Peck and her players eased, after the team took a preseason trip toSwitzerland andFrance for exhibition games. By the start of the season, the team was together, and Peck would neither discuss the fact that she was leaving nor answer any questions about Orlando.
The Purdue Boilermakers opened their 1998–1999 season by upsetting the Lady Vols and ending their 46-game winning streak. The Lady Vols had been the top-ranked team and three-time defending NCAA champions.[2] Led byKatie Douglas,Stephanie White andUkari Figgs, the Boilermakers posted a 28–1 record during the regular season, the lone loss coming by one point againstStanford. The team won the1999 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, which was the first national championship in Purdue women's basketball history, winning all six of its games by at least 10 points, including a 62–45 victory over Duke in the title game.
Peck became the firstAfrican American to coach a women's Division I basketball national championship team; she has since been joined byDawn Staley, who coachedSouth Carolina to the2017 National Championship. Peck was named Women's Basketball Coach of the Year by theAssociated Press,[7] as well as becoming the first woman and the first African American to win the Winged Foot Award (which honored the best coach in college basketball) from theNew York Athletic Club. Two weeks after guiding Purdue to the title, Peck was in Orlando preparing the Miracle for their upcoming season.
Peck was awarded the US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year, theWBCA Coach of the Year, theAP College Basketball Coach of the Year and theNaismith College Coach of the Year awards in 1999.[8][9][10][11]
The title is the only one, to date, in women's college basketball by aBig Ten Conference school.
Peck started as the Orlando Miracle's head coach on April 1, 1999, after the end of the Boilermaker's championship season. She stated that it was difficult to assemble a team from scratch, and spent the first season focusing on building unity between the players. The team's first season had a record of 15–17, tying for second place in the Eastern Conference, and was one game away from qualifying for the playoffs. Peck became ESPN's expert guest analyst for the playoffs that year.[2]
During Peck's three seasons as WNBA coach, the Miracle, which featuredShannon Johnson,Taj McWilliams-Franklin,Nykesha Sales and fellow Vanderbilt graduateSheri Sam, posted a 44–52 record. They qualified for the playoffs in 2000, where they lost to theCleveland Rockers 2 games to 1. This was the first time a WNBA team reached the playoffs so quickly after their formation, and the team was the first non-charter WNBA team to win a playoff game.[2]
In 2000, Peck coached the WNBA On Tour Eastern Team, which played exhibition games in non-WNBA cities. In 2001, Peck hired her brother Michael as an assistant coach for the Miracle, and they became the first brother-sister coaching team for the WNBA.[2]
On April 3, 2002, Peck returned to coaching college basketball, this time leading theFlorida Gators women's basketball team of theUniversity of Florida. Peck's younger brother Michael again served as her assistant coach.
During her five seasons at Florida (2002–03 through 2006–07), the Gators posted a 72–75 record with two NCAA tournament berths. The 2003–04 team, which posted a 19–11 record after going 9–19 the season before, was eliminated byBaylor in the second round of the2004 NCAA tournament, after defeatingNew Mexico in the first round before 16,029 fans atAlbuquerque. The 2005–06 team posted a 21–7 record and received a No. 6 seed in theNCAA tournament, but this time New Mexico got revenge on Florida, defeating them by 24 points in the first round.
The 2006–07 season was a disaster—the Gators suffered through a 14-game losing streak and finished 9–22. Following the losing streak, the university fired Peck in February but allowed her to finish the season as coach. Former Florida Gators playerAmanda Butler replaced Peck for the 2007–08 season.
Peck was not out of basketball for long after the 2006–07 season:ESPN hired her as abasketball analyst within months.
After 9 years of working for ESPN, Peck was hired by her alma mater (Vanderbilt) to be an assistant coach in June 2016. After the 2017–18 season, Peck stepped down from coaching to return to ESPN.
Peck has commented on the gendered expectations of women athletes and the growing recognition of women's basketball as a sport and not just a "women's sport."[2]
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purdue Boilermakers(Big Ten)(1997–1999) | |||||||||
| 1997–98 | Purdue | 23–10 | 10–6 | T-3rd | NCAA Elite Eight | ||||
| 1998–99 | Purdue | 34–1 | 16–0 | 1st | NCAA Champions | ||||
| Purdue: | 57–11 (.838) | 26–6 (.813) | |||||||
| Florida Gators(SEC)(2002–2007) | |||||||||
| 2002–03 | Florida | 9–19 | 1–13 | T–11th | |||||
| 2003–04 | Florida | 19–11 | 8–6 | T-4th | NCAA second round | ||||
| 2004–05 | Florida | 14–15 | 5–9 | 8th | WNIT First Round | ||||
| 2005–06 | Florida | 21–9 | 8–6 | T-5th | NCAA first round | ||||
| 2006–07 | Florida | 9–22 | 2–12 | 11th | |||||
| Florida: | 72–76 (.486) | 24–46 (.343) | |||||||
| Total: | 129–87 (.597) | ||||||||
National champion Postseason invitational champion | |||||||||
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L % | Win–loss % |
| Playoffs | PG | Playoff games | PW | Playoff wins | PL | Playoff losses | PW–L % | Playoff win–loss % |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando | 1999 | 32 | 15 | 17 | .469 | 4th in East | - | - | - | - | Missed Playoffs |
| Orlando | 2000 | 32 | 16 | 16 | .500 | 3rd in East | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | Lost Eastern Conference Semi-Finals |
| Orlando | 2001 | 32 | 13 | 19 | .406 | 5th in East | - | - | - | - | Missed Playoffs |
| Career | 96 | 44 | 52 | .458 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 |
