Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Women's Basketball Coach
- Email:
- DeniseDillon@drexel.edu
- Phone:
- 215-895-1967
COLLEGIATE CAREER
Villanova (1993-96)
Big East All-Rookie Team (1993)
All-Big East (1994-96)
All-Big 5 (1994-96)
COACHING POSITIONS
Drexel University Head Coach (2003-20)
Drexel University Assistant Coach (2001-2003)
Villanova University Assistant Coach (1997-2001)
CAREER COACHING ACCOLADES
2013 Postseason WNIT Champions
2019-20 CAA Regular-Season Championship
2017-18 CAA Regular-Season Championship
2008-09 CAA Regular-Season Championship
2008-09 CAA Tournament Championship
2009 NCAA Tournament
2010, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Postseason WNIT
2012, 13, 16, 18, 19 CAA Tournament Finalist
2019-20 CAA Co-Coach of the Year
2017-18 CAA Coach of the Year
2008-09 CAA Coach of the Year
2004-05 CAA Co-Coach of the Year
Winningest Coach in Drexel Women’s Basketball history
2004 Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame
2012 Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame
2012 Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame
2018 Cardinal O'Hara Hall of Fame
DREXEL YEAR-BY-YEAR
Interim Coach
2003-04 10-18 (t-7th CAA)
Head Coach
2004-05 / 19-10 (3rd)
2005-06 / 15-14 (7th)
2006-07 / 10-21 (9th)
2007-08 / 18-12 (t-3rd)
2008-09 / 24-9 (1st)
2009-10 / 17-14 (t-4th)
2010-11 / 19-13 (t-5th)
2011-12 / 19-14 (3rd)
2012-13 / 28-10 (3rd)
2013-14 / 15-16 (4th)
2014-15 / 20-11 (2nd)
2015-16 / 19-14 (2nd)
2016-17 / 22-11 (3rd)
2017-18 / 27-8 (1st)
2018-19 / 24-9 (2nd)
2019-20 / 23-7 (t-1st)
Record / 329-211 after 2019-20
Finishing her 17th season and final season with the Dragons in 2019-20 as the head coach of the Drexel women’s basketball team, Denise Dillon became one of the most respected coaches in Philadelphia and collegiate women's basketball, elevating the program to new heights and maintaining an enviable consistency and high level of play. She left Drexel in March 2020 to take the head coaching position at Villanova University, her alma mater.
The winningest head coach in program history, Dillon led the Dragons to 10 postseason appearances, including an active streak of five in a row that matches the longest streak in program history (no postseason in 2019-20 due to cancelation of winter and spring sports). The first such stretch, also under Dillon, included the Dragons’ first CAA Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2008-09 season. She earned her second conference Coach of the Year honor that year and followed that with four straight WNIT appearances. In 2013, Dillon led the Dragons to the postseason WNIT championship with a 46-43 win over Utah on the Dragons’ home court.
Dillon collected her fourth CAA Coach of the Year award, sharing the 2019-20 honors with William & Mary head coach Ed Swanson. Drexel capped off the conference schedule with a 16-2 record to claim the No. 1 seed in the CAA Championships and a share of the conference's regular-season title. It marked the Dragons' third regular-season CAA title, all of which have come under the guidance of Dillon. DU previously earned a share of the regular-season championship in 2017-18 and the outright title in 2008-09. Over the conference stretch this year, the Dragons recorded a 13-game winning streak, the third longest in program history, which coincided with the team's 20th win of the season. Dillon and the Dragons finished off the regular-season slate with a 23-7 record. It came as the fourth-straight 20-win season and the second most regular-season victories in school history. Dillon led DU to seven 20-win campaigns including five in her last six years with the school.
Dillon guided the Dragons to a 24-9 record in 2018-19, culminating with a second place finish in the CAA and a WNIT bid. Following on the heels of a 22-win season in 2016-17 and a 27-8 mark in 2017-18, Dillon's Dragons have won 20 or more games in three consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. Late in the 2018-19 campaign, Dillon became the first Drexel basketball coach to win 300 career games at the school. That year, the team also led the nation in scoring defense, allowing 50.5 points per game.
Dillon presided over a record-setting 2017-18 season that saw the Dragons capture their second CAA regular season championship. Drexel, which hosted the CAA Tournament for the first time, won a program-best 24 games during the regular season including the 265th of Dillon’s career on Dec. 31 against Hofstra, making her the all-time leader in coaching victories at Drexel. The team finished up with 27 total wins including a postseason victory in the first round of the WNIT, and Dillon earned her third CAA Coach of the Year nod.
Since coming to University City and taking over as head coach in 2003, Dillon has inspired greatness in her players and forged a new standard for success for the program. She has 14 winning seasons in her 17 years with the Dragons. No other head coach in the Division I history of the program has more than five.
Drexel boasted a winning record in 12 of the last 13 seasons, but the first true break-through season for Dillon and her Dragons came in 2008-09. Led by a core of veteran senior leaders, a talented junior in Gabriela Marginean, and a crop of quality underclassmen, the Dragons played their way to the 2009 regular-season championship, a then-program record 24 wins and the top seed in the CAA Tournament. There, Drexel did what many thought was impossible: knocking off 17-time defending champion Old Dominion and ending the Lady Monarchs’ NCAA-best 50-game conference tournament winning streak. The Dragons went on to defeat James Madison on its home court to bring home the school’s first CAA title.
Four years later, the 2012-13 squad won a school-record 28 games on its way to a 28-10 record and the WNIT title. The Dragons finished third in the CAA, reaching their third-ever and second-straight CAA title game before earning a bid to the WNIT. Drexel beat Iona, Harvard, Bowling Green, Auburn, Florida and Utah on its way to the title, the first postseason championship in both CAA history and Philadelphia Division I women’s basketball history.
Dillon’s Dragons have never backed down from a challenge. Her teams have netted the program’s first-ever victories over teams from the SEC (Auburn and Florida in the WNIT run), the Pac-12 (Utah in the WNIT championship game) and the ACC (No. 11 Syracuse in 2016-17). Her Dragons have two wins over ranked opponents, including the win over Syracuse when the Orange were coming off a national runner-up appearance.
During her tenure Dillon has helped guide the careers of 27 All-Conference selections, five Dean Ehlers Leadership Award recipients, three CAA Rookies of the Year, two CAA Players of the Year, the program’s first AP All-American, the leading scoring in Philadelphia women’s basketball history and the first Drexel women’s player to be selected in the WNBA Draft. Most recently, Dillon mentored the CAA Player of the Year Bailey Greenberg in 2018-19.
Dillon came to Drexel in 2001 as an assistant coach in charge of recruiting and player development. She helped the Dragons bring in Catherine Scanlon, a local product from Drexel Hill, who was one of the first Dragons to go on to a professional playing career following graduation.
In 2003, Director of Athletics Dr. Eric Zillmer tapped Dillon to become interim head coach of the program and by the 2004-05 season she received full appointment as the head coach of Drexel women’s basketball. That season she turned a 10-18 team into a 19-10 squad that earned its first opening-round bye in the CAA Tournament. The Dragons advanced to the semifinals and came within a point of toppling perennial power Old Dominion, a feat that had never been accomplished in the conference tournament.
Dillon’s nearly instant success could be attributed to both a change in coaching philosophy and a change in playing style. The Dragons under Dillon adopted a team-centered approach on the court, while playing in an offense that often illustrated that the team as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The genesis of this approach can be traced back to Dillon’s playing career at Villanova under the tutelage of coaching legend Harry Perretta. Playing in an offense similar to the one now run by Drexel, Dillon went on to a Hall of Fame playing career for Villanova. From 1993-96 Dillon scored 1,355 points and pulled down 677 rebounds. She was an All-Rookie selection, and a three-time All-Big 5 and All-Big East pick. Her playing career earned her enshrinement in the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame in 2004, the Delaware County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2013.
Off the court, Dillon’s commitment to helping student-athletes grow as players and as people has been one of the program’s greatest success stories. Andrea Peterson (’09), Gabriela Marginean (’10), Hollie Mershon (‘13), Meghan Creighton (’16) and Kelsi Lidge (’18) earned the CAA’s prestigious Dean Ehlers Leadership Award. Nicole Hester (’09) was the recipient of the John Randolph Inspiration Award and the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association’s Most Courageous Award in 2009. Hester, whose battle back from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2006-07 galvanized the team and the Drexel Athletics family, was recognized nationally as the recipient of the V Foundation Comeback Award and the Honda Inspiration Award. Through community outreach and serving others, including visits to the Ronald McDonald House and several local day care centers and organizing fundraisers, the Dragons have helped to rally the Philadelphia community while using their experiences to grow as individuals.
