ATLANTA - Georgia hired Katie Abrahamson-Henderson on Saturday, making her just the third full-time head coach in the history of the school's women's basketball team.
Abrahamson-Henderson, who played two seasons for Georgia in the 1980s, was hired three days after Joni Taylor left to become head coach at Texas A&M. The addition of Abrahamson-Henderson also happened a little less than two weeks after Georgia hired Florida's Mike White as men's basketball coach to replace Tom Crean, who was fired after four seasons.
Abrahamson-Henderson, 55, has been a head coach for 17 seasons, the past seven at the University of Central Florida after stints at Missouri State (2002-07) and New York's Albany (2010-16).
This past season, she led UCF to a school record for wins with a 26-4 mark, and the Knights swept the American Athletic Conference's regular-season and tournament titles before winning an NCAA tournament game for the first time in program history. Making its seventh appearance in the NCAA tourney, UCF was seeded No. 7 in the Bridgeport Region and beat 10th-seeded Florida 69-52 - the Knights had been 0-26 against the Gators - before losing 52-47 to second-seeded Connecticut, which holds the record with 11 NCAA titles.
Now Abrahamson-Henderson is headed to Georgia, which also was eliminated in the second round of the tourney.
"This is a dream come true," she said in a statement released by the school. "I am thrilled to return to Georgia as the head coach at one of the premier women's basketball programs in the country."
Georgia became a national powerhouse under longtime coach Andy Landers, who guided the Lady Bulldogs to 31 NCAA tourney appearances in his 36-year career, including five Final Fours and two runner-up finishes. Taylor was an assistant under Landers his final four seasons, and after his retirement in 2015, she was promoted to her first head coaching job.
Abrahamson-Henderson, an Iowa native, was a highly sought recruit who signed with Georgia in 1986, helping the Lady Bulldogs capture the Southeastern Conference title as a freshman. She left Athens after two seasons to play for coach C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa, where Abrahamson-Henderson was part of two Big Ten championship teams with the Hawkeyes.
Taylor was 140-75 overall and 63-48 in the SEC leading Georgia. Her tenure as head coach included four NCAA tourney berths, but the Lady Bulldogs never advanced past the second round and failed to return to the prominence they had at the height of Landers' career.
Restoring that lofty status is the goal for Abrahamson-Henderson.
"When I signed a national letter of intent with Coach Landers in 1985, this program was in the middle of a remarkable and unprecedented run of competing for SEC and national championships," she said.
After interviewing with athletic director Josh Brooks and senior deputy athletic director Darrice Griffin, the new coach is ready to get back to those levels.
"Our vision and belief that Georgia will compete for championships and postseason success lined up perfectly," Abrahamson-Henderson said. "I am so ready to get started."
She said her success at UCF prepared her to take Georgia to even higher levels: "What we did at UCF was the most historic season in school history. It is not easy to leave a place like UCF, and I want all our administrators, players, alumni, fans and supporters to know you will always hold a special place in our hearts."
Abrahamson-Henderson has a career record of 372-157, averaging 22 victories a season. Her teams have won a combined 16 conference championships (nine tournament titles and seven in the regular season) with 11 NCAA berths and 14 postseason national tourney bids overall.
She's had only one losing record in her career, going 7-21 her final season at Missouri State, which won the Women's National Invitation Tournament under her direction in 2005.
"Throughout this process, one name kept coming up, and that was Coach Abe,'" Brooks said. "Her resumé and history of success at every level is impressive. Our goal was to find a proven coach who has had sustained success both in competing for conference titles and in the NCAA tournament. Katie is the entire package, and I can't wait to see what her teams are able to accomplish here at the University of Georgia."