Blue Star Operations

Carrie Daniels

Carrie Daniels comes to Blue Star Basketball after eight seasons as the head coach of her alma mater at Austin Peay State University in 2015. She brings a wide range of experience from during her 20+ years involved in the game.

Daniels has led the Lady Govs to the pinnacle twice during her tenure leading the Lady Govs to the 2009 and 2010 NCAA Tournaments after making exciting runs en route to OVC Basketball Championships. Prior to taking over the APSU helm she was an assistant coach for ten years.

Daniels, a 1996 graduate of Austin Peay, was an assistant coach at Western Kentucky from 1999-06. She served as an assistant with three different coaches at Western Kentucky and was a member of post-season appearances in each of her seven seasons, including NCAA tournament appearances following the 1999-00 and 2002-03 seasons and a WNIT semifinal appearance in 2005-06. During her time in Bowling Green, Ky., she helped the Lady Toppers amass a 146-78 (.652) win-loss mark. Included in that tally were four 20-win seasons, four Sun Belt East Division titles, one Sun Belt tournament championship, two NCAA tournament appearances (2000 and 2003) and five WNIT tournament appearances (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006).

Daniels joined the Western Kentucky coaching staff after serving three seasons (1996-99) as an assistant coach and director of basketball operations at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. She was a member of the coaching staff which led the Lady Rebels’ to Division I’s most improved record in 1998-99, turning a 4-23 record into a 17-11 mark, a 12½-game improvement.

Daniels entered the coaching ranks after a brilliant collegiate career at Austin Peay, where she was a four-year starter (1991-96) while playing under her maiden name, Carrie Thompson. At the time of her graduation, she was only the second player in school history to compile 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, 300 assists and 300 steals during her career. Daniels is one of of the first 10 APSU women’s basketball players to score 1,000 points, finishing with 1,118 points. Ten years after her career ended, she remains ranked among the career top 25 in 15 statistical categories. She earned the 1996 Joy Award given to the top senior athlete at Austin Peay, after helping lead the Lady Govs to their first NCAA Tournament appearance as a senior in 1996. Daniels averaged 10.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game during the 1995-96 campaign. She scored a team-best 14 points in the Lady Govs NCAA Tournament first-round game at Clemson.
In 1995, she received the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics Wilma Rudolph Award, a national award presented to honor student athletes who have overcome great personal, academic, and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics. She missed most of the 1994-95 season after receiving a medical redshirt for a heart ailment.

A stellar prep player at Scottsburg (Ind.) High School, Daniels earned All-America recognition from Women’s Basketball News Service after averaging 17 points, 6.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game as a senior.

Daniels and her family reside in Tennessee where she & her husband are the head coaches at Clarksville Academy basketball programs. http://gocacougars.com/