TCU WBB: How A Player's Coach Shapes A Historic Team

As the dust settles on the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend, it’s clear TCU women’s basketball has a special leader in head coach Mark Campbell. 

This year alone, Campbell guided TCU (33-3) to its first Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament titles, first tournament appearance in 15 years, first tournament win since 2006, and the school’s first Sweet Sixteen berth. The Naismith Coach of the Year finalist has also increased TCU’s win total by 25 games since taking over an 8-23 program two years ago. 

Campbell signed a contract extension through 2030 days before the NCAA Tournament started. Throughout the first two rounds, he spoke about the program's future and why he wanted to remain in Fort Worth. 

“The goal is to build the best women's program in college basketball,” the Big 12 Coach of the Year said Friday following an opening round win against Fairleigh Dickinson. “And there's a process to it, and there's a long journey, but what we've been able to accomplish these last two years is incredible, and this is just the beginning.”

Between the university’s leadership team of Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Buddie, Chancellor Victor Boschini and President Daniel Pullin—a group Campbell called “elite”—and the growing fan support, TCU and Campbell are quickly becoming an ideal fit.  

“I believe in TCU, 100%,” Campbell said. “When me and my family decided to come here, we just felt it aligned with us.”

The same thing could be said about the way Campbell’s players view him and why each one chose TCU. 

Sophomore guard Donovyn Hunter watched Campbell’s inaugural year at TCU—featuring a program-best 14-0 start, injuries, tryouts to fill out the roster and a WBIT postseason tournament run—from afar while helping Oregon State reach the Elite Eight. 

Campbell recruited Hunter out of South Medford High School while an assistant at Oregon. Even though Hunter ultimately chose the Beavers, she never forgot the way Campbell treated her and her family during the recruitment process. When the transfer portal opened last year, those conversations restarted in a new location. 

“I felt my recruiting calls didn't feel like recruiting calls at all,” Hunter said inside the team locker room a day before TCU’s second round game. “I felt like I was just having normal conversations with him and like I've known him my whole life, and I think that part is very important.”

As a Horned Frog, Hunter has played in all 36 games this season with 19 starts. She’s faced her fair share of highs—including a season-high 18 points in the Round of 32 win over Louisville— and lows, but found she could always rely on the coaching staff. 

“It's just testament to the program that they still keep faith in you even if you're having your ups and downs,” she said. “I'm glad that it was this program that I was experiencing ups and downs with, because they're nothing but supportive.”

Campbell’s relational approach also sold redshirt junior guard Taylor Bigby on committing to a program seemingly on the rise. Bigby landed in Fort Worth this year after one season at Oregon and three at USC. She played for Campbell and TCU associate head coach Xavier Lopez as a Duck. 

Like Hunter, Bigby has moved in and out of the starting lineup this season with 25 starts in 36 games. She has struggled offensively since a season-high 19 point outing at Iowa State on Feb. 2, but Campbell’s trust in her ability as a player has allowed her to contribute in other ways, particularly on defense. 

“He's a players coach,” Bigby said. “I think just the belief, and I think that's something a lot of us can say, his belief in each and every one of us from 1 through 15, is unreal and that's what you need in a coach.”

Campbell’s passion for basketball and knowledge of the game catches recruits' attention, too. Both Hunter and Bigby mentioned they believed in the vision Campbell laid out during the recruiting process even though last season went off course.   

“The way he was talking about basketball, you could tell that he knew what he was doing,” Hunter said. “He just needed the players to do it.”

Hunter, Bigby and guard Maddie Scherr, a transfer from Kentucky who missed this season with a back injury, will likely form the foundation for next year’s team.  

For center Sedona Prince, Campbell is a critical piece of her journey from part-time starter to All-American. Prince played 50 games in four years at Oregon when Campbell was there and then sat out the 2022-23 season with an injury. During that time, she evaluated her career options and eventually followed Campbell to TCU. 

Prince’s collegiate career will end in the coming weeks, but she knows Campbell can build on this team’s accomplishments. 

“It's undeniable, I think players want to play for kind of a mellow coach, but loving, who's passionate,” she said inside the locker room after TCU punched a Sweet Sixteen ticket. “Play for a coach that really invests in you, cares about you, wants to develop you, wants to see your career go to its farthest potential, and is just a good man.”

Even though TCU's season is still going, Campbell and his staff are already thinking about the future. The Horned Frogs signed three high school recruits in November who will join TCU in the fall as freshmen: 6’4” guard Clara Bielefeld from Germany, 6’ 8” center Sarah Portlock out of Australia and 6’ 7” center Emily Hunter from Nolensville, Tennessee. 

The transfer portal also opened on March 25. After bringing in 12 transfers over two seasons to build up the program, there’s no doubt Campbell will tap into that resource again while simultaneously preparing for the Sweet Sixteen game against 3-seed Notre Dame.  

It’s not the ideal scenario, but Campbell has battled through adversity before. And this time he can offer more than a vision.

“The ultimate recruiting tool is winning,” Campbell said. “March madness is this team’s number one priority, and you’ve got to navigate that space and then we'll do the best we can as the portal opens … But I think our product speaks for itself.”

No. 2 seed TCU will face No. 3 seed Notre Dame, a rematch of a game the Frogs won in November, on Saturday, March 29, in Birmingham, AL.