Jamie Craighead

Jamie Craighead

Craighead in 2017 at Clune Arena.
Current position
Title	Head coach
Biographical details
Born	(1980-05-23) May 23, 1980 (age 43) McCleary, Washington
Playing career
1998–2002	Oregon
Position(s)	Point guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
2002–2005	Seattle Pacific (asst.)
2005–2007	Portland State (asst.)
2007–2008	Sacramento State (asst.)
2008–2009	Sacramento State (assoc. HC)
2009–2013	Sacramento State
2013–2022	San Jose State
Head coaching record
Overall	140–230 (.378)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
As player: WNIT (2002)

Jamie Lynn Craighead Turner (born May 23, 1980) is an American college basketball coach who was most recently the head women's basketball coach at San Jose State. A basketball coach since 2002, Craighead was previously an assistant and head coach at Sacramento State.

Craighead grew up in Elma, Washington and played college basketball at the University of Oregon, where she was part of the 2002 Women's National Invitation Tournament championship team as a senior. Her first coaching job was as an assistant coach at Seattle Pacific from 2002 to 2005; she helped Seattle Pacific finish as national runners-up in the 2005 NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament. Craighead was later assistant coach at Portland State from 2005 to 2007 and Sacramento State from 2007 to 2009. In 2009, Craighead got her first head coaching job at Sacramento State. Craighead's debut season had 15 wins, as many wins as the previous two seasons combined. Craighead led the 2012–13 Sacramento State team to the first winning season in 19 years.

Just two months before the season was to begin, Craighead was hired as San Jose State head coach in 2013. Her second season had San Jose State advance to the 2015 Mountain West tournament semifinals after an upset of no. 1 seed Colorado State. The 2015–16 team improved from eighth to fourth place in the Mountain West Conference standings and resulted in a contract extension for Craighead. After three straight losing seasons, San Jose State had 19 wins in 2019–20, the most successful season in 15 years. Although San Jose State entered 2020–21 picked by fellow conference coaches to finish second in the standings, the team ended its season after only four games due to repeated COVID-19 issues. Following a last place finish in conference standings, Craighead was fired in 2022.

Early life and college playing career

Born in McCleary, Washington, Craighead grew up in nearby Elma. A 1998 graduate of Elma High School, Craighead earned four first-team all-league honors in basketball and was Washington 2A Player of the Year as a senior. ^[1]

Craighead then attended the University of Oregon from 1998 to 2002. As a freshman, she played 12 games as a reserve, in a season where Oregon finished first in the Pac-10 and made the 1999 NCAA tournament. ^{[1] [2]} In her sophomore season (1999–2000), Craighead moved up on the depth chart, as she became the team's second-leading three-point shooter and played in Oregon's 2000 NCAA tournament first-round game, an overtime loss to UAB. ^[1] Oregon again won the Pac-10 in 2000. ^[2]

In the 2000–01 season, Craighead started 28 games and averaged 11.4 points and 2.7 rebounds, in her third straight season on an Oregon team that made an NCAA tournament. ^{[3] [4]}

As a senior in 2001–02 under new coach Bev Smith, Craighead started 35 of 35 games and averaged 7.9 points and 2.4 rebounds, helping Oregon win the 2002 Women's National Invitation Tournament. ^[5] In the WNIT title game, Craighead made a three-pointer with 1:20 left to put Oregon ahead of Houston, 51-50. Oregon would win 54-52. ^[6] Craighead graduated from Oregon with a B.A. in educational studies. ^[7]

Oregon statistics

Source ^[8]

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field goal percentage	3P%	3-point field goal percentage	FT%	Free throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game	Bold	Career high

Year	Team	GP	Points	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
1998-99	Oregon	12	15	37.5%	25.0%	33.3%	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.1	1.3
1999-00	Oregon	31	145	33.5%	30.6%	50.0%	1.8	2.2	0.7	0.2	4.7
2000-01	Oregon	29	331	37.6%	38.0%	64.7%	2.7	3.1	1.2	0.3	11.4
2001-02	Oregon	35	277	40.3%	39.9%	81.8%	2.4	2.6	0.5	0.1	7.9
Career		107	768	37.6%	37.0%	66.7%	2.1	2.4	0.8	0.2	7.2

Coaching career

Early coaching career (2000–2009)

Craighead became an assistant coach at Division II Seattle Pacific University in 2002 under Gordy Presnell. By Craighead's third season on staff, Seattle Pacific made the championship round of the 2005 NCAA tournament. ^[7]

Moving up to the Division I level, Craighead was an assistant at Portland State from 2005 to 2007 under Charity Elliott. ^[7]

After two seasons at Portland State, Craighead joined Dan Muscatell's staff at Sacramento State in 2007. Craighead was promoted to associate head coach for the 2008–09 season. ^[7] Sacramento State won just 15 games in these two seasons. ^[9]

Sacramento State (2009–2013)

Sacramento State promoted Craighead to head coach in 2009 after Muscatell resigned to become an assistant coach at Oregon. ^[10] In her first season as head coach, Craighead led the Hornets to a 15–15 record with a 10–6 record in Big Sky Conference games, good enough for a three-way tie for second place. ^[11] The season had as many wins as the past two seasons combined and was the first season with 10 or more wins since 1995–96. ^{[12] [9]} However, the program struggled in the next two seasons with a 4–25 record in 2010–11 and 13–18 in 2011–12. ^[9]

In Craighead's final season in 2012–13, Sacramento State went 19–12 (13–7 Big Sky), with both total and conference win totals reaching or meeting historic highs. ^[12] That season was Sacramento State's first winning season since 1993–94. ^[9]

San Jose State (2013–2022)

Following the surprise resignation of women's basketball head coach Tim LaKose, ^[13] San Jose State hired Craighead on September 16, 2013 to replace La Kose. ^[14] In her second season, Craighead led the #8 seed Spartans to the semifinals of the Mountain West tournament after an upset of #1 seed Colorado State, in a 15–17 season that also saw San Jose State break school and conference records by scoring 119 points against Columbia. ^[7]

Craighead's third season with San Jose State in 2015–16 ended with a 13–17 record, including an 11–7 Mountain West record and fourth-place finish, the highest Mountain West win total and conference standing in Craighead's tenure. On June 30, 2016, San Jose State extended Craighead's contract through the 2020–21 season. ^[15] In the next three seasons, San Jose State went 11–21 in 2016–17, 7–23 in 2017–18, and 6–24 in 2018–19. ^[16]

In the 2019–20 season, Craighead had her most successful season at San Jose State with a 19–12 record (12–6 MW) and tie for third place in the MW standings. ^{[7] [17]} This was San Jose State's best win–loss record in 15 years. ^[18] In April 2020, Craighead signed a new contract through the 2022–23 season. ^[19]

Heading into the 2020–21 season, San Jose State was picked second in the Mountain West preseason coaches' poll. ^[20] However, San Jose State played only four games, with a 2–2 (1–2 MW) record, before canceling the season in January due to repeated COVID-19 issues. ^{[21] [22]}

In 2021–22, San Jose State had its worst season under Craighead with a 5–25 (2–16 MW) record and last place finish in conference standings. ^{[16] [23]} On March 11, 2022, San Jose State fired Craighead with one year remaining on her contract. ^[24]

Head coaching record

Statistics overview

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Sacramento State Hornets (Big Sky Conference)(2009–2013)
2009–10	Sacramento State	15–15	10–6	T–2nd
2010–11	Sacramento State	4–25	1–15	9th
2011–12	Sacramento State	13–18	7–9	T–6th
2012–13	Sacramento State	19–12	13–7	4th
Sacramento State:		51–70 (.421)	31–37 (.456)
San Jose State Spartans (Mountain West Conference)(2013–present)
2013–14	San Jose State	11–19	5–13	10th
2014–15	San Jose State	15–17	7–11	8th
2015–16	San Jose State	13–17	11–7	4th
2016–17	San Jose State	11–21	7–11	8th
2017–18	San Jose State	7–23	4–14	11th
2018–19	San Jose State	6–24	5–13	9th
2019–20	San Jose State	19–12	12–6	T–3rd
2020–21	San Jose State	2–2	1–2	(opted out)
2021–22	San Jose State	5–25	2–16	11th
San Jose State:		89–160 (.357)	54–93 (.367)
Total:		140–230 (.378)

References

1. "Jamie Craighead". Oregon Ducks. Archived from the original on December 20, 2002. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
2. "Coaching and ranking history" (PDF). Oregon Women’s Basketball History & Record Book. University of Oregon. 2014. p. 74. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
3. "University of Oregon, Official Athletic Site - Women's Basketball". goducks.fansonly.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2001. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
4. "Postseason history" (PDF). Oregon Women’s Basketball History & Record Book. University of Oregon. 2014. p. 42. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
5. "University of Oregon, Official Athletic Site - Women's Basketball". goducks.fansonly.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2002. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
6. "Ducks Drop Houston to Claim WNIT Title". University of Oregon. March 27, 2002. Archived from the original on April 2, 2002. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
7. "Jamie Craighead". San Jose State University. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
8. "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2021-06-13.
9. "Sacramento St. Women's Basketball History". NCAA. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
10. Wochnick, Meg (August 7, 2009). "Former Elma star looks to make her mark". The Olympian. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
11. "Big Sky Conference Standings - Women's College Basketball - ESPN". ESPN.com.
12. "Jamie Craighead". Sacramento State. 2013. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
13. Durkin, Jimmy (August 30, 2013). "San Jose State women's basketball coach resigns". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
14. "Jamie Craighead Named San José State Women's Head Basketball Coach". San Jose State Spartans. September 16, 2013. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
15. "Spartans Sign Craighead To Contract Extension". San Jose State University. June 30, 2016. Archived from the original on August 6, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
16. "NCAA Statistics". stats.ncaa.org.
17. "2019-20 Women's Basketball Standings". Mountain West Conference. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
18. Pelton, Connor (March 23, 2020). "The Anatomy Of A Turnaround". SJSUSpartans.com. San Jose State University. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
19. "SJSU, Craighead Agree To New Three-Year Deal". San Jose State University. April 20, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
20. "Fresno State Selected as Mountain West Women's Basketball Preseason Favorite". Mountain West Conference. November 19, 2020. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
21. Pelton, Connor (January 14, 2021). "Women's Basketball Cancels Remainder Of 2020-21 Season". San Jose State University. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
22. "2020-21 Women's Basketball Schedule". SJSU Athletics.
23. "Mountain West Basketball Standings - 2021-22". ESPN. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
24. "San Jose State fires women's basketball coach Craighead Turner". The Mercury News. San Jose. March 11, 2022. Archived from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2023.

External links

• Jamie Craighead on Twitter
• San Jose State bio
• Sacramento State bio
• Portland State bio
• Oregon bio