Purdue Coach Sought

Nell Fortner, who led Purdue to the Big Ten co-championship in her first season, is expected to be appointed coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team today.

USA Basketball, the sport’s governing body, scheduled a campus news conference at Mackey Arena to announce its new coach.

The federation has not identified its choice, but Fortner had been mentioned in reports during the weekend as the likely successor to Tara VanDerveer, who returned to coach Stanford after leading the U.S. women’s team to the gold medal in Atlanta last summer.

Fortner would leave Purdue after just one season in which she directed the team to a 17-11 record and a share of the conference title with Illinois and Michigan State.

Fortner was an assistant to VanDerveer on the 1996 U.S. national team, which prepared U.S. women for last summer’s Olympics in Atlanta.

As national team coach, she would prepare the U.S. squad for next year’s world championships and the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.