PSU’s Washington had other possible career choice

BATON ROUGE, La. – Penn State’s Coquese Washington goes by the title of head coach, but “counselor” works, too.

And Washington still hopes to go by that title more often someday. Washington has a law degree from Notre Dame, where she also played basketball as an undergraduate.

“I never wanted to be a coach. I always wanted to be a lawyer,” Washington mentioned this week while preparing the Lions to meet LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Tuesday night. Penn State won 90-80.

Washington has practiced law already, doing so during the offseason early in her professional playing career. The problem with being a lawyer in the offseason, though, was that it involved too much time behind a desk.

Washington, who played in the ABL and WNBA, wanted an offseason gig that would help her stay in shape and keep her playing skills sharp, so she became a Notre Dame assistant.

“I was like, yeah, I’ll do this little coaching thing until I get done playing professional basketball, and then along the way I fell in love with coaching and being around the players and helping have an impact on young people. So I decided to stay, but I am adamant about going back to practice law at some point.”

It could be a while though. The 41-year-old Washington has Penn State in its second straight tournament and is considered among the top young head coaches in the game.

Highly regarded Hoyas

Tia Magee and Rubylee Wright are two of the cornerstones of the winningest senior class in Georgetown history.

Though their careers ended with a second-round loss to Georgia Tech, they leave the Hoyas program better than they found it.

Georgetown had been to only one NCAA tournament when they arrived in 2008-09 but they helped lead the Hoyas into the field of 64 in each of their final three years.

This year’s senior class leaves with a record of 93-41 – surpassing the mark of 85-46 that last year’s group established.