When new Georgia women’s basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson says she cut her teeth under the learning tree of some of the best coaches in the game, she’s not kidding.
As a player at Georgia, she played two years (1985-87) under legendary Lady Bulldogs coach Andy Landers. Upon her transfer to Iowa, Abrahamson-Henderson played two seasons for Hall of Famer Vivian Stringer, currently the head coach at Rutgers.
Not bad company.
Now, she prepares to take over the program for the Lady Bulldogs, “Coach Abe,” as she is affectionally called, plans on revisiting some of those lessons, many of which she’s already put into use during her 16 years as a head coach.
The first item on her list no doubt brings a smile to Landers.
“Defense,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “We’ll play all kind of different styles. We’ll be aggressive. We’ll be great teammates. That’s the biggest thing I took from him.”
Now that she’s in Athens, Abrahamson-Henderson will be seeing her mentor a lot. It’s an opportunity she welcomes.
“I speak to him a lot,” she said. “I might tease him a little bit after I see him on TV. I’ll text him, ‘Nice tie,' or something like that. He’s fun loving, great to talk to.”
Abrahamson-Henderson’s resume is an impressive one.
She earned the American Athletic Conference Coach of Year honors after leading UCF to a best-ever 26-4 mark.
During her six-year career at the Orlando school, Abrahamson-Henderson posted a 131-49 record with the Knights, leading UCF to three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.
She coached the previous six seasons (2010-2016) as the head coach at Albany, coaching the team to a 146-47 mark, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Ironically, current Tennessee athletic director Danny White hired Abrahamson-Henderson when he was the former AD at Central Florida.
For those unaware, White is the brother of current Georgia baseball coach Mike White, who was hired by the Bulldogs just two weeks ago.
Abrahamson-Henderson said her friendship with White goes back for several years.
“When Mike was at Florida, Danny got me hooked up where I could go watch some of his practices, which are really up-tempo. They play super-aggressive and great defense, which is kind of like us,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “We would text each other after every game when I was at UCF, so when this job came open, he was like, ‘Come on, let’s go!’ He’s been super awesome.”
So has Landers. The respect runs deep.
“Our players and coaches will know, when they wear that Georgia logo on the front of their chest, there's honor behind that name, because the foundation was set by some of the best basketball players in the world—not in the country, the world,” he said. “And Andy Landers obviously was one of the best coaches in the country and the world. I mean, in my opinion, he's one of the best coaches that ever coached the game.”
