Texas Tip Off Tour

Nicki Collen enters her fifth season at the helm of the Baylor Women’s Basketball program in 2025-26 after a contract extension to 2030 that was announced in July of 2024.

In her first season with the Bears, Collen recorded the most wins by a rookie head coach in the country with 28. She helped lead the Bears to their 12th-straight Big 12 regular-season title and their 11th-straight top-two seed in the NCAA Tournament.

After her first season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Collen saw three of her players be selected in the 2022 WNBA Draft, tying a program record. Two of them - NaLyssa Smith (No. 2) and Queen Egbo (No. 10) marked the first duo to be taken in the top 10 in program history.

In year two, Collen mentored two all-conference selections, two unanimous Big 12 All-Freshman Team picks and the unanimous Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Darianna Littlepage-Buggs. Littlepage-Buggs earned eight Big 12 Freshman of the Week awards during the 2022-23 campaign, becoming the first BU rookie to earn it eight-or-more times in program history. Additionally, she ranked second in the Big 12 all-time in freshman of the week honors.

Collen's Bears ended year three with a trip to the Sweet 16, highlighted by seven wins over AP-ranked opponents, the most among Big 12 programs. At the beginning of the 2023-24 season, the Bears compiled the second-best start in program history, behind 2012's 40-0 season, totaling 14-straight non-conference wins.

The 2024-25 season featured runner-up finishes for the Bears in both the Big 12 regular season and the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. Collen notched her 100th win in just 134 games as head coach, the fastest to reach the milestone in Baylor’s NCAA era. BU led the conference in rebounds per game, powered by a standout season from Darianna Littlepage-Buggs, who earned WBCA Honorable Mention All-America honors and was the only player in the league to average a double-double.

Collen came to Baylor from the WNBA’s Atlanta franchise, where she spent three seasons at the helm for the Dream. Her rookie season in Atlanta resulted in a 23-11 season in 2018, where she earned WNBA Coach of the Year honors and helped the franchise to the WNBA Playoff Semifinals. 

Prior to her arrival in Atlanta, she spent two seasons under former head coach Curt Miller of the Connecticut Sun, helping the franchise improve from fifth in the East Division to second from 2016 to 2017, respectively. 

Collen’s collegiate coaching career spanned for nine seasons prior to her WNBA arrival. She spent two seasons as an assistant at Colorado State from 2000-2002, one season at Ball State from 2002-2003, one at Louisville from 2003-2004, three at Arkansas from 2011-2014 and two at Florida Gulf Coast from 2014-2016.

In her nine seasons at the collegiate level, Collen coached three All-Americans and saw three players selected in the WNBA Draft.

Collen’s collegiate playing career began at Purdue in 1993-94, when the Boilermakers made an NCAA Final Four run with a 29-5 overall record and a 16-2 mark in the Big Ten. In her sophomore season, Purdue made another deep run with an Elite Eight appearance to go with a 24-8 overall record. She transferred to Marquette, where she tallied 421 assists in her final two seasons, averaging 7.0 per game in her last 60 collegiate games. She helped the Golden Eagles to two-straight NCAA Tournament appearances in 1997 and 1998.

Nicki and her husband Tom have three children: Connor, Reese and Logan.