The former head assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for women’s basketball was named the head coach of Colgate women’s basketball, according to a tweet from Colgate women’s basketball Wednesday.
Ganiyat Adeduntan, who was fired from the women’s basketball program March 15, becomes the ninth head coach of the Raiders’ program. Adeduntan served as the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator of the Colonials for three seasons under former head coach Jennifer Rizzotti.
“I am extremely honored and humbled to have been selected as the next women’s basketball head coach at Colgate University,” Adeduntan said in a press release. “I am excited about working at a world-class elite institution with the privilege to not only coach but inspire, educate, empower and develop some of the most brilliant minds. I am thrilled to work with a community whose values align perfectly with mine.”
Her hiring comes just days after Rizzotti was appointed president of the Connecticut Sun. Rizzotti said in the press release she was “excited” for Adeduntan to get an opportunity as a head coach.
“Colgate is getting a great leader who is ready to make a difference in all the right ways,” Rizzotti said. “She is passionate and competitive but understands the holistic approach to making the student-athlete experience exactly what it’s supposed to be: the best four years of their lives.”
Director of the athletic department Tanya Vogel also weighed in on the hiring in the press release.
“Simply put, Ganiyat is one of the most incredible people in our organization,” Vogel said. “Colgate and Colgate Women’s Basketball are getting an educator who leads with love, builds authentic relationships and understands elite level basketball. Coach G is an incredibly hard worker who will pour into her student-athletes as they grow together in the pursuit of their very best. Colgate Women’s Basketball is in great hands!”
As a recruiting coordinator and assistant coach, Adeduntan secured two top-100 transfers from the ACC conference — former Colonial guards Sidney Zambrotta and Ariel Stephenson. She also helped mold all-conference guards in Mei-Lyn Bautista and Brianna Cummings in the 2017-18 season.
She was named among the top 50 Impactful Mid Major Assistant by Silver Waves in the summer of 2020 and invited to the TopConnect Virtual Seminar, along with other top basketball assistant coaches in the country.
“I am incredibly excited to welcome Ganiyat into our Colgate Athletics community,” Colgate Vice President and Director of Athletics Dr. Nicki Moore said in the press release. “After a very competitive search process with some very strong candidates, Ganiyat distinguished herself as the absolute right coach for our women’s basketball program at this important time in its evolution.”
Prior to her tenure at GW, Adeduntan also worked as an assistant coach at Northeastern University for three seasons beginning in 2014. Before that, she served as the head coach at Wheelock at the Division III level where she led the Wildcats to their first playoff appearance in 12 years in her two seasons at the helm.
As a player, she was a four-year letter winner, scoring 1,000 points at Florida State. She was a four-year member of the ACC All-Academic Team, earning All-ACC Honorable Mention Honors during her junior year in 2005.
“Coach G has proven herself as a positive coach who genuinely cares for her student-athletes and who is driven to support their focused development both on and off the court,” Moore said. “As a former Division I student-athlete and scholar in her own right, I am confident that Ganiyat and the staff she will gather around her will help us fulfill our promise to develop true scholar-athletes and to pursue competitive excellence in every field and every arena.”
