Missouri State

CHERYL BURNETT
Assistant Basketball Coach, 1984-87; Head Basketball Coach, 1987-02
Inducted February 15, 2003

Cheryl Burnett set the standard for basketball excellence for MSU, the Missouri Valley Conference and across the nation during her 15-year career as head coach of the Lady Bears. Taking the reins of the program in 1987 after three seasons as an MSU assistant, she guided her teams to heights unmatched in school, state or league annals. After sub-.500 years Burnett's first two seasons at the helm of the program, the Lady Bears were off to the races. MSU posted winning seasons Burnett's last 13 years in a row, including nine campaigns of 20 or more wins, and reached postseason play 11 of those 13 seasons. MSU won conference regular season championships in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2001; and league tournament titles in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 2001. The Lady Bears advanced to the NCAA tournament second round in 1991, Final Four in 1992, Sweet 16 in 1993, second round in 1994, second round in 1995, first round in 1996, first round in 1998, second round in 1999, first round in 2000 and Final Four in 2001. MSU also had a WNIT appearance in 2002. In the Lady Bears' 1992 Final Four trip, MSU was seeded eighth in its region but beat Kansas, upset top-seeded Iowa at Iowa in the second round, and upset UCLA and Mississippi in the regional in Boulder, Colo., before losing to Western Kentucky in the national semifinals in Los Angeles. The 2001 Lady Bears were a fifth seed in their region and defeated Toledo in the first round, upset fourth-seeded Rutgers at Rutgers in the second round, defeated Duke and Washington in the regional at Spokane, Wash., and then lost to Purdue in the national semifinals in St. Louis. Burnett's MSU tenure was marked by high graduation rates of her players, undefeated home seasons, national rankings and an explosion in home attendance. The Lady Bears' season attendance average went from 881 a game her first year as head coach to 8,431 in 2001. MSU was among the top 10 in Division I attendance Burnett's last 11 seasons, including leading the nation in attendance in 1993. Burnett's tenure also included numerous all-America and academic all-America recognition for her athletes, with the most honored in the group being four-year standouts Melody Howard, Lisa Davies and Jackie Stiles. Howard set the MSU career scoring record at 1,944 points, Stiles demolished that figure with a new all-time NCAA women's basketball career scoring mark of 3,393 points, and Davies was named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year as a senior. Burnett finished with a 319-136 won-lost record at MSU.