Women's Basketball

Meagan Price recently concluded her third season as Tusculum University head women’s basketball coach.

Price has compiled a 51-30 record in her three seasons with the Pioneers, including a 20-9 record during the 2022-23 season. Tusculum has qualified for the South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championship tournament in each of her first three seasons. In five seasons as a collegiate head coach, Price has a record of 89-46 with 18 or more wins in four of those five seasons.

The 2022-23 Pioneers opened the season with a 13-1 record and finished in second place in the SAC Mountain Division with an 11-7 record. Forward Jami Tham was named first-team All-D2CCA Southeast Region and first-team All-SAC, while guard Mya Belton was honored as SAC Defensive Player of the Year after sharing the conference lead in blocked shots at 2.0 per game and ranking 12th in steals at 1.7 per game. Tham set a SAC single-season record with 26 double-doubles in 29 games and averaged 17.6 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. Guard Blayre Shultz was also a third-team All-SAC selection for the Pioneers, who led the conference in scoring defense for the second straight year at 56.0 points per game. Tusculum also led the SAC in rebounds per game (42.9), field goal defense (35.5 percent), assists per game (17.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.14-to-1).

In 2021-22, the Pioneers used a five-game winning streak in February to earn a SAC Tournament berth, before finishing the season with a 12-17 record and 10-14 in the SAC. Tusculum had two third-team All-South Atlantic Conference honorees following the season, guard Jalia Arnwine and forward Brianna Dixon. The Pioneers also led the SAC in scoring defense at 59.3 points per game.

Price had a memorable first season with the Pioneers, guiding the team to a second straight SAC tournament championship and its first NCAA Division II Tournament win since 2010. The Pioneers finished 19-4 overall and were second place in the SAC with a 15-3 league record, led by All-American, SAC Tournament MVP and first-team All-Conference center Maddie Sutton who averaged 17.3 points and 14.6 rebounds per game while leading Division II in double-doubles with 20. The Pioneers opened the season 9-0 and were ranked as high as seventh in the D2SIDA national poll before ending the season ranked 18th by the WBCA.

Price was named the 16th head women’s basketball coach at Tusculum on May 6, 2020 after serving as assistant women’s basketball coach at Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee for two seasons. Price has prior head coaching experience, having compiled a 38-16 record in two years at Hiwassee College, and was an assistant coach for five years at Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia which included stints as head junior varsity coach and interim head coach. The coaching staff broke multiple records including most wins in a season in her final stint at TMU.

At Hiwassee, Price took over a team that had won six games in 2015-16 and led them to 18 victories and a NCCAA Division I top-10 national ranking for the first time in school history. In 2017-18, Price guided the Tigers to the NCCAA Mideast Region championship and a berth in the NCCAA Division I national championship tournament. Hiwassee finished the year with 20 wins and sixth in the nation, with Price earning Mideast Region Coach of the Year honors and a National Coach of the Year nominee.

Following the 2017-18 campaign, Price returned to Bethel as an assistant to longtime head coach Chris Nelson. In her first season, the Wildcats went 28-6 overall and 18-2 in the Southern States Athletic Conference, earning a trip to the NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball tournament. This past season, the Wildcats finished 29-4 and won both the SSAC regular season and conference championship finishing with a top five national ranking, and would have made their eighth straight trip to the NAIA Tournament before it was cancelled.

Price, a native of Gleason, Tennessee, began her collegiate basketball career at Bethel and played two seasons before transferring to Missouri Baptist University for her final two seasons. Price helped lead the Lady Wildcats to their first National Tournament appearance in 2009.

Price earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a writing certification from Missouri Baptist in 2011, and a master’s degree in science in sport management in 2014. She is working toward a Ph.D. in leadership and sports administration from Concordia University in Chicago.