Biography:

    Kris Huffman enters her 16th season as DePauw’s head women’s basketball coach after leading the 2007-08 Tigers to a 28-4 record, a third straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title and a third consecutive NCAA Division III quarterfinal appearance. She earned SCAC Coach of the Year honors for the third straight year and sixth time in 10 seasons.

    The 20-plus win season was the Tigers’ 11th in the last 12 years and the postseason appearance was the ninth in the last 13 seasons. DePauw’s appearance in the round of 16 was its sixth in the last 11 seasons and the quarterfinal trip the fourth in the last seven years.

    The winningest coach in DePauw history, Huffman has posted a 332-86 career record and a 175-27 mark in conference games. Her .794  winning percentage is the best in DePauw history and ranks 10th all-time among Division III coaches with at least 10 years of Division III head coaching experience and 17th among coaches with at least 10 years of experience at any NCAA level.

    Since the beginning of the 1995-96 season, the Tigers have amassed a 310-60 record for an .838 winning percentage which is tops among all NCAA institutions in Indiana and is fourth among the nation’s Division III schools.

    She led the 2006-07 Tigers to the University’s first national athletic team championship as DePauw defeated Washington-St. Louis by a 55-52 count at Springfield College on March 17, 2007.

    The championship capped a school-record 31-win campaign against just three losses and a seventh Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title in nine years. Huffman was named the national coach of the year by D3hoops.com and WDIII News and also earned her fifth SCAC Coach of the Year award.

    Huffman directed the 2005-06 Tigers to a, then, school-record 29 wins against just two losses and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals. Huffman was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association District Coach of the Year for the fourth time and the Tigers won a school-record 28 straight.

    In 2004-05, Huffman led the Tigers to the top seed in the SCAC Championship after finishing with the best regular season record in conference play. The Tigers finished second in the SCAC tournament and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship. They finished 23-6 after falling to Calvin in the second round.

    In 2003-04, Huffman directed the Tigers to the SCAC title, a berth in the NCAA tournament and a school record-tying 26 wins. Huffman was named the SCAC Coach of the Year for the third time which also marked her fifth conference coach of the year honor overall.

    The 2002 Tigers finished third at the NCAA Division III Championship and Huffman was named the Division III Coach of the Year by both the WBCA and WDIII News. DePauw won a school-record 26 games that season and lost just four in capturing its sixth straight conference title. They also won a school-record 20 straight during the campaign. On their way to the national semifinals, the Tigers knocked off fourth-ranked Hardin-Simmons and second-ranked Wilmington on consecutive nights.

    Huffman was named the 2002 SCAC Coach of the Year and also earned WBCA District Coach of the Year honors for the second straight year and third time in four seasons.

    During the 2000-01 campaign she led the Tigers to a tri-SCAC championship, was the South Region Coach of the Year and a finalist for Division III Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons.

    The 1999-2000 Tigers notched a fourth consecutive 20-win season and shared the SCAC title with Hendrix. They also extended their conference win streak to 43 games and set an SCAC record with 25 consecutive wins in that conference.

    In 1998-99, their first season as members of the SCAC, the Tigers finished with a perfect 18-0 conference record and a third appearance in four years in the NCAA Division III Championship. The Tigers, seeded first in the South Region, won a second-round home game over Austin College before being eliminated in the round of 16 by eventual national runner-up St. Benedict. The 22-5 season also included a school-record 17-game win streak.

    Huffman earned SCAC Coach of the Year honors which was her third such conference award in her young career. She also was the South Region Coach of the Year and one of eight finalists for the Division III Coach of the Year award.

    During the 1997-98 season, Huffman led the Tigers to a then school-record 23 wins against just five losses and the program’s second NCAA Division III Championship appearance in three years. The Tigers earned a number two seed in the Great Lakes Region and beat Baldwin-Wallace in a second-round home game before losing to St. Thomas in the round of 16.

    The Tigers also captured the regular season and tournament championships in the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference and were the first team to win all 10 conference games in a single season. For her efforts she earned her second ICAC Coach of the Year honor in three years.

    Huffman led the Tigers to a then school-record 22 wins against just four losses in 1996-97 as the Old Gold shared the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference title with Hanover.

    During the 1995-96 season, Huffman was named the ICAC Coach of the Year after directing the Tigers to a 19-7 record and the team’s first appearance in the NCAA Division III tournament.

    In her first season in Greencastle, she led the Tigers to a 12-12 finish and a tie for second place in the ICAC.

    A native of Fort Dodge, Iowa, Huffman was named Miss Basketball in Iowa following her senior year in high school when she led her team to a state championship. She then moved on to Division I Northern Iowa where she played basketball and earned a bachelor’s degree in community health education.

    She still is the Panthers’ career three-point record holder with a .483 percentage, is third with an .817 career free throw percentage and recorded the only triple-double in school history with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against Eastern Illinois on January 31, 1986. Huffman finished as the second all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,294 points and still ranks sixth. Her 322 career assists still rank fifth.

    She remained at UNI and received a master’s degree in health education. Huffman is also an Iowa Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.

    Huffman served as an assistant coach at Wartburg College where she helped them to four straight appearances in the Division III tournament.

    In June 2008, Huffman served as a court coach for the 2008 USA Basketball Women’s U18 National Team Trials in Colorado Springs, Colo.

    Huffman is also a part-time instructor in the kinesiology department, a lifefit coordinator and the athletic department’s compliance director. She served on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors and the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Regional Advisory Committee.

Kris Huffman Career Head Coaching Highlights

Conference Championships
Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference
1996-97 (co-champions), 1997-98 (regular season and tournament)
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
1998-99, 1999-00 (co-champions), 2000-01 (tri-champions),
2001-02, 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08

Conference Coach of the Year
Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference
1995-96; 1997-98
Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
1998-99; 2001-02; 2003-04; 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08

District Coach of the Year
WBCA: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006

National Coach of the Year
WBCA: 2002
WDIII News: 2002, 2007
D3hoops.com: 2007

NCAA Championship appearances
1996, 1998, 1999, 2002 (third), 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 (champions), 2008