FGCU Women's Basketball Hires Former Arkansas Assistant Nicki Collen

Florida Gulf Coast has hired former Arkansas assistant Nicki Collen to fill the FGCU women's basketball assistant coaching vacancy, the school announced Monday.

"Nicki has a very high basketball IQ and a great wealth of experience. We thought she was a great fit for our staff and would really do well at FGCU," said head coach Karl Smeskso.

Collen coached under her husband, Tom Collen, at Arkansas from 2011-2013 and prior to that, served as an assistant coach (2003-2004) and director of basketball operations (2004-2005) at Louisville. During her playing career, Collen had success at both Purdue and Marquette, as well as professional season in Greece.

"She has a lot of contacts and experience evaluating high level talent. She has a good idea of the type of players we're looking for," Smekso said. "I think she'll be able to make the transition from Arkansas to Florida Gulf Coast pretty quickly."

FGCU director of basketball operations Mel Thomas and Drake assistant David Lane were the two other finalists for the position that became open when assistant Abby Scharlow resigned.

Meanwhile, Smesko expects that assistant Chelsea Lyles will be named recruiting coordinator, in place of Scharlow.

"We expect that's the direction we'll go. We haven't made an official announcement yet but that should be coming shortly," Smesko said.

The Eagles are returning from a 26-8 season in which they fell to Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. They suffer the departure of lone senior Sarah Hansen but retain a plethora of talent.

"We think we'll have a very good team. We know it will be a great challenge just to get back to the NCAA Tournament. We feel that we are a team that if we get there, we have the potential to win games in the tournament," Smesko said. "We're definitely excited about the possibility of getting back but we know there's a lot of work to be done if we're going to achieve that goal."

Smesko brings in incoming freshman guard Tayler Goodall (Colombus North HS, Ind.) as well as Vanderbilt transfer Kady Schrann. The latter of the two will have to sit out a year due to NCAA transfer rules.

Their full schedule has not been released, but FGCU will be competing at the Paradise Jam against Wichita State, Ohio State, and Clemson. In addition, they have contests against Southern Miss, FIU, Bethune Cookman, California State Northridge, and St. Joseph's, according to the News-Press.

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