Blue Star Productions

Lisa Stone

Lisa Stone joins the Blue Star family after .  She left Wisconsin as one of the top 30 active Division I coaches nationally in winning percentage at .687  with a career record of 487-222.  During her career she was an assistant coach for our National Team being a part of our gold-medal winning team at the 2002 World Championships Qualifying Tournament in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.
 
During her time with the Badgers Lisa Stone led the Wisconsin women's basketball program to unprecedented success. The Badgers advanced to four-consecutive post-season appearances and have also set the UW season record for most wins.
 
In 2009-10, Wisconsin qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002 and for only the seventh time in program history. The Badgers also tied for third in the Big Ten Conference regular-season standings, tying the second-highest finish in program history, and advanced to the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament for the second-straight season. Stone was honored by her peers, being named the Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Just as important to Stone as a winning record was having her student-athletes be successful in the classroom. Twenty-one individuals garnered 42 Academic All-Big Ten honors during her tenure at Wisconsin.

A Wisconsin native from nearby Oregon, Stone came to Wisconsin from Drake University where she served as head coach for three years, taking the Bulldogs to the 2002 NCAA Sweet 16. While at Drake, her 2001 team ranked sixth nationally and her 2002 team ranked 15th nationally in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Academic Top 25.

Stone was 64-27 (.703) in three seasons at Drake. With a 25-8 record, her 2002 team had the best record and the highest national ranking (20th) at the school in 20 years. Drake was 23-7 in Stone's first season before bowing out in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Prior to Drake, Stone built one of the top NCAA Division III programs in the nation at UW-Eau Claire. The two-time national coach of the year and five-time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) coach of the year, took a program that had only one winning season in its history, and guided 11 teams to 20-win seasons and 11 appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament. She compiled a 277-59 (.824) record in her 12 seasons, which ranks fourth all-time for most wins in the league's history.

In each of Stone's last nine seasons at UW-Eau Claire, the Blugolds won at least 22 games and never lost more than six. UW-Eau Claire completed its best season in 1999-2000, winning its first 28 games before falling in the Division III NCAA Sweet 16 to the eventual national champion.

Stone began her coaching career at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where she had a 34-32 record in three years as head coach from 1985-88. At 23, she was the youngest four-year college coach in the nation when she led the Rams to three consecutive Southern Division titles in the Midwest Conference.

As a player, Stone (then Anderson) earned four letters each in tennis, basketball and track during her high school career. She led the Oregon Panthers to the Wisconsin state basketball tournament in 1979 and 1980, earning first-team all-state honors as a senior and second-team recognition as a junior.

She played her collegiate ball at the University of Iowa from 1980-84, where she earned her bachelor's degree in physical education in 1984. Stone added a master's degree in athletic administration from Iowa in 1986.

At Iowa, Stone played for one of the country's outstanding coaches in C. Vivian Stringer. She was a four-year standout at point guard, scoring 1,129 points, which ranks 19th in Iowa history. She also ranks eighth in assists (322) and tied for ninth in steals (177). Three times Stone served as Iowa's captain and twice was the Hawkeyes' MVP. She won the 1984 Big Ten Medal of Honor, recognizing her as one of the top scholar-athletes in the conference.
 
Stone and her family reside in Wisconsin.