DALLAS (AP) — One of the biggest adjustments right now for new Dallas Wings coach Jose Fernandez is not being in the gym for games at this time of year after more than three decades in coaching.
The 53-year-old Fernandez will instead spend the next four to five months preparing for his first professional season and getting to know the current Wings players. They include Paige Bueckers, last season's No. 1 overall draft pick and WNBA Rookie of the Year, and four-time All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale after she played only 29 games before missing the final month of the season because of tendinitis in her right knee.
“I wanted to coach this group and I wanted to work with this franchise," Fernandez said during his formal introduction Thursday, 10 days after being named the Dallas coach.
Fernandez, who will be the team's fifth coach over a seven-season span for the young Wings, said he spoke with Bueckers and Ogunbowale during the hiring process. He got to Dallas on Wednesday and watched Ogunbowale's workout.
Fernandez won 485 games and went to 10 NCAA Tournaments the past 25 seasons with the University of South Florida women, who began their season this week. The mid-major is playing another loaded schedule Fernandez had put together before another call from the Wings. The Bulls play five ranked teams in their first 12 games, including No. 1 UConn, No. 2 South Carolina and No. 3 UCLA.
“I had a great situation,” he said. “I could have retired there, stayed there for the rest of my coaching career. I came here to win because I believe in ownership, I believe in the franchise and I believe in the front office and the partnership that we're going to have to be successful here.”
Dallas has another lottery pick in next April's draft, and will pick no lower than third, then have two first-round picks in 2027. Bueckers was drafted No. 1 overall on April 14, eight days after leading UConn to its 12th national championship.
The Wings won’t start training camp until late April, when they hope to be in their new practice facility being built in Dallas.
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Fernandez was also approached by Dallas last December before then-new general manager Curt Miller hired Chris Koclanes as a first-time head coach from the staff at Southern California. Koclanes was previously on Miller’s coaching staff in Connecticut from 2016-22, and helped the Sun reach the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022.
Koclanes was fired after a 10-34 record that matched Chicago for the WNBA's worst record in a season plagued by injuries — not a single player appeared in every game. The Wings started 1-11 and had to win their finale at Phoenix to snap a 10-game losing streak and avoid a second consecutive nine-win season. They are 19-45 since winning a 2023 playoff series, which was the first for the franchise since it moved to the Dallas area from Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the 2016 season.
The Wings several times had to sign players to hardship contracts just to have the league minimum of eight players available for games.
Even Bueckers, the runaway choice for Rookie of the Year and also the AP Rookie of the Year, missed eight games because of a concussion, an illness and later a sore knee. She still had 692 points and 194 assists that were the third-most by a WNBA rookie, while averaging 19.2 points on 47.7% shooting along with 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals.
Miller said the main priority was finding an experienced head coach with sustained success. The Wings also sought a communicator, relationship builder, developer of talent, innovator and someone with international outreach.
“We found our guy,” Miller said. “When you look at those buckets that we viewed as very important in the search, we found an experienced coach ... a proven winner.”
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