Message from Coach Knapp

Patrick Knapp begins his fifth season as the head coach of the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s basketball program in 2008-09. Under his tutelage, Penn’s student-athletes have set game, season and career program records; earned All-Ivy and All-Big 5 honors; and gone on to play professionally in Europe. As the team gets set to tip off the new season, the Quakers have much to be optimistic about. They return all but one starter from last year’s squad as well as all of their top reserves. Penn’s top-six in scoring and minutes are back from the 2007-08 season.

In the 2007-08 campaign, Penn fielded on of its youngest teams to date, with just one senior on the squad. Penn endured the growing pains, but Knapp’s young squad rebounded to win three of its last four games, all of which were against Ivy opponents.

In 2006-07, Joey Rhoads left the program as the seventh all-time leading scorer and signed a contract to play professionally in Finland. Under Knapp, Rhoads won First Team All-Ivy honors, becoming the second Quaker in his three-year tenure to do so. Karen Habrukowich was recognized for the award in 2004-05. The team placed fourth in the Ivy League, matching Knapp’s first season at the helm of the Quakers.

The 2004-05 campaign was highlighted by back-to-back Big 5 wins at the outset of the season, his 300th career victory against Lehigh (Jan. 18, 2004) and a seven-game winning streak to close out the non-conference schedule and open the Ivy League season.

Under Knapp’s watch at Penn, Jennifer Fleischer, who won Academic All-Ivy honors in her senior season, became the fourth all-time rebounder in Quakers’ women’s history with 849. She also racked up 790 points and 25 double-doubles in her career. Monica Naltner set the sixth-best single-game point total in 2006-07, with 37 points vs. Lafayette (Dec. 7, 2006) while Rhoads broke 1,000 points (1,210) and made the third-most three-pointers in program history during her career.

Knapp roamed the bench as head coach the Georgetown Hoyas for 18 seasons. He built a winning tradition of both academic and athletic excellence, posting a 208-188 (.525) record since 1990. In four of his last six years, Knapp’s teams advanced to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT). His teams won at least 17 games six times at Georgetown, including four of his last seven seasons, and advanced to postseason play five times. Knapp twice won 20 games in a season at Georgetown and won two BIG EAST regular season championships. In 1993, Knapp was voted the BIG EAST Coach of the Year.

Fifteen of Knapp’s players have gone on to play professionally in Europe, including three from his 1998-99 and 2002-03 Georgetown teams. Two of Knapp’s players have gone on to the WNBA, including Georgetown graduate Rebekkah Brunson, the first Georgetown women’s basketball player to be chosen in the first round. Brunson went on to win the WNBA title with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005. Four of Knapp’s former players have gone on to coach in the collegiate ranks. While at Georgetown, 14 of Knapp’s players earned All-BIG EAST honors, including Kris Witfill, 1993 BIG EAST MVP, and Brunson, the 2004 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year. Under Knapp’s guidance, Brunson was selected to Team USA’s Pan American Games squad in 2003.

Knapp’s success as a mentor transcends the hardwood, as he has coached one Rhodes Scholar (Julie Mikuta, 1992) and 49 BIG EAST Academic All-Star selections. At Penn, Jennifer Fleischer was named a All-Ivy and All-Big 5 Academic selection in the 2004-05 season.

Prior to coaching at Georgetown, Knapp turned the women’s basketball program around at New Mexico State University, where he served as head women’s basketball coach from 1983-86. He was named the High Country Conference Coach of the Year in 1985.

Knapp’s coaching career began in 1976 at Bishop McDevitt High School in Philadelphia, Pa. He spent five years there and was the Montgomery County Coach of the Year for the 1978-79 season. He then took his coaching talents to the collegiate level when he became the top assistant at the University of Notre Dame for three seasons. 

Knapp graduated from Widener College in 1975. He was a team captain in 1974 and 1975 and led the Pioneers to NCAA Tournament appearances in 1972 and 1975.

A Pennsylvania native, Knapp and his wife Maggie have two children, Melanie Lynne (Georgetown ’02), age 28; and Patrick (Syracuse, ’04), age 26. In July of 2007 Knapp became a grandfather for the first time when his daughter Melanie and her husband, Joe, welcomed their son, Joey, Jr.