STATESBORO – There were a lot of laughs and as many hugs in the seats behind Old Dominion’s bench Saturday, long after the Monarchs had dispatched Sun Belt rival Georgia Southern with a resounding 20-point win.
There were aunts, cousins, friends and fans waiting patiently for Old Dominion women’s basketball coach DeLisha Milton-Jones to emerge and to congratulate her.
Among those greeting her after the game were her grandmother, her mother, three aunts, a host of cousins and other relatives and many longtime friends. Not a bad cheering section to have for a school that’s 500 miles away.
“It was awesome,” Milton-Jones said.
Milton-Jones is in her fourth year with the ODU program, one of the mainstays in women’s college basketball program. She is perhaps the most decorated athlete in Liberty County history – starting with two Olympic gold medals in basketball and her Southeastern Conference player of the year honors.
Coaching wasn’t her aim during her long and storied playing days. From taking Bradwell Institute to a Class AAAA state runner-up finish to making Florida one of the SEC’s top women’s programs to the Olympics and to her star-studded WNBA career, calling timeouts and drawing up plays didn’t seem to be in the offing for her.
But it’s grabbed her the way she used to grab rebounds.
“I had many great coaches, from high school to college to the pros, tell me I was going to be a great coach. I would always say, ‘no way,’” Milton-Jones said. “What I found is I needed this as much as it needed me. It’s great when former pros can come back to the very game that supported them and give back. I can reach back and teach the generations behind me. I want them to experience some of the things I experienced based on their skill sets and experiences.”
She has two Olympic gold medals, from the 2000 and 2008 Games, and two WNBA championships, having played 17 years in that league.
Passing her vast experiences from her playing days and coaching tenure – she had a 91-65 career mark before the 2023-24 season – to her players and beyond is beyond value to Milton-Jones.
“It means everything,” she said, “because someone took their time with me. Whatever I was given, it is a must I give it to the next generation to continue that legacy.”
At over 6-foot-2 and with her wingspan still stretching over 7 feet – routinely a nightmare for opposing high school players trying to inbound the ball against the teenaged Milton – she still can show her players on the practice floor just how good she was during the height of her career. Assistant coach Shammond Williams was a star on three North Carolina men’s Final Four teams too.
Though, as Milton-Jones insists, it’s not to show their players that their coaches still have some game left. It’s another piece of hardware in her coaching tool kit.
“I always tell them, ‘be careful what you ask for,’” she said. “Sometimes, I need for them to understand if you want to go to the next level, then you need to feel this grown woman weight that I have. And if you can handle this, you can handle the next level. We get on the court with them so we can teach them on a different level.”
Her Monarchs reigned against the Eagles on defense, holding Georgia Southern to its lowest point output in four years in a 70-50 win. Old Dominion boasts the Sun Belt Conference’s top defense and at 4-1 is in a three-way tie for second in the league.
“I am very proud of them,” Milton-Jones said of her team after their convincing win. “I think we came down and accomplished exactly what we wanted to do, which was to put on a great showing and show defense does win games and it can win championships. I think we had a tremendous game plan and my players were persistent in following the game plan. When you can do that against a team like that, you set yourself up for success.”
ODU never trailed and doubled up Georgia Southern points off turnovers (26-13) and points in the paint (34-18). The Monarchs also got much more production off its bench, holding a 32-14 advantage in scoring. There were also 36 fouls called in the game.
“It wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t physical,” Milton-Jones said. “Two great teams matched up. It was like two rams meeting on a mountain, and we got the better end of it today.”
Aside from the number of players hitting the floor going after loose balls – and sometimes being sent to the floor after a collision – there is a style Milton-Jones wants her players to embrace. They may be on their way to that, given there were 13 assists on 30 shots from the floor, not including the 14 second-chance points they recorded.
“I want them to respect everyone but fear no one,” she said. “I want them to be prepared. I want them to put their athleticism and their skill sets on display as well as their intelligence. We want the game to be beautiful. We want to see spacing. We want to see connectivity on both ends of the floor.”
Last year, ODU posted a 22-12 record and reached the Sun Belt tournament semifinals. She lost nine letterwinners after the season, but they left Statesboro with a 12-3 overall record, including a loss to No. 3-ranked North Carolina State.
ODU was one of the first prominent women’s college basketball programs, and has one of the top 10 winningest programs in the sport’s history. Even today, when Milton-Jones is out and people see her in her ODU garb, they’ll recognize Old Dominion and its place in the women’s game. She also was grateful for N.C. State coach Wes Moore for bringing his team to ODU for their matchup.
“It means so much to me that Jim Jarrett took a chance on women,” she said of the athletic director who spent 43 years and started the women’s program in 1969. “The building would be sold out. Power 5 teams would roll through and ODU would beat them. Older fans are always like, ‘ODU, those were great games back in the day.’”
But the Monarchs, who have three national titles to their credit, have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2008. Milton-Jones wants to restore Old Dominion’s crowns.
“I want us to continuously trend up, that we cross the finish line and win conference championships,” she said. “I feel like how we play and how we go about our business and with our history attached to the program, we have something strong. I can already see the storylines being written on us. They deserve it. They have a great chemistry and culture that they built. The players committed themselves to the process in support of the vision that we as a coaching staff have for them. When you have that, it’s special.”