After head coach Andrea Gorski’s unexpected retirement on March 22, the Bradley women’s basketball team announced today that Northwestern’s Kate Popovec has been chosen as her successor and the 10th head coach in program history.
“I could not be more excited about the future of Bradley Women’s Basketball,” Bradley’s Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Chris Reynolds said in a release. “Kate has been successful at every turn and her enthusiasm and energy are infectious. She is a proven winner and I am confident in her ability to lead our student-athletes to excellence in competition, the classroom and the community.”
Popovec, who spent the 2021-22 season as an associate head coach and recruiting coordinator of the Northwestern Wildcats, will look to help the Braves’ program bounce back after a 4-24 record overall and 1-17 in the Missouri Valley Conference last season
Popovec’s basketball background began as a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh in the 2009-10 season, playing in 21 games for the Panthers. After one year, she transferred to Northwestern University and spent her junior and senior seasons for the Wildcats from 2011-13.
Upon graduating from Northwestern, Popovec assumed the role of Director of Basketball Operations at La Salle University in 2013-14. She returned to her alma mater as the Director of Player Development from 2014-16, then spent the 2016-17 season at Colgate University as an assistant coach.
Northwestern welcomed Popovec back in 2017 as an assistant coach and she remained with the program, working her way up the ranks to associate head coach until her departure for Bradley.
“It is truly an honor to become the newest member of the Braves family,” Popovec said in the release. “In my first conversation with Dr. Reynolds, it was apparent that he and I aligned in our values and goals.”
Standing at 6-foot-3, Popevec specializes in developing post players, an area where Bradley was relatively inexperienced last year with just one upperclassmen receiving significant playing time.
The Braves’ new face on the sidelines excels in recruiting, bringing home the 10th-ranked freshman class in the country in 2021-22, according to ESPN. Popevec’s expertise looks to fill another need for the Braves, with nearly half of the team’s roster from this past season having either graduated or transferred.
This past season, Popovec, a native of Canfield, Ohio, helped lead the Wildcats to a 17-12 record (8-8 in Big Ten play) who earned the seventh seed in the conference tournament. Northwestern notched one win but eventually bowed out after a quarterfinals loss to the eventual Big Ten champion Iowa Hawkeyes.
During Popevec’s five years on staff with Northwestern, the WIldcats compiled a 92-60 record and clinched a bid to the WNIT in 2019. The following season, Northwestern won the Big Ten Conference regular season crown in 2020 and subsequently earned their berth to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 28 years in 2020-21.
“Bradley Women’s Basketball has proven it can win in one of the most-competitive conferences in the country and I’m excited to have the opportunity to build on that culture,” Popovec said in the release. “Bradley also is an institution rich in academic tradition, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to recruit student-athletes to a championship experience on the court and in the classroom.”
Popevec will be introduced on campus during a press conference in the Renaissance Coliseum atrium on April 12 at 1 PM.
