McNeese State promotes Cryer as new women's basketball coach

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) McNeese State has promoted assistant women's basketball coach Kacie Cryer to head coach one day after Brooks Donald Williams resigned to

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) McNeese State has promoted assistant women's basketball coach Kacie Cryer to head coach one day after Brooks Donald Williams resigned to take an assistant position at Alabama.

Athletics director Bruce Hemphill said Friday that Cryer has the tenacity to quickly make this team her own having been instrumental in bringing in all of next year's team.

Cryer worked seven years under Donald Williams, who resigned Thursday after nine seasons. Her 161-130 record made her the all-time winningest women's basketball coach in school history.

Donald Williams took the Cowgirls from anonymity to respectability, leading the program from a 10-21 record in her first year (2007-08) to the first postseason in its history when it reached the NCAA Tournament in 2011. McNeese has played beyond the regular season every year since.