BYU has parted ways with women’s basketball coach Amber Whiting after 3 years

PROVO — Amber Whiting’s time as head coach at her alma mater has come to a close.

The third-year head coach stepped down from her position with the university just days after Wednesday’s loss to UCF in the Big 12 tournament at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, the school announced Saturday.

Associate head coach Lee Cummard will serve as interim head coach.

Related: BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe to retire after 2024-25 season

Moments after Whiting’s dismissal was announced by the university, a source confirmed to KSL.com that her daughter — starting point guard Amari Whiting, who averaged 10.3 points, 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game as a sophomore — planned to enter the transfer portal.

On3 first reported Friday that BYU was expected to part ways with Whiting. BYU is the eighth program to make a head coaching change in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, according to ESPN, and the third in the Big 12 after Ronald Hughey resigned following 11 seasons with the program and Natasha Adair was fired Saturday morning following three losing seasons at Arizona State.

Whiting’s tenure concludes with a 45-51 record following the 81-69 loss to the Knights, concluding a 13-17 record in her third season that included a 4-14 mark in Big 12 play. The Cougars advanced to the WNIT after her first season with a 16-17 record, played in the inaugural WBIT last year with the same record, but never won a Big 12 tournament game and finished her tenure 2-5 in the postseason with both wins coming in the West Coast Conference tournament of her first season.

From her first win Nov. 18, 2022 against Washington State, it’s been a ride — sometimes up and often times down, like a roller coaster. The Cougars picked up ranked wins in back-to-back seasons, a 78-66 win over then-No. 18 Baylor back on Feb. 7, 2024, followed by a 68-64 win over then-No. 20 Oklahoma State.

Both games came at the Marriott Center, where the Cougars posted eight of their 14 wins in a 2024-25 season that finished 13-17, with a 4-14 mark in Big 12 play while playing with the unanimous Big 12 freshman of the year Delaney Gibb who set a program freshman record in averaging 17.9 points per game on a 44.8% clip.

Gibb finished in the top five in BYU freshman history en route to winning seven of the final nine Big 12 freshman of the week honors, a 10-award total that ranks the second-most in conference history.

Amassing talent wasn’t a problem for Whiting, who added the two-time Ms. Alberta player of the year and Canadian international to highlight a standout recruiting class three years in a row. The run also included Amari Whiting, the 5-foot-10 sophomore and Idaho Gatorade player of the year who was one of four Gatorade state players of the year to sign with the Cougars in 2022 (though Whiting enrolled at BYU early after tearing her ACL prior to her senior season at Timpview).

Of course, that list also includes former two-time Nevada Gatorade player of the year Ali’a Matavao, who transferred to LMU after averaging 4.9 points in 19 games before a season-ending foot injury, and Kailey Woolston, the former Lone Peak star who led the NCAA in 3-point percentage with 46.6% before leaving after her freshman campaign to serve an 18-month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Prior to BYU, Whiting led Burley High to the 2022 4A Idaho state title, just the third in the school’s history, en route to 4A coach of the year honors by the Idaho Statesman. The 70-37 high school coach in four seasons also worked the club circuit, including with the Natalie Williams Basketball Academy on the Adidas 3SSB circuit and Utah Hard Knox — one of the most successful girls AAU programs in Utah.

Born in Ogden, Whiting (née Russell) starred at Fremont High before a collegiate career at Snow College, Weber State and BYU, where she played along with her husband, Trent, a fellow Snow College standout who went on to play professionally in Italy for a dozen years.

The couple has two children in Amari and Jace, who played his freshman season at Boise State before transferring to UNLV. The youngest committed to BYU after her mother — who she always referred to as “coach” or “Amber” during games and practices — was named the head coach, flipping from an initial commitment to Oregon.