MSU Billings Sports Information/Shiloh Skillenrobison
Texas Woman's has climbed to the very top of NCAA Division II basketball with coach Beth Jillson, right, leading the way.
Madness in March is becoming a thing in Denton.
Last year, the North Texas men’s basketball team won the National Invitation Tournament — aka, the NIT — beating Alabama-Birmingham in the final in Las Vegas.
It was a first for the Mean Green.
This year, it’s neighbor Texas Woman’s University, perhaps to the tune of Irving Berlin’s “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” living basketball madness in the postseason.
On Friday, the Pioneers, ranked No. 7 in the Division II coaches poll, meet No. 13 Minnesota State Mankato (26-5) in the Division II women’s national championship basketball game at the St. Joseph Civic Center in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Tipoff is at 7 p.m. You can watch on the CBS Sports Network.
We became intrigued by all of this when we found out, one, that Texas Woman’s was in the Final Four. That happened on Wednesday evening. Then we found out that the Pioneers coach is from Fort Worth.
Beth Jillson went to Arlington Heights. The former Beth Ulrickson was a standout basketball player for the Lady Jackets. After graduating in 1997, she went on to play college basketball at Weatherford College and Hardin-Simmons. She led Hardin-Simmons to the Division III Elite Eight in 2000. The next season she was selected American Southwest All-Conference.
Jillson has led Texas Woman’s to a program-best 34-4 record in 2023-24.
In her 16th season — if my math is correct — all of this is the fruit of her labor.
Jillson is the program’s winningest — there’s a debate about whether that’s a word or not — coach in program history with 247 wins, including a 68-52 victory over No. 14 Ferris State on Wednesday in the national semifinals.
This year marked the Pioneers’ fourth tournament appearance. The Pioneers won their first tournament game in 2022, beating Metropolitan State University-Denver 90-83 in overtime. That season, Texas Woman’s also defeated the No. 1 team in the nation for the first time in program history, a 57-54 upset of Texas A&M-Commerce on the road.
Before taking over at Texas Woman’s, Jillson worked as an assistant at Oklahoma State, New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, and Charleston Southern, a Division I program.
A coach doesn’t do all this without players, of course. The Pioneers are led in scoring and rebounding by Ashley Ingram, a junior from Bridgeport, just up the way on U.S. 287. She averages 18 and nine a game. Ingram last week was selected a Women’s Basketball Coaches Association first-team All-American, another first in program history. Ingram was also the Lone Star Conference player of the year.
There sounds like more to this story. I’ve already touched base with our new friends in Denton about talking to the coach.
Right now she’s busy.
