Howard University’s Geckeler named as women’s basketball coach

Towson Athletics announced Thursday afternoon that Niki Geckeler will be the new women’s basketball Head Coach. Geckeler previously held the same position at Howard University in Washington, D.C. for the past five years.

With Howard, Geckeler led the Bison to back-to-back 20-plus win seasons and reached the postseason three times.

“When we started this search, we went in search of a coach that would possess the characteristics needed to build the Towson women’s basketball program into a perennial force in the [Colonial Athletic Association],” Director of Athletics Mike Waddell said in a media release. “Niki is just that person … a leader and a winner. She has shown leadership throughout her career as both a player and now as a coach. With her energy and passion for the game, she has recruited great students and athletes and transformed them into championship programs.”

Geckeler said she is excited to join Towson and that she intends to turn women’s basketball into a championship-winning program.

“I think Towson is like a sleeping giant because it has so much potential to be at the top of the CAA,” she said. “It was just a great opportunity for me to come over here and really touch the lives of these young women and help them continue to move forward.”

In addition to making women’s basketball more competitive, she said she also wants to keep the team competitive in the classroom.

At Howard, her team had a 100 percent graduation rate and, in the past two seasons, two of her players ranked in the top 15 and three ranked in the top 35 in the nation in points per game, assist/turnover ratio and assists per game.

“The foundation for [the season] is going to be discipline, it’s going to be hard work,” Geckeler said. “We’re just going to take that blue collar approach and get out and just work hard to get things done, and really just to change the mindset and the mentality of the young women. I know it’s a very talented group here so I’m eager to get on the court with them, I’m eager to learn who they are as people, and then really work hand-in-hand together to get things done.”

Geckeler replaces previous Head Coach Joe Mathews.

Mathews coached Towson for 12 seasons before being notified on Feb. 22 that his contract would not be renewed.