Maryland Assistant Karen Blair Named the Next Head Coach For Georgia Tech Women's Basketball

Less than one week after former head coach Nell Fortner retired, Georgia Tech has named a new head coach for Women's Basketball. Georgia Tech announced on Sunday morning that it was hiring Maryland assistant coach Karen Blair as the school's next head coach. Blair helped lead Maryland to three Big Ten championships in her seven seasons with the Terrapins and will now look to guide Georgia Tech to the top of the ACC.

A new era of Georgia Tech women’s basketball begins today.

Welcome to The Flats, Coach Blair. #StingEm

📰: https://t.co/jsV5U6RONY pic.twitter.com/msI1q0MG1z
— Georgia Tech Women's Basketball (@GTWBB) April 6, 2025

“We’re proud and excited to name Karen Blair the seventh head coach in Georgia Tech women’s basketball history,” Batt said. “We set out to find a coach that has an established record of success at the highest level – both on the court and on the recruiting trail – and Coach Blair certainly fits that bill. She has added to her list of achievements at every stop of her coaching career, including the last seven seasons at Maryland, where she helped lead the program to three Big Ten championships, annual NCAA Tournament berths, and played a big role in consistently landing some of the nation’s top-ranked recruiting classes. Coach Blair is the right person to build on Georgia Tech women’s basketball’s legacy of success. Please join me in welcoming her to The Flats.”

Blair served as associate head coach at Maryland for the last five seasons, following two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Terrapins. In her seven seasons at Maryland, the Terps not only claimed three Big Ten titles (regular season in 2018-19 and regular season plus tournament in 2019-20 and 2020-21), but she also helped lead them to NCAA Tournament berths every season the tournament was held (it was canceled in 2020 due to Covid-19). Maryland won at least one game in 5-of-6 NCAA Tournaments with Blair on the bench, advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2021, 2022 and 2025 and earned a spot in the Elite Eight in 2023. When the tournament was canceled in 2020, the Terrapins finished the season with a No. 4 national ranking.

In all, Maryland compiled a 178-50 (.781) overall record and a 98-27 (.784) mark in Blair’s seven seasons on the staff. The Terrapins won at least 23 games in six of her seven seasons.

Known as one of the nation’s top recruiters, Blair helped Maryland land four top-20 recruiting classes, including the No. 3-ranked class in 2019, No. 9 in 2021 and No. 11 in 2023.

She was named the NCAA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association in 2020 and one of the Most Impactful Assistant Coaches in Women’s Basketball by Silver Waves Media in 2022.

Prior to her seven successful seasons at Maryland, Blair served as associate head coach at VCU for three seasons (2015-18). At VCU, Blair helped lead the Rams to 23 wins (the third-most in school history at the time) and a WNIT berth in 2015-16 and helped them land a top-30 recruiting class.

Her coaching experience also includes stints as an assistant coach at North Texas (2013-15), Texas-Arlington (2011-13), Colgate (2009-11) and her alma mater, SMU (1999-09). Her experience also includes serving as recruiting coordinator during her two seasons at Colgate and interim head coach for the final eight games of the 2013 season at UTA. During her 10 years on the staff at SMU, she helped lead the Mustangs to a pair of Conference USA regular-season championships, two NCAA Tournaments and two WNITs. SMU advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2000.

"I’m so grateful and excited to be the women’s basketball head coach at Georgia Tech,” Blair said. “Tech is a special place, on and off the court. The Institute has a long tradition of women’s basketball success, with a great foundation in place, thanks to the leadership of Coach Nell Fortner. I want to continue to build on that momentum and success to take the program to even greater heights. I am humbled to be entrusted with the privilege of leading this program into the next era of collegiate athletics, and I’m very thankful to [Georgia Tech] President [Ángel] Cabrera and J Batt for the opportunity. I can’t wait to get to work with our student-athletes and staff to reach our goals of achieving on the court, in the classroom and making Yellow Jacket fans proud.”

Blair is going to have to hit the ground running as the next head coach of the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech has had several players enter the transfer portal, even before Fortner had announced her retirement. If she can't convince any of the players to come back, she will likely have to start from scratch to build her roster.

When Fortner was asked if the players should wait to see who the next head coach is before making any decisions she said " Yeah, and I hope they do. I hope that's exactly what they do."

Additional Links

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