Last week, the Associated Press reported that Georgetown promoted assistant coach Keith Brown to the head coaching position for women’s basketball. On Monday, Georgetown confirmed the hire in a press release and on Wednesday morning, Athletic Director Lee Reed officially introduced Brown in a press conference.

Donning a Georgetown hat given to him by Reed, Brown spoke about the program at length and thanked his many supporters during his tenure at Georgetown. In a statement issued on Monday, Reed had kind words to offer on Brown’s hiring:

“I am excited to be promoting Keith to head women’s basketball coach. He has been an integral part of our success over the past few seasons and I am confident he can sustain the program’s momentum. Keith is a proven recruiter and motivator, he has the ability to push these student-athletes both on the court and in the classroom and I look forward to what he will bring to the program.”

Brown, a passionate presence on the Hoya bench for the past five seasons, served as former Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy’s top assistant in addition to his role as head of recruiting. He fills a void left by Williams-Flournoy after her departure for the vacant head coaching position at Auburn University.

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Auburn University announced the hiring of Terri Williams-Flournoy as its new women’s basketball coach on Monday, marking the end of Williams-Flournoy’s eight-season run as head coach at Georgetown. Her departure marks the end of the most successful stretch in program history, with Williams-Flournoy leading the Hoyas to four straight 20-win seasons, a mark the team had reached only three times in its previous 38 years of existence.

“I would like to thank Terri for her many contributions to Georgetown Athletics and to the Georgetown community,” athletic director Lee Reed said in a statement. “Over the course of the past eight seasons, Terri has elevated Georgetown women’s basketball to unprecedented heights. Along with President DeGioia and our athletics staff, I thank Terri for her dedicated service to Georgetown and we wish her and her family our very best. She did a remarkable job during her tenure and she will definitely be missed on the Hilltop.”

Williams-Flournoy, who started her college coaching career as an assistant at Georgetown in 1992, returned to become head coach in 2004 looking to build the middling Hoyas program into a contender. She suffered through three losing seasons, but ultimately broke through in 2008-09 with a 20-14 campaign and a berth in the NIT. From there the Hoyas only continued to improve, earning NCAA Tournament bids in each of the last three seasons, highlighted by the second Sweet 16 appearance in program history in 2011.

“I’m very grateful to Georgetown,” Williams-Flournoy told the Washington Post. “I think we did accomplish a lot. If you look at the first three years when I started and even in that fourth year, it took a lot to get the program turned around. It’s almost like watching your child grow.”

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The University Athletic Department announced today that Terri Williams-Flournoy, coach of the Georgetown University women’s basketball team, will assistant coach for the US women’s basketball team at the 2011 World University Games. She joins four-time head coach Bill Fennelly of Iowa State University and fellow assistant and former teammate Suzie McConnell-Serio of Duquesne University in working to defend the USA’s 2009 gold medal at the women’s university basketball competition on August 14-21 in Shenzhen, China.

“I know we will have a great staff with Suzie and Terri,” Fennelly said in the University press release. “I think they are two of the best young coaches in the country, and they are even better people. Our athletes are really going to enjoy working with them.”

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The Georgetown women’s basketball team opened up the first round of the NCAA tournament with a commanding 65-49 win over Princeton on Sunday afternoon. It is the second straight year the team has won its opening round game.  The fifth-seeded Hoyas came out strong and relied on star player Sugar Rodgers to down the 12th-seeded Tigers.

First half performance

Georgetown held Princeton to 14 points in the first half while Rodgers alone scored 16 points.  The Hoyas’ suffocating full court press shut down the Tigers’ offense, holding them to 28.6 percent shooting and forcing 14 turnovers in the half.  The Hoyas took advantage of the Tigers’ miscues and scored 22 points off turnovers.  Georgetown also shot a staggering 46.2 percent from downtown, half of which came from Rodgers. Princeton adjusted in the second half and outscored the Hoyas 35-31, but couldn’t make up the large first half margin.

“This time we went full court, our madness press because we wanted to start the pressure up a little bit higher and be just a little more aggressive,” head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said.

Sugar Rodgers

Sugar Rodgers demonstrated why she is the team leader, scoring 26 points. She also led the team with 10 rebounds, four assists, and three steals. It was her first double-double since Jan. 8 against Marquette, when she also had 26 points and 10 rebounds. Rodgers shot 8-for-18 from the field and 4-for-9 from beyond the arc.  Juniors Tia Magee and Rubylee Wright supported their sophomore teammate by adding 14 and 11 respectively.

What’s next

On Tuesday the Hoyas will take on the fourth-seeded Maryland Terrapins, who defeated St. Francis 70-48 in the first round on Sunday.  Georgetown beat Maryland earlier in the season 53-45 at home, but this time the game will be played at the Comcast Center in College Park. Game time is set for 7:15 p.m

This week, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named sophomore guard Sugar Rodgers to its “Wade Watch” preseason list.

Rodgers is one of the 25 players expected to compete for the Wade Trophy, which is given to the athlete who best embodies “game and season statistics, leadership, character, effect on their team and overall playing ability.”

The honor should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Rodgers’ game. In her freshman year, she averaged 17.6 points per game on her way to Honorable Mention AP All-American, First Team All-Big East, and Big East Freshman of the Year honors.

Rodgers is joined on the “Wade Watch” list by three of her Big East rivals: reigning player of the year Maya Moore, her UConn teammate Tiffany Hayes, and Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins.

After the most successful season in program history, which included a 13-3 conference record and a win in the NCAA tournament, Georgetown’s women’s basketball team has kept itself busy. Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy signed a contract extension until the 2014-2015 season, and D.C. All-Met guard Taylor Brown recently committed to the program.

But, a plea to the athletic department: Don’t stop giving away those Chipotle gift cards at women’s basketball games if the team gets popular. (We survive on those burritos.)