Tamara Inoue - Building UC Irvine's Best Era & a 17-3 Start

Tamara Inoue, UC Irvine's WBB head coach joins this week's episode of @Notevend2 . Inoue’s run at UC Irvine is one of the most impressive turnarounds in college basketball. Taking over a program that finished 5–23 in her first season, Inoue has completely redefined the ceiling of UC Irvine women’s basketball. She’s now on pace to lead UCI to five straight 20+ win seasons, is already the all-time winningest coach in program history, and guided the program to a Big West Championship in 2023–24. This season, her team sits at 17–3, continuing a stretch of sustained success that few programs can match. A Big West Co-Coach of the Year (2020–21), she’s steadily transformed the program from rebuild mode into a consistent conference contender. What started as a challenging rebuild has evolved into one of the most stable and respected programs in the Big West. UC Irvine is positioned to remain a force in the conference and beyond. The main goal remains to get back to the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years. Will they win the Big West?