Jennifer Gillom

Jennifer Gillom

Personal information
Born	June 13, 1964 Abbeville, Mississippi
Nationality	American
Career information
High school	Lafayette (Oxford, Mississippi)
College	Ole Miss (1982–1986)
Playing career	1997–2003
Coaching career	2004–present
Career history
As player:
1997–2002	Phoenix Mercury
2003	Los Angeles Sparks
As coach:
2004–2010	Xavier College Preparatory
2008	Minnesota Lynx (assistant)
2009	Minnesota Lynx
2010–2011	Los Angeles Sparks
2012	Washington Mystics (assistant)
2013–2015	Connecticut Sun (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
WNBA All-Star (1999) All-WNBA First Team (1998) All-WNBA Second Team (1997)
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
Medals Women's Basketball World University Games 1985 Kobe Team Competition FIBA World Championship for Women 1986 Moscow Team Competition Pan American Games 1987 Indianapolis Team Competition Olympic Games 1988 Seoul Basketball Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach for  United States Olympic Games 2012 London Team Competition FIBA World Championship for Women 2010 Brazil Team Competition

Jennifer "Grandmama" Gillom (born June 13, 1964) is an American former WNBA basketball player who played for the Phoenix Mercury from 1997 to 2002, before finishing her playing career with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2003. Gillom is also a former Sparks head coach, also coached the Minnesota Lynx; and was, until 2015, an assistant coach of the Connecticut Sun.

Born in Abbeville, Mississippi, Gillom played college basketball at the University of Mississippi and helped the United States Basketball Team to a gold medal in women's basketball in the 1988 Summer Olympics.^[1] Gillom signed with the Mercury in 1996 where she was All-WNBA in 1998 and won the Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award in her final season.

Gillom was the head coach of the Xavier College Preparatory High School basketball team in Phoenix, Arizona in 2004. Starting in the 2008 season, Gillom served as an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx. In June 2009, she was named head coach of the team. She succeeded Don Zierden, who resigned to accept an assistant coaching job under the late Flip Saunders of the Washington Wizards.

In 2009, Gillom was elected to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Knoxville, Tennessee.^[2]

USA Basketball

Player

Gillom played for the USA World University Games team in Kobe, Japan in 1985. The team brought home a silver medal, after falling to the USSR. The team trailed by 18 points at one time, mounted a come-back attempt but fell short, losing 87–81. Gillom was the second leading scorer for the USA team, with 12.8 points per game.^[3] The following year, Gillom played for the USA team at the World Championships, in Moscow. This time, the USA team would meet the USSR in the title game and emerge victorious, winning the gold medal with a score of 108–88. Gillom averaged 2.8 points per game.^[4]

Gillom was named to the team representing the USA at the 1987 Pan American Games, held in Indianapolis, Indiana in August. The USA team won all four of their games winning the gold medal for the event. She averaged 9.5 points per game.^[5] Gillom continued with the national team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, held in September. The team won all five games which resulted in the gold medal. Gillom averaged 2.8 points per game.^[1]

Coach

Gillom was named assistant coach of the USA National team in preparation for competition in the 2010 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. Because many team members were still playing in the WNBA until just prior to the event, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving for Ostrava and Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Even with limited practice, the team managed to win their first game against Greece by 26 points. The team continued to dominate with victory margins exceeding 20 points in the first five games. Several players shared scoring honors, with Swin Cash, Angel McCoughtry, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Lindsay Whalen, and Sylvia Fowles all ending as high scorer in the first few games. The sixth game was against undefeated Australia—the USA jumped out to a 24-point lead, but the Australian team cut the lead back to single digits late in the game. The USA prevailed 83–75. The USA won their next two games by over thirty points, then faced the host team, the Czech Republic, in the championship game. The USA team had only a five-point lead at halftime, which was cut to three points, but the Czechs never got closer, and went on to win the championship and gold medal.^[6]

She continued as an assistant at the 2012 Olympics in London.^[7]

Career statistics

WNBA Career Totals

Year	Team	G	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	FTM	FTA	3PTM	3PTA	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1997	PHX	28	28	874	163	376	94	121	20	65	151	21	37	58	15	440
1998	PHX	30	30	962	228	492	137	195	31	82	219	42	50	89	10	624
1999	PHX	32	32	1,095	163	428	141	177	18	72	184	54	37	87	7	485
2000	PHX	30	30	826	139	316	79	106	19	69	116	45	21	59	29	376
2001	PHX	32	32	858	150	355	71	96	24	70	127	35	31	71	19	395
2002	PHX	31	31	874	166	400	105	131	36	93	116	37	29	61	21	473
2003	LA	33	10	397	40	97	16	21	7	26	55	21	16	9	3	103
Totals		216	193	5,886	1,049	2,464	643	847	155	477	968	255	221	434	104	2,896

WNBA Career Averages

Year	Team	MIN	FG%	FT%	3PT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	BLK	PTS
1997	PHX	31.2	.434	.777	.308	5.4	0.8	1.3	2.0	0.5	15.7
1998	PHX	32.1	.463	.703	.378	7.3	1.4	1.7	3.0	0.3	20.8
1999	PHX	34.2	.381	.797	.250	5.8	1.7	1.2	2.7	0.2	15.2
2000	PHX	27.5	.440	.745	.275	3.9	1.5	0.7	2.0	1.0	12.5
2001	PHX	26.8	.423	.740	.343	4.0	1.1	1.0	2.2	0.6	12.3
2002	PHX	28.2	.415	.802	.387	3.7	1.2	0.9	2.0	0.7	15.3
2003	LA	12.0	.412	.762	.269	1.7	0.6	0.5	0.3	0.1	3.1
Totals		27.3	.426	.759	.325	4.5	1.2	1.0	2.0	0.5	13.4

Notes

1. "Games of the XXIVth Olympiad -- 1988". USA Basketball. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
2. "WBHOF Inductees". WBHOF. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
3. "Thirteenth World University Games -- 1985". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
4. "TENTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FOR WOMEN -- 1986". USA Basketball. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
5. "Tenth Pan American Games -- 1987". USA Basketball. June 10, 2010. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
6. "SIXTEENTH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FOR WOMEN -- 2010". USA Basketball. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
7. "Doug Bruno, Jennifer Gillom, Marynell Meadors Return To USA Basketball As 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Assistant Coaches". USA Basketball. Jan 20, 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2012.

External links

• Jennifer Gillom bio
• Gillom hired as Lynx assistant coach
• Gillom hired as head coach of the Minnesota Lynx