Bio

Mike Mincey begins his 16th season as the head coach of the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles in 2026-27. The Volunteer State native is the fourth head coach in the 47 years of the program.

For the second time in program history and under Mincey's direction, Carson-Newman women's basketball claimed the Southeast Regional Championship. The Lady Eagles defeated three consecutive ranked teams to win the regional championship and make the program's second-ever Elite Eight. The program collected six ranked wins during the season, the most ranked wins in a year in at least the past two decades. The NCAA Tournament run was also the program's eighth appearance in the last nine years. No team in the Southeast region has more NCAA Tournament appearances over the past decade than C-N's eight. Carson-Newman is also one of just two schools in the South Atlantic Conference with multiple Elite Eight appearances. 

This historic season for Carson-Newman women's basketball was defined by a series of elite efforts. Jennifer Sullivan and Mattie Nuckolls both scored north of 500 points this season 571 and 507, respectively. They are just the third pair of teammates in program history to score at least 500 points in the same season, joining Lindsey Taylor and Braelyn Wykle in 2023-24 and Haris Price and Mika Wester in 2017-18. On the topic of scoring and shooting, Sullivan closed her career with 148 career three-pointers, the eighth-most in program history. 87 of those triples came this season, the second-most in a season in program history. Rebounding-wise, Keeleigh Rogers finished the 2025-26 season with the second-most defensive rebounds all-time with 220. Her 286 boards are now eighth-most in a season. Carson-Newman was an excellent passing team all season and two individuals stood out the most. Keeleigh Rogers dished out 138 assists, the eighth-most in a season and Emily Gonzalez had 117, 15th-best. They are just the second duo in program history with at least 100 assists in a season, joining Price and Wester in 2017-18. Defensively, Gonzalez and Rogers were menaces all year long. Gonzalez's 73 takeaways are fourth-most in program history and Rogers' 71 are fifth-most. And finally defensively, Mattie Nuckolls completed the year with 65 rejections, the fourth-most in a season for the program. Mincey coached Jennifer Sullivan to First Team All-SAC honors, Emily Gonzalez and Mattie Nuckolls to Third Team All-SAC honors and Chloe Heath to the All-Freshman Team. 

Mincey led the Lady Eagles to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the past eight seasons in 2024-25. Carson-Newman was selected as the number six seed and defeating Anderson in the opening round before losing in the Regional Semifinals. It was the first time in program history that C-N has won its opening round game at the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons.The Lady Eagles have won their first round game three of the past four seasons. The team concluded the 2024-25 season with a 23-9 record and won 18 league games to finish second in the regular season. Lindsey Taylor and Jennifer Sullivan were Carson-Newman's two All-SAC First Team selections, with Sullivan winning SAC Newcomer of the Year, the first Lady Eagle to win the award.

Just as Mincey did with Braelyn Wykle in 23-24, he coached two more individuals to stellar seasons in 2024-25 that allowed them to ink their name in multiple spots throughout the record book. Mincey coached Lindsey Taylor to All-SAC First Team honors once again, while seeing his post player lead DII and break the school record for field goal percentage in a season at 64.8 percent. Taylor's efficient scoring moved her up to fourth all-time in program history with 1,703 career points. Taylor ranks sixth in program history in rebounds with 921. Mincey mentored Campbell Penland to a career year as a senior and watched the guard become the program's third best three-point shooter in school history with 235 career makes. Penland's four-year impact as a sharpshooter led to her scoring 1,387 career points, tied for ninth-most in school history. Mincey has now coached four of the program's top 10 scorers all-time.

The Eagles finished the 2023-24 season with a 24-10 record, finishing with 20 plus wins for the sixth time under Mincey. The program made trips to both the South Atlantic Conference Championship game and Southeast Regional Championship game, winning four postseason games. The trip to the Sweet 16 was the second occurence in Mincey's tenure and the program's third. Carson-Newman earned a trip to the Sweet 16 by defeating Anderson 74-54, to secure the program's largest NCAA Tournament win. C-N completed an unbeaten home regular season for the third time in eight years by finishing 15-0. 10 of the 15 home wins came by double digits.

Mincey coached Braelyn Wykle to a First Team All-American honor from the WBCA in 2023-24, the program's third ever first team All-American. Wykle joins Haris Price and Lisa Stogner as the only other first team All-Americans. This season's honor was her third All-American award, joining Stogner as the C-N players to be a three-time winner. Wykle was also named the All-SAC First Team for the fifth time in her career and earned Division II Conference Commissioners Association first-team All-Southeast Region team, her third time being a first team pick. Mincey coached the most decorated player in program history for five seasons. Wykle finished her career as the program's all-time leading scorer with 2,782 career points. That scoring mark ranks second in South Atlantic Conference history and fourth all-time on the DII scoring list. Braelyn completes her career with a scoring average of 19.2, second highest ever in SAC history. In total, Wykle made 970 baskets, the most in program and SAC history on efficient 46/41/87 career splits. With 2,782 career points came 370 three-pointers, the most in program history achieving that mark last season. The sharp shooting from long range allowed her to finish second in SAC history and seventh all-time among DII players for threes made. In her final go around, Wykle broke the program and the SAC's single-season record for three-pointers made with 107 this season.

Carson-Newman reached the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in coach Mike Mincey’s 11 seasons at Mossy Creek and fifth in a row in 2021-22. The last time the program made an appearance in at least five postseason national tournaments in a row came from 1989-93 when it went to five consecutive NAIA District 26 Playoffs winning three contests over that stretch. The Lady Eagles secured their third SAC Tournament Championship on March 6 crushing Anderson 83-58. The 25-point differential matched the league’s largest margin of victory in a title game matching the 25-point spread by Presbyterian in 1998. With 83 points, the club came within two points of the championship game high mark. The Orange and Blue won the SAC’s scoring title for the seventh straight season averaging 80.6 points per game, good for fifth in the country. C-N was seventh in Division II in field-goal percentage at 46.5. Carson-Newman led the country in assists per game posting 18.4. Overall, the club recorded 15 games out of 33 with at least 20 assists with six of 25 or more. Three players ranked in the top 11 of the SAC.

Developing an elite scoring unit, Carson-Newman has led the South Atlantic Conference in scoring in each of the last six seasons ranking sixth, third, seventh, sixth and 13th nationally in scoring over the past five campaigns. Capturing its sixth overall regular-season crown in 2020-21 and its fourth outright title in the history of the program, C-N reached the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championships for the fourth year in a row for the first time in the history of the school after its 11th appearance. It was the fifth time in Mincey’s 10 seasons at Mossy Creek that the Lady Eagles are in the field. The last time the program had made an appearance in at least four national tournaments in a row came from 1989-93 when it went to five NAIA District 26 Playoffs in a row winning three contests over that stretch. Over the last four years, the Lady Eagles are the only team to finish first or second each season. In that time the school has produced a 111-33 overall record and a 81-21 mark against the league.

All-American and SAC Player of the Year Braelyn Wykle led a group of four players named to All-SAC rosters. The year is the third time in the history of the league that one team put a four players on the top three units with Mincey’s squad doing it for a second time in four years joining the 2017-18 club. Wingate put a quartet of Bulldogs in 2014-15, two of which were on the honorable mention club.

During the 2019-20 season, the team reset the single season SAC record for three-pointers in a season with 323, the second-most in Division II. Mincey oversaw the development of Kayla Marosites who earned 27 awards in her career and was named to three All-American rosters as a senior (WBCA, D2CCA and CoSIDA Academic). On the flip side of the roster, Braelyn Wykle became the first SAC player since 2007-08 to earn the conference's Freshman of the Year and First-Team all-conference honor in the same season. The rookie was the lone underclassmen in the Southeast Region to be named to the D2CCA all-region team.

In 2018-19, Mincey led C-N to the NCAA Tournament for a second-straight year for the second time in school history. The team won 20 games for a third consecutive season, marking the first time in 29 years that the school had produced such success. In a 109-49 drubbing of Mars Hill on Feb. 6, 2019, he became the seventh SAC coach in the history of the league to reach triple digits during their tenure.

In 2017-18, the mentor led one of the best seasons in the history of the school as he took home SAC Coach of the Year and WBCA Region 3 Coach of the Year honors. He became the third coach in the history of the school to win the conference's top coaching honor. Dean Walsh shared the accolade with Wingate's Johnny Jacumin in 2004-05 and Eddie Carter won five times (1989-90, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1994-95 and 1997-98).

The team finished the season ranked fifth in the country in the WBCA Coaches' Poll, the highest final ranking in the history of South Atlantic Conference schools. It completed a campaign in which the Lady Eagles were ranked in every single poll released by the organization starting on Nov. 21, 2017, a string of 16 straight weeks. The program reached as high as No. 3 nationally doing so for three straight weeks from Feb. 6-20, 2018. It was the best slot a SAC team had ever been during a season.

His team spent the final 14 weeks inside of the top 10 in America and nine as a top-five team in the poll. Since the SAC formed in 1989-90, no team had spent double-digit weeks in the top 10 as other schools have combined for 33 weeks in the top 10 in the history of the poll. Presbyterian in 1999-00 spent nine weeks amongst the 10 best teams in the country. Prior to 2017-18, teams from the league had spent a total of seven weeks in the coaches poll ranked in the top five as Presbyterian was in it for five weeks in 1999-00. No other school had finished a season ranked in the top five. Wingate's No. 7 ranking in 1993-94 was the prior best mark to conclude a campaign.

Carson-Newman went to the program's first Elite Eight after capturing its first SAC regular season crown in 21 years, its second SAC Tournament title and first-ever Southeast Region Championship. The Lady Eagles matched a school record with 32 wins on the year setting the SAC record in that category by four games. Other records that C-N now holds among SAC schools is most points in a year (3,180), points per game (90.9) and assists (702). Mincey's unit produced 11 games with at least 100 points after the school had registered 11 such games combined over the previous 27 seasons. Overall, the 2017-18 squad set 12 school records during the season.

Juniors Haris Price (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) and Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) were named WBCA All-Americans marking the first time in school's Division II era that teammates were named to the top teams in the nation. Only one player in that stretch had been one when Shari Buford was a third-team pick in 2009-10. Overall Price and Wester were the ninth and 10th players to earn the honors in the history of the program.

The mentor led C-N to its 18th 20-win season in program history in 2016-17 going 20-10 and the first 20-win year for the school in seven years when the 2009-10 team went 24-7. Carson-Newman was sixth in the country out of 307 schools in scoring offense at 80.7, eighth in turnover margin at plus-seven and eighth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.27. The unit was 11th in assists per game at over 17 per night while shooting just shy of 45 percent, 22nd in the country. Mincey earned his 100th career coaching victory in an 80-76 road win at Catawba on Feb. 4, 2017. The Lady Eagles played the 10th most difficult schedule in Division II this season as opponents combined for a 251-178 record, .585 winning percentage.

The 2015-16 season saw the Lady Eagles break the single-season program record for made three-pointer making 216 shattering the 2013-14 mark of 178. Mincey led the team to three wins over nationally-ranked teams, the most since at least 2000 by a C-N team. On Nov. 21, Carson-Newman came back to defeat sixth-ranked Columbus State 70-68 at Holt Fieldhouse. The Lady Eagles swept the season series with SAC champion Anderson (S.C.) winning on Jan. 21 at 11th-ranked Anderson 54-51 and coming back to win at home over No. 17 81-79 in overtime.

2015 marked the first season in Mincey's head coaching career that he guided the Lady Eagles to the NCAA Tournament. Mincey's group appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in school history securing the No. 7 seed in the Southeast Region as the C-N fell to second-seeded Columbus State 58-40 on March 13.

Mincey has guided the Eagles to four consecutive winning seasons including a 19-11 overall record and 13-9 mark in South Atlantic Conference play. The 19 wins are the most by a Mike Mincey-coached team in four seasons while the 13 conference wins matched a program record set by the 1989-90 team. 

The season began with 11 consecutive wins as the Lady Eagles were one of eight remaining Division II teams this season and one of the final 28 teams out of 1,040 among three divisions to be undefeated.

Three players (Tatum Burstrom - All-SAC Honorable Mention, Allison Hodge and Jecca Simerly - All-SAC Freshman Team) were named to postseason All-SAC teams for the first time since 2010-11 and just the fifth time three or more student-athletes earned postseason accolades in 26 years as a SAC program.

After a 16-14, 12-10 league mark in year three, C-N secured itself a spot in the SAC semifinals before bowing out to eventual league titlist Lenoir-Rhyne.  Kaitlyn Cupples was named the league's freshman of the year after leading the league in field goal percentage.  

In his second year at the helm of the program with a 15-11 mark and a 9-9 record in conference play.  Carson-Newman jettisoned off to a fast start, rolling to six consecutive victories before the Eagles took a break for fall final exams.  The wins included a pair over North Georgia and reigning national player of the year Jaymee Carnes. The year saw the crowning of Tatum Burstrom to the SAC's All-Freshman team.  

In Mincey’s first season at the helm of the Carson-Newman program, the Lady Eagles went 17-11, including a winning record in South Atlantic Conference play, going 10-8. The Lady Eagles defended their home gym, going 11-2 in games played at Holt Fieldhouse on the Carson-Newman campus.

The veteran mentor is a member of the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association and has been the South Atlantic Conference captain for each of the last four years. In 2017-18 Mincey begins a two-year term as the Chair of the Conference and voting member for the WBCA top-25 poll.

The 2011-12 Lady Eagles beat five teams that advanced to the 2012 NCAA Division II Tournament. Carson-Newman beat ranked teams in back-to-back days in late November, knocking off no. 12 Delta State and no. 15 Lander at Holt Fieldhouse.

Before becoming Carson-Newman’s head coach, Mincey spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach under Dean Walsh, who was at the helm of the program for the last 10 seasons and is the fourth winningest coach in South Atlantic Conference history.

Along with serving as an assistant coach for the Lady Eagles for three seasons, he was also a part of the Carson-Newman men’s basketball program during the 2005-06 season under former head coach Dale Clayton.

During Mincey’s time as an assistant at Mossy Creek, the Lady Eagles won 57 games, averaging 19 wins per season, and made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2009 and 2010.

In Mincey’s second year in 2009-10, C-N turned in one of the most successful seasons in school history. The Lady Eagles opened the year winning a school-record 16 straight games and earned the highest national ranking in school history at No. 8. The Lady Eagles finished the year ranked sixth in the nation in blocked shots per game (5.6), 16th in scoring (77.5) and 23rd in steals per game (11.8).

Prior to joining the Lady Eagle program, Mincey served successful stints as a head coach in high school and an assistant coach at the Division I level.

In 1996-97 he was the head boys’ basketball and baseball coach at Conway Christian School in Conway, S.C., where he was named Coach of the Year in both sports by the South Carolina Association of Christian Schools. Mincey led his baseball team to a runner-up finish in the state tournament.

From 2001-04 Mincey was an assistant coach at East Tennessee State University. He served as recruiting coordinator during his final season with the Lady Buccaneers. While at ETSU, he coached one Southern Conference Player of the Year, two players who played overseas, three All-Conference players and two All-Freshman team members. In 2004 he was part of the staff that guided ETSU to 13 Southern Conference victories, which were the most in school history.

A 1996 graduate of King College in Bristol, Tenn., Mincey had a successful playing career while at King. He currently ranks in the top five in several career, single season and single game records. He scored 1,285 points and dished out 406 assists. His assist total is good enough for third best in King history. He also made 328 free throws during his career, which ranks first all-time. For his efforts both on and off the court, he was named King College Male Athlete of the Year in 1996.

Mincey and his wife Shannon reside in Jefferson City, Tenn. and attend First Baptist of Dandridge. They have two children, Cami and Cy.