Head Coach Lori Kerans completed her 29th season at the helm of the Big Blue women’s basketball program in 2014-15. On December 14, 2012, Coach Kerans became only the 15th active NCAA Division III women’s basketball coach to reach 500 victories and the 19th women’s coach all-time in Division III to reach that coaching mark. Kerans is the first women’s basketball coach in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to reach the coveted 500 victory mark. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Alliance of Women Coaches.
Coach Kerans has led the Big Blue to 13 20-win seasons. In 2004-05, she guided Millikin to its 14th NCAA appearance and its first-ever NCAA Championship. That season, the Big Blue earned Kerans her 11th career NCAA playoff berth and 11th College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin crown en route to the program’s first-ever national title. She has been named CCIW Coach of the Year seven times, including 1996-97, 1997-98 and 2004-05 when she led Millikin to a school record 25 victories each season (surpassed in 2004-05 with 29 wins). She has been honored by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association as its Women’s Division III Coach of the Year 10 times, including 2004-05 and was named the Molten/Division III News Coach of the Year in both 1997-98 and 2004-05. After her team’s NCAA title run in 2004-05, she was also named the WBCA’s Region 7 Coach of the Year. In her career to date she has coached seven of the CCIW’s “Most Outstanding Players,” 18 All-CCIW first teamers and three Final Four All-Tournament players (including the 2004-05 All-Final Four Most Outstanding Player).
Millikin’s all-time winningest coach, Kerans owns a 529-228 mark. Through the 2014-15 season, her winning percentage ranked her 36th nationally among active Division III coaches and 11th in career wins.
A 1985 graduate of Millikin, Lori was a four-year basketball letter winner and a three-year softball letter winner. As a senior during the NCAA basketball tournament, Kerans was named the Central Regional’s Most Valuable Player and was a Final Four All-Tournament Team selection. In softball, Lori was a second-team Academic All-American in 1985.
Kerans earned a master’s degree at Illinois State University after graduating from Millikin. She is a 1991 inductee into the Millikin Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Decatur Athletic Hall of Fame in June 1998.
