Jasmine Lister resigns from UConn women’s basketball

After taking a leave of absence on Jan. 31, 2020, Jasmine Lister has officially resigned as an assistant coach for UConn women’s basketball.

“I’m happy to share that Jasmine is doing well and appreciates the kindness of UConn Nation during her time away from our program,” Geno Auriemma said in a release, adding that she is “a great person and I’m sure the next chapter of her life will bring continued success.”

“I am grateful for my time spent with the UConn women’s basketball program,” Lister said. “I have learned a lot from Coach Auriemma the coaching staff, and the student-athletes. They have been supportive of me during my time away.”

Lister mysteriously disappeared from the Huskies’ bench after the team’s loss to Baylor, which was initially attributed to an unspecified illness. After three weeks with Lister missing games and practices, UConn announced she was taking a leave of absence and would be replaced on the staff by former player and assistant Jamelle Elliot.

According to the Hartford Courant’s Alexa Philippou, Elliot is still working as an assistant for the Huskies as of now but whether or not she becomes a permanent assistant remains to be seen.

If she wants it, Elliot is the best candidate to take Lister’s spot on the staff. She played for UConn from 1992-1996 and spent 12 years as an assistant coach with her alma mater from 1998-2009. After that, she became the head coach at Cincinnati, a position she held until 2018. She returned to UConn to become the associate athletic director in charge of the National C Club, an organization for student-athlete alumni at the school, before getting called in to help as interim assistant this past season.

Elliot also complements fellow assistant Shea Ralph well since Elliot is experienced coaching bigs while Ralph typically works with the backcourt. This past season, sophomore center Olivia Nelson-Ododa transformed into one of UConn’s best practice players under Elliot’s tutelage after previously being one of the worst practice players in program history — in Auriemma’s words.

Lister first joined UConn as a graduate assistant in 2014, a role she held through the end of the 2016 season. After that, she joined Washington’s staff for a year before coaching under Doug Bruno at DePaul. When former Huskies assistant Marisa Moseley took the head coaching job at BU, UConn brought in Lister as her replacement.