Cory McNeill - Women's Basketball Coach - East Carolina University Athletics

Cory McNeill

Title:
Associate Head Coach
Email:
mcneillco19@ecu.edu
Phone:
252-737-4372

Cory McNeill enters his sixth year as Associate Head Coach of the ECU women’s basketball team after being hired on April 12, 2019. McNeill, who is the husband of head coach Kim McNeill, served in the same role at the University of Hartford.

2023-24 was a season of resilience for McNeill and the Pirates. Despite multiple season-ending injuries, the team still finished with a 19-14 record, including a 9-9 record in American Athletic Conference play. The team also made a phenomenal run to reach the AAC Tournament Final for the second year in a row. It was the first time the Pirates had reached league finals in consecutive seasons since 1991 and 1992. In doing so, the Pirates won three games in three days, including a win over top-seeded Tulsa in the quarterfinal round. The Pirates posted some remarkable stats on the year, once again reaching the top 10 in program history in steals and turnovers forced.

McNeill also once again helped the Pirates to great individual success in 2023-24. Danae McNeal became the second Pirate in five years to win a second Defensive Player of the Year Award as well as being named unanimous First-Team All-Conference. McNeal also posted a record-breaking season with the second-most points in a season in ECU history, the fifth-most steals and finished her career at ninth in career scoring, sixth in career steals and third in free throw percentage. Additionally receiving honors, transfer forward Tatyana Wyche was named to the AAC All-Newcomer squad after posting a career season with 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds as well as 51 blocks, seventh in ECU history in a season.

McNeill's fourth season marked an historic campaign for the Pirates with a 23-10 record and an AAC Tournament Championship. The Pirates defeated Houston 46-44 in the AAC Title Game before facing No. 4-seed Texas in Austin in the NCAA Tournament. The team found individual success in addition to the team success with Danae McNeal earning Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player honors, Amiya Joyner being named Freshman of the Year and Synia Johnson being named AAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

In McNeill’s first season in Greenville, the Pirates made history on the defensive end. ECU finished second in the country in steals (407), steals per game (13.6) and turnovers forced (24.10) as well as third in turnover margin (+8.13).The 407 steals by ECU were both a school record and both Lashonda Monk (third) and Dominique Claytor (14th) finished in the top-14 of the nation in steals.

McNeill temporarily stepped up to head coaching duties in ECU’s win over Temple as head coach Kim McNeill missed the game due to a death in her family. Cory helped guide the Pirates to a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Owls as ECU rallied from a 17-point deficit.

Under McNeill’s guidance, Monk put together one of the best individual seasons in ECU history. The junior guard finished the season with 125 steals, breaking both the ECU and the AAC single-season record and finishing third in the NCAA. Monk became the first ECU player to win the AAC Defensive Player of the Year award and was named Second-Team All-AAC. Along with Monk, Tanyiah Thompson also earned postseason honors, becoming a unanimous selection to the AAC All-Rookie team after leading all AAC freshmen in scoring, minutes and steals. It was just the third time that ECU has had multiple postseason honorees since moving to the AAC in 2014.

During his three years in Hartford, McNeill helped the Hawks improve their win total in each successive season, culminating in a 23-11 mark in 2018-19 and the program’s first appearance in the WNIT since 2013. The 23 wins were the highest total for a Hartford squad since the 2009-10 season.

Working primarily in developing the Hawks’ guards, Hartford’s backcourt was one of the most productive in the America East under his guidance. That work was evident as four guards received All-Conference distinction from the league, including Sierra DaCosta, who became the program’s first Rookie of the Year winner since 2005-06.

McNeill also tutored Lindsey Abed who became the first America East First-Team All-Conference selection since 2009-10, Alexia Douglas who earned the league’s 2018-19 Sixth-Man-of-the-Year Award and Jade Young who was chosen as Second-Team All-Conference.

McNeill’s role with coaching the guards was once again noticeable in 2018-19, as Hartford set new program records on both the offensive and defensive ends. For the third consecutive season, the Hawks finished in the top-10 in the country in steals and turnovers forced. Hartford set a new program record with 441 steals, placing the Hawks second in the NCAA last season.

Under McNeill’s tutelage, the Hawks produced one of the best offenses in Hartford history. Hartford nailed 218 threes, a new program standard and Abed was one of the top scorers in the America East, averaging 14.6 points. The Hawks averaged 63.7 points as a team, ranking them in the top-three of the conference.

McNeill continued to help develop the guards in 2017-18, as Hartford broke the program record for steals for the second consecutive season with 399. The Hawks also finished the season ranked among the NCAA's top-10 in several defensive categories, including steals (5th), steals per game (6th) turnover margin (7th) and turnovers forced (8th).

In 2016-17, under McNeill’s guidance, the Hawks were a dangerous threat from three-point land. Finishing as the top three-point shooting squad in the America East, Hartford made the third-most three-pointers in program history (199) and posted the school’s second-highest shooting percentage from behind the arc last year.

In addition to contributing to an offense that led the America East and broke the program’s scoring record, McNeill’s guards were also a major factor in the Hawks’ success defensively. Hartford shattered the program record in steals and ranked No. 5 in the nation in steals per game.

McNeill came to Hartford after spending five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Virginia. At Virginia, McNeill and his wife served on Joanne Boyle’s staff, where they helped the Cavaliers to a 90-71 record and three WNIT appearances, including back-to-back berths in 2015 and 2016.

Prior to joining the staff at Virginia, McNeill served as an assistant coach at Georgetown from 2007-11. During that time, the Baltimore, Md., native helped the Hoyas to one of the nation’s most impressive turnarounds, earning back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths for the first time in program history in 2010 and 2011.

In addition, with McNeill’s prowess as a defensive coach, Georgetown became one of the nation’s leaders in forced turnovers and defensive field goal percentage.

McNeill’s coaching career began at Coppin State. In five seasons, he led the Eagles to two Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championships, three regular-season MEAC Championships, two NCAA Tournament berths and a WNIT appearance.

McNeill played college basketball at Morgan State, where he received his bachelor’s degree in finance in 2002, and went on to earn his master’s degree in public administration in 2005 from the University of Baltimore.

McNeill and his wife, head coach Kim McNeill, are the parents of twins, Cayden and Gabrielle.