Daugherty will not return as women’s basketball coach next season

WSU+Head+Coach+June+Daugherty+talks+to+her+team+in+the+Jan.+27+game+against+Stanford.+WSU+lost+87-44.

YULING LIU | Daily Evergreen file

WSU Head Coach June Daugherty talks to her team in the Jan. 27 game against Stanford. WSU lost 87-44.

DYLAN GREENE, Evergreen deputy sports editor

WSU women’s basketball Head Coach June Daugherty will not return to coach the Cougars next season, WSU Director of Athletics Patrick Chun announced in a news release Tuesday.

“Thank you to Coach June Daugherty for her years of service to Washington State University,” Chun said in the release. “We appreciate everything she has done for our student-athletes, women’s basketball and this university.”

Chun didn’t specify why WSU decided to part ways with Daugherty.

Citing an undisclosed medical issue, Daugherty took an indefinite leave of absence from the team in January. Her husband Mike Daugherty, WSU’s associate head coach, took over as head coach for the remainder of this season.

Daugherty, 61, was entering the final year of a contract that was approved by former Athletic Director Bill Moos in 2014.

Daugherty posted a combined 130-218 record over the past 11 seasons with the Cougars.

WSU will begin a national search immediately to find the Cougars’ next head coach, according to the release.