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Lady Raiders fill two spots with Swoopes, Vanderbilt coach wins leader

The Texas Tech women’s basketball program, trying to right itself from four consecutive losing seasons, announced a couple of splashy hires Wednesday.

Tech coach Candi Whitaker named Hall of Fame player Sheryl Swoopes director of player development, bringing home the icon who led the Lady Raiders to the 1993 NCAA championship. A few hours later, Tech announced the hiring Melanie Balcomb as associate head coach.

Balcomb is 473-253 with 15 NCAA Tournament appearances in 23 seasons as head coach at Ashland (1993-95), Xavier (1995-2002) and Vanderbilt (2002-16). She spent last season as director of coaching offensive analytics at South Carolina, which won the national championship.