Women's Basketball

50 Years of Women’s Championships - WIAC Hall of Fame Spotlight: Lisa Stone, UW-Eau Claire

WIAC Hall of Fame

MADISON, Wis.--To commemorate 50 years of sponsoring women’s championships during the 2020-21 academic year, the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) will highlight a female member of its Hall of Fame.
 
The conference’s Hall of Fame was established in 2012 to provide recognition of those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the conference and to help preserve the storied history of the WIAC and its member institutions. The WIAC Hall of Fame shall serve as a source of celebration, inspiration and nostalgia, as well as a means of introducing the future to the past. Inductions into the WIAC Hall of Fame have occurred every three years.
 
Today’s spotlight features UW-Eau Claire’s Lisa Stone, who was inducted into the WIAC Hall of Fame in 2012. Below is the write-up from her Hall of Fame induction:
 
Lisa Stone took the UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball program to a level of national prominence during a record-setting 12-year career at the institution (1989-2000).
 
For a program that had never won more than 17 games in a season or finished higher than third in the conference, Stone raised the bar in her first year and never let it slip. She guided the Blugolds to 20-win seasons and first or second place conference finishes in 11 of her 12 campaigns.
 
She also took her team to the NCAA playoffs 11 times. Six of her teams advanced to the Elite Eight, including a runner-up finish in 1997 and third place in 1994. Her 1999-2000 team won its first 28 games before losing to eventual national champion Washington University (Mo.) in the second round of the NCAA tourney. She had an overall winning percentage of .824 (277-59), and her teams were nearly unbeatable in Zorn Arena where they won 90 percent of their games.
 
Stone was named the WIAC Coach of the Year five times and earned the WBCA Division III National Coach of the Year honor in 1997. In 2012, she was selected as the WIAC All-Time Co-Coach in women’s basketball in conjunction with the WIAC Centennial Celebration.
 
Following her stint at UW-Eau Claire, Stone served as head women’s basketball coach at Drake University (Iowa) (2001-03), UW-Madison (2004-11) and is currently the head coach at Saint Louis University (Mo.).
 
A member of the women’s basketball team, Stone earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and master’s degree in athletic administration from the University of Iowa.
 
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