Millikin Athletics

    Head Coach Lori Kerans completed her 31st season at the helm of the Big Blue women's basketball program in 2016-17.  On December 14, 2012, Coach Kerans became only the 15th active NCAA Division III women’s basketball coach to reach 500 victories and the 19th women’s coach all-time in Division III to reach that coaching mark. Kerans is the first women’s basketball coach in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to reach the coveted 500 victory mark.
    Kerans has led the Big Blue to 13 20-win seasons. In 2004-05, she guided Millikin to its 14th NCAA appearance and its first-ever NCAA Championship.  That season, the Big Blue earned Kerans her 11th career NCAA playoff berth and 11th College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin crown en route to the program's first-ever national title. She has been named CCIW Coach of the Year seven times, including 1996-97, 1997-98 and 2004-05 when she led Millikin to a school record 25 victories each season (surpassed in 2004-05 with 29 wins). She has been honored by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association as its Women's Division III Coach of the Year 10 times, including 2004-05 and was named the Molten/Division III News Coach of the Year in both 1997-98 and 2004-05. After her team's NCAA title run in 2004-05, she was also named the WBCA's Region 7 Coach of the Year. In her career to date she has coached seven of the CCIW's "Most Outstanding Players," 18 All-CCIW first teamers and three Final Four All-Tournament players (including the 2004-05 All-Final Four Most Outstanding Player).
    Millikin's all-time winningest coach, Kerans owns a 548-259 mark. In her 31 years she has had 24 winning seasons and owns a .679 winning percentage. Through the 2014-15 season, her winning percentage ranked her 36th nationally among active Division III coaches and 11th in career wins. In the all-time Division III coaching categories, she is ranked 20th in wins. She owns a 290-103 record in games at Griswold Center. Between 1997 and 2001 her teams put together a school-record 46-game home winning streak.
    Kerans, who is thought to be the first woman to both play in and coach at the NCAA Tournament, owns a 17-11 record in NCAA games. Her teams had twice advanced to the Elite Eight before the national championship.  Millikin's women's team became the first team in CCIW men's or women's basketball history to win five straight championships with its 1997-98 title. The Big Blue won at least 20 games a year during the eight-year span from 1993-94 to 2000-01, something no other women's team has accomplished in CCIW history.
    A 1985 graduate of Millikin, Kerans was a four-year basketball letter winner and a three-year softball letter winner. As a senior during the NCAA basketball tournament, Kerans was named the Central Regional's Most Valuable Player and was a Final Four All-Tournament Team selection. The Big Blue finished third at the NCAA Division III Basketball Championships that season when Kerans was named Millikin's Most Valuable Player. In softball, Kerans was a second-team Academic All-American in 1985 and team MVP in 1984. In 1985, she received the University's M Award, given annually to the senior woman who has contributed the most to the athletics program.
    Kerans earned a master's degree at Illinois State University after graduating from Millikin. She is a 1991 inductee into the Millikin Athletic Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Decatur Athletic Hall of Fame in June 1998.  
Kerans' Career Record