Towson placed women’s basketball coach Laura Harper on administrative leave Friday night. Associate head coach Crystal Kelly has been named acting head coach.
A university spokesman declined to share more details Saturday morning, saying only in a statement, “This is a personnel matter. As a result, there is no additional comment.”
Harper did not respond to a request for comment.
Last season was Harper’s first at the helm for the Tigers, who went 21-12 overall and 13-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association. They earned a share of the regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament for the first time in program history and advanced to the title game before falling to Monmouth, 80-55, on March 12. They lost to Harvard, 103-63, in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on March 16.
With 21 victories, Harper amassed the most victories by a coach in her first year in school history. She also became the first coach to guide the Tigers to the postseason in her first season.
Harper added four transfers in the offseason, including CCBC Essex forward Anasia Staton, who was named a National Junior College Athletic Association Division II All-American after averaging 13.1 points and 8.1 rebounds and compiling 18 points and six rebounds in the Knights’ 95-85 overtime victory over Richard Bland College for the program’s first national title.
Harper was hired April 20, 2022, to succeed Diane Richardson, who left the school for Temple. Harper had previously coached at Coppin State for two years, including the 2021-22 season during which she led that squad to its first winning campaign since 2013-14 and was named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference’s Coach of the Year.
Harper was a pivotal member of the 2006 Maryland team that captured that school’s first and only NCAA championship. She was named the Final Four Most Valuable Player after averaging 14.0 points and 8.3 rebounds in six tournament games.
