Fairfield extends Thibault-dudonis’ contract

Fairfield University announced Thursday that women’s basketball coach Carly Thibault-dudonis has signed a contract extension designed to keep her at the mid-major through the 2029-30 season.

Terms of the deal were not released.

Thibault-dudonis, in just her second year at Fairfield, has guided the No. 25 Stags to a 31-1 record and the 2024 MAAC Championship.

No. 13 seed Fairfield will bring a 29-game winning streak into their game Saturday with No. 4 seed Indiana (24-5) in Bloomington.

“This place is incredibly special, starting with the passionate, caring, and driven people that come together to strive for excellence,” Thibault-dudonis said in a statement. “This can be and is becoming one of the elite women’s basketball schools in the country, and we’ve been able to prove that to be true in the last few years.

The 32-year-old coach is the daughter of former WNBA coach Mike Thibault and the sister of Washington Mystics coach Eric Thibault.

Before being hired at Fairfield, she served as an assistant at Minnesota and Mississippi State where she helped coach the Bulldogs to back-to-back championship game appearances. She also served on staffs at Eastern Michigan and Florida State following her playing days at Monmouth.

Arizona advances out of First Four: Freshman Jada Williams had 17 points, Helena Pueyo scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half and Arizona earned its fourth straight opening win in the NCAA Tournament over Auburn on Thursday night in a First Four game at Gampel Pavilion.

Arizona (18-15) will move into the bracket as the No. 11 seed and will face sixthseeded Syracuse on Saturday. The Wildcats improved to 8-3 in NCAA Tournament games under coach Adia Barnes.

Auburn (20-12) was making its 22nd NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2019.