Atlanta Dream Coach Nicki Collen Left For The Baylor Job Two Weeks Before The WNBA Season

It is exceedingly rare to see coaches in professional sports leave for the college ranks for the same job title, but with two weeks left until the start of the WNBA season, that’s exactly what happened with Atlanta Dream head coach Nicki Collen.

Collen, who took over as head coach in Atlanta in 2018, was announced as the new head coach at Baylor after Kim Mulkey left for the LSU job.

The news came as a shock to everyone, including to players of the Dream, as Collen has been running Atlanta’s training camp and even met with the media on Monday to talk about the upcoming season.

Folks from around the WNBA community were stunned by the news and had some very funny responses to Collen just dipping out right before the start of the season.

The Baylor job is, without a doubt, one of the best in all of college basketball and for Collen it is likely a spot that provides her more job security long-term. Still, it is pretty wild to see someone leave an active head coaching job at the professional level for a college job, and the Dream are left with more questions than answers with less than two weeks until the start of the regular season. We’ll find out soon who they elevate to head coach, but if nothing else this provides a whole new layer of drama to the WNBA season.