Rick Moody - Women's Basketball Coach - Syracuse University Athletics

Rick Moody

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
rmmoody@syr.edu
Phone:
3761

Rick Moody is in second season as an assistant coach where he is involved in player development, game plans and practice planning. Moody retired after the 2004-05 season, concluding 16 highly successfully seasons at Alabama. Current SU head coach Quentin Hillsman was an assistant to Moody in his final year at Alabama.

With the Crimson Tide, Moody earned 310 career victories, making him the winningest coach of the program (men’s or women’s). His Alabama career was highlighted by eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including five consecutive "Sweet Sixteen" finishes and the school’s only Final Four trip in 1994. In addition, under Moody the Crimson Tide recorded eight 20-win seasons.

Go Orange
During Moody’s first season with the Orange he helped improve SU’s rebounding numbers significantly as Syracuse went from 14th in the BIG EAST in rebouding in 2006-07 to second in 2007-08.

Roll Tide
When Moody retired from Alabama at the end of the 2004-05 season he was the only Alabama basketball coach, men’s or women’s, to reach 300 wins at the Alabama.

Bringing national attention to the Alabama program, he led the Crimson Tide to 11 post season appearances including eight of the 10 NCAA appearances, in Alabama history, five consecutive "Sweet 16" showings and one trip to the Final Four in 1994. He also led the Tide to a record 26 wins in the 1993-1994 season. Under his coaching, Alabama reached a final top-25 ranking eight times. In addition, they recorded 44 wins over nationally ranked opponents including nine versus top-10 squads. His coaching career is also highlighted by outstanding numbers, including 19 regular season tournament titles, 145 home victories, 97 regular season SEC wins and 13 SEC Tournament victories.

In 1989, Moody became the Tide’s sixth head coach. In his first season, he led the Tide to a 16-12 record.

In 1991-92, Moody led his team to the first of seven consecutive invitations to the NCAA Tournament. That same year, the Crimson Tide also posted their first year-ending national ranking of No. 17 in the USA Today poll.

The 1993-94 season recorded the program’s best ever record of 26-7, leading the team to be ranked No. 4 in the country at the end of the season.

After the 1994-95 season, Moody earned a Gold Medal at the U.S. Sports Festival as the East Head Coach.

Prior to the 1996-97 season, Moody was chosen by the Sporting News as the preseason National Coach of the Year. That season, Alabama finished the year ranked No. 8 AP and No. 11 USA Today and made its fourth consecutive trip to the "Sweet 16."

Alabama’s NCAA tournament streak ended in 1999-2000, but Moody still led them to earn a bid to the WNIT. It was be the first of three consecutive trips for the Tide to the WNIT.

Records and titles aside, Moody has focused on helping to develop student-athletes on and off the court. He has coached 12 All-Americans, including two Kodak All-Americans and two freshman All-Americans, and 22 All-SEC selections. During his time at Alabama, 45 of his student-athletes achieved Academic All-SEC awards.

The Beginning
Moody has experience coaching at almost every level of an athlete’s development. His first coaching job was at Clifford Meigs Junior High School in Shalimar, Fla. After one season there, Moody moved to Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where he spent two seasons compiling a 34-8 mark. After that, Moody coached the varsity boys club at Fort Walton Beach High School, before returning to his home state of Alabama.

After spending five seasons of coaching high school, Moody began his collegiate coaching career, getting his start as a graduate assistant and then an assistant coach at the University of Alabama. In 1982, Moody earned his master of arts in physical education.

During his stay with the Tide, Moody helped lead the Crimson Tide to their first NCAA Tournament appearance and developed Cassandra Crumpton into the Tide’s first All-American women’s basketball player.

After three seasons at the University of Alabama, Moody moved his family to Guntersville, Ala. He spent the next five seasons as the head coach for the varsity boys team at Guntersville High School.

Away from the game, Moody takes pleasure in spending time with his family. He also enjoys to fish and golf. Moody and his wife, Sandra, have one son, Ben, who graduated from the University of Alabama and was a member of the golf team. He married Beth Newman in August 2008 and is currently an assistant golf coach at Georgia State University.