Denise Dillon (born September 22, 1973) is the head women's basketball coach at Villanova, returning to her alma mater from Drexel, where she was the program's most successful coach since it moved to Division I in 1982-83.She had been at the helm of the Dragons program since 2003, and was named the 2005, 2009, 2018, and 2019 CAA Coach of the Year. "How much I've learned from Harry ... he's so great about helping everybody in the game. Drexel Director of Athletics Dr. Eric Zillmer has announced that Denise Dillon, the Dragons’ head women’s basketball coach, has agreed to a multi-year contract extension which will keep her at the school through 2023. There is no better basketball than Philly basketball.
The Philadelphia region, she says, is home to the best basketball in the country, in large part because of the six Division I schools that share the community. Villanova women's basketball is in great hands under Denise's leadership." Denise Dillon's television career has taken her across the country and the globe. "UConn returning adds a whole other element; they'll bring that power back. “I remember being at a game and thinking, ‘This is what I want to do.’”From the bench, rather than the court, the game made a different kind of sense. "It's hard to believe I'm in this position to be the successor to the person who started this all for me," Dillon said, and joked that she wouldn't have to move from her home for this new job.
1 seed in the CAA tournament, but the event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic before the Dragons were able to play in their quarterfinal game. “I always had the mentality that this school could be something. I'm from the area, my family is here. The first step was to get my foot in the door.”Dillon studied education at Villanova and always knew she’d like to coach at some level, whether that meant youth or high school basketball. Dillon's longtime assistant at Drexel, Amy Mallon, is taking over the Dragons' head-coaching position.Villanova was 18-13 in Perretta's final season this year, finishing in a five-way logjam for third in the Big East at 11-7. “The reality is that all of us are involved with that number.”“I knew what Drexel was while I was a player, and it was a program that was struggling a little bit,” Dillon says. Drexel / same Entering her 17th season in 2019-20 as the head coach of the Drexel’s women’s basketball team, Denise Dillon has become one of the most respected coaches in Philadelphia and collegiate women's basketball, elevating the program to new heights and maintaining an enviable consistency and high level of play. Denise Dillon wasn’t here for the Drexel women’s basketball team’s down years, when the Dragons posted losing seasons from 1991 to 1999, but she remembers them nonetheless. ""It's a competitive conference with great coaches," Dillon said of the Big East.
There was the double-overtime road win in 2010 over the University of Delaware and future WNBA star Elena Delle Donne, and the WNIT championship win over the University of Utah that sent the crowd at the DAC into a court-storming frenzy. She went to Drexel as an assistant in 2001 and took over as head coach in 2003. These days you can typically find her on FOX 5 News at 10 and FOX 5 News Edge at 11. "With conference realignments, the Big East has changed since Dillon's playing days in the 1990s. But don’t assume that she’s ready to take any of the credit for all that success.“I could hear my coach and what he was saying, and also why he was saying it. Drexel was the No.
To have one of my former players take over the program is something that makes me extremely proud.