SMU Director of Athletics Rick Hart announced Thursday that Travis Mays will take over as the women’s basketball head coach, after serving 14 years as an assistant coach and playing professionally for 11 years.

After retiring from professional basketball, playing in both the NBA and in Greece, Mays began his coaching career in the WNBA where he coached the San Antonio Silver Spurs for two years from 2002-2004.

After his time in San Antonio, Mays moved to the University of Texas, where he served as an assistant coach from 2004-2007, learning from Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt.

Following his stay in Austin, Mays moved to the LSU Women’s Basketball program, where he worked under a second Hall of Fame coach in Van Chancellor from 2007-2011. While at UT and LSU, Mays served a central role in the recruiting process, where he helped land seven top-25 ranked recruiting classes, five of those classes being ranked in the top five.

From LSU, Mays moved to the University of Georgia, where he would act as assistant coach under Hall of Fame head coach Andy Landers for a year, before returning to UT in 2012 as an associate head coach, where he coached for four years.

Mays has acknowledged the demanding culture and pressure associated with SMU’s basketball program, but he has also voiced his belief and confidence that SMU can become a competitive, winning program.