Women's Basketball
16-12
Women's Basketball Coaching Staff
Last Game
TBA
Mar 6, 2024
Pac-12 Tournament 1st Round Game
Next Game
TBA
To Be Announced
Charmin Smith
Head Coach
A mainstay on the Golden Bear bench for over a decade, Charmin Smith was named head coach of the Cal women’s basketball team on June 21, 2019.
Smith becomes the 10th head coach in Cal women’s basketball history after spending the last 12 seasons as an assistant on the Golden Bear staff, including serving as the program’s associate head coach since 2012. Cal has had ten 20-win seasons and made nine trips to the NCAA Tournament since Smith’s arrival in Berkeley in 2007, highlighted by the program’s first trip to the Final Four in 2013.
Highly-regarded throughout the coaching ranks at both the collegiate and professional levels, Smith has played a key role in building Cal into one of the premier programs on the West Coast, handling duties from recruiting and scheduling, to alumni engagement and campus equity and inclusion. She has served on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors and was hired in April 2019 to serve as an assistant coach for the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
On the hardwood, Smith has helped coach the Bears to the top three individual seasons in program history. In her first two years in Berkeley, Cal set then-school records for wins in a season, finishing both years with 27-7 marks before Cal pushed itself into elite status with the record-breaking 32-4 Final Four campaign in 2012-13. The Bears also recorded their best Pac-12 record (17-1) and won their first conference regular-season crown that season. Smith has helped lead the Bears to the postseason in 11 of her 12 seasons and was also part of the staff that led the Bears to the 2010 WNIT championship.
Kai Felton
Assistant Coach
The 2018-19 season marked Kai Felton’s eighth season with California women’s basketball team.
In her eight seasons at Cal, the Bears have registered seven 20-win seasons and made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament, including the program's first Final Four appearance in 2013. Felton works extensively with Cal’s guards, helping develop a pair of All-Americans and First Round WNBA Draft Picks in Layshia Clarendon ’13 and Brittany Boyd ’15. Over the past two seasons, five Golden Bear guards have earned All-Conference recognition. Mikayla Cowling and Asha Thomas both earned Pac-12 Honorable Mention at the end of the 2017-18 season while freshman point guard Kianna Smith was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team in 2018. Guards Jaelyn Brown and Mi’Cole Cayton garnered Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention at the end of the 2016-17 season and McKenzie Forbes was an All-Freshman honorable mention in 2019. Under her supervision, the Bears have also continued to excel in the classroom, being recognized for their overall improvements in GPA each of the last three seasons.
Felton came to Cal after spending the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons with the Oregon Ducks. During her time at Oregon, the Ducks were transformed into one of the most potent offenses in the nation, averaging 81.4 points per game in 2009-10. The Ducks earned a spot in the postseason for just the second time in the last nine years in 2009-10, advancing to the third round of the WNIT.
Wendale Farrow
Assistant Coach
The 2019-20 season marks Wendale Farrow's fourth season as an assistant coach for the Golden Bears. In his previous three seasons in Berkeley, Farrow has helped Cal to three consecutive 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
An energetic and dynamic presence on the recruiting trail, Farrow also works extensively with the Golden Bears’ guards. Under his guidance Mikayla Cowling and Asha Thomas both earned Pac-12 Honorable Mention at the end of the 2017-18 season while freshman point guard Kianna Smith was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team in 2018. Guards Jaelyn Brown and Mi’Cole Cayton garnered Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention at the end of the 2016-17 season and McKenzie Forbes was an All-Freshman honorable mention in 2019.
A highly regarded up-and-coming coach with experience in both the Pac-12 and SEC, Farrow joined the Golden Bears’ staff in 2016 after stints at UCLA and Vanderbilt, where he served in a variety of roles before rising to assistant coach for the Commodores.
During Farrow’s one-year tenure in Nashville in 2015-16, the Commodores went 18-14, up from a 15-16 record in the season prior to his arrival, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.
April Phillips
Assistant Coach
April Phillips joined the Cal women's basketball staff as an assistant coach in April 2019.
Phillips comes to Cal after spending the last season at Arizona and previous coaching stints at Loyola Marymount and the University of New Haven.
During her time in Tucson, Phillips helped Arizona to an impressive 2018-19 campaign in which the Wildcats captured the 2019 WNIT Championship and increased their win total by 18 from the previous season. Phillips worked extensively with Arizona’s post players, helping guide the development of Pac-12 All-Freshman selection Cate Reese.
A California native, Phillips looks forward to bringing her energy and experience to the Cal culture.
No stranger to excellence of her own, Phillips spent three seasons at LMU prior to her arrival Tucson, including the last two as the program’s associate head coach. As the Lions’ recruiting coordinator, Phillips helped land two of the top recruiting classes in program history and was named to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Thirty Under 30 in both 2017 and 2018.