Tai Dillard Brings Experience and Mentorship to Prairie View A&M
With more than 15 years of coaching experience, Tai Dillard is in her first season as a Division I head coach, leading Prairie View A&M women’s basketball. The former Texas standout and WNBA player brings a player-centered, development-focused approach as she begins SWAC competition.
Introducing a new occasional column that will bring fans of Black college sports updates and insights on teams, players and coaches with a primary focus on the SWAC, MEAC and HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC).”
With over 15 years of coaching experience, Tai Dillard is in her first season in the SWAC, in her first head coaching position at Prairie View A&M.
Dillard was a four-year letterwinner at Texas (1998-2003), playing for legendary HOF coach Jody Conradt, making four consecutive NCAAs, including a 2003 Final Four run, and a two-time All-Big-12 academic team member.
Then she played pro ball, first in the WNBA (2003-06), then overseas in Israel and in the National Women’s Basketball League.
Speaking to the Panthers HC before the season, Dillard admitted she didn’t envision herself going into coaching after playing. “Honestly, when I got to college, I didn’t think I wanted to coach,” she recalled. “I did kind of get the inkling to want to coach, and when I played professionally after college, I guess you can say it was a natural progression.
“I had an opportunity to go to my high school alma mater, which gave me a great start and a great foundation,” she continued. Dillard added that she quickly learned that coaching “was more than just X’s and O’s and putting a team together.”
Dillard’s coaching resume includes assistant positions at Ole Miss (2013-14), USC (2012-13), and UTSA (2007-12). Prairie View hired her in May 2025 after her recent stint at Houston (2016-25), first as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, then promoted to associate head coach in 2022.
At each stop, Dillard said she gained valuable experience both as a player and as a coach that uniquely prepared her for her current position.
“Each coach that I’ve played under, I’ve been able to really pull from … I picked up a lot of different X’s and O’s. I think with my collegiate stops … I was able to take on a lot of responsibilities, which I think everything has really built me up and helped me prepare for this position that I’m in right now.”
Even more so as a Black female head coach: “It’s just not recruiting really good players. When we get the players, we are trying to mold them into productive people,” stressed Dillard. “I’ve started a mentoring program, and I’m trying to link all of our players up with mentors that are not basketball players … That’s part of our overall development with our young ladies.”
The Panthers begin SWAC play Jan. 1 at Southern University.
Dillard said she wants her players to create “an identity for ourselves on the court and off the court. The biggest thing is creating that identity and competing. I do want to come in and get some success this year.”
Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.