Megan Griffith

The all-time winningest coach in the history of Columbia University women’s basketball, Megan Griffith (’07CC) completed her seventh season as head coach in 2022–23. She was named to her position in March 2016.

Griffith has ushered in a new era and new brand of Columbia women’s basketball. Her seven years back in Morningside Heights have combined to be the winningest stretch in program history. Over that time, the Lions have earned 10 power-conference wins over the likes of Miami, Syracuse, and Seton Hall, to name a few. Her tenure also includes the program’s first victories over opponents from the ACC and Big East. Under Griffith’s leadership, the Lions have qualified for the Ivy League Tournament in each of their last three competition seasons, playing in the championship game in 2021–22 before accepting the program’s first bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).

The 2022–23 team will always be remembered as the first Ivy League champions in program history. After 37 long years as a member of the league, the Lions hoisted the Farquhar-Baker Trophy in front of a sold-out Levien Gymnasium crowd after defeating Cornell in overtime, 69–64, on March 4 in the regular-season finale.

Columbia posted an unprecedented 28–6 overall record in 2022–23, including a second straight 12–2 Ivy campaign that earned the Lions a share of their first regular-season championship. Columbia’s 28 wins bested its 25 from the year prior for the most in program history. Along the way, it earned quality nonconference road wins over Memphis (Nov. 7), Seton Hall (Nov. 17), Miami (Nov. 27), and UMass (Dec. 10), winning the Miami Thanksgiving Tournament over a Hurricanes team that went on to reach the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. After a record-setting 11–2 nonconference season, Columbia earned a program-record 10th consecutive victory by defeating Princeton on the road in overtime, 58–55, beating the Tigers for the first time since 2008 and snapping their 27-game series winning streak.

After falling in overtime in the Ivy League semifinals and being named the First Team Out by the NCAA Selection Committee, Columbia accepted a bid to its second straight Postseason WNIT. Once there, Griffith and the Lions did not disappoint. They took down NEC regular-season champion Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round and went on to defeat Fordham and Syracuse before avenging their Ivy Tournament loss against Harvard in the Great Eight. The victory over the Crimson made Columbia the first team in Ivy League history to advance to the National Semifinals of the WNIT, where they went on the road and led wire-to-wire to take down Bowling Green in front of a sold-out crowd, 77–70. The win over the Falcons advanced the Lions to the Championship Game, which took place on April 1 at historic Allen Fieldhouse against Kansas. The Lions led 16–15 at the end of the first quarter and took a 5-point lead with an 8–0 run to start the second half, but eventually fell to the Jayhawks in a hard-fought battle, 66–59. The game aired on national television on CBS Sports Network and drew in a crowd of more than 11,000, the largest for a women’s basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse in the past 14 years.

Abbey Hsu and Kaitlyn Davis were both unanimous First Team All-Ivy League selections, marking the first time ever the Lions placed two players on the First Team. Jaida Patrick earned Second Team honors, while sophomore Kitty Henderson was an Honorable Mention. Hsu also went on to be named Honorable Mention All-America by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), becoming just the second Lion and ninth Ivy League women’s player in history to earn All-America status.

The 2022–23 season saw the Lions debut in both the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. They received their first votes in the AP Top 25 on Dec. 12 and went on to receive votes six separate times. Columbia received its first votes in the Coaches Poll on Jan. 3 and received votes for five consecutive weeks. 

With one of the nation’s top scoring offenses, the Lions outscored Ivy opponents by an average of 18.4 points per game in league play. Overall, they ranked 15th in the country in scoring offense (78.2) and 14th in scoring margin (+14.9). Columbia was also No. 4 in assists per game (18.9), No. 9 in rebounds per game (43.12), No. 12 in 3-pointers made per game (8.9), and No. 15 in rebounding margin (+8.0), and boasted one of the top 20 winning percentages in all of women’s college basketball (.824). 

The 2021–22 season was a landmark year for Griffith and the Lions. Griffith coached Columbia to its winningest season in program history at the time, going 25–7 overall with a 12–2 Ivy League record. The Lions shattered several team records and accomplished many program firsts throughout the season, which included starting the season 5–0, defeating an ACC opponent on the road (Clemson), winning a program-record eight consecutive games, starting Ivy League play 7–0, competing in and winning their first postseason game in 36 years, competing in their first Ivy League Tournament, advancing to the tournament championship game, and advancing to the quarterfinals of their first WNIT. Columbia’s run to the WNIT quarterfinals is the deepest by any team in Ivy League history and included victories over Patriot League champion Holy Cross, Old Dominion, and Boston College. The Lions came back from as many as 17 points down to defeat the Eagles on March 24 at Levien Gymnasium, marking the largest comeback to win a game in program history.

In winning 25 games, Columbia broke the program’s previous mark of 21–6, accomplished by the 1985–86 Hall of Fame team that won that year’s New York State AIAW Championship and advanced to the NCAA Division III Regional. The program’s winningest Division I and Ivy League season prior to 2021–22 came in 2009–10, when the Lions went 18–10 and 9–5 in the Ivy League.

The 2021–22 season also saw junior Kaitlyn Davis voted First Team All-Ivy by the league’s coaches, while sophomore Abbey Hsu was named Second Team All-Ivy. It marked just the fourth time since the Lions officially joined the league in 1986–87 that Columbia placed two players on one of the two All-Ivy teams—two of those occasions have come under Griffith’s watch. Hsu went on to be named First Team All-Met by the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA), with Davis landing Second Team All-Met honors. Additionally, first-year guard Kitty Henderson was named the All-Met Women’s Division I Rookie of the Year, marking three consecutive competition seasons in which a Lion has taken home the award (Abbey Hsu, 2019–20; Sienna Durr, 2018–19).

At the Women’s Final Four in Minneapolis, Griffith was named the 2021–22 CBB Analytics Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year by the Asian Coaches Association. Griffith was honored with the award at the Association’s Women’s Basketball Coaches Conference. 

After building up the program over her first three seasons, Griffith led the Lions to what was a historical 2019–20 campaign, which included a record of 17–10, an 8–6 Ivy League mark, and the team’s first-ever qualification into the Ivy League Basketball Tournament. Columbia started off the year with a 9–4 nonconference record, which included a six-game winning streak and victories over reigning conference champions Fordham, Robert Morris, and Mercer. The Lions then headed into league play, where they started 2–4 before rolling off a then-program-record six-game Ivy League winning streak. The streak began the weekend of Feb. 14–15 with the team’s first-ever weekend sweep over Dartmouth and Harvard, including a 25-point blowout over the Crimson. The following weekend, Griffith’s Lions went on the road and swept Brown and Yale for their first back-to-back Ivy League weekend sweep in program history. The winning streak grew to six the weekend of Feb. 28–29, when Columbia went on the road and swept yet another weekend over Harvard and Dartmouth. The Lions overcame a 10-point deficit in Cambridge to earn their first season sweep of Harvard in program history. Less than 24 hours later, they swept Dartmouth to lock up their first berth into the Ivy League Basketball Tournament.

First-year player Abbey Hsu went on to be named the Met Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) Women’s Division I Rookie of the Year after ranking top 10 in the Ivy League in scoring (14.3) and leading the Ancient Eight in 3-point shooting (.411). She and sophomore Sienna Durr were both named Second Team All-Ivy League, becoming the first pair of Lions in 12 years to earn All-Ivy League First or Second Team honors. Hsu was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week five times during the season, as well as Ivy League Player of the Week and USBWA National Rookie of the Week on Feb. 18 after averaging 25.0 points and shooting 50 percent (10-of-20) from 3-point range in a weekend sweep over Dartmouth and Harvard. 

Energized by a strong first-year class, Griffith coached Columbia to its most Ivy League wins in eight years during the 2018–19 campaign. The Lions took down Harvard at home, swept Brown, and won at home against Cornell, entering the final two weeks of the season in contention for their first Ivy League Tournament berth. Along the way, three different Lions combined for eight Ivy League Rookie of the Week selections, including six by first-year player Sienna Durr, who went on to be named both Ivy League and All-Met Women’s Division I Rookie of the Year. Both of Durr’s Rookie of the Year honors were the first ever to be won by a Lion. Additionally, Durr was named Second Team All-Ivy League, while Janiya Clemmons earned Honorable Mention.

The 2018–19 first-year class also found its way into the Columbia record books. Sienna Durr scored a rookie record 392 points, and Mikayla Markham tallied a rookie record 120 assists. Markham’s assist total ranks eighth in Columbia’s all-time single-season record book. Markham also became the first Lion with 10 assists in a game in 10 years, as well as the first Lion in the same number of years to record a double-double with points and assists.

In her first two seasons back at her alma mater, Griffith coached the program to its first wins over ACC and Big East opponents, including a 68–60 victory over Boston College and two straight victories over Providence. Griffith coached the Lions to their best nonconference season in program history in just her first year as head coach with Columbia, starting the year 10–3 (.769). The historic start included a seven-game winning streak, tying the program’s Division I record for consecutive wins last accomplished in 1986–87.

Griffith’s first Ivy League victory came in historic fashion, defeating Dartmouth on the road in quadruple overtime, 91–88, on Jan. 27, 2017. The game tied for the longest in Ivy League women’s basketball history with Columbia’s defeat of Penn, 114-111, in 1987, and was featured that evening on SportsCenter.

Under Griffith’s watch, Camille Zimmerman broke the program’s all-time single-season scoring record, netting 608 points and averaging 22.5 points per game in 2016–17. Zimmerman was unanimously chosen First Team All-Ivy League after leading the Ancient Eight in seven statistical categories including scoring and rebounding (9.6). Zimmerman went on to be named All-Met Division I Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year by the Met Basketball Writers Association, becoming the first Lion in program history to receive the award since its inception in 1996.

Zimmerman went on to earn a second straight First Team All-Ivy League selection in 2017–18. She surpassed the program’s all-time scoring record in just the second game of the season before wrapping up her career with 1,973 points, the most scored by any player, male or female, to don a Columbia basketball uniform. Zimmerman also owns the program’s all-time rebounding record (940) and signed a free-agent contract with defending WNBA champions Minnesota Lynx before signing on to play overseas in Finland.

On top of two power-conference wins, the 2017–18 season saw the Lions go up against a schedule that featured five NCAA Tournament teams from the year prior. Three of those matchups came at the Cancun Challenge, where the Lions faced one of the nation’s top scoring defenses in Green Bay, defending national runner-up Mississippi State, and Pac-12 powerhouse Arizona State. The Lions showed their growth when they came within two points of defeating Buffalo at Levien Gymnasium, losing 65-63 to a team thatwent on to advance to the 2018 Sweet Sixteen.

Among the 2017–18 accomplishments were a 94–81 victory over eventual NEC champion Saint Francis University. Columbia’s 94 points marked the program’s highest scoring output against a Division I opponent in 27 years. The Lions put together another 90-point night to defeat Brown in February.

Prior to her return to Columbia, Griffith spent six seasons at Princeton, including her last four as an assistant coach and the team’s recruiting coordinator. She also served as the Tigers’ director of basketball operations from 2010 to 2012. The last two years, Griffith helped Princeton make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament. During that span, the Tigers posted a 54–7 overall record, including an undefeated 30–0 regular season in 2014–15 and a 26–2 mark in Ivy League play.

In Griffith’s time with Princeton, the Tigers eclipsed 20 victories and reached the postseason each year while securing five Ivy League titles. She mentored 13 All-Ivy League players, including Blake Dietrick, who was the 2015 Ivy League Player of the Year and a WBCA Honorable Mention All-American, and 2013 Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Polansky.

Griffith captained the Lions for three seasons and was a two-time All-Ivy League selection (2006 and 2007). Griffith is one of nine Lions to score more than 1,000 points during her career, averaging 10.1 points per game. During her junior year, Griffth ranked 22nd in the nation in assists, averaging 5.5 per game, while chipping in 15.2 points per game. She was twice named Academic All-Ivy League and was a member of the Arthur Ashe Sports Scholar Team two straight years.

Following graduation, Griffith played three years of professional basketball in Europe. She joined FoA Nice Basketball in Forssa, Finland, during the 2007–08 season and was named the team’s MVP at the end of the season. In 2008–09, Griffith led the Espoo Basket Team to the National Finnish Championship and the Finnish Cup Championship titles. During the year, she was also a youth basketball coach for Honka Basketball Club.

Griffith was also a member of the Celeritas-Donar Basketball team in Groningen, Netherlands. In addition, she was named a U20 Dames 1 assistant coach and U18 Northern Selection Team assistant coach, while working as a youth coach and clinic director for Celeritas-Donar.

Griffith founded Back to Basics Basketball in 2008, an organization developed to teach basketball skills, while providing training and mentoring in her hometown of King of Prussia, Pa.

Griffith graduated from Columbia with a degree in economics in 2007.