Debbie Black (Utah, 1999)

WNBA	ABL	USA Basketball	Overseas	College	High School	Personal
Click above to jump to that part of Debbie Black’s Bio

NO: 31
POS: Guard
HGT: 5-2
DOB: July 29, 1966
SCHOOL: Saint Joseph’s ‘88

*WHERE IS BLACK NOW?

• Head coach at Marple Newtown High School in Pennsylvania since April 2023 after serving as an assistant coach.

(*As of February 2024)

WNBA TRANSACTIONS

May 4, 1999	Selected by Utah in the second round (No. 15) of the 1999 WNBA Draft.
December 15, 1999	Selected by Miami in the 1999 WNBA Expansion Draft.
April 24, 2003	Selected by Connecticut in the 2003 WNBA Dispersal Draft.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Played six seasons in the WNBA from ages 32-37, and averaged 3.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg and 3.2 apg over 193 games with Utah, Miami and Connecticut.
• Named the 2001 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.
• Led the league in steals in 2001 (2.6 spg), ranked third in 1999 (2.4 spg) and sixth in 2002 (1.8 spg).
• Finished in the top 10 for assists three times, including a best of 5.0 apg to rank No. 6 in 1999.
• Tallied career-highs of 15 points against Orlando on August 11, 2001, and 11 assists versus Cleveland on July 24, 1999.

WNBA REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS

Year	TM	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1999	UTA	32	32	1014	62	164	.378	8	41	.195	31	50	.620	31	80	111/3.5	161	77	6	67	116	163/5.1
2000	MIA	32	32	820	57	150	.380	9	42	.214	29	42	.690	23	69	92/2.9	98	58	1	50	86	152/4.8
2001	MIA	32	32	946	70	187	.374	3	20	.150	37	48	.771	43	83	126/3.9	123	82	2	51	69	180/5.6
2002	MIA	32	32	899	64	160	.400	0	3	.000	25	33	.758	41	82	123/3.8	137	59	5	32	75	153/4.8
2003	CON	34	0	373	24	68	.353	1	3	.333	6	9	.667	16	35	51/1.5	46	20	2	18	33	55/1.6
2004	CON	31	4	347	26	56	.464	0	1	.000	3	4	.750	13	23	36/1.2	47	19	0	15	35	55/1.8
Career		193	132	4399	303	785	.386	21	110	.191	131	186	.704	167	372	539/2.8	612	315	16	233	414	75/3.9

WNBA POSTSEASON CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Advanced to the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals with Miami, the 2003 Eastern Conference Finals and 2004 WNBA Finals with Connecticut.
• Fell to New York 2-1 in 2001.
• Defeated Charlotte 2-0 before going 0-2 against Detroit in the conference finals in 2003.
• Advanced to the 2004 Finals with a 2-1 series over Washington in the semis and 2-0 over New York in the conference finals, but fell 1-2 in the finals to Seattle.

WNBA POSTSEASON STATISTICS

Year	Tm	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
2001	MIA	3	3	95	7	18	.389	0	3	.000	0	0	—	7	9	16/5.3	11	5	1	4	7	14/4.7
2003	CON	4	0	29	4	10	.400	0	0	.—	0	0	—	1	1	2/0.5	2	2	0	0	2	8/2.0
2004	CON	8	0	73	4	14	.286	1	1	1.000	0	0	—	2	9	11/1.4	7	4	0	6	12	9/1.1
Career		15	3	197	15	42	.357	1	4	.250	0	0	—	10	19	29/1.9	20	11	1	10	21	31/2.1

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ABL CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Selected in the sixth round (No. 41 overall) by the Colorado Xplosion in the 1996 ABL Draft. o
• In 1997 was named to the All-ABL second team and ABL All-Defensive Team.
• Was a 1997 and 1998 ABL All-Star.
• Started all 40 games for ABL Colorado Xplosion in 1996-97; averaged 7.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 6.9 apg (ABL second) and a league-leading 4.4 spg.
• Aided the Xplosion to a 25-15 record and the Western Conference Championship in 1996-97, 20-23 in 1997-98 and 5-8 in the 1998-99 season prior to the league folding.
• Posted a quadruple-double with 10 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and 10 steals against the Atlanta Glory on December 8, 1996.

ABL REGULAR SEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	GP	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	3PM	3PA	FTM	FTA	OFF	DEF	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
1996	40	40	1400	107	275	27	85	65	87	83	157	240/6.0	275	177	3	129	157	306/7.7
1997	44	44	1479	108	260	18	62	62	75	84	107	191/4.3	268	109	3	130	160	296/6.7
1998	13	13	425	41	85	3	12	7	13	28	32	60/4.6	65	44	2	35	47	92/7.1
Totals	97	97	3304	256	620	48	159	134	175	195	296	491/5.1	368	330	8	294	364	694/7.2

ABL POSTSEASON STATISTICS

YEAR	GP	GS	MIN	FGM	FGA	3PM	3PA	FTM	FTA	OFF	DEF	REB/AVG	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS/AVG
1996	2	2	76	7	27	1	10	0	0	5	6	11/5.5	14	9	0	5	7	15/7.5
1997	3	3	108	4	14	0	3	8	10	7	12	19/6.3	11	8	0	15	10	16/5.3
Totals	5	5	184	11	41	1	13	8	10	12	18	30/6.0	25	17	0	20	17	31/6.2

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USA BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS

• One of 15 finalists listed for the final six roster spots for the 1998 USA World Championship Team.
• Member of the 1997 USA Basketball International Invitational that captured the tournament title with a 3-1 record against Australia and Slovakia in Colorado Springs, Colorado; averaged 3.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg and 3.0 apg.
• Member of the gold medal winning 1985 USA R. William Jones Cup Team that went 7-1 in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Played on the 1986 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team (1-3, fourth place) and averaged 5.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 4.5 apg and 3.0 spg.

USA BASKETBALL STATISTICS

TEAM	G	FGM-FGA	PCT	3PM-3PA	PCT	FTM-FTA	PCT	REB/AVG	PTS/AVG	AT	BK	TO	ST
1985 JCUP	7	0- 6	.000	0- 4	.000	0- 0	.—	8/ 1.1	0/ 0.0	2	0	n/a	3
1997 WNT	4	5- 12	.417	0-2	.000	3- 4	.750	11/ 2.8	13/3.3	12	0	9	7
Totals	11	5-18	.278	0-6	.000	3-4	.750	19/ 1.7	13/1.2	14	0	9	10

Complete statistics are unavailable for the U.S. Olympic Festival.

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OVERSEAS CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Played in Australia with the Tasmanian Islanders from 1989-96.
• Averaged 19.1 ppg., 6.1 rpg., and 6.8 apg. in 1995 for the Islanders.
• Helped lead Islanders with the Australian National Championship in 1991 and the Southern National Championship in 1995.

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COLLEGE HIGHLIGHTS

• During her four seasons, Saint Joseph’s compiled a 94-29 record (.764), made four NCAA Tournament appearances, shared one Atlantic 10 regular season title and was runner-up for the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament title twice (1988, 1987).
• Inducted into the Saint Joseph’s Athletic Hall of Fame (2000), Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame (1995), Saint Joseph’s Basketball Hall of Fame (1994) and the Bucks County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (2010).
• Named 1988 All-District and All-Atlantic 10 first team.
• Named 1997 and 1986 All-Atlantic 10 Conference second team.
• Named 1985 Atlantic 10 Conference All-Rookie team.
• Named the 1988 MVP of the Philadelphia Big 5 and All-Big Five first team in 1988 and 1987.
• Inducted into the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame in 1995 and was inducted into St. Joseph’s Hall of Fame in 1994.
• At the end of her collegiate career, she listed as St. Joseph’s all-time leader for assists (718) and steals (572), ranked 10th in field goal percentage (.481), 12th in rebounding (450), and 14th in points (918).
• Earned 12 letters as a three-sport athlete—was an All-Atlantic 10 Conference player in field hockey as a senior and also a four-year starting infielder on the SJU softball team.

COLLEGE STATISTICS

YEAR	G	FGM-FGA	PCT	FTM-FTA	PCT	REB/AVG	PTS/AVG	AST	STL
1988								210	150
1987								194	151
1986								231	153
1985								83	118
Totals	123	385-800	.481	141-200	.705	450/3.7	918/7.5	718	572

Complete college stats are unavailable.

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HIGH SCHOOL

• Attended Archbishop Wood High School in Philadelphia and was named a USA Today All-America honorable mention.

PERSONAL

• Played two years at Saint Joseph’s (1985 and 1986) with her sister Barbara.
• First coaching role was as an assistant to her college head coach Jim Foster at Vanderbilt in 1999-00, then spent eight seasons under Foster at Ohio State beginning in 2005.
• After one season as the director of basketball operations in 2017-18, she was promoted to assistant coach at Chattanooga from 2018-19 through 2020-21.

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