A talented coach with NCAA Division I experience, David Elliott returns for his sixth season as an assistant coach with the Cal State LA women’s basketball program. Elliott has made a huge impact with the program since his arrival and helped the Golden Eagles become one of the top teams in the West Region.
Elliott helped the Golden Eagles to another winning season in 2023-24 as they reached the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history and finished with a 17-13 record, including a 13-9 mark and fourth-place finish in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. As the No. 4 seed, the Golden Eagles advanced to the semifinals for a third straight season after a first-round win over host and No. 5 seed Cal State San Bernardino.
Cal State LA then reached the NCAA West Regional as a No. 8 seed and gave host and No. 1 seed Azusa Pacific a great battle in a first-round contest.
Elliott has helped the Golden Eagles to 37 wins over the past two seasons, which are the most over a two-year span since the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons and just three shy of the program record of 40.
In his first four seasons with the program, Elliott has helped the Golden Eagles post a 63-52 overall record, including a 51-34 mark in conference play.
The 2023-24 season was an impressive follow-up to a tremendous 2022-23 season. Elliott was instrumental in the Golden Eagles advancing to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 2012 with an overall record of 20-10 in 2022-23. The Golden Eagles won 20 games for just the fourth time in program history and the first time since 2013. Cal State LA finished third in the CCAA for a second straight year and established a new program record for conference wins with a 16-6 mark.
Cal State LA earned the No. 3 seed for the CCAA Tournament and reached the tourney semifinals for a second straight season. The Golden Eagles then earned the No. 5 seed in the NCAA West Regional and fell to No. 4 Montana State Billings in a hard-fought contest to end the season.
Elliott helped the Golden Eagles to some outstanding achievements in their return to play in 2021-22. The Golden Eagles matched their best-ever finish in the CCAA and earned their first CCAA Tournament victory since 2014. After going 8-2 in their last 10 conference games, the Golden Eagles finished third in the CCAA with a 12-7 record and had a 14-13 overall record.
Elliott has been a major factor in recruiting since joining the program and Cal State LA has boasted two CCAA Freshmen of the Year in Lily Buggs and Nicole Flennaugh in the past four seasons and the first recruiting class since his arrival included two other All-CCAA players in Jada Johnson and Anai Washington. Flennaugh went on to earn All-America honors in 2022-23 and finished her career with the most 3-pointers in CCAA history, while Buggs has earned All-Region recognition in back-to-back seasons. Johnson was All-CCAA in both her seasons with Cal State LA.
In 2023-24, newcomers Alicia Jones and Gabriella Rones both earned All-CCAA recognition.
In his first season, Elliott was instrumental in the Golden Eagles improving their overall win total by three games in 2019-20, and their conference victory total by four games. He helped the Golden Eagles revitalize their offensive production as Cal State LA set new program record for 3-pointers made in a season.
Elliott came to Cal State LA from Cornell University, where he helped lead the women’s basketball program to its first Ivy League Tournament appearance during his tenure.
He was with Cornell from 2017-19 and was in charge of scouting and post-player development. He was also involved in scheduling and negotiating game guarantees for the program. Elliott also organized statistics from Hoops IQ advanced analytics for game planning. He also helped Laura Bagwell earn first-team All-Ivy League honors in 2018-19.
His efforts in recruiting led to the third-ranked recruiting class in the Ivy League in 2018, which was the program’s highest ranking in five years. Theresa Mbanefo was a top-200 recruit, the highest-ranked recruit in five years, while Annika Hoff was a top-300 recruit. In 2019, Shannon Mulroy received Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Week honors.
Before joining Cornell, Elliott was the recruiting coordinator at the University of Denver from 2015-17. His recruiting success resulted in a Bluestar Top-50 recruiting class honorable mention in 2017 and included Claire Gritt, the 2018 Summit League Freshman of the Year. The 2016 class was rated second in the Summit League and included a pair of All-Conference players, Lauren Loven, who set a Summit League record for 3-pointers in a season and Madison Nelson, who earned first-team All-Summit League honors in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Elliott was the associate head women’s basketball coach at Knox College in 2014-15 and an assistant coach in 2013-14. He organized and led all recruiting efforts and helped lead an offense that was ranked second in the country in scoring (90.0 points per game) in 2015. The 2015 recruiting class produced the most wins in school history. His 2015 recruiting class consisted of eight players from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon and Illinois and achieved the most wins over a four-year span in program history. The 2014 class consisted of 11 players from Arizona, California, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio and Oregon.
He got his collegiate coaching career started at St. John Fisher College as a graduate assistant coach from 2010-12 and he also spent one year at Columbia University in New York in 2012-13.
At St. John Fisher College, he coached Colleen Maloney, a first-team All-Conference and All-East Region player and Portia Velasco, the Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Year and second-team all-conference selection. His recruiting success led to the school’s 2015 Empire 8 Conference championship and 2015 and 2016 NCAA Tournament appearances. The 2012 class included three-time all-conference and All-East Region selection Mary Cusack, who was also a 1,500-point scorer. Velasco earned all-conference all four years she was in the program and was also a 1,500-point scorer.
At Columbia, his 2013 recruiting class included Tori Oliver, who earned second-team All-Ivy League honors and finished her career with 1,337 points (third all-time) and 662 rebounds (sixth).
Elliott earned his Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology at the University of Arizona and picked up his Master’s degree in organizational learning and HR development at St. John Fischer College.
