Rutgers' Domond to be inducted into Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame

Since the cancellation of the winter sports season due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team have earned recognition and awards. Recently, it was announced that the Scarlet Knights’ assistant coach Nadine Domond will be inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame alongside six other people who have had noteworthy careers in Connecticut and afar.

"I'm honored," Domond said. "I'm going in with some special people. This is an amazing group of the best basketball people. I remember playing against some of them in high school. I'm just honored and appreciative of my peers for recognizing my contributions to the game."

As a Bridgeport Central player back in the '90s, Domond was a part of an undefeated 27-0 team in 1993-94 that won the Class LL state title. She is a four-time all-state selection with 2,302 career points and was named the Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year thanks to a career-high performance of 56 points in one game.

Domond went on to Iowa where she was coached by head coach C. Vivian Stringer. She was named a Second Team All-Big Ten honoree, contributed to the Hawkeyes' 1997 Big Ten Championships title and competed in three NCAA Tournaments, making it as far as the Sweet 16 in 1996.

Continuing to play after college, Domond was picked 19th overall in the 1998 WNBA draft by the New York Liberty. She also played in France, Poland and Israel, helping to get her Israeli team a bid to its first championship playoff in history.

When Domond retired from playing basketball, she took up coaching with stints at Hampton, the Apprentice School and Grambling State before joining Stringer's coaching staff in 2016. 

Domond assisted in Rutgers' signing of ESPN’s No. 6 overall prospect Diamond Johnson to the Class of 2024. The Knights will come into next season with the No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the Big Ten and No. 8 recruiting class in the NCAA

Domond’s induction comes off the heels of Stringer’s recognition as this year’s recipient of the John R. Wooden Award’s “Legends of Coaching” honor, recognizing Stringer’s head coaching career of nearly half a century.

In addition to the coaches’ accolades, junior guard Arella Guirantes was this season’s Big Ten scoring champion, an All-Big Ten First Team selection and an All-America Honorable Mention selection for a season in which she scored an average of 20.6 points per game. Instead of entering the WNBA draft, Guirantes decided she has some unfinished business and will return to Rutgers in the fall for her last season of eligibility.

Due to COVID-19, the 33rd Annual Connecticut Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is postponed until Sept. 30.