She was a turnaround specialist, and she did it again at her alma mater.
Hall-of-Fame player turned coach Andrea McAllister Gorski ‘92, who led the revival of Bradley’s women’s basketball program and to their first conference championship, retired at the end of the 2021-22 season.
“After 25 years, I am officially retiring from coaching,” said Gorski. “It has been the honor of a lifetime leading Bradley women’s basketball and representing my alma mater and this great university for the past six years … but my heart is pulling me in a different direction.”
The basketball community was stunned upon hearing the unexpected news.
Gorski led the team to its first consecutive 20-win season during their run to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship in 2021, having inherited a team that mired in single-digit wins for several seasons before her return.
“Coach Gorski proved women's basketball can win championships,” said Chris Reynolds, vice president for intercollegiate athletics. “Her news certainly was unexpected, but she has always had her priorities in the right order, and I support her decision as she explores a new chapter in her life.”
Gorski’s retirement leaves her career record at 194-149 in 11 seasons overall as a collegiate head coach, including an 88-90 mark in her six seasons at Bradley. She previously coached at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Mich., turning around that program and bringing the Cardinals from a sub-.500 team to a perennial post-season contender.
Bradley inducted Gorski into its Athletics’ Hall of Fame in 1996 for her heroics as the star guard during her playing career at the Robertson Memorial Field House. She wanted more when she returned as head coach, delivering on her promise to hang the first women's basketball banners from the rafters of Renaissance Coliseum.
“I love this place and everything it represents,” Gorski said. “I especially love and cherish the players and staff that I have been so very fortunate to coach and work with.
“This game has given me far more blessings than I deserve.”
