U-N-D has extended the contracts of its head basketball coaches.
Men’s coach Paul Sather and women’s coach Mallory Bernhard (BURN-hard) are now under contract through the 2025-26 season.
Sather just finished his fourth year as coach.
Bernhard took over as interim head coach during the 2020-21 season…and was named head coach in March 2021.
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UND releases:
University of North Dakota Director of Athletics Bill Chaves announced on Tuesday that Head Men’s Basketball Coach Paul Sather has received a contract extension through the 2025-26 season.
“We are at a critical juncture in Division I men’s basketball and making sure that we have tremendous stability is key as we continue to grow with a very talented core group of student-athletes,” said Chaves. “I know Paul and I are excited about what is to come for our program.”
Sather completed his fourth season at the helm of the Fighting Hawks in 2022-23, helping mold a young core that reached its peak during the final month to win six of its final nine games to reach the quarterfinal round of the Summit League Tournament.
Over his career at North Dakota, Sather has produced multiple all-conference selections, including the program’s first All-Summit League First Team honoree Marlon Stewart in 2019-20 as well as two Summit League Freshman of the Year selections.
“I’d like to thank President Armacost and our Director of Athletics Bill Chaves for the opportunity to sign an extension here at the University of North Dakota as the head men’s basketball coach,” said Sather. “My staff and I are extremely grateful for their shared belief in our vision for North Dakota Basketball and the future of this program. We had a strong finish to the regular season this year with a young team and look to build on that success as we move into next year.”
The Princeton, Minn., native became only the third coach in Summit League history to reach the tournament title game in their first year as the bench boss, while also picking up a win over Big Ten foe Nebraska, the first for the program since 1933, before navigating a global pandemic the next season en route to the highest Summit League finish for UND since joining the league.
Off the court, Sather’s teams have received multiple academic distinctions as well as pacing the entire Division I in community service hours by a men’s basketball program.
Sather’s family includes his wife, Kelsie, and their two children, Sam and Becca.
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University of North Dakota Director of Athletics Bill Chaves announced on Tuesday that Head Women’s Basketball Coach Mallory Bernhard has received a contract extension through the 2025-26 season.
“I look forward to having Mal continue lead our women’s basketball program,” said Chaves. “The passion and desire she exudes to make our program and UND the best it can be is contagious.”
Bernhard took over the program as the interim head coach during the pandemic-filled 2020-21 season and began to carve out a new culture for UND. In that season, she helped the Fighting Hawks battled multiple opponents to overtime and tight contests, establishing an attitude for relentlessness and grit.
“It meant so much to me as an alumna to be given the opportunity to lead this program, and it means even more to know that our administration believes in the direction we’re headed,” said Bernhard. “I am incredibly grateful for this continued opportunity and will continue to pour my heart and soul into this program. We have an unbelievable group of young women that represent the University of North Dakota women’s basketball so well both on and off the court and we will continue to strive to make our fans, alumni as well as University proud.”
She was named the seventh head coach of North Dakota in March 2021, becoming the first former student-athlete of the program to take the reins. During her first full year, Bernhard engineered a 13-win improvement to lead the Fighting Hawks to a fifth-place finish in the Summit League standings.
The 2022-23 season saw an even larger improvement under Bernhard, with the Fighting Hawks climbing the Summit League standings to a program-best third seed in the postseason league tournament with an 11-7 conference mark. UND also put together its best home record since the 2013-14 season at 13-1, which included the first wins over rivals North Dakota State and South Dakota since she took over the program.
Bernhard also earned NoDak its first national postseason tournament appearance since 2016-17, accepting an invitation to the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) for later this week.
Multiple players have garnered conference accolades under the tutelage of Bernhard, with Kacie Borowicz earning back-to-back All-Summit League First Team selections and two other earning spots on the league’s all-defensive team.
Off the court, the Fighting Hawks have thrived with academic and community service success, most recently posting one of the highest semester GPA’s in program history.
She is married to husband, Nick. They live in Grand Forks with their son, Louis, and daughter, Lizzie.
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