Austin Parkinson finished his 12th season at the helm of the IUPUI women’s basketball program, leading the team to their first NCAA Tournament appearance after a first-place finish in the Horizon League Tournament. The Jags earned a 24-5 overall record and 18-2 conference record. After being picked atop the Horizon League Preseason Poll and handed two forfeits, Parkinson led the Jags to a 14-game win streak and a regular season conference championship.
During the 2021-22 season, Parkinson saw graduate-student Macee Williams earn AP All-American Honorable Mention honors and win Horizon League Player of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. Under Parkinson, IUPUI also had redshirt-senior Rachel McLimore earn All-Horizon second team and All-Horizon Defensive team while sophomore Rachel Kent earned All-Horizon third team honors.
Parkinson ended his 11th season with the Jags in 2021, leading the team to a second-place finish in the Horizon League Tournament. Parkinson led the Jags to a 15-5 overall record and 11-3 conference record during the 2020-21 season. For the third year in a row, Parkinson saw senior Macee Williams win Horizon League Player of the Year.
Parkinson was named Horizon League Coach of the Year in 2020 after an impressive season which ended with IUPUI’s first NCAA Tournament berth but the Jags never appeared in the NCAA Tournament after the tournament was canceled due to Covid-19. After being picked to finish in third in the preseason poll, Parkinson led the Jags to a school-record 15 conference wins, a 15-3 mark overall, to clinch the program’s first regular season title and led them to a conference tournament title in 2020. Overall the Jaguars finished the season 23-8 for a .742 win percentage, the highest percentage under Parkinson. Parkinson guided the Jags to a school record 13-game win streak after dropping their first Horizon League game of the season.
Under Parkinson in 2020, IUPUI also had senior guard Holly Hoopingarner named Second Team All-League and redshirt sophomore guard Rachel McLimore Third Team All-League.
In year two in the Horizon League, Parkinson saw sophomore sensation Macee Williams named Horizon League Player of the Year after being named Preseason Player of the Year. Parkinson guided his squad to a tie for third in the league with a 13-5 record and a 20-12 overall mark. The Jags also earned a school-record fourth-straight WNIT berth and have played in the postseason tournament in six of the last seven years.
Parkinson guided his squad to a second-place finish in IUPUI's first Horizon League season after being picked to finish seventh in the Preseason Coaches' Poll. For his effort, Parkinson was named Horizon League Coach of the Year, winning the award for the second time in his career. The Jags finished the season with the most conference wins (13) and the most road wins (13) in school history. IUPUI earned its fifth WNIT birth in the last six seasons and third-straight WNIT birth. Parkinson also coached Horizon League Freshman of the Year Macee Williams and Horizon League First-Team member Danielle Lawrence.
Parkinson inherited a three-win team when he took over as the head coach days prior to the start of the 2010-11 campaign, and has led IUPUI to three 20-win seasons in four years, five straight appearances in the Summit League Tournament, three postseason WNIT selections and the programs' first D-I postseason win in 2014. That postseason victory over Central Michigan in the WNIT marked the Jaguars 23rd of the year, which set a Division-I program record for wins in a season. In 2016, they once again defeated Central Michigan in the first round of the WNIT to add to their blossoming post season success.
During his tenure, Parkinson was named the Summit League Coach of the Year in 2012-13, but his success has been built around two primary philosophies - keeping Indiana players at home and defense. Of his five recruiting classes, over half of the players he has signed have been from inside state lines and all of his 16 players have either been from Indiana or bordering states. Once the student-athletes get on campus, they quickly get a taste for Parkinson's emphasis on defense. In his five seasons, the Jags have ranked in the Top 3 in the league in scoring defense three times and during that span, they had one of the best on-ball defenders in the region in Dee-Dee Bellamy, who was the Summit League Defensive Player of the Year in 2012-13.
In total, Parkinson has mentored ten players in his six seasons that have gone on to win Summit League honors, including six that have earned All-Summit League honors. Kerah Nelson and DeAirra Goss lead that group as Nelson was a four-time All-League selection, including two-time First-Team honoree, and Goss was a two-time All-League selection in her two seasons with the Jags. In 2016, Danielle Lawrence and Mikale Rogers became the first pair of underclassmen to both be named to the First-Team All-Summit League in program history, and the first teammates to do it since 2009.
The 2016-17 season was littered with historical achievements and program milestones, as the Jags soared to new heights in another widely successful campaign. Coach Parkinson led his team to a program single-season record 24 victories, going 24-9 with a 12-4 mark in Summit League play. He also became the all-time winningest coach in program history, surpassing Kris Simpson and eventually recording his 100th victory at IUPUI. The Jags finished second in the league standings and advanced to their first Summit League Tournament championship finale since 2008. Coach Parkinson coached his team to a pair of big victories, first defeating Missouri 73-45 on December 4 for the Jags first-ever victory against a Southeastern Conference (SEC) school. He followed that by defeating his alma mater, the Purdue Boilermakers, 67-62 in West Lafayette, Indiana on December 21, marking the first time ever that a Summit League team defeated the Big 10 powerhouse. The Jags defeated eight top-100 RPI schools, and make a strong case for making the Summit League a two-bid school for the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to leading the women’s basketball program, Parkinson served as an assistant coach of the IUPUI men’s basketball staff for two seasons and helped both Robert Glenn and Alex Young elevate to First Team All-Summit League honors in 2010. In addition, the Jags’ 25 wins in 2009-10 were one shy of the program’s single-season record in that category.
Parkinson was a four-year letterwinner at Purdue from 2000-04 and closed his career tied for tenth on the Boilermakers’ all-time assist list after leading the squad in that category in both his sophomore and seniors seasons. Additionally, he led the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio in each of his final three seasons. He received both his B.S. (‘04) and Masters (‘06) from Purdue in Organizational Leadership and Supervision. In his prep days, he played at Northwest High School in Kokomo, Ind., and in the Spring of 2014 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the school's Hall of Fame.
Parkinson comes from impressive basketball pedigree as his father, Bruce, is Purdue’s all-time assist leader and a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. His grandfather, Jack, played for the legendary Adolph Rupp at Kentucky and is a member of the Indiana and Kentucky Basketball Halls of Fame.
Parkinson and his wife Whittney live in Indianapolis. They welcomed their first child, Wren, to the world in the fall of 2016 and welcomed their second child, Pearce in the summer of 2021.
