Born on a Christmas Day, Khalilah Mitchell has learned to make lists, check them twice, prioritize them.
“I’m wild that way,” she said. “I have an urgent list, a priority list. This needs to be deadline. This is family. This is personal. This is work. I can filter out and see what I’m going to tackle first, second, third and then within the hour.”
After being announced as the next University of Hawaii women’s basketball coach on Tuesday, Mitchell already was immersed in building a roster, planning the offseason training schedule, setting a path to an accelerated offense, and adjusting to the Mountain West. The Rainbow Wahine officially move from the Big West on July 1.
Dealing with the NCAA transfer portal? Mitchell created a metric of projections of players who want to pursue other schools and student-athletes interested in becoming Rainbow Wahine. Dealing with NIL agents? As a point recruiter, she is fluent in “agent speak.”
The thing is, Mitchell is in full sprint ahead of the starter’s gun. Mitchell, who has been on staff for the past four years, officially becomes the successor to Laura Beeman on May 1. Mitchell agreed to terms on a three-year contract. The pay range is between $150,000 and $275,000 annually. Athletic director Matt Elliott said details will be announced when the contract is finalized.
A committee screened the applicants. After consulting with screeners and administrators, Elliott made the final choice.
“We vetted every candidate equally,” Elliott said, “and Khalilah was the choice.”
Elliott said his intent was to limit the offer to three years as the program moves into the Mountain West.
“I see the Mountain West as a new experience,” Elliott said. “As we all go into it together, I want to make sure that we have the opportunity to assess ‘how does that go’ as we go into a new conference. That was more of a department-wide thought as opposed to a specific candidate.”
Beeman, who announced her retirement from coaching three weeks ago, remains under contract through next week and has helped Mitchell through the transition.
“It’s going to be important to have her as a resource, but also understand my own voice,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was born in Georgia but grew up in New Orleans. In tribute, Mitchell and wife Kim named their daughter Nola.
Mitchell was part of five LSU appearances in the Final Four from 2004 through 2008. She began her coaching career at Central Florida in 2009. She joined UH in 2018. After spending the 2022-23 season with San Jose State, Mitchell rejoined UH.
Mitchell fosters a teaching style directed at teamwork and individual learning.
“Does this person learn well on film?” Mitchell said. “Does this person learn kinesthetically? Does this person learn through communication? As a point guard, and I’ve coached guards most of my time here, I needed to know what they didn’t know and what they preferred. And I needed to set them up for challenges within those things. If it was uncomfortable with their learning styles, that’s what I wanted. Because the game’s uncomfortable. Because you’re going to be in situations where you’re going to have to communicate a different way.”
Mitchell said she prefers an uptempo offensive style. The past season, the Rainbow Wahine averaged 8.0 fastbreak points per game.
“I want to score within the first 10 seconds,” Mitchell said of the increased scoring odds if a defense is not fully set. … The standard is we show up, we speak up, we lift up. We were a great halfcourt team. The way the Mountain West plays, you have to be able to transition. And that’s where I’m going to spend the majority of my time on. I want to be able to read and react. I want them to be able to free-flow and make decisions.”
“Emphasis on deflections,” she said. “Try to get three stops in a row. That’s a huge data in analytics … instrumental in creating bigger leads.”
Mitchell has been an advocate of providing a positive atmosphere.
“You get a college scholarship, you play basketball to play,” she said. “If you’re not seeing the playing time, for whatever reasons they are, we still want to make sure you have the best experience you can have. Whatever makes that student happier, that’s what we’re going to do.”