Longwood University Athletics

In just three seasons at the helm of the Longwood program, Rebecca Nemerow Tillett has engineered one of the most drastic turnarounds in college basketball.

Since being appointed head coach in March of 2018, Tillett has guided the Lancers to numerous milestones and program firsts, from the most Big South wins and highest Big South finish in program history to the team's first-ever Division I postseason berth when Longwood received an invitation to the 2021 Women's Basketball Invitational.

The 2020-21 season is just the latest example of Tillett's vision for the program becoming a reality, as the Lancers went 12-6 in the Big South to set a program record for Big South wins and earn a third-place finish in the Big South standings, also a first for the team. That success propelled Longwood to the semifinals of the 2021 Big South Championship for only the second time and also earned multiple Lancers awards from both the BIg South Conference and several regional outlets.

The Lancers reached those milestones with a roster that featured the Big South Defensive Player of the Year in Akila Smith and three All-Big South selections in the first-team forward Smith, first-team guard Kyla McMakin and honorable mention point guard Tra’Dayja Smith. Freshman guard Adriana Shipp was also named to the Big South All-Freshman Team, marking the second straight year that a Tillett-recruited player was named to that freshman squad following Anne-Hamilton LeRoy’s appointment in 2020.

Longwood’s success this past season under Tillett marked the second straight year the Lancers matched or set the program record for Big South wins. In 2019-20, her second year at the helm, the Lancers won eight Big South games and secured first-round hosting duties for the Big South Championship’s first round. McMakin was named Big South Freshman of the Year, senior forward Dayna Rouse was named to the All-Big South second team and LeRoy – who was among the first Lancers to commit to Longwood after Tillett took over – was named to the Big South All-Freshman Team.

The cultural shift Tillett has brought to Longwood has produced on the recruiting trail as well, as her first full recruiting class included the Big South Freshman of the Year in McMakin and a record-breaking point guard in Smith, who smashed Longwood’s single-season assists record in 2019-20. 
 
That breakthrough in 2019-20 produced 12 wins, which was a nine-win improvement from the year prior and the second double-digit win season of the program’s Big South era. Longwood’s nine-win turnaround was the 13th-best in the nation and the fifth-best by a second-year head coach that season and earned Tillett Longwood University’s prestigious SAAC Coach of the Year honor, which is awarded annually by Longwood’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee to the coach who goes above and beyond to contribute to the growth and success of his or her student-athletes.
 
Leading Longwood’s breakthrough on the court in 2019-20 were Big South Freshman of the Year and All-Big South first-team guard Kyla McMakin, who emerged as the jewel of Tillett’s first full recruiting class at Longwood, and senior forward Dayna Rouse, who flourished in her two years under Tillett’s leadership. Those two spearheaded a Longwood offense that averaged 67.9 points per game – second most in the Big South – and led the league in both field goal percentage and free throw percentage. The Lancers ranked 10th in the nation with 5.8 blocks per game and saw two players – McMakin and fellow newcomer Tra’Dayja Smith – finish among the NCAA’s top 10 statistical leaders in multiple categories.
 
And while McMakin and Rouse carried the scoring load for Longwood in Tillett's second season, they were only two of a cast of breakout stars in 2019-20. McMakin was part of a transformative signing class compiled by Tillett and her staff, joined by multiple other standouts in fellow freshman newcomer Anne-Hamilton LeRoy and Smith. LeRoy, who was the second member of that signing class to commit to Tillett and the Lancers, enjoyed a strong freshman campaign as well, finishing third on the team with 11.1 points per game while starting 29 contests. Smith, meanwhile, asserted herself as one of the most dominant defenders in the conference, leading the league and setting a school record with 74 blocks and tied for 12th in the conference with 1.5 steals per game.
 
Tillett also inspired the growth of many returning veterans that season, grooming Rouse into one of the top all-around forwards in the Big South and Longwood’s first-ever two-time All-Big South selection, and sophomore forward Akila Smith into one of the league’s most dominant defenders. Both Rouse and Smith finished atop the Big South leaderboard in blocks, with Smith amassing a school-record and league-leading 73 rejections and Rouse also breaking the previous record with 59 of her own.
 
The success Longwood has found under Tillett comes as no surprise for those who have followed her coaching career. She made her mark as a top-tier coach in the Virginia high school ranks, amassing a 166-72 overall record during a 15-year tenure that included stints at Osbourn Park High School in Manassas (2001-07) and Forest Park High School in Woodbridge (2007-13). Those posts saw Tillett turn around both programs, first with an Osbourn Park squad that endured nine consecutive losing seasons prior to her arrival and then with a Forest Park program that she built into a championship contender with three Northwest Region and Cardinal District titles.
 
From there, Tillett jumped to the collegiate ranks, first during an 18-10 stop at Division II IUP in Indiana, Pa., in 2013-14, and then at Navy beginning in 2014-15. She experienced a rapid ascent up the ranks on Navy’s bench under two-time Patriot League Coach of the Year Stefanie Pemper, earning a promotion to recruiting coordinator in 2016-17 and associate head coach in 2017-18. During her four-year stint with the Mids, Navy went 81-47, including in 2017-18 when they won a program-record 25 games and reached both the Patriot League Championship Game and the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).
 
Shortly after that season, she became Longwood’s new head coach.
 
Longwood’s breakthrough 2019-20 season was a byproduct of the cultural shift Tillett brought with her to Farmville, with an emphasis on recruiting, player development, and a foundation of women’s empowerment. The on-court success represents the fruit born of principles rooted in the personal growth and development of her players. Her first full recruiting class produced the Big South Freshman of the Year in McMakin and record-breaking point guard Tra’Dayja Smith, who smashed Longwood’s single-season assists record in 2019-20.
 
Tillett was seemingly predestined for a career in coaching after growing up in a Nemerow household full of coaches and educators. Her father, Larry, coached two sports at the high school level, and her mother, Lynn, coached and taught for more than 35 years. She is the oldest of four children, three of which went into the coaching profession themselves, and all in the commonwealth of Virginia. Larry coached basketball and soccer at Osbourn Park in Manassas. Her younger brother Daniel coaches basketball and soccer at Patriot High School in Nokesville. Nate coaches soccer at Battlefield High School in Haymarket. Her youngest brother Jonah almost escaped the family tradition until he became a Robotics coach at Piney Branch Elementary School in Bristow.
 
Tillett was the first of her family to transcend to the college ranks, returning to the Division I level where she was once a guard at William & Mary. After graduating from the College in 1999 with her Bachelor of Science in kinesiology, she embarked on the coaching career that took her from the high school level to the college sideline, and even on the professional circuit where she spent time as a scout in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) with the Atlanta Dream from 2010-13.
 
She earned multiple teaching honors along the way, including the 2006 KidBiz3000 Teacher of the Year at Sudley Elementary School and a SPARK Award Hero in Education honor in 2010 at Forest Park.
 
Tillett and her husband, Brett, have three children: Isabel, Jack and Maya.