Day, Cummard hired as women’s basketball assistant coaches

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Hannah Miner
Brenna Chase of BYU women’s basketball takes the ball off the wing against a Gaels defender in a Feb. 7 matchup. (Hanna Miner)

Melanie Day and Lee Cummard have been hired as assistants to BYU women’s basketball head coach Jeff Judkins. The news comes just months after former assistant coaches Dan Nielson and Ashley Garfield left BYU to take coaching positions at UVU.

Day comes to BYU with a plethora of NCAA experience. Day played three years with UCLA in addition to suiting up for BYU during the 2001-02 season. During that season, Day, then Melanie Pearson, played all 33 games and helped BYU to a Sweet Sixteen appearance with a 24-9 overall record. The native of Irvine, California, finished third on the team in average points with 11.8 despite coming off the bench in every game, also pulling down 3.6 rebounds per game.

Prior to BYU, Day played in 83 games for the UCLA Bruins, shooting 42.3% from the field and 40.1% from 3-point range. She tallied 778 points with UCLA, adding 87 steals and 22 blocked shots. Day and the Bruins won the Pac-12 championship in 1999, making an NCAA tournament run to the Elite Eight in 1999.

Day coached at UNLV for three seasons in which the Lady Rebels saw consecutive WNIT appearances in 2005 and 2006. Day’s experience as a standout player and coach brings experience to the Cougars’ coach staff, as well as knowledge from her year of playing under current head coach Jeff Judkins.

Cummard joins the women’s coaching staff after spending two years as a graduate assistant with the men’s basketball team and one year as an assistant coach. Cummard was also a standout athlete for Cougar basketball, receiving recognition as an All-Mountain West Conference player three times.

Lee Cummard drives around Ronnie Moss of TCU. (David Scott)

Cummard started 102 games over his last three seasons as a Cougar and averaged close to 14 points per game on 55% shooting. In his final season alone, Cummard averaged 16.8 points per game, 3.4 assists and 6.2 rebounds. Cummard was known as one of BYU’s marquee three-point shooters, finishing his college career with a 43% average from deep. Cummard sits third in the BYU men’s basketball record books with 153 made threes, while being tied for third in career three-pointers attempted with 355.

Cummard raked in a plethora of accolades during his playing career, including 2009 FOXSports.com All-America Fourth Team, 2009 USBWA All-District VIII, 2009 MWC First Team, 2008 AP All-America Honorable Mention and 2008 MWC First Team.

Cummard finds his name in various other categories in the BYU men’s basketball record books, including first in games played (131) and consecutive games played (131), fifth in consecutive games started (102) and second in free throw percentage (.842).

These two assistant coaches join a coaching staff that helped lead BYU to a 2019 WCC tournament championship and a 2019 NCAA round of 32 berth.

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