Kacie Bailey will enter her third season as the head coach of the Lady Panthers in the 2025-26 season.
During Bailey's second season, Drury went 22-7, earning the second seed in the GLVC with a 17-3 record. Bailey's Lady Panthers earned four all-GLVC selections, including all-American Caitlynn Daniels.
In her second season, Bailey guided Drury to a 25-7 record, an 18-4 mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the team's eighth-straight GLVC championship game appearance, and an NCAA-II Tournament bid. Her Lady Panthers also produced four all-conference selections as well as the GLVC and Midwest Region Player of the Year, Reese Schaaf.
Bailey was brought to the Drury campus following the 2022-23 season as Drury Vice President & Director of Athletics, Nyla Milleson, turned to a former colleague to take the reigns of the Lady Panthers basketball program. Milleson, who was the first-ever head coach of the Lady Panthers and launched a program that features the best all-time winning percentage in NCAA-II women's basketball, reached out Bailey who served as an assistant under Milleson from 2017-21.
During the summer of 2025, Bailey led the USA D2 WBB Tour in Brazil. Bailey was joined by current Drury assistant coach, Destiny Smith and three Lady Panthers, Kaylee King, Sara Mendal, and Rhi Gibbons.
Prior to her arrival at Drury, Bailey had been the head coach at Quincy for two seasons and had been an assistant coach at the Division I level for seven years, with two seasons as an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Wichita State and Central Arkansas in addition to her stint at George Mason.
As head coach at Quincy, Bailey led the Hawks through one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in recent history. She inherited a team that won just two games in 2020-21 and, two years later, guided them to their first postseason appearance in seven years. The Hawks finished 13-16, 9-11 in the GLVC and nearly derailed the Lady Panthers' quest for a seventh-straight conference title in the league quarterfinals in 2023. In Drury's 24 games against conference opponents during the regular season and postseason, their game against Quincy was the only time the Lady Panthers trailed in the final two minutes. The Hawks missed a shot as time expired, and Drury survived for a 79-78 win, then went on to capture the GLVC championship.
Quincy ended the regular season third-best in the GLVC in points allowed (66.5), three-point defense (allowing a .314 percentage), and they were fourth in rebound margin (+3.8 per game). Prior to Bailey's arrival, the Hawks were last in the league in rebounding margin, next to last in points allowed, and 11
th out of 15 teams in three-point defense.
Bailey will enter the 2025-26 season with a career coaching record of 69-50 and has gone 44-18 in her last three years in GLVC competition.
At George Mason, Bailey helped the Patriots to a 24-10 record in 2017-18, and their 24 wins are still the most in the program's 49-year history. She helped develop point guard Nicole Cardaño-Hillary, who in three seasons became George Mason's all-time leading scorer, was the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2019, and was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2018 before transferring to Indiana where was an All-Big Ten selection in 2022.
Bailey also helped turn around a Wichita State team that went 8-22 and 5-13 in the Missouri Valley Conference in her first year on the staff to a squad that went 15-16, finished fifth in the MVC with a 9-9 mark and reached the league semifinals just a year later.
In her two years at Central Arkansas, Bailey was part of a coaching staff that went 35-26 and reached the Southland Conference championship game in 2014. She coached the conference Player of the Year, Courtney Duever, and the league's Freshman of the Year, Brianna Mullins, in 2014.
Bailey joined the coaching staff at Henderson State in 2011 and was named the program's interim head coach just prior to the start of the 2012-13 season, guiding the Reddies to a 13-14 record. She also served as a graduate assistant coach at Arkansas-Monticello from 2009-11.
Bailey played at Southern Illinois and was a starter through most of her senior season in 2008-09. She was on the Salukis Missouri Valley Conference championship team in 2007 and, as a senior, led her team in three-pointers made and three-point percentage. She was also named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team following her senior year, as she carried a 3.92 grade point average. As a member of the Salukis, Bailey played against Nyla Milleson's Missouri State Lady Bears during Milleson's tenure as head coach at Missouri State.
Originally from Dresden, Tennessee, Bailey was a First Team All-State selection as a senior in high school and set team records for career three-pointers made (257) and free throw percentage (.845). She scored 1,482 points during her high school career, the third-most in school history.
Bailey graduated from Southern Illinois with a degree in Recreation with minors in Business Marketing and Psychology. She owns a Master's degree in Sport Management from Arkansas-Little Rock.
Year-by-Year at Drury
| Year |
Record |
GLVC |
Postseason |
| 2024-25 |
22-7 |
17-3 |
GLVC Semifinals |
| 2023-24 |
25-7 |
18-4 |
GLVC Finals, NCAA-II First Round |
| TOTALS |
47-14 |
35-7 |
|
Kaci Bailey Career Coaching & Playing Highlights
- Took over a Drury program in 2023-24 that did not return 73 percent of their scoring from the previous year and lost one All-American and two All-Region players to graduation, but still managed to win 25 games, go 18-4 in the GLVC, reach the GLVC championship game, and earn an NCAA-II Tournament bid.
- Head coach at Quincy for two seasons, 2021-2023 – improved the Hawks from two wins in 2020-21, to 13 in 2022-23 and jumped seven spots in the conference standings (15th to 8th) in that span
- Guided Hawks to their first postseason appearance in seven years
- Improved defense from next to last in points allowed three years ago to third-best in the GLVC this year, allowing 66.5 points per game
- As an assistant at George Mason (2017-21), helped the Patriots to program-record 24 wins in 2017-18
- Helped develop the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, Nicole Cardaño-Hillary
- As an assistant and recruiting coordinator at Wichita State (2015-17), assisted the Shockers from eight wins to 15 victories a year later
- With Central Arkansas (2013-15) as an assistant and recruiting coordinator as the Sugar Bears went 35-26 in two seasons
- Played four seasons and saw action in 102 games at Southern Illinois University
- On the Salukis 2007 Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship team
- Named to Missouri Valley Conference All-Scholar Athlete Team
- First Team All-State selection in Tennessee at Dresden High School
- Third all-time leading scorer at her high school (1,482 points), set career records in three-pointers made (257) and free throw percentage (.857)
