Chandler McCabe enters her first season as assistant coach with the Knights in the 2023-24 season. The Orlando native returned home after spending two seasons as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at George Mason University under head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis, turning around a program that had little recent success prior to the staff’s arrival. In 2022-23, McCabe helped lead the program to its first winning season (16-15) in 17 seasons and .500 Atlantic 10 Conference record (8-8) in program history. She also assisted George Mason to wins in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
Prior to arriving at George Mason, McCabe spent seven seasons under Blair-Lewis as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, FL. Over her last five seasons with the program (2015 to 2020 – all BCU athletics were suspended for the 2020-21 academic year), she helped lead Bethune-Cookman to a 120-65 (.649) overall and 77-19 (.802) MEAC record, including the most single-season (24) and MEAC (15) wins in program history in 2017-18. McCabe also assisted the program to historical success, with four MEAC Regular Season Championships (first in program history) and the 2019-20 MEAC Tournament Championship, which resulted in the first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
During the 2017-18 campaign, McCabe also gained both national exposure and a unique opportunity to earn first division I head coaching experience. For four games, she handled head coaching duties with Blair-Lewis on maternity leave. The Wildcats won three of those four games, including an overtime win at Morgan State and a quarterfinal victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore at the MEAC Tournament.
As an assistant coach at Bethune-Cookman and George Mason, McCabe has recruited and coached 15 all-conference team selections, as well as one Player of the Year and three Defensive Players of the Year.
In 2018, McCabe was recognized by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association as one of its Thirty Under 30 honorees, a program created to recognize 30 up-and-coming women's basketball coaches age 30 and younger at all levels of the game. Each honoree has exemplified their involvement in community service, mentorship, professional manner and professional association involvement.
McCabe came to Bethune-Cookman after two seasons as a graduate assistant at Henderson State,
while also earning her master's degree in sports administration in 2014 with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
A 2012 graduate of Providence with a bachelor's degree in social work with a minor in business management, McCabe appeared in 110 games for the Friars and served as a team captain in her senior season (2011-12). In 2009-10, she helped lead the program to its first winning season (19-15) and post-season berth (WNIT) in 18 seasons.
A Dean's List student, McCabe was honored as a member of the Providence College Chi Alpha Sigma Athletic Honors Society and was named a member of the Big East All-Academic Team during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons.
McCabe is a graduate of Bishop Moore Catholic High School and won a state championship in 2008. She is the daughter of Carl Koechlin and the late Wendy McCabe, who worked in Orlando at the local PBS station, WMFE.