University of Evansville Athletics

A member of the Aces' coaching staff since 2011, University of Evansville women's basketball head coach Matt Ruffing enters his fifth season at the helm of the Aces.

Taking over as interim head coach on March 1, 2016, Ruffing helped lead the program to an 11-win improvement in his first full season as head coach, capturing a 14-17 record in 2016-17, including a 65-59 win over Missouri State in the 2017 MVC Tournament.

During his time at Evansville, Ruffing has coached a pair of student-athletes who were prolific scorers for the Aces. From 2013-17, Sara Dickey accumulated 2,187 points, becoming the all-time leading scorer in program history. Two seasons later, Kerri Gasper entered the record books as the 13th-highest career scorer in program history with 1,179 points.

Ruffing's teams at Evansville have also excelled at the free-throw line as Evansville earned the NCAA statistical national championship in 2017-18 for best free-throw shooting percentage, breaking a program and MVC record, shooting 82% from the charity stripe.

After five years as an assistant, Matt Ruffing was named the head coach of the University of Evansville women's basketball team on December 21, 2016.  He assumed head coaching duties on an interim basis from March through December before earning the full time position.

Ruffing comes from the University of Akron where he spent four seasons on the coaching staff. Beginning as a graduate assistant in the 2007-08 season, while working on a masters in sports science, Ruffing was promoted to assistant coach for the past three seasons. He served as the scouting and equipment coordinator and assisted in recruiting, handled film exchange and assisted in pre and postseason conditioning.

Ruffing also worked closely with the post players and developed sophomore center Rachel Tecca into a first team Mid-American Conference selection in 2011, marking just the third Zip in program history to receive the honor. Tecca was also named the MAC Sixth Player of the Year under Ruffing’s guidance in 2010, while Ruffing coached an All-MAC Freshmen Team Member in each of his three years as assistant coach.

Prior to Akron, Ruffing served as a student assistant and head manager of the University of Dayton women’s basketball team. Ruffing helped coordinate the team’s tape exchange and assisted the coaching staff in many other roles, including the daily operations of practice.

Ruffing has provided instruction at a number of camps, including the Tom Izzo camp and the Jim Jabir camp.

Ruffing played golf, basketball and football at Bellevue High School and graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in middle childhood education in May 2007.