Women's Basketball

VIDEO | Meet Kristin Iwanaga

Kristin Iwanaga is in her seventh season as assistant coach for Santa Clara women's basketball in 2022-23.

Iwanaga spent seven seasons at Cal Poly where she helped the Mustangs win three Big West Conference championships while going 76-38 in conference play (a .667 winning percentage) before joining the Broncos.

In addition to specializing with the team's perimeter player development, Iwanaga assisted with the program's recruiting, scouting and camps.

A former point guard at Cal, Iwanaga coached both the co-Big West assist leaders in 2013-14, as Jonae Ervin and Ariana Elegado tied by averaging 4.5 each for the 38th-highest scoring team in the nation.

With Iwanaga on the bench, Cal Poly made it to the conference tournament title game in three of four years. In 2013, the Mustangs defeated Pacific 63-49 to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament for a first-round matchup with No. 3 seed Penn State at LSU.

Iwanaga has helped direct an offense that was No. 1 in the conference in 3-point accuracy every year but two in her tenure in San Luis Obispo (including the No. 2 percentage in the country her first season, 38.8 percent).

Iwanaga still holds both the Pac-12 free-throw percentage records for a career (.890) and single season (.934) — via an 85-for-91 display in 2004-05, when she led the country in the category.

Also as a senior for the Golden Bears, she set the Pac-10 single-season record for 3-point shooting (.524) while earning all-conference second-team honors.

Iwanaga was a four-year starter in Berkeley, as well as a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic honoree. She departed the program ranked fourth in school history in 3-pointers made (122), seventh in games played (115) and ninth in assists (317).

She came to Cal Poly from St. Francis High School in Watsonville, where she served as the varsity basketball coach for two seasons and as the assistant athletics director and chair of the Social Sciences Department.

During two seasons under Iwanaga, the Sharks compiled a 45-16 record, posted a pair of runner-up showings in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, won the 2009 SCCAL Tournament title and reached the semifinals of the 2008 Northern California Division V Championships. Prior to her tenure at St. Francis, Iwanaga also served as the head coach of the San Jose Cagers AAU White squad and was the assistant JV coach at her prep alma mater, Archbishop Mitty in San Jose.

Iwanaga graduated from Cal in 2005 with a degree in sociology. She also earned a master's degree in sports management from American University in 2009.