Wichita State Athletics

Melanie Balcomb joined the Shockers as associate head coach for women's basketball in April of 2026.

Balcomb brings 26 years of head coaching experience, spending two seasons at Ashland, seven at Xavier, 14 at Vanderbilt and three at Ohio Dominican. The New Jersey native has a history of winning as the winningest coach in both Vanderbilt history with a record of 310-149 (.675) and Xavier history with a record of 135-78 (.634).
 
During Balcomb’s time at Vanderbilt, the Commodores made 12-straight trips to the NCAA Tournament, including four Sweet Sixteen appearances. At Xavier, she was named the 2001 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year, leading the Musketeers to their first-ever Elite Eight with an upset over No. 1 seed Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen.
 
Balcomb holds a career head coaching record of 486-295 (.622) and has served on Division I coaching staffs at Purdue, Texas Tech, South Carolina, Providence, Ohio and Niagra. In her lone season on Dawn Staley’s coaching staff, she served as the director of offensive coaching analytics, assisting the team to a 33-4 overall record and the program’s first national championship.
 
Balcomb has led teams to a total of 19 NCAA Tournaments, winning eight conference tournament titles and ranking fourth all-time in SEC Tournament win percentage (.676). She was an ESPN National Coach of the Year finalist and Naismith National Coach of the Year Finalist and has been inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Sports, The College of New Jersey Sports and Xavier University Halls of Fame.
 
She earned a bachelor of science in health, physical education and dance in 1984 and a master of education, specializing in sports administration, in 1985 from The College of New Jersey.