Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- janbanks@iu.edu
- Phone:
- (812) 855-3013
Follow Coach Banks
Janese Constantine enters her fourth season as assistant coach in 2019-20.
During Constantine’s time at Indiana, the Hoosiers have reached new heights as a program as the 2018-19 year was no different. It marked the program’s fourth-straight 20-win season and an at-large bid in to the NCAA Tournament. With her instruction, Constantine helped guards Ali Patberg and Jaelynn Penn to All-Big Ten second team honors.
Constantine helped guide the Indiana to the 2018 WNIT Championship with an overall record of 23-14. Season highlights included wins over Western Kentucky, a four-overtime thriller in the Big Ten Tournament against Michigan State and three-straight wins over Purdue. Guard Tyra Buss earned her third-straight All-Big Ten First Team honors and her second-straight WBCA All-American Honorable Mention nod. Penn earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman team, the first for IU since 2014.
The Indianapolis, Ind. native helped the Hoosiers to a historic season during her first year in 2016-17, advancing to the WNIT quarterfinals and a program-record 23 wins. It marked the first time in school history that IU has posted back-to-back 20-win seasons and the first back-to-back winning seasons since 2007-08 and 2008-09. In addition, the Hoosiers went 15-3 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, recording its fifth-consecutive winning season at home. Indiana also set single season program records for points scored (2,547), points per game (74.9) and assists (564). Constantine was also instrumental in development of guards Alexis Gassion (All-Big Ten honorable mention, All-Defensive team) and Tyra Buss (WBCA All-American honorable mention, All-Big Ten first team).
Before coming to IU, Constantine spent the previous two seasons as an assistant at IUPUI, where she helped lead the Jaguars to a 21-win season in 2015-16, the third highest win total in a single year in program history and the second highest number of wins for the school in Division I history. IUPUI finished third in The Summit League standings and earned a bid into the Women’s National Invitation Tournament for the third time ever as the Jags defeated Central Michigan in the first round.
Constantine played a role in IUPUI having two players earn First Team All-Summit League honors in 2015-16 in guard Danielle Lawrence and center Mikale Rogers, marking the first time a pair of Jaguars landed first team all-conference recognition since 2009.
Prior to IUPUI, Constantine spent two seasons at Milwaukee after serving as graduate assistant at Auburn in 2011-12. A standout player at Ben Davis High School, Constantine was named Gatorade Player of the Year, an Indiana All-Star and an All-State selection in 2004.
Constantine (née Banks) played collegiately in the Big Ten at Wisconsin (2005-08) where she finished her career averaging 12.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game during her four seasons. She was a three-time All-Big Ten selection and off the court earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition three times. Banks ended her career as one of 10 players in Badgers history to eclipse 1,500 career points.
After college, Constantine played professionally in Ukraine, Switzerland and Iceland. After three years in professional basketball, she spent the 2010-11 season as a volunteer coach at Ben Davis.
She married Paul Constantine, who is a strength and conditioning coach for Indiana Football, in May 2018 and they reside in Bloomington.
