Nicole Razor Joins Women’s Basketball Coaching Staff – James Madison University Athletics

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison Head Coach Sean O’Regan has announced the hiring of Nicole Razor as women’s basketball’s new assistant coach for the 2024-25 season.
 
Razor recently completed her third full season at Austin Peay where she took on director of scouting duties in addition to her co-recruiting coordinator role.
 
“Nicole won out over a lot of great candidates. A proven recruiter, she will be able to hit the ground running,” O’Regan said. “She has the right energy and she’s the right fit for what we want to do and where we want to go. She will fit very well into our family.”
 
During her time in Clarksville, Tenn., Razor helped the Governors to a 54-31 (.635) overall record, including a 30-21 (.588) in conference play. Austin Peay made it to the conference semifinals all three seasons across its time in the Ohio Valley Conference and Atlantic Sun Conference.
 
“I’m truly thankful for the opportunity to join the JMU family and learn from Coach O’Regan,” Razor said. “I’m eager to become part of a program with such a rich tradition and excited to work and help build upon the Dukes’ culture!”
 
She coached four players to a combined five all-conference honors, including La’Nya Foster, who was voted 2023-24 ASUN Freshman of the Year, and Shamarre Hale, the 2022-23 ASUN Sixth Woman of the Year.
 
In 2022-23, the Governors finished 10th in Division I in field goal percentage defense (.259), 20th in scoring defense (56.3 ppg) and 26th in bench points per game (24.5 ppg).
 
The 2021-22 season saw APSU achieve its most single-season victories since 2003-04, going 20-13, highlighted by the program’s first post-season tournament win and first OVC tournament victory in 10 years. That season also saw the program record a 45.6 percent clip from the field, the team’s most efficient season since 2003-04.

Before coming to Austin Peay, Razor spent five seasons at Division II Anderson University, where she was promoted to associate head coach in August 2018, after serving as an assistant coach during the 2017-18 season and a graduate assistant during the 2016-17 season. During her time in Anderson, S.C., the Trojans went 111-37 (.750), while winning a trio of South Atlantic Conference regular-season championships (2016, 2019, & 2020), one SAC Tournament title (2019) and earning four consecutive berths to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship (2016-2020). 

In the 2019-20 season, Razor helped guide the Trojans to a SAC regular-season title. Despite falling to Tusculum in the SAC championship game, Anderson was set to square off with Carson-Newman in the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Championship, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under Razor’s tutelage for all four years of her career, Anderson point guard Madison Baggett was named First Team All-SAC and became the program’s all-time assists leader, with 506.

Following the 2018-19 season, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named Razor to its Thirty Under 30 list, which recognizes 30 up-and-coming women’s basketball coaches aged 30 and under at all levels of the game.

In Razor’s first season as the associate head coach, the Trojans won 28-straight games, including a perfect 20-0 in conference play to win the regular-season title, before capturing the SAC Tournament crown. Anderson finished the 2018-19 campaign with a 30-3 record after a second-round loss to Lander ended its season in the 2019 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.

Prior to her coaching days, the Stone Mountain, Ga., native played basketball at Elon for three seasons. When injuries shortened her playing career, Razor was one of 75 players nationally selected to participate in the WBCA’s “So You Want To Be A Coach” program at its National Convention in Indianapolis during her senior year.

Razor graduated from Elon in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. In 2018, she earned a Master of Business Administration from Anderson.