Constantin Popa (pronounced CON-stan-teen POH-puh) will be aiming to get the Greyhounds back to the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the last five years, following the program’s first national tournament abscense since 2010-11, the year before Popa was named Greyhounds’ head coach.
The Greyhound bench boss guided UIndy to a 12-16 record in 2014-15. The Hounds qualified for the GLVC Tournament, earning a 72-51 win in the opening round on the road against Truman State University before falling to top-seeded Drury in the quarterfinals.
Popa guided three Greyhounds to Second Team All-GLVC selections in Princess German, Kelly Walter and Nicole Anderson, with Walter setting the single-season program record for three-point field goals after knocking down 80 in 2014-15.
In 2013-14, Popa guided the Hounds to a 23-9 (13-5 GLVC) mark in earning the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Regional Tournament. The ‘13-14 team set program records for single-season points (2,488) and three-point field goals (248), and ranked in the top five in scoring (77.8 pts/gm), field goals (852), free throws (536),field goal pct. (.473), free throw pct. (.776) and blocks (161).
Popa’s teams sit as the top three in single-season blocks, with the 2012-13 squad holding the record at 181.
He coached two All-GLVC selections in Katy McIntosh (first team) and Eliza Wortman (second team, all-defensive team) last season. McIntosh finished her Greyhound career seventh on the all-time scoring list (1,495). Wortman leaves UIndy with the second-most career blocks (142).
Believed to be the tallest coach in NCAA history, the 7-foot-3 Popa spent four seasons as the top assistant on the Grey-
hound bench before being promoted to the “big chair.” In his time as an assistant, the Hounds won 89 games and tied a program record by garnering three consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, including a “Sweet 16” appearance in 2009.
All told, UIndy has made six NCAA appearances in the seven seasons with Popa on the bench.
In 2009-10, Popa’s third season as UIndy assistant, the Greyhounds posted a 26-4 record and fi nished the regular season atop the GLVC East Division. The Hounds also put together a school-record 24-game win streak that year, on the way to receiving the highest ranking in program history -- No. 2 in the USA TODAY ESPN Division II Coaches Poll.
Popa mentored 2010 GLVC Player of the Year and All-American Samantha Meissel, as well as all-conference forward Katie Lyons. The pair represents the only two UIndy women to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor in each of their four years on campus.
Before joining the Greyhound staff in 2007, Popa spent two
years as the varsity girls’ head coach at Cypress Bay High
School in Weston, Fla.
As a collegian, Popa excelled for the University of Miami Hurricanes from 1991-95. The Bucharest, Romania native was a two-time All-Big East performer and fi nished his career with more than 1,100 points and 700 rebounds, while his 263 career blocks still rank as the program’s benchmark. After college, Popa was drafted in the second round of the 1995 NBA draft by the L.A. Clippers and later went on to star in both France and Israel as a professional.
Overseas, he helped three different European teams to a total of five national titles in two countries and was also a member of the Romanian National Team
