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Amy Eagan's college coaching ladder has several rungs, and her résumé includes more than 300 wins.

Next step: the University of New Mexico, where she plans to keep the upward trajectory.

Eagan was named New Mexico women’s basketball coach Tuesday. She takes over from Mike Bradbury, who accepted a negotiated contract buyout earlier this month after 10 seasons.

It’s a higher-profile position for Eagan, who has a 329-191 overall record at five programs. The most recent is Lindenwood University, where she turned the Lions into Ohio Valley Conference contenders in three seasons.

She envisions similar results with New Mexico and the Mountain West.

“Our standard is to cut down nets,” Eagan said in a phone interview Tuesday, “and I feel like New Mexico is a perfect place to do that. It’s a community that loves basketball, has a rich tradition of winning and I feel like the Mountain West is a very competitive conference with great coaches. I'm really excited to come and be part of all that.”

Eagan is no stranger to building successful programs, although her task at UNM will differ dramatically from her last coaching assignment.

Lindenwood, a school of 7,300 students in St. Charles, Missouri, transitioned to Division I in 2025. The Lions won just two games in 2022-23 prior to Eagan’s arrival and finished 7-21 in her first season. Lindenwood then went 48-19 over Eagan’s final two years, including a 25-8 record in 2025-26, finishing as OVC regular-season co-champions and advancing to the league tournament title game while posting some of the NCAA’s top offensive numbers.

“We had a great run,” Eagan said, “and I know we were really good offensively. But I do believe that defense wins championships and you have to be really good on both ends. That’s what we'll be striving for right from the beginning.”

If things went well at Lindenwood, they went even better at Eagan’s previous stop, Drury University, where the Panthers won three straight Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament titles, advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament regional semifinals after each and finished as national runners-up in 2020-21. Eagan was named WBCA NCAA D-II Coach of the Year that season.

Eagan’s résumé appears to check the boxes required by Ryan Berryman, UNM’s recently hired athletic director. Berryman and Amy Beggin, New Mexico’s senior associate athletic director for compliance and a former player at the school, led the search and sought candidates with track records including conference titles, successful recruiting, community interaction and high energy.

“We are thrilled to welcome Coach Eagan to New Mexico,” Berryman said in a UNM release. “She has a long history of success, of championships, and being a leader of young women. We are excited to get the Coach Eagan era of Lobo women’s basketball underway.”

A Missouri native who excelled at the high school (South Shelby) and college (Truman State University) levels, Eagan played professionally in Norway before moving to the coaching ranks. Her first head coaching stop was at St. Ambrose University in 2005-06, and Eagan went on to coach at Ashford and at her alma mater, Truman State, before signing on at Lindenwood. Overall, her teams have won six conference titles and gone 6-6 in national tournament appearances.

Eagan must now adjust to New Mexico, a state she had never visited until Saturday. After touring UNM’s campus and facilities and getting a brief look at Albuquerque, she’s excited to experience more. Eagan will be formally introduced at a UNM news conference early next week.

Eagan’s priorities include building a roster for next season. UNM has 11 players from last season who are eligible to return and three incoming freshmen signed. The NCAA transfer portal opens for women’s basketball players on Monday.

“My first job is to talk to the players who are there, get to know them as people first,” Eagan said “I’ve watched them all on video but I want to find out who they are and let them know who I am, start building from there. Then we can start on the roster and putting a (coaching) staff in place.”

The impending transfer window hastened UNM’s first coaching search under Berryman, one which commenced March 21 when the school announced Bradbury would not return after a 22-10 season that ended with a 62-61 loss to Boise State in the MWC tournament quarterfinals.

Eagan’s contract is for five years, with a base salary of $315,000 for 2026-27, increasing by $5,000 each year. She will also receive $35,000 annually for media cooperation and $20,000 initially for relocation costs. The contract includes $10,000 incentive bonuses for accomplishments such as conference championships, NCAA appearances and wins and coach-of-the-year honors.

UNM hopes to replicate the success it has enjoyed with other recent coaching hires Jason Eck (football) and Eric Olen (men's basketball), both of whom were hired from lower-profile positions. Eck led New Mexico to a 9-4 record and a bowl game appearance in 2025 after coaching previously at Idaho.

Olen's team has gone 26-10 in his first season at UNM and will play in the NIT semifinals Thursday. Olen previously coached at UC San Diego.