May 29—Kansas State’s women’s basketball program altered its coaching staff Thursday — and it includes the departure of an assistant.
Chris Carr, who joined head coach Jeff Mittie’s staff prior to the 2016-17 season, no longer is part of the program, a K-State spokesman confirmed to The Mercury Friday morning. His departure means the Wildcats went from two Carrs to zero in barely a month.
Carr’s daughter, Chrissy Carr, earned All-Big 12 honorable mention honors last season as the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer (15.2 points per game). She announced last month she was entering the transfer portal. Carr committed to Syracuse on May 13.
Mittie promoted Ebony Gilliam to replace Carr as an assistant coach; Gilliam previously served as K-State’s coordinator of recruiting operations. Sadie Thramer now is the Wildcats’ coordinator of recruiting operations after being the program’s director of student-athlete development. Staci Gregorio takes over for Thramer as the director of student-athlete development.
Gilliam’s responsibilities will include working with the Wildcats’ wings and guards, recruiting evaluation, game plan preparation and player development.
Gilliam is in her eighth season in Manhattan. This will be her second assistant-coaching stint. She was an assistant coach her first three years (2014-17) before shifting over to the recruiting position the past four seasons.
She’ll now return to the bench and sit by Mittie’s side during games — just as she once did at TCU, where she worked on Mittie’s staff from 2012 to 2014.
“Ebony has always brought toughness to our team and our individual players,” Mittie said in a release. “It will be great to get her back on the floor in this capacity.”
Thramer joined the Wildcats in 2018 as the program’s director of basketball administration after working as an assistant coach at Omaha during the 2017-18 season. During her time with the Mavericks, she organized and facilitated all recruiting activities, which included managing the budget and handling the logistics of on- and off-campus visits with prospects.
“Sadie has been given many projects and roles within our staff and has excelled in every area during her time in Manhattan,” Mittie said. “With today’s ever-changing recruiting landscape, she is an excellent person to be promoted into this role.”
Gregorio has spent the past two seasons as K-State’s director of video operations.
In her new role as director of student-athlete development, she will be tasked with community outreach, coordinating players’ academics with K-State’s Academics & Student-Athlete Services department, exchanging film with opponents, editing film clips for the coaching staff and players as well as assisting the coaching staff in collecting and editing film of recruits.
Gregorio also is in charge of the women’s basketball program’s equipment needs.
“I am excited to promote Staci into a more expanded role with our staff for the upcoming season,” Mittie said. “She has continued to grow in the profession and deserves this promotion within our staff.”
Mercury sports writer Jimmy Watkins contributed to this story.