UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Georgetown forward Graceann Bennett took the microphone Monday night after the Big East championship game and broke the news that Darnell Haney would soon have the interim label removed from his title as the Hoyas' head coach.
Haney took over Georgetown in October, following the death of head coach Tasha Butts, who was hired just last April and never got a chance to coach the Hoyas. Haney had been hired by Butts to be her top assistant.
He has led the Hoyas through their grief to a 22-11 record and a run through the conference tournament that ended Monday with a 78-42 loss to UConn.
"I am so elated and overjoyed for the future of the program and just so grateful that I had this opportunity to learn from him for the year," Bennett said. "There's much more to come for Georgetown women's basketball with Coach Haney as head coach."
Haney, who became emotional as Bennett spoke, credited Butts with putting together a team and staff who were able to succeed despite what they have collectively been through.
"These young women and this staff, they just wanted to find a way to win," he said. "They wanted to see success. And they listened and they persevered and they got to the next thing. And when we would lose a game, I couldn't be mad at them because they gave everything they got."
His players have credited Haney with keeping the team focused, giving them clear goals and a family-like culture that had everyone caring.
"Taking a group of women who really don't know what direction to look in when that happens and knowing that it could go really bad really fast, him being able to just get us together and put us on a path that is continuing to be difficult and hard and tiring, but so rewarding," guard Kelsey Ransom said.
The team's semifinal victory over Creighton put it in its first Big East title game and came on the day Butts would have turned 42 years old.
"I think it speaks to truly her hand in this season," Bennett said. "I'm a very spiritual person, and I have no doubt in my mind that the way things happened for us and that energy was divine."
Haney said he has always believed that with hard work and specific goals, at the proper time, things would work out. He said that's the culture he has been trying to instill in his team, with the ultimate goal of becoming an NCAA tournament team.
His team has played itself into a position to at least be considered for a tournament berth.
And while contract talks are still ongoing, Haney has coached his way into a job he could only dream about as a child.
"Just to know that I'm going to be the head coach in a situation to even walk the halls of the great John Thompson," he said. "I'm just so thankful and so proud to be able to do that."