According to Sleeper Athletes Ladies Basketball, HBCU women’s basketball coach Dawn Thornton of Alabama A&M has been linked as a potential candidate to become an SEC head coach. Rumors have her name circulating as a candidate to become the next women’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas.
The report concerning Thornton comes nearly a week after the Bulldog’s HBCU hoops season ended in the 2025 Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament in Atlanta. While a report has surfaced for Thornton as a potential candidate for the Razorbacks’ job, no official confirmation has surfaced that the Bulldogs’ coach is taking her talents back to The Natural State.
Former Arkansas women’s basketball coach Mike Neighbors resigned from his coaching duties on March 11 after eight seasons leading the Razorbacks’ program.
20 wins in year one
Dawn Thornton recently finished her first season at AAMU, guiding the Bulldogs to a 21-10 record overall and a 14-4 mark in SWAC play. Before her first year at AAMU, she spent five seasons as the women’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, three seasons at Prairie View and one season at Division II Shorter University. During non-conference action in the 2023-24 season, Thornton led UAPB to a 74-70 victory against Arkansas.
AAMU finished third in the SWAC regular season standings in the 2024-25 campaign and earned the No. 3 seed in this year’s SWAC tournament. However, Alcorn State defeated AAMU 56-53 in the quarterfinals of the league’s postseason event. Despite the Bulldogs’ loss to the Braves, Thornton told reporters that she was excited about her team’s success this season — one that saw the program notch its first 20-plus win season at the Division I level — and was optimistic about the future of the program.
“We’re gonna get in the portal,” said Thornton after AAMU’s loss in the SWAC tourney quarterfinals. “That’s what my staff does. … We’ll go back and we’ll rebuild this team [Alabama A&M] next year. The thing that we will do differently, we’re gonna be able to get some kids that have more than one year. So we will do that as well.”
While the Bulldogs did not secure the automatic bid to the women’s NCAA tournament, the 20-win HBCU squad earned an at-large bid in the field of 48 teams competing in this year’s Women’s National Invitational Tournament, the program’s first appearance in the postseason event.
AAMU will travel to face SoCon foe Chattanooga (16-14) on March 22 at 2 p.m. ET at McKenzie Arena. The Bulldogs-Mocs contest winner will face Troy in the tournament’s second round.
