After first thanking her family, friends, colleagues and mentors, new South Alabama women’s basketball coach Yolisha Jackson got right down to business.

Even though the Jaguars are coming off a 7-23 season and have just one NCAA tournament appearance in the program’s history, Jackson said Wednesday she is ready to raise the bar. In her introductory press conference at the Mitchell Center, she did not shy away from high expectations.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to win,” Jackson said. “It’s a process and it’s a journey. And we’re going to cut down nets. Now, everybody wants to do it in their first year. Hopefully we can. We’ve got enough talent, and hopefully we can. We’re going to get it done. But eventually we will be going to the NCAA tournament and be tournament champions.”

Jackson returns to South Alabama as head coach after three seasons at South Florida, where she was a top assistant to long-time coach Jose Fernandez. The Bulls went 70-20 with three consecutive NCAA tournament berths during Jackson’s tenure, going 27-7 and losing to top-seeded South Carolina in the second round this season.

Jackson was previously an assistant for seven years at South Alabama under Terry Fowler, whose contract was not renewed at the end of this past season. Jackson was part of some highly successful teams with Fowler and the Jaguars, including a 2019 group that won a school-record 25 games and played in the Women’s NIT.

“It was an incredible experience at South Florida,” Jackson said. “There’s only so many programs in the country that have done what they’ve done, what Jose has done year after year. And being able to go and be a part of that and help elevate that program, I can’t even put it into words what that did for me.

“… I’m truly grateful and thankful for Coach Terry Fowler, who is a dear, dear friend of mine, that 10 years ago gave me the opportunity to come here and to work … while I learned an incredible amount of things about relationships and culture.”

The daughter of long-time Austin Peay basketball coach Howard Jackson, Yolisha Jackson played basketball at Jacksonville University. She began her coaching career with five seasons at Kennesaw State followed by three at Air Force before joining Fowler’s South Alabama staff in 2013.

Jackson was officially hired by the Jaguars on March 24, some three weeks after the decision was made not to renew Fowler’s contract. South Alabama athletics director Joel Erdmann said he formally interviewed six candidates, but that Jackson rose to the top almost immediately.

“The depth of interest and the quality of interest in this coaching position was, if not the best, one of the best and most talented collection of coaches that wanted to be here that I’ve ever been involved with, in over 20 years of doing this,” Erdmann said. “… As that process — that thorough and objective process continued to go down the road, it started to become very crystal clear, who was the best. And that best is with us today. … We have a great leader here with us today and I can’t wait to work with her to move this thing forward.”

Despite the poor record the last two seasons, South Alabama does have some building blocks for the future. Three of the top four scorers on last year’s team were underclassmen, including Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Kelsey Thompson.

Jackson also takes over at South Alabama during a watershed time for women’s college basketball in general. The recently-completed NCAA Women’s Final Four was the most-viewed in history, and the tournament championship game between Iowa and LSU has generated buzz on the national sports scene all week.

“I’m sure just about everybody in here watched the Final Four,” Jackson said. “But it is a great time in women’s basketball. … We played at South Carolina in the second round and there were people waiting outside to get in an hour and 45 minutes before the game started. When I played 20-something years ago, you were lucky to get 300 people in there. Women (basketball players) are now dominating television and radio and people want to give money and support and show up. It’s something incredible. I think there’s not a better time to be a women’s basketball player than right now. There’s just so much excitement around the game.”

South Alabama has played women’s basketball since 1981, but has just one NCAA tournament appearance, a first-round exit under coach Charlie Branum in 1987. Rick Pietri won 220 games in 13 seasons beginning in 2000, twice taking the Jaguars to the Women’s NIT.