Back home in Indiana, Stephanie White eyes WNBA championship with Fever: "It's coming home

The former Purdue star begins her second stint as the Fever's head coach Saturday when Indiana opens the 2025 WNBA season

INDIANAPOLIS - Stephanie White’s WNBA playing and coaching career has taken the former Purdue star on a journey to six states outside Indiana.

Stops were made in North Carolina, Kansas, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, and Connecticut.

However, White has a knack for finding her way back to her home state and adding to its rich basketball history, which she helped craft during her high school, college, and professional playing careers.

Her latest homecoming3 trip started in November when White was named head coach of the Indiana Fever after two seasons at Connecticut. She begins her second stint as the franchise’s head coach on Saturday when Indiana hosts Chicago ( 3 p.m., ABC) to start the much-anticipated 2025 season.

Despite landing in different locations since leading the Boilermakers to the 1999 national championship, the road usually brings White back to Indiana.

“It’s been great,” White said. “I say it and it sounds cliche, but it's really true - it's coming home. I grew up with a lot of these people in this building. It's such a family feel with this organization, and with basketball in the state of Indiana.

“There's a certain piece that comes with that, a certain comfort level that comes with that. It's great to be back and be part of this franchise that's such a fabric of my DNA.”

Stephanie White watches practice (Indiana Fever X page)

It was 25 years ago when the Indiana franchise played its first season, and White was traded from Charlotte to become the centerpiece and face of the organization.

This season marks the third time White has returned to the state. In 2011, White joined Lin Dunn’s staff as an assistant, and they teamed up on the sidelines to help the Fever claim the 2012 WNBA title. White compiled a 37-31 record in two seasons as Indiana’s head coach, guiding the Fever to the 2015 WNBA Finals.

The ground is solid in the Hoosier State, where White enjoyed putting her feet during her playing and coaching career.

It’s a place where White became the state’s all-time leading scorer at Seeger High School, was the nation’s No. 1 recruit who guided the Boilermakers to the top of the sport, and served as the Pied Piper for girls basketball decades before Caitlin Clark burst on the scene.

Her return to Indiana has heightened the expectations for the Fever, who will lean on a pair of No. 1 overall draft picks - Aliyah Boston and Clark - and a handful of talented free agents, including DaWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard, and former Ohio State star Kelsey Mitchell, who opted to remain in Indianapolis and not pursue free agency.

Indiana is improved, both on the court, in the front office, and on the sidelines with White on the bench, and should challenge the league’s top teams with a deep playoff run. The Fever are the third betting favorite behind New York and Las Vegas to win the championship.

Clark, the former Iowa star, carried a heavy load last season as a rookie, but has plenty of veteran and experienced help to push the Fever closer to the top of the league.

“How lucky are we to have such a good roster and so many people that wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Clark said. “They saw something in this team, in this organization, and you have to give (Indiana Fever President) Kelly (Krauskopf) and (Indiana General Manager) Amber (Cox) a lot of credit for selling their vision.”

Screenshot from Indiana Fever video

What will the Fever see from White on the sidelines? Let’s ask Bonner.

She called it an “easy transition” after playing for White last season at Connecticut.

“She's tough. She holds everyone accountable,” said the 37-year-old Bonner, who has appeared in over 500 WNBA games. “I think she's doing a great job with this group and just putting us in great positions to be successful and getting everybody to buy in.”

It hasn’t taken long for Clark to buy in. It should’ve been easy since White and Clark share the same jersey number (22), know how to handle the spotlight and attention, and are aligned in the same beliefs in how the game is played.

“They're both just incredibly smart, high-IQ basketball minds,” Cox said. “When you get two people like that together, they just seem to go to the next level. You can see it in conversations they're having in practice and how they communicate.

“Steph is such a tremendous communicator, and you see Caitlin being able to voice what she sees. It's a great partnership. It's been fun to see that evolve thus far. It's gonna be fun to see it when we take the court and how it translates on game night.”

Cox has already watched White and Clark “speak their own language” during training camp and preseason games. Clark had a foundation of White’s philosophy, listening to her as an analyst during ESPN and BTN games, but it’s increased with one-on-one sessions since taking over the Fever.

“The thing that I've always admired about Steph, and I've known her for quite some time now … but she just has a really good basketball mind,” Clark said. “If you listen to her call NBA games or college games, her knowledge of the game is far better than most people. She understands how the game is supposed to be played.

“She’s just been a good sounding board to talk about certain things. Whether we're watching video or just talking about college basketball, it's fun to have that type of basketball mind around.”

The goal is to mesh the basketball mind with the talent level on the Fever’s roster to push the franchise into a position to win a championship.

“Everybody who's been a part of the team, everybody who's won championships, everybody who's been a part of growing something special knows that a lot of things have to happen to win a championship,” White said. ‘That's why it's so incredibly difficult. But we're not shying away from the fact that we want to win a championship, that we want to position ourselves every single day to win a championship.”