Marquette Women’s Basketball Announces New Assistant Coach Khadijah Rushdan

In early April, Marquette women’s basketball assistant coach Kelly Komara made a move to Purdue to join the staff of her alma mater as associate head coach. One of the more obvious staffing transitions that you’ll ever see, of course, but that left MU head coach Megan Duffy with a spot on her staff. On Sunday, that changed, as Marquette officially announced the hiring of North Florida assistant Khadijah Rushdan as the third assistant coach alongside Justine Raterman and Tasha Taylor.

Rushdan has been an assistant coach at North Florida for the past five seasons after getting her start in the collegiate ranks with a season at La Salle. She has Big East experience from her playing days, as she was at Rutgers from 2007 through 2012, including First Team all-conference honors as a senior. That final year with the Scarlet Knights led to Rushdan being selected by the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA Draft that year, although she never played for LA due to an injury.

If we’re being completely honest about it, Rushdan was available because UNF head coach Darrick Gibbs was relieved of his duties after eight seasons back in early March. While it didn’t turn into wins on the court, Rushdan did help develop Jazz Bond into North Florida’s first ever WNBA Draft pick. That’s not nothing, as it’s hard to get selected in that draft in the first place and admittedly even harder when you’re doing it from the ASUN as opposed to a high major conference with much more media attention.

Rushdan will be the eighth assistant coach on the sidelines with Megan Duffy, with Raterman standing as the only remaining assistant from her first season in charge. The hiring of Rushdan also maintains Marquette’s status with an all-female coaching staff. That’s been the case since Taylor and Komara were hired in 2021, and when they were hired, MU was the only all-female staff in the Big East. That has changed this offseason, as both new Xavier head coach Billi Chambers and new Providence head coach Erin Batth have brought in three women as their assistants. There’s a chance that Georgetown could join that group, but the Hoyas and new head coach Tasha Butts haven’t officially announced any assistants yet.