Tyler Cordell is in her 10th year on the Columbia women's basketball coaching staff. Cordell was hired as an assistant coach in May of 2016 and was promoted to associate head coach in July of 2022. She also serves as the team's recruiting coordinator.
Cordell has been at Griffith's side every step of the way. In nine years on Griffith's staff, Cordell has helped usher in a new era and new brand of Columbia women's basketball. The Lions are a combined 146-91 (.616) over that time, including 100-27 (.787) over the last four seasons with a 50-6 (.893) Ivy League record. Columbia won its first three Ivy League Regular Season Championships from 2023-25, securing its first two bids to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and 2025, both as at-large selections. In 2025, Columbia earned its first March Madness win, defeating Washington, 63-60, in the First Four.
Cordell has helped coach the Lions to 15 power-conference wins over the likes of Miami, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Villanova and Washington, to name a few. They also include the program's first victories over opponents from the ACC, Big East and Big Ten, as well as back-to-back appearances in the postseason WNIT. Columbia made a run all the way to the Championship Game in 2023, becoming the first school in Ivy League history to reach that stage of the tournament.
The 2022-23 season saw the Lions debut in both the Associated Press (AP) Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. They received their first votes in the AP Top 25 on Dec. 12 and went on to receive votes six separate times. Columbia received its first votes in the Coaches Poll on Jan. 3 and received votes for five consecutive weeks. They have since received votes in both polls each of the last three seasons.
The 2024-25 season saw Columbia win its third straight Ivy League Regular Season Championship. This time, it was the program's first outright title, as the Lions went 13-1 in league play and swept the season series against Princeton for the first time since 2008. Kitty Henderson was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous First Team All-Ivy League selection. Riley Weiss joined her on the First Team and Cecelia Collins was Second Team. Cordell was named to the Ivy League's Coaching Staff of the Year. Columbia went on to earn a second straight at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, returning to the First Four for a second straight season. This time around, they came out on top, erasing a 13-point deficit to down the Huskies, 63-60, and earn the program's first NCAA Tournament win. The 11th-seeded Lions advanced into the First Round, where their magical season ended against sixth-seeded West Virginia.
After chasing their first Ivy League title for 37 years, the Lions hoisted the the Farquhar-Baker Trophy for the first time in 2023. They did so in dramatic fashion, defeating Cornell in overtime, 69-64, in the regular season finale on March 4, which also capped a second-straight 12-2 Ivy League season. The Lions went on to finish the year 28-6 overall, setting a program record for wins for the second consecutive season. After defeating FDU, Fordham, Syracuse and Harvard to reach the WNIT's National Semifinals, Columbia pulled off a 77-70 road win at Bowling Green to reach the title game. The Lions were one of the last four teams in the country left playing college basketball when they stepped into historic Allen Fieldhouse on Apriil 1, pushing Kansas to the wire in front of over 11,000 fans.
The Lions posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in the program's Div. I era, going 17-10 in 2019-20 before setting a then-program record for wins by going 25-7, 12-2 Ivy, in 2021-22. The landmark 2021-22 campaign included several program firsts, including starting the season 5-0 for the first time, starting the Ivy League season 7-0 for the first time, advancing to the Ivy League Tournament Championship game and accepting a bid to the program's first Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). Columbia advanced all the way to the National Quarterfinals of the WNIT with victories over Patriot League champion Holy Cross, Old Dominion and Boston College.
Serving as the team's recruiting coordinator for the last number of seasons, Cordell has been responsible for recruiting players that have gone on to be named the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) All-Met Women's Div. I Rookie of the Year in each of Columbia's last three competition seasons (Sienna Durr, 2018-19; Abbey Hsu, 2019-20; Kitty Henderson, 2021-22). The MBWA encompasses 21 Div. I schools in the New York City metropolitan area, which includes the likes of St. John's, Rutgers, Fordham, Marist and Seton Hall.
Thirteen Lions have earned All-Ivy League accolades since Cordell and Griffith arrived in 2016, including 10 such selections that Cordell recruited. In 2020, Sienna Durr and Abbey Hsu became the first pair of Lions in 12 years to earn All-Ivy League first- or second-team honors. In Columbia's next competition season following the COVID-19 pandemic, Hsu combined with Kaitlyn Davis on the All-Ivy League teams, marking the first time in program history that multiple Lions landed first- or second-team honors in back-to-back seasons. The duo both went on to earn unanimous First Team honors in 2022-23, also marking the first time two Lions made the five-person team.
No stranger to the Ivy League, Cordell served four seasons as the Director of Basketball Operations at Princeton. She worked alongside Griffith to guide the Tigers to an impressive 97-23 overall record and 50-6 conference mark while earning a pair of Ivy League titles and four-straight post-season appearances.
Prior to heading to Princeton, Cordell spent one season as a graduate assistant at Ithaca College where she assisted in player development, film exchange/breakdown, recruiting and scouting for the reigning Empire 8 champions. That season, the Bombers went on to win the most games in program history at 24-5 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
A 2011 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Cordell was a four-year letterwinner on the women's basketball team. A three-year captain, she earned All-NCAC First Team honors three times. In 2009, the Bishops won the NCAC Tournament and Cordell earned tournament MVP honors.
She concluded her career as the all-time assists leader in program history with 495 and is in the Bishops' all-time top-10 in points scored with 1,507.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Cordell graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 2011 with a dual degree in sociology and sport management. She earned her master's in sport management from Ithaca in 2012.
