UAA Athletics

Playmaking guard Kiki Robertson returns to UAA women’s basketball team as a coach

The first player to bring mayhem to the UAA women’s basketball team is back to help coach the Seawolves.

Kiki Robertson, the crowd-pleasing, havoc-creating point guard from Honolulu, is lending her energy and expertise as an assistant coach for the program she helped become a juggernaut.

The first recruit Ryan McCarthy called when he became UAA’s head coach in 2013, Robertson embodied a style of play that helped McCarthy deploy the “mayhem defense” the Seawolves have become famous for.

“We are so excited to have her back again,” McCarthy said Thursday.

Robertson, who starred for the Seawolves from 2013-17, was a four-time all-conference pick and a two-time defensive player of the year in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

She made 128 starts and had a hand in 116 victories, helping the Seawolves to four straight NCAA tournament appearances and a national runner-up finish in 2015-16. She piled up 700 assists and 382 steals while anchoring a fast-paced offense and a pressure defense.

[Little Kiki brings big game to top-ranked Seawolves]

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After graduating from UAA in 2017, Robertson played one season of professional basketball in Germany and then returned to Hawaii, where she helped coach the girls basketball team at her high school alma mater, Mid-Pacific Institute.

At UAA, Robertson will join a staff that includes McCarthy and Shaina Afoa. She replaces Sierra Afoa, a former teammate who spent three seasons as a coach.

It’s the first time a point guard has been a member of the coaching staff, McCarthy said. “It’s been nice for our young guards,” he said.

Robertson arrived in Anchorage on Aug. 22, and “her first day of work was the next day,” McCarthy said. “So she has hit the ground running. I feel like we are teaching everything for the first time after pretty much taking a year off.”

The Seawolves played three games last year during the pandemic and won them all. They were 31-2 in the 2019-20 season, which ended abruptly on the eve of the West Region tournament when the NCAA canceled postseason play because of COVID-19.

Beth Bragg

Beth Bragg wrote about sports and other topics for the ADN for more than 35 years, much of it as sports editor. She retired in October 2021. She's contributing coverage of Alaskans involved in the 2022 Winter Olympics.

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