Vanessa Blair-Lewis is entering her fifth season as head coach of the George Mason women’s basketball program and her 27th season overall as a head coach in 2025–26.
In her four seasons in Fairfax, she has orchestrated one of the most remarkable rebuilds in the country, transforming a team that went winless in conference play and won just three total games in 2020–21 into Atlantic 10 Champions and NCAA Tournament participants in just four seasons.
In 2024–25, Blair-Lewis led George Mason to its first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship and first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. The Patriots posted a program-record 27 wins, including a best-ever 11–1 start and their first back-to-back 20+ win seasons. The team also reached its highest-ever NET ranking at No. 40 (first achieved on Dec. 4, 2024) and hosted its highest attended women’s basketball game on Jan. 2, 2025, with 3,354 fans at EagleBank Arena. That season, three players earned A-10 postseason honors, including Paula Suárez (Most Improved Player, Second Team), Zahirah Walton (First Team, All-Defensive Team), and Kennedy Harris (Second Team). For her leadership, Blair-Lewis was named a Mid-Major Coach of the Year finalist by Her Hoop Stats for the second consecutive year and was voted the VaSID 2024-25 Coach of the Year.
In the 2023–24 season, George Mason finished 23–8 and 14–4 in A-10 play, marking the program’s first 20-win campaign since 2017–18 and setting then-program records for regular-season and conference wins. Blair-Lewis successfully led the Patriots to just their fourth-ever postseason appearance, earning a bid to the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament. That season, three players earned A-10 postseason honors, including Sonia Smith (Most Improved Player, First Team), Zahirah Walton (Rookie of the Year, Third Team, All-Rookie), and Kennedy Harris (All-Rookie). It marked the first time since 2001 that three Patriots earned postseason honors in the same season and the first time ever since joining the A-10 in 2013.
In 2022–23, George Mason posted its first winning record since 2017–18, going 16–15 and 8–8 in league play. The Patriots made a run to the A-10 quarterfinals, highlighted by wins over La Salle, Fordham (first since joining the Atlantic 10), and Saint Joseph’s. The Green & Gold also went 11–4 at home after winning just two games at EagleBank Arena the previous year.
In her first season in Fairfax, Blair-Lewis led George Mason to 10 wins—tripling its total from the previous year—and snapped a 24-game conference losing streak. The Patriots upset SEC opponent Florida and became the first 14-seed to win an opening-round game at the A-10 Championship.
Prior to George Mason, Blair-Lewis spent 13 years at Bethune-Cookman, leading the Wildcats to a 196–168 (.538) record, six winning seasons, four MEAC regular-season titles, a MEAC Tournament title, and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. She is a four-time MEAC Coach of the Year and was the first coach in MEAC history to win the award three consecutive seasons.
Blair-Lewis began her head coaching career at Mount St. Mary’s, where she guided the program to two NEC regular-season titles and became the first person in league history to earn both NEC Player of the Year and Coach of the Year honors. She has recruited and developed 37 all-conference players, three Players of the Year, six Defensive Players of the Year, and one Rookie of the Year.
A standout player at Mount St. Mary’s, Blair-Lewis still holds several school records and was inducted into the Mount’s Hall of Fame in 2002, the NEC Hall of Fame in 2013, and had her jersey retired in 2019.
She and her husband, NBA official Eric Lewis, have two children, Blair and Bryce.
