On the way to a recruiting trip, four people, including Oklahoma State women's basketball coaches Kurt Budke and Miranda Serna, died in a plane crash late Thursday in Perry County about 45 miles west of LIttle Rock, Arkansas. There were no survivors from the crash, and the cause is undertermined.
Budke began coaching at Allen County Community College in 1991 and had just begun his seventh season with the Cowgirls this past Sunday with a 96-60 win over Rice. The 50-year-old joined OSU in 2005, became the youngest coach in NJCAA history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and was coach of the year twice.
Serna was also in her seventh year with Oklahoma State, but the two had been coaching with each other for the past decade. She even played for Budke on a 1996 Trinity Valley Community College national championship team.
In 2010, the two coached the Cowgirls to their best season in school history, beating six Top-25 teams, recording 24 wins, and finishing in the Top 10 for the first time ever. The two games this weekend against Grambling State and Texas-Arlington have been cancelled. [via Oklahoma State Athletics]
