By Shane Donaldson
Associate Athletic Director, Communication and New Media

KINGSTON, R.I. - In the current landscape of college basketball, keeping players and staff together for extended period seems like a thing of the past.

Unless, it seems, you are Rhode Island women's basketball head coach Colleen Mullen. In her first season with the Rams after being named URI's head coach on March 29, Mullen brought eight members of the 2025-26 UAlbany program with her to Kingston.

From her staff, associate head coach Megan Methven, assistant coach Catherine Cassidy and director of operations Shae O'Brien were all with the Great Danes for at least five seasons. Methven has worked with Mullen for more than a decade, dating back to their time together at Army West Point. Video Coordinator Lilly Phillips was a four-year player for Mullen.

As for the players, juniors Martina Borrellas and Delanie Hill, sophomores Amaya Stewart and Anaïs Levasseur and incoming freshman Alex Newson all joined Mullen on the trek from Albany to Rhode Island.

So what is it that creates that level of loyalty to a coach?

"She cares. She cares a lot about people, about connections and about relationships," said Amaya Stewart, who was the America East Rookie of the Year and Sixth Women of the Year at UAlbany last season. "It's not going to matter how many points you score or how many blocked shots you have. It is the connections you make with people.

"First impressions are important, and she makes a great first impression. When I had my first visit at UAlbany, the message was, 'I care about you as a player, but you are more than a player to me. You are a person, and I care about that.' She sees right through the player in you. She sees into your heart and cares about you as a person."

Martina Borrellas has played for Mullen for the last two years and was the first of the UAlbany transfers to arrive on campus this summer.

"She is a person who really cares about her players. She is familiar to all of us as a person, not just a coach," Martina Borrellas said. "Her goals are the same as ours. She wants to win, and she puts all her effort into doing that. She really inspires me. I see the way she works in everything she does, and it is how I want to be."

For Anaïs Levasseur, it did not take long to decide to come to Rhode Island with Mullen.

"The biggest part of my decision was the coaches. I really appreciate the way that Coach Mullen, Coach Meg (Methven) and all of them built the culture we had at UAlbany," Levasseur said. "I was excited that they wanted to make Rhode Island a great environment for me too. This community, this place, you can see that it is great. That is a real bonus. The coaches and the environment are really special, and I wanted to be a part of it.

"It doesn't really feel like starting over because there are so many familiar things. Coach Mullen does a great job with recruiting, so you know when someone comes in, it's going to be someone you want to play with and someone you want to get to know. It is a lot of people who I know will want to push me and make me better. When I was getting recruited before college, the players I talked to were really happy with their experience playing for Coach Mullen, and that has become my experience as well."

What about the players who were not playing for Mullen in Albany? Senior point guard Sophia Vital and redshirt freshman Amori Jarrett stayed with the program after winning regular season and conference tournament titles a year ago.  

"There are certain things that are super important to me, and one of the main things is relationships," Vital said. "Coach Mullen was heavy on having a good relationship with the coaching staff. She talked about the opportunities to have meaningful relationships with the new teammates who would be coming in. When she took the time to talk with me, it made it really easy to buy in and believe in the championship culture that she was bringing in. She wants to come in and win another championship, and that's the path I want to be on."

Jarrett had a key moment with Mullen that has made a strong impression.

"What stood out about Coach Mullen was her ability to be straight up honest with me," Jarrett said. "She told me what she wanted me to do. She told me what she was looking for out of me. She told me what I was going to have the chance to do as a player, as long as I did everything she needed me to do.

"We had a conversation early in the summer, and she told me I needed to go harder. I came back for the second summer session going twice as hard. She pulled me aside and told me she saw I was locked in and looked like a different player. That just made me want to work even harder for her."

Merrimack transfer Mia Fiore had respect for Mullen from afar, having played against the Great Danes while with the Warriors. When URI came calling after Fiore entered the transfer portal, she took note of the number of UAlbany team members heading to the Ocean State.

"They must love their coaches, if so many come together," Fiore said. "That is a great sign. With the transfer portal being what it is, players are all over the place every year, but the fact that they wanted to stick together, it shows how much they trust Coach Mullen. That means a lot when you are making decisions. She is intense, and you can tell that she just loves her job. She has an energy about her everywhere she walks. She is professional about everything she does, and she just has a great energy to her."