A painful month more than a decade ago proved to be an inflection point for Kari Pickens when it came to her career path.
Pickens, who as Kari Daugherty had been a star girls basketball player on two Division II state championship teams at Warsaw River View and joins two other family members as inductees into the OHSAA Circle of Champions, figured she’d eventually go into the teaching profession.
A midseason injury during her senior season in 2012-13 for Ashland University shifted her viewpoint on not only her passion for the basketball court but her possible future endeavors.
“I always thought I wanted to be a middle school math teacher and coach at my alma mater, River View, but my senior year in college, I got hurt and had to miss eight games,” Pickens said. “I just realized I love basketball. Some people like basketball — I love basketball, and I wasn’t ready to give it up. ... I love the impact you’re able to have on student-athletes (in coaching), but I’m also just a basketball junkie. I don’t have any other hobbies. If I could sit and watch basketball film and get better in those capacities, that what I’d do. I love impacting people and coaching basketball.”
The success her teams have enjoyed during her time as Ashland’s coach – including winning the 2022-23 Division II national championship — is evidence of the positive effects she has had on numerous young women over the last several years.
Pickens is a 2009 River View graduate who joins her sister, 2007 graduate Kristin Daugherty Ronai, as a member of the 2025 Circle of Champions. Their mother, Caroline Mast Daugherty, coached River View during the 2006 and ’07 title runs that Pickens and Ronai were leaders of and was inducted into the Circle of Champions in 2024.
Pickens first made her mark in prep athletics by contributing for the girls volleyball team’s state semifinalist team in 2005 and also played for the program’s regional runner-up team in 2006. The Black Bears won district titles in both 2007 and ’08 as well, with Pickens earning second-team all-state honors as a junior and first-team all-state as a senior.
She immediately was a key player for the girls basketball team, teaming with Kristin Daugherty as the Black Bears won back-to-back state championships in 2005-06 and 2006-07. She had 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting as the Black Bears beat Mentor Lake Catholic 48-29 for the 2006 title and 16 points and seven rebounds as River View defeated Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown 45-26 for the 2007 championship.
Pickens earned special mention all-state honors as a sophomore.
Thrust into the lead role during her final two prep seasons, Pickens was first-team all-state as a junior and led the Black Bears to a 23-3 mark as a senior when they reached a state semifinal. She was named the state’s Co-Player of the year in 2008-09, helped the program go 95-7 and left as the program’s second all-time leading scorer with 1,740 points and second in all-time rebounds with 847. She also left as the program’s all-time leader in free-throw shooting percentage (83.1 percent) and holds the program record for the highest single-season free-throw shooting percentage (92.1 percent) and consecutive made free throws (54).
“My best memories in high school all centered around athletics,” Pickens said. “The teammates, the coaches — and obviously I’m biased because they were my parents — but as a freshman and sophomore, the upperclassmen took me in and made me feel super welcome, which is sometimes hard. My teammates always wrapped their arms around me, and it really shaped my idea as a coach now about being inclusive with having our team. We’re going to have high levels of mixing, which is a phrase we use all the time to make sure our young kids feel super welcomed.”
When it was time to make her college decision, Pickens chose to follow sister, Kristin Ronai, to the University of Dayton and became an immediate contributor.
Pickens averaged six points and played 16 minutes per game over her two seasons for the Flyers, receiving CoSIDA second-team all-Academic honors as a sophomore before transferring to perennial Division II power Ashland to play under former coach Sue Ramsey.
The Eagles were national runners-up during Pickens’ first season with the program and then followed with their first national championship in 2012-13 with Pickens leading the way both seasons.
Ashland went 33-2 in 2011-12, winning its first Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title, as Pickens was named the Honda Sports Award NCAA Division II Female Athlete of the Year. She led the nation in rebounding (14.1) and double-doubles (27) and was ninth in scoring average (21.3), wrapping up a standout first season with the program by setting NCAA tournament records for rebounds (95) and field goals (56).
She then averaged 22.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists while shooting 52.2 percent from the floor, 40.8 percent from 3-point range, and 82.9 percent from the foul line. Pickens again was named the Honda Sports Female Athlete of the year, was the Capital One Female Student-Athlete Academic All-American, and received the GLIAC Player of the Year honor for the second consecutive Player of the Year. She also was the 2013 GLIAC Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
For her career, Pickens finished with 1,414 points and 903 rebounds to rank seventh and fourth all-time, respectively, for the Eagles. She holds the Division II women’s basketball record for most consecutive games with a double-double in her career (34) and Ashland marks for single-season points (744), single-season rebounds (492), single-season rebounding average (14.1) and career scoring average (21.8).
“(Ramsey) was the biggest reason I went to Ashland to begin with,” Pickens said. “She’s a really strong woman of faith and taught me so much off the court, so I’m thankful for the years I got to play with her and also getting to coach with her.
“I really learned how to play at a high level. I was playing against some of the best college basketball players, and I think I really grew as an athlete. At Ashland, I became my own person. I became a Christian my freshman year of college at Dayton and transferred to Ashland to grow in my faith. I really started to become the woman I am now.”
Pickens and her husband, Brad Pickens, have been married for 12 years and have three children: Elijah (6), Chloe (3), and Julia (1). Brad Pickens competed in track and field for Ashland.
In the spring of 2014, Pickens played professionally for the Lakeside Lightning in Perth, Australia, and was named the team’s MVP as she averaged 21.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.
“(Brad and I) dated for my two years at Ashland, got married right after college, and went to Australia,” Pickens said. “(Australia was) an amazing experience. My husband was fully supportive and wanted me to keep playing saying we could travel the world, but it’s just so hard to get into college coaching. Coach Ramsey knew she was going to be done (coaching) very soon, so she created a position for me to coach with her.”
Pickens joined the coaching staff beginning with the 2014-15 season and Robyn Fralick, who is now the Michigan State women’s coach, took over for Ramsey for the 2015-16 season. In three seasons under Fralick, the Eagles went a combined 104-3 with a national title in 2016-17 and a national runner-up finish the next year.
That set up Pickens’ head-coaching tenure, one that has seen her lead the Eagles to a 205-21 mark — including a 31-0 mark during the 2019-20 season in which the postseason was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a 37-0 record in 2022-23 that culminated with a 78-67 win over Minnesota Duluth in the national title game.
The Eagles lost in this year’s Sweet 16 and finished 32-4.
She is the only person in Division II history to win a national title as a player, assistant coach and head coach.
"Coach Ramsey knew (Fralick) was going to be elite, so she lined it up for me to coach,” Pickens said. “Coach Ramsey has done so much to help me get into the position I am now. My growth as an individual in high school and college stems so much from athletics. It taught me that if you want to achieve something, you have to work really hard to get it, and even if you work hard, it doesn’t always pan out the way you want it to. The opportunity is there, but you can’t make excuses, or if you do, you’re going to be a terrible teammate. Coach Ramsey always used to say, ‘Sports is simply life with the volume amped up,’ and that’s absolutely right. It teaches you so much about life.”