'Dialed in': Larry Vickers seeks excellence for Auburn women's basketball

AUBURN, Ala. – First-year Auburn women’s basketball coach Larry Vickers wants his team to be dialed in.

Make that, DIALED in, with each letter representing a foundational principle.

D: Dedicated
I: Intensity
A: Accountability
L: Leadership
E: Energy
D: Disciplined

Nearly three months into his new role, Vickers shared a program update at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce’s weekly Tuesday Talk, starting with the word he shares on the first page of the handbook he’s written for the student-athletes he coaches.

“The D stands for dedicated,” he said. “I really respect the grind, I told my staff if you want to get my respect, just grind. That’s something I hope you see in my teams.

“The I is for intensity. Being intense every day is difficult, especially for college students.

“The A is accountability. I want to hold my teams accountable. That’s really important to me.

“The L is for leadership. I want everybody to be a leader in their own area. We want to learn from our mistakes.

“The next E is energy.

“Our last D is discipline. For young people, that is the best one. That’s the most difficult one for them to understand.”

After his four-year playing career at Norfolk State, he became, at 23, one of the youngest assistants in the country, coaching men’s basketball for nine seasons before becoming the head women’s coach at Norfolk the past nine seasons.

During his transition from men’s to women’s, he coached both teams for six weeks, simultaneously serving as the men’s associate head coach and the women’s interim head coach.

“We were able to do that because we played doubleheaders,” recalled Vickers, who said he turned down several jobs before saying yes to Auburn in March. “I’m excited about being here at Auburn because no matter if we won 30 games, 27 or 26 games (at Norfolk), there was a glass ceiling over my head.

“Now, being here in the SEC with great leadership and great support, I’m not sure if that ceiling is there or not but it’s way, way higher.”

Vickers told Chamber members how he’s adjusting to a new area after four decades on the East Coast.

“I’ve lived in the same zip code for the last 40 years,” he said. “I was there my whole entire life growing up.”

Attributing much of his Norfolk State success to his ability to sell his hometown to prospects, Vickers valued people with Auburn allegiance when building his staff.

“It was important for me when I started at Auburn to find people who love Auburn as much as I loved Norfolk, or even more,” he said, referencing assistant coach Caroline McCombs and director of basketball operations AK Prestridge. “They’ve been able to help me in my transition. Auburn’s a place that everybody truly loves.”

While exploring his new city, the 6-9 Vickers, who turns 42 next month, runs into fans who wonder if he’s Auburn’s next Johni Broome or Dylan Cardwell.

“Some people are like, ‘Are you one of our new players?’” Vickers said, eliciting laughs from his audience. “I tell BP (Bruce Pearl) all the time, ‘I look a lot younger than you. People think that I could play for you.’”

Recapping how he grew attendance at Norfolk State from 120 his first season to nearly 2,000, he quoted a famous line from the movie “Field of Dreams.”

“If you build it they will come,” he said. “That was my approach at Norfolk. It speaks to what we built. I want to have that same approach here.

“How can you help Auburn basketball grow? The first way is to show up. We want to have that family atmosphere. We would love for everybody to show up, attend games and be a part of the program.”

That loyalty, says Vickers, goes both ways.

“I want to be as accessible to the community as possible,” he said. “If you need us in women’s basketball to support you in any way, we are there. We will be there.”

Auburn’s new women’s basketball coach asks his team and its fans to buckle in and dial in as he begins the process of building a consistent SEC contender.

“Our mission is to achieve excellence,” he said. “Regardless if that is 31-0 in the regular season, 4-point-0s in the classroom, and pillars in the community.”

A whirlwind 10 weeks on the job for new @AuburnWBB HC @LarryVickersAU

After his “Tuesday Talk” at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, Coach LV talked about: ⤵️

🏀 Assembling his roster
🏀 & coaching staff
🏀 Moving (for the first time)

“Excited to get a great class.”#WarEagle pic.twitter.com/iC2ForDBR1

— Jeff Shearer (@jeff_shearer) June 17, 2025

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer