Career
At Oakland, she compiled a 227–162 (584) record, and has a 257–210 (550) career head coaching record. She coached two Kodak All-Americans and 11 all-conference players during her tenure. Francis led Oakland to three consecutive postseason appearances, with two National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament bids and one WNIT appearance.
Francis has denied each of these allegations.
Francis played college basketball at Colgate University where she was a four-year starter and three-time team captain. She was an assistant coach at the University at Buffalo for four years.
From 1994–1996, she was the head coach at Stony Brook University, then a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II program, where she compiled a 30–48 record. Oakland hired Francis as the program was making the transition from Division II to Division I.
Francis coached at Oakland from 1997–2013, taking a three-year sabbatical from coaching for health reasons between the 2001–2002 and 2005–2006 seasons.
The 2006 season where the Grizzlies went 19–13, featured a school record 12-game winning streak.
She earned her second conference coach of the year award during the 2006 season. At the time of her hiring at Oakland on July 1, 1997, her salary was $50,000. By July 1, 2012 it had been increased to $126,381 along with a 15% performance bonus totaling $15,703.
Her players did well academically, earning her teams high marks in the National Collegiate Athletic Association"s Academic Progress Rate.
Francis" teams placed in the WBCA Top-25 for team Grade Point Average Nationally for six consecutive seasons from the 2007-2008 season through the 2012-2013 season. In 1999, Francis married then-president of Oakland University, Gary Russi.
The school released a statement at the time that said an investigation had begun in April after concerns about her conduct and behavior and that she had been terminated with cause. In October 2012, Francis revealed in an interview with the Associated Press that she had been sexually abused by her father between the ages of 4 and 13.
That winter she testified before the education committee of the Michigan House of Representatives and later lobbied representatives in support of Erin"s Law, bipartisan legislation allowing schools to educate students about sexual abuse.
