Sami Jo Cotton-Black joined the Southeastern Oklahoma State women’s basketball coaching staff in 2006 after wrapping up her playing career for SE at the end of the 2005-06 season.
 
In her time as an assistant SE tallied a 189-148 mark and helped the Savage Storm to a trio of 20-win seasons, doing so in the 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2014-15 season, as well as two trips to the NCAA South Central Region Tournament.
 
The 2019-20 squad earned the program its first Great American Conference championships, taking home hte regular season and tournament titles after posting a 22-7 record and earning a bid the NCAA Central Regional before the NCAA canceled the postseason due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That squad was led by Katie Webb who took home the league's Player of the Year award and moved all the way up to second on Southeastern's all-time career scoring list.

In her time as an assistant SE has tallied a 215-168 mark overall with a conference mark between the Lone Star Conference and the GAC of 144-108 mark.

The team has recorded a foursome of 20-win seasons, doing so in the 2008-09, 2010-11, 2014-15, and 2019-20 seasons, as well as three trips to NCAA Regional Tournaments.

Over her tenure as an assistant SE teams have had 31 all-conference honorees, including eight first team selections and seven second team.
 
In addition to assisting to head coach Darin Grover’s 2015 Great American Conference Coach of the Year honor, she has coached Lone Star Conference North Division Newcomer of the year Destiny Brown who would also go on to earn All-South Central Region honors and Katie Webb who earned GAC Player of the Year honors in 2020.
 
SE teams have also been solid in the classroom where women’s basketball ranks near the top of the team GPA standings among SE’s programs and has placed 39 players on the All-Academic teams between the LSC and the GAC.
 
The Storm have been a force on its home court under Grover where they have compiled a 117-51 record between Bloomer Sullivan Gym and Bloomer Sullivan Arena which is winning at a 69.6 percent clip, with five seasons of 10 or more home wins and just one in which they finished under .500 with a 6-7 record.
 
Before becoming an assistant she played her final year of eligibility for Southeastern after transferring from Southeastern Missouri State.
 
Cotton-Black led the team in scoring her senior season at 13.7 per game as well as rebounding at 5.7 per contest. She earned second team LSC-North Division honors for the season.
 
Prior to SE, she spent one season at Southeastern Missouri State where she was the Ohio Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year after starting all 27 games and leading the team in scoring.
 
She began her collegiate career playing for Grover at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M where she was a two-time all-region selection, the team MVP in 2003 and an NJCAA Academic All-American.
 
She is married to Jordan Black and the couple have three children, Bayler, Hesston, and Sutton.
 
A native of Crowder, Okla., Cotton-Black received her degree from Southeastern in 2005 and added a master’s degree in 2007.