Coaching behavior has long been recognized as an important element that affects the performance of athletes. Nevertheless, leadership behavior is the least understood aspects in the context of coaching (Case, 1987). Past research on leadership has concentrated on coaching in general (e.g., Sabock, 1979; Singer, 1972), coaches' behaviors (e.g., Chelladurai, 1984; Chelladurai and Carron, 1981; Smith & Smoll, 1990), coaches' style of decision making (e.g., Chelladurai, Haggerty, & Baxter, 1989), and so on. However, few studies have focused on female athletes and gender differences. The purpose of this study was to examine the preferred and perceived coaching behaviors using the 60-item Revised Leadership Scale for Sports (RLSS; Zhang, Jensen, & Mann, 1997). Participants of this study were male (N=113) and female (N=92) basketball players from nine midwestern National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges/universities. SPSS 11.5 for Windows (SPSS, 2004) was used for data analysis. Results of the MANOVA analysis indicated that there were significant (Wilks' Lambda = 6.24, p < .001) differences in the perception and preference mean vector scores for all the six subscales of the RLSS. Post hoc analyses indicated that female basketball players preferred a higher degree of (a) Democratic Behavior, (b) Social Support, (c) Positive Feedback, (d) Situational Consideration, and (e) Teaching and Instruction but a lower degree of Autocratic Behavior than what they perceived from their coaches. On the other hand, male basketball players preferred a higher degree of (a) Social Support, (b) Situational Consideration, and (c) Teaching and Instruction than what they perceived from their coaches. When compared their preferred coaching behaviors, there were significant (p < .05) differences in the mean scores between male and female basketball players in the following four dimensions: Positive Feedback, Situational Consideration, Teaching and Instruction, and Autocratic Behavior. This indicated that female basketball players preferred a higher degree of Positive Feedback, Situational Consideration, and Teaching and Instruction, but a lesser degree of Autocratic Behavior from their coaches than their male counterparts. In summary, both male and female basketball players perceived their coaches had a lower degree of Social Support, Situational Consideration, and Teaching and Instruction than what they expected. Furthermore, female basketball players preferred a higher degree of Positive Feedback, Situational Consideration, and Teaching and Instruction but a lesser degree of Autocratic Behavior than male basketball players. It is suggested that basketball coaches should use different coaching styles for male and female basketball players. Keyword(s): coaching, sport management, sport topics