I read a story about Kari Duperron in the Daily Breeze. The story from the Daily Breeze on Feb. 15, 2008. The story was mainly about a female coaching a sophomore high school basketball team. But the arrogance or is it delusionals of grandeur, of the story is what really got me upset. This link is the archive section of
The Daily Breeze.
Before I go on, this isn't a rip job on Kari Duperron but a comment to any recent college graduate, who is entering college coaching. You have to pay your dues as an assistant coach before thinking of getting any type of head coaching interest. I mean if former Stanford and Tenn players paid their dues before becoming head coaches, even at smaller schools; why shouldn't somebody from a smaller school like Cal Poly, pay their dues too.
The story mentions that after the 2006-2007 season, Kari, at 26 years old, with only half a season experience as a D-1 assistant coach, was suprised she didn't get a job as a head coach at smaller colleges. The story didn't mention exactly what schools I'm guessing schools like Hope International.
Kari didn't get any jobs she was applying for and felt politics was the reason she didn't get the job.
Now let's look at Kari's resume.
She played at Cal Poly, NEVER having a winning season as a college player.
She spent four seasons as the director of basketball operations at UCLA. Do you know what director of basketball operations does? That is a glorified gopher job. They make tapes, they get things ready for practice, they get what the coaches need. This isn't a coaching job. It is an administration job.
Then in her last season as operations director, she was an assistant coach for half the season.
That's it!! No coaching experience, no recruiting experience, nothing. And she thinks somebody with that resume deserves to be a head coach?
But instead of putting the blame on herself and her lack of expereince she blames it on her lack of connections!!! She worked for Kathy Olivier at UCLA, who is very well connected. I'm sure Olivier gave Kari good reviews, because Kari is currently an assistant coach at UNLV under; Kathy Olivier.
This is a quote from the story. "From what I've learned in the coaching business, you never know what will happen," she said. "I feel like it's based so much more on connections than qualifications. It was fun to be at the pure stage of the game again and to be around boys who, even as sophomores, know basketball is what they want. I can't really tell what my next step will be because I'm enjoying this level. I couldn't tell you what is next, to be honest."
Kari, I'll tell you what to do next, be a part of a winning season as an assistant coach. Get more experience as a coach. There are assistant coaches who paid their dues and never get a chance to become a head coach. What makes Kari think she deserves to be a head coach. For somebody barely five years out of college, to think she deserves to be a head coach, even at a small school, is just delusional.
As I mentioned earlier, Kari is starting her second year, as an assistant coach at UNLV for Kathy Olivier. She maybe she has learned that to become a head coach, you need to pay your dues.
Again, this isn't meant to be a rip job on Kari Duperron but a comment on any recent college graduate, who is entering college coaching.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Cal State Fullerton
Up next in my ongoing look at the history of Big West schools is Cal State Fullerton.
Some of the bad:
Last winning season 1990-91.
Nine, 9, 20 losss seasons, include SEVEN STRAIGHT!!!!!!
Eleven, 11, single digit win seasons.
Two, .500 seasons.
Most wins, 16.
Most losses, 27 in 2000-01.
The first six years of this decade, CSF was following the lines of Sac. St, with no double digit win seasons. Why was that? What led to such a bad start to this decade?
Year Overall Record Conference Record
Maryalyce Jeremiah
2008-09 10-20 5-11
2007-08 11-19 8-8
2006-07 16-16 7-7
2005-06 11-17 7-7
2004-05 8-20 6-12
2003-04 9-20 8-10
Barbara Ehardt
2002-03 7-21 5-11
2001-02 4-24 2-14
2000-01 1-27 1-13
Denise Curry
1999-2000 2-25 1-14
First a little history. Basketball hall of famers, Billie Moore and Nancy Dunkle made CSF a powerhouse through the 1970's. In the early 80's former USC coach Chris Gobrecht lead CSF to some winning seasons.
Maryalyce Jeremiah came to CSF for the 85-86 season. In her seven seasons at CSF, she led CSF to two NCAA tourney appearances and produced All American Genia Miller in 1991.
Jeremiah became the Senior Women's Administrator (SWA) after the 91-92 season. Being the SWA, meant Jeremiah was basically in charge of all the women's program at CSF. Her first duty was to find a replacement, as head coach for herself!
The three finalists came down to:
Mark Trakh, yes that Mark Trakh, who had established Brea High School, into the dominant high school program on the West Coast and maybe the entire nation.
Sue Guevara, who back then was an assistant coach at Michigan.
Debbie Ayres, who was head coach at Solano College where she had to resurrect the program after a ten year absence. Ayres would go 34-24 in her two years at Solano.
1990-91 10-16
1991-92 24-8
Ayres spent one season as an assistant at Iowa St. and was a high school coach for five years.
Even forgetting what a great job Mark Trakh did rebuilding Pepperdine, it would seem pretty clear that Guevara or Trakh were the two best candidates.
But Jeremiah choosed Ayres as the coach. Many people, including me felt it was based solely on the fact that Ayres was a woman. There are many people who believe that Jeremiah would never hire a male head coach.
Anyways right off the bat, Ayres was hurt by the lost of Kisa Hughes, an All BW freshman center, who would transfer to UCLA and All BW freshman PG, Lianne Ishikawa, who would eventually transfer to LMU.
Ayres was also limited by an athletic budget that allowed for only one assistant coach, where other schools had three assistant coaches.
Ayres record at CSF:
92-93 8-19
93-94 5-22
94-95 14-15
95-96 7-20
96-97 10-16
But in her third year, Ayres was able to hire a full staff of assistants, getting Kelley Hall as her recruiting coordinator was a huge deal.
She would take a senior heavey squad and led them to the semi finals of the BWT, where they lost to eventual champions UCI.
Here 95-96 squad she brought in a ton of freshmen who were suppose to be the foundation for the program. Most of those players were recruited by Coach Hall, who left to become an assistant at Auburn.
But injuries, suspensions, and just general bad luck led to a 7-20 record.
Without Coach Hall's recruiting efforts, the next two seasons would produce 10-16 and 10-17 records.
Ayres contract was up and CSF did not give her an extension. Not that Coach Ayres went away quietly. After Denise Curry was hired as her replacement, Ayres made a comment that While I didn't win at CSF, she hasn't coached basketball. Nice and classy Debbie Ayres.
So why wasn't Ayres successful?
Yes the transfers of two All BW freshmen members hurt her.
Yes, the injuries were hanging over the program like a dark cloud.
Yes, the first two seasons with a bare bones coaching staff hurt.
But the main reason for Coach Ayres, failures were her inexperience!!! She wasn't a D-1 coach. She hadn't been at any place to establish a long, winning track record. It would be one thing if Ayres had that .586 winning perct. for 20 years at Solano. But she had the same amount of winning seasons as losing seasons at Solano, ONE. I don't think she was the right choice as coach. Now people will say well Trakh was a high school coach who had never coached D-1. Yes, very true. But Trakh had established an elite high school girls basketball program. He produced All Americans, dominant winning seasons, a long track record of success. Yes, he would have gone through some growing pains at CSF, the same growing pains he went through during his early years at Pepperdine. But I still think he would have been a better choice. Plus he was from the area, not more than 10 minutes from the CSF campus. Why they had somebody from Michigan and from Northern California as the finalists, is beyond me.
Another thing about Ayres is the high rate of attrition with her program. Many players did not finish their eligibility at CSF. Some only stayed for a couple years. Now, there are many reasons why kids leave a program, homesick, not getting along with coach, not liking the school or location. But under Ayres players at least 2-3 players each year would leave the program. One the most shocking was Lee Moulin, a highly touted recruit from Brea High School. She didn't even last a year, she left the team right before CSF was going to Hawaii, back then Hawaii's women's sports were in the BW. Since Brea HS is about ten minutes from CSF, do you think any of the players at Brea would want to come to CSF, after what happened with Lee?
Many players I talked to said Ayres played favorites. Usually I would just chalk up that kind of talk to a bitter benchwarmer. But what I found was that players who started and got a lot of playing time, felt that way about Ayres.
Then somebody who I thought would turn the program around, Dennise Curry was hired. Since CSF kept everything quiet, there was no mention of the other finalists. I don't think there was even a search committee.
Curry was an All American at UCLA, won a Gold Medal in 84, and one of the best women's players ever. But she was in over her head at CSF. She spent so much time coaching these national teams, she didn't recruit and the record reflects that. Curry's last team had only 10 players on the team. She lost 4 seniors (Andre Thieme, Ronda Anderson, Natasha Stokely, Heather Cunningham)and two players quit (Ada Lake and Missy Bynon) from the year before. That is SIX scholarships to use. But Curry only brought in four players, all freshmen. Where is the recruiting? Even if she gave out all six scholarships, she still had THREE more scholarships to give out before reaching the NCAA max of 15!!!!! Of course that season, 99-2000 was a disaster.
She also had the attitude she was too good for a program like CSF. Here she is, a gold medalist, All American etc and she wouldn't talk to many fans. She didn't think the facilities were up to D-1 standards. Well no kidding. It's not like the facilities went from good to bad overnight. They were the same facilites when Curry was interviewing for the job as when she was hired. She wouldn't get out to the summer tournaments to find players. She thought kids should know who she is. What kids who played for Curry found out was that she was nothing but an arrogant, out of touch, worthless coach.
Denise Curry
97-98 10-17
98-99 4-22
99-2000 2-25
By the end of Curry's reign of error, she said she wouldn't seek a contract extension. See Faith, learn from Denise Curry. On another side note, it didn't surprise me that Mary Hegarty was a diaster at LB, because she hired Denise Curry as an assistant. Curry is a prime example of a great player who can't coach the game.
In the spring of 2000, CSF actually did a search. Well change that. Jeremiah dictated who CSF was going to hire, under a so called search committtee. The finalists were Curt Miller, an assistant at Colorado St., Tina Krah, who had a 17-146 record in six seasons at San Jose St. and Barbara Ehardt, who helped turn SB into a powerhouse and most recently an assistant at Washington St. and BYU.
Miller, helped Colorado St. to a Sweet 16 appearance, WNIT final four, and a first round NCAA win, during his three seasons at CSU.
Ehardt who didn't coach during the 99-2000 season, was at Washington St. the three seasons prior, but the never made the NCAA or WNIT.
How the hell Krah, was spent the 99-2000 season as an assistant to Curry, got to be a finalist, boggles the mind. Either CSF attracted a bad list of candidates or the people on the search committee didn't have a clue. With CSF, I'm guessing it is the latter.
So again Jeremiah selected a female head coach and hired Ehardt, who signed a three year contract. Now Ehardt was hired so late, May of 2000, that she was behind in the recruiting game and had to play catch up.
Ehardt's biggest mistake? Hiring an inexperienced coaching staff. I know that the third assistant is usually somebody just out of college or who just finished playing overseas. So the hiring of former SB player Stephanie Shadwell was fine. Actually, it was the best hire she made.
But she hired John Bartleson and kept Trimeka Jackson, from Curry's staff as the other two assistant coaches. Bartleson who played at New Mexico St. was inexperienced and a real jerk according to many people at CSF. He would eventually marry a player on the CSF team. Jackson was just a lazy coach with a bad work ethic.
Ehardt brought in some players who weren't even good JC players. So her first season she would go 1-25. She got a little more talent her second season and but results weren't that much better, 4-24.
Her last season, she hired a player, who just finished playing at CSF, to be her assistant coach. A former player non of the players respected as their teammate, so they sure as hell didn't respect as their coach.
But with some time to recruit and bring in some talent, Ehardt went 7-21.
Since Ehardt's contract was up, Brian Quinn, the AD at CSF told Ehardt she wasn't going to get an extension. I can understand not giving her an extension. But the way Quinn handled that situation, after CSF lost in the BWT, showed no class. Ehart deserved better.
Ehardt had nothing to work with when she was hired. People say the cupboard is bare, well Ehardt didn't even have any walls to hang the damn cupboards.
She built those walls and those walls were just getting strong enough to support the cupboards, when the rug was pulled out from under her.
But Ehardt made her share of mistakes. I already talked about her hiring of assistant coaches. But she lacked game coaching experience. She wanted to be like Mark French, subbing in 3-5 kids at a time. Well it worked for French because French had the talent. But at CSF, she didn't have that kind of talent.
She also lacked the ability to relate to and recruit black players. I am not saying she is racist. Ehardt isn't racist. But she doesn't have much experience going to black areas and recruiting black kids. Check Ehardt's resume. Santa Barbara, BYU and Washington St. Three places with low black student enrollments and black population in the cities, the schools are located at.
During this time many chances were happening in the CSF athletic department. John Easterbrook retired and Jeremiah was a finalist for the job. Brian Quinn got the job, much to Jeremiah's disappointment. From CSF insiders, Jeremiah was a pain in Quinn's side. Quinn was looking for a way to get Jeremiah out of the athletic administration. So when Ehardt's contract came up, this was the perfect chance.
So for the 2003-04 Jeremiah came back to coach CSF.
Jeremiah had been out of coaching for eleven years. So she needed to make recruiting contacts quickly. She hired a great recruiter in Marcia Foster.
But turning around CSF proved tough. Jeremiah found you can't come home again, unlike Beth Burns who came back to San Diego St. and turned them into a budding West Coast power.
Jeremiah wasn't able to produce a winning record. She didn't find a raw player who she could develop, like Genia Miller.
Her best record, 16-16, with many of Ehardt's recruits who were seniors. But she slipped to 11-19 and 10-20 her last two years. In Oct of 2008, Jeremiah said she would retire at the end of the 08-09 season. But as I have stated before, instead of doing a full search, CSF promoted Marcia Foster.
It remains to be seen where Foster can do the job. But why didn't Jeremiah get the job done?
The talent level greatly increased at CSF under Jeremiah. But they couldn't find that program changing impact player.
She didn't recruit that many post players and the post players she did recruit didn't develop into good players.
I think that Jeremiah tried too much to be positive with the players, when at times they needed a strict disciplinarian. I also think the players looked to Jeremiah as a grandmother figure and not as the strong leader type.
The players also lacked basketball IQ. I've saw many games where CSF was up by 10-15 points but they lacked basketball IQ and discipline. When you're up by that many points, you don't take shots, especially 3 pointers, with less than 10 second have gone off on the shot clock. But CSF constantly did this and Jeremiah wouldn't say anything. Where is the discipline and coaching? This isn't the Paul Westhead gun and gun offense.
So the bigger question; why hasn't CSF had a winning record in over 17 years?
Well as you can see bad hiring choices is clearly an example.
If they hired Mark Trakh in 1992, CSF may have gone to 3-5 NCAA tourneys. It would also have been great to see Trakh vs French. I understand there were some tensions between those two coaches.
If CSF hired Curt Miller in 2000, maybe CSF would have gone 179-73 during that time. 179-73 is Miller's record at Bowling Green, where he was hired a year after he was a finalist for the CSF job.
The only time I have an issue with male coaches being head coaches in women's college basketball, is when a coach has never coached women's or girls, gets a head coaching job for women. San Diego St. did that when they hired Jim Tomey, who was a high school boys head coach and an assistant for the men's program at SDSU.
I think both Trakh and Miller were the top candidates for CSF at the time but they didn't get the job. CSF has never had a male head coach. Even male assistant coaches are rare at CSF. Coach Ehardt had Bartleson and Coach Ayres had Rondre Jackson, Tom Powers and Kelley Hall on their staffs. During Jeremiah's six seasons this decade, she didn't have a male coach on her staff. Marcia Foster hasn't hired a male coach on her first staff. That is four male assistant coaches in 17 years.
Pick the best candidate. Not the candidate that fits your political/social agenda. When Jeremiah was the assistant AD, there was no question she pushed the Title IX agenda.
Facilities.
At the beginning of the decade CSF has among the worst facilites in the Big West. But to their credit they have made facility improvements a priority but the facilities are still lacking.
They fixed up Titan Gym. New floor, new scoreboard, new seats, expanded upper level seating on the southside. But CSF needs an arena but an arena is not in the plans. And CSF lacks the vision and leadership to get an arena.
But there are the facilites most fans don't see. At seperate times, Coach Ayres and Coach Ehardt took me on a tour of the team's lockerrom and was I in for a shock. With Coach Ayres, this was in 94 or 95. The lockerroom was split into two, with the women's volleyball team having their part of the lockerroom and the basketball team having their own. There was a huge cage in the middle of the lockerroom that was being used as a storage room. They were sharing the lockerroom with the volleyball and women's soccer team. So about 65 athletes sharing a very small room. The lockers were metal lockers, like those in high school.
In 2001, Ehardt gave me a tour and the cage was gone, the women's soccer team had their own lockerroom in the football stadium. But the volleyball team was still sharing the lockerroom. There was new carpet, new paint, and while the lockers were still the metal lockers, they had been painted and had name plates. So improvements had been made. Improvements, yes, but still not up to D-1 standards. Most D-1 lockerrooms have nice wooden lockers with TV and couches in the room. Since an arena isn't in the plans, CSF needs to renovate the lockerrooms for the women's program. That room is big enough to be a nice lockerroom for both the women's basketball and volleyball teams. There maybe enough room to have a common "player's louge" with sofas and a TV.
Coach's Offices.
When Debbie Ayres and Denise Curry were the head coach, they had two offices for the coaches!!! That worked when Ayre had only one assistant during her first two years. But since then CSF has had three assistant coaches. In case you're a LB gradudate, that meant the three assistant coaches had to share one small office, while the head coach got her own office.
Until 2000 all three assistant coaches were in one small office, while the head coach had her own office. John Easterbrook got most of the athletic department to move into the Titan House, which freed up the office space for men's and women's basketball. Now the four women's coaches have each have their own office.
The office furniture was upgraded too, thanks to a CSF Alum, who many people saw at games but wouldn't reconize him, since he was the mascot, Titan Tuffy. Coach Ehardt was put into contact with Titan Tuffy by a CSF alum. Gone were the old metal desks and chairs that belonged in classrooms. In their place nice solid wood desks and nice comfortable chairs.
If people don't think a lockerroom or coach's offices aren't important, they have never coached or don't have a clue. Will a kid pick a school just because of a nice lockerroom or office? No. But a kid will NOT pick a school because of them.
It will be interesting to see what is in store for CSF under Marcia Foster. I think her made a mistake hiring such an inexperience staff. Hopefully that can be overcome but we'll just have to wait and see.
Some of the bad:
Last winning season 1990-91.
Nine, 9, 20 losss seasons, include SEVEN STRAIGHT!!!!!!
Eleven, 11, single digit win seasons.
Two, .500 seasons.
Most wins, 16.
Most losses, 27 in 2000-01.
The first six years of this decade, CSF was following the lines of Sac. St, with no double digit win seasons. Why was that? What led to such a bad start to this decade?
Year Overall Record Conference Record
Maryalyce Jeremiah
2008-09 10-20 5-11
2007-08 11-19 8-8
2006-07 16-16 7-7
2005-06 11-17 7-7
2004-05 8-20 6-12
2003-04 9-20 8-10
Barbara Ehardt
2002-03 7-21 5-11
2001-02 4-24 2-14
2000-01 1-27 1-13
Denise Curry
1999-2000 2-25 1-14
First a little history. Basketball hall of famers, Billie Moore and Nancy Dunkle made CSF a powerhouse through the 1970's. In the early 80's former USC coach Chris Gobrecht lead CSF to some winning seasons.
Maryalyce Jeremiah came to CSF for the 85-86 season. In her seven seasons at CSF, she led CSF to two NCAA tourney appearances and produced All American Genia Miller in 1991.
Jeremiah became the Senior Women's Administrator (SWA) after the 91-92 season. Being the SWA, meant Jeremiah was basically in charge of all the women's program at CSF. Her first duty was to find a replacement, as head coach for herself!
The three finalists came down to:
Mark Trakh, yes that Mark Trakh, who had established Brea High School, into the dominant high school program on the West Coast and maybe the entire nation.
Sue Guevara, who back then was an assistant coach at Michigan.
Debbie Ayres, who was head coach at Solano College where she had to resurrect the program after a ten year absence. Ayres would go 34-24 in her two years at Solano.
1990-91 10-16
1991-92 24-8
Ayres spent one season as an assistant at Iowa St. and was a high school coach for five years.
Even forgetting what a great job Mark Trakh did rebuilding Pepperdine, it would seem pretty clear that Guevara or Trakh were the two best candidates.
But Jeremiah choosed Ayres as the coach. Many people, including me felt it was based solely on the fact that Ayres was a woman. There are many people who believe that Jeremiah would never hire a male head coach.
Anyways right off the bat, Ayres was hurt by the lost of Kisa Hughes, an All BW freshman center, who would transfer to UCLA and All BW freshman PG, Lianne Ishikawa, who would eventually transfer to LMU.
Ayres was also limited by an athletic budget that allowed for only one assistant coach, where other schools had three assistant coaches.
Ayres record at CSF:
92-93 8-19
93-94 5-22
94-95 14-15
95-96 7-20
96-97 10-16
But in her third year, Ayres was able to hire a full staff of assistants, getting Kelley Hall as her recruiting coordinator was a huge deal.
She would take a senior heavey squad and led them to the semi finals of the BWT, where they lost to eventual champions UCI.
Here 95-96 squad she brought in a ton of freshmen who were suppose to be the foundation for the program. Most of those players were recruited by Coach Hall, who left to become an assistant at Auburn.
But injuries, suspensions, and just general bad luck led to a 7-20 record.
Without Coach Hall's recruiting efforts, the next two seasons would produce 10-16 and 10-17 records.
Ayres contract was up and CSF did not give her an extension. Not that Coach Ayres went away quietly. After Denise Curry was hired as her replacement, Ayres made a comment that While I didn't win at CSF, she hasn't coached basketball. Nice and classy Debbie Ayres.
So why wasn't Ayres successful?
Yes the transfers of two All BW freshmen members hurt her.
Yes, the injuries were hanging over the program like a dark cloud.
Yes, the first two seasons with a bare bones coaching staff hurt.
But the main reason for Coach Ayres, failures were her inexperience!!! She wasn't a D-1 coach. She hadn't been at any place to establish a long, winning track record. It would be one thing if Ayres had that .586 winning perct. for 20 years at Solano. But she had the same amount of winning seasons as losing seasons at Solano, ONE. I don't think she was the right choice as coach. Now people will say well Trakh was a high school coach who had never coached D-1. Yes, very true. But Trakh had established an elite high school girls basketball program. He produced All Americans, dominant winning seasons, a long track record of success. Yes, he would have gone through some growing pains at CSF, the same growing pains he went through during his early years at Pepperdine. But I still think he would have been a better choice. Plus he was from the area, not more than 10 minutes from the CSF campus. Why they had somebody from Michigan and from Northern California as the finalists, is beyond me.
Another thing about Ayres is the high rate of attrition with her program. Many players did not finish their eligibility at CSF. Some only stayed for a couple years. Now, there are many reasons why kids leave a program, homesick, not getting along with coach, not liking the school or location. But under Ayres players at least 2-3 players each year would leave the program. One the most shocking was Lee Moulin, a highly touted recruit from Brea High School. She didn't even last a year, she left the team right before CSF was going to Hawaii, back then Hawaii's women's sports were in the BW. Since Brea HS is about ten minutes from CSF, do you think any of the players at Brea would want to come to CSF, after what happened with Lee?
Many players I talked to said Ayres played favorites. Usually I would just chalk up that kind of talk to a bitter benchwarmer. But what I found was that players who started and got a lot of playing time, felt that way about Ayres.
Then somebody who I thought would turn the program around, Dennise Curry was hired. Since CSF kept everything quiet, there was no mention of the other finalists. I don't think there was even a search committee.
Curry was an All American at UCLA, won a Gold Medal in 84, and one of the best women's players ever. But she was in over her head at CSF. She spent so much time coaching these national teams, she didn't recruit and the record reflects that. Curry's last team had only 10 players on the team. She lost 4 seniors (Andre Thieme, Ronda Anderson, Natasha Stokely, Heather Cunningham)and two players quit (Ada Lake and Missy Bynon) from the year before. That is SIX scholarships to use. But Curry only brought in four players, all freshmen. Where is the recruiting? Even if she gave out all six scholarships, she still had THREE more scholarships to give out before reaching the NCAA max of 15!!!!! Of course that season, 99-2000 was a disaster.
She also had the attitude she was too good for a program like CSF. Here she is, a gold medalist, All American etc and she wouldn't talk to many fans. She didn't think the facilities were up to D-1 standards. Well no kidding. It's not like the facilities went from good to bad overnight. They were the same facilites when Curry was interviewing for the job as when she was hired. She wouldn't get out to the summer tournaments to find players. She thought kids should know who she is. What kids who played for Curry found out was that she was nothing but an arrogant, out of touch, worthless coach.
Denise Curry
97-98 10-17
98-99 4-22
99-2000 2-25
By the end of Curry's reign of error, she said she wouldn't seek a contract extension. See Faith, learn from Denise Curry. On another side note, it didn't surprise me that Mary Hegarty was a diaster at LB, because she hired Denise Curry as an assistant. Curry is a prime example of a great player who can't coach the game.
In the spring of 2000, CSF actually did a search. Well change that. Jeremiah dictated who CSF was going to hire, under a so called search committtee. The finalists were Curt Miller, an assistant at Colorado St., Tina Krah, who had a 17-146 record in six seasons at San Jose St. and Barbara Ehardt, who helped turn SB into a powerhouse and most recently an assistant at Washington St. and BYU.
Miller, helped Colorado St. to a Sweet 16 appearance, WNIT final four, and a first round NCAA win, during his three seasons at CSU.
Ehardt who didn't coach during the 99-2000 season, was at Washington St. the three seasons prior, but the never made the NCAA or WNIT.
How the hell Krah, was spent the 99-2000 season as an assistant to Curry, got to be a finalist, boggles the mind. Either CSF attracted a bad list of candidates or the people on the search committee didn't have a clue. With CSF, I'm guessing it is the latter.
So again Jeremiah selected a female head coach and hired Ehardt, who signed a three year contract. Now Ehardt was hired so late, May of 2000, that she was behind in the recruiting game and had to play catch up.
Ehardt's biggest mistake? Hiring an inexperienced coaching staff. I know that the third assistant is usually somebody just out of college or who just finished playing overseas. So the hiring of former SB player Stephanie Shadwell was fine. Actually, it was the best hire she made.
But she hired John Bartleson and kept Trimeka Jackson, from Curry's staff as the other two assistant coaches. Bartleson who played at New Mexico St. was inexperienced and a real jerk according to many people at CSF. He would eventually marry a player on the CSF team. Jackson was just a lazy coach with a bad work ethic.
Ehardt brought in some players who weren't even good JC players. So her first season she would go 1-25. She got a little more talent her second season and but results weren't that much better, 4-24.
Her last season, she hired a player, who just finished playing at CSF, to be her assistant coach. A former player non of the players respected as their teammate, so they sure as hell didn't respect as their coach.
But with some time to recruit and bring in some talent, Ehardt went 7-21.
Since Ehardt's contract was up, Brian Quinn, the AD at CSF told Ehardt she wasn't going to get an extension. I can understand not giving her an extension. But the way Quinn handled that situation, after CSF lost in the BWT, showed no class. Ehart deserved better.
Ehardt had nothing to work with when she was hired. People say the cupboard is bare, well Ehardt didn't even have any walls to hang the damn cupboards.
She built those walls and those walls were just getting strong enough to support the cupboards, when the rug was pulled out from under her.
But Ehardt made her share of mistakes. I already talked about her hiring of assistant coaches. But she lacked game coaching experience. She wanted to be like Mark French, subbing in 3-5 kids at a time. Well it worked for French because French had the talent. But at CSF, she didn't have that kind of talent.
She also lacked the ability to relate to and recruit black players. I am not saying she is racist. Ehardt isn't racist. But she doesn't have much experience going to black areas and recruiting black kids. Check Ehardt's resume. Santa Barbara, BYU and Washington St. Three places with low black student enrollments and black population in the cities, the schools are located at.
During this time many chances were happening in the CSF athletic department. John Easterbrook retired and Jeremiah was a finalist for the job. Brian Quinn got the job, much to Jeremiah's disappointment. From CSF insiders, Jeremiah was a pain in Quinn's side. Quinn was looking for a way to get Jeremiah out of the athletic administration. So when Ehardt's contract came up, this was the perfect chance.
So for the 2003-04 Jeremiah came back to coach CSF.
Jeremiah had been out of coaching for eleven years. So she needed to make recruiting contacts quickly. She hired a great recruiter in Marcia Foster.
But turning around CSF proved tough. Jeremiah found you can't come home again, unlike Beth Burns who came back to San Diego St. and turned them into a budding West Coast power.
Jeremiah wasn't able to produce a winning record. She didn't find a raw player who she could develop, like Genia Miller.
Her best record, 16-16, with many of Ehardt's recruits who were seniors. But she slipped to 11-19 and 10-20 her last two years. In Oct of 2008, Jeremiah said she would retire at the end of the 08-09 season. But as I have stated before, instead of doing a full search, CSF promoted Marcia Foster.
It remains to be seen where Foster can do the job. But why didn't Jeremiah get the job done?
The talent level greatly increased at CSF under Jeremiah. But they couldn't find that program changing impact player.
She didn't recruit that many post players and the post players she did recruit didn't develop into good players.
I think that Jeremiah tried too much to be positive with the players, when at times they needed a strict disciplinarian. I also think the players looked to Jeremiah as a grandmother figure and not as the strong leader type.
The players also lacked basketball IQ. I've saw many games where CSF was up by 10-15 points but they lacked basketball IQ and discipline. When you're up by that many points, you don't take shots, especially 3 pointers, with less than 10 second have gone off on the shot clock. But CSF constantly did this and Jeremiah wouldn't say anything. Where is the discipline and coaching? This isn't the Paul Westhead gun and gun offense.
So the bigger question; why hasn't CSF had a winning record in over 17 years?
Well as you can see bad hiring choices is clearly an example.
If they hired Mark Trakh in 1992, CSF may have gone to 3-5 NCAA tourneys. It would also have been great to see Trakh vs French. I understand there were some tensions between those two coaches.
If CSF hired Curt Miller in 2000, maybe CSF would have gone 179-73 during that time. 179-73 is Miller's record at Bowling Green, where he was hired a year after he was a finalist for the CSF job.
The only time I have an issue with male coaches being head coaches in women's college basketball, is when a coach has never coached women's or girls, gets a head coaching job for women. San Diego St. did that when they hired Jim Tomey, who was a high school boys head coach and an assistant for the men's program at SDSU.
I think both Trakh and Miller were the top candidates for CSF at the time but they didn't get the job. CSF has never had a male head coach. Even male assistant coaches are rare at CSF. Coach Ehardt had Bartleson and Coach Ayres had Rondre Jackson, Tom Powers and Kelley Hall on their staffs. During Jeremiah's six seasons this decade, she didn't have a male coach on her staff. Marcia Foster hasn't hired a male coach on her first staff. That is four male assistant coaches in 17 years.
Pick the best candidate. Not the candidate that fits your political/social agenda. When Jeremiah was the assistant AD, there was no question she pushed the Title IX agenda.
Facilities.
At the beginning of the decade CSF has among the worst facilites in the Big West. But to their credit they have made facility improvements a priority but the facilities are still lacking.
They fixed up Titan Gym. New floor, new scoreboard, new seats, expanded upper level seating on the southside. But CSF needs an arena but an arena is not in the plans. And CSF lacks the vision and leadership to get an arena.
But there are the facilites most fans don't see. At seperate times, Coach Ayres and Coach Ehardt took me on a tour of the team's lockerrom and was I in for a shock. With Coach Ayres, this was in 94 or 95. The lockerroom was split into two, with the women's volleyball team having their part of the lockerroom and the basketball team having their own. There was a huge cage in the middle of the lockerroom that was being used as a storage room. They were sharing the lockerroom with the volleyball and women's soccer team. So about 65 athletes sharing a very small room. The lockers were metal lockers, like those in high school.
In 2001, Ehardt gave me a tour and the cage was gone, the women's soccer team had their own lockerroom in the football stadium. But the volleyball team was still sharing the lockerroom. There was new carpet, new paint, and while the lockers were still the metal lockers, they had been painted and had name plates. So improvements had been made. Improvements, yes, but still not up to D-1 standards. Most D-1 lockerrooms have nice wooden lockers with TV and couches in the room. Since an arena isn't in the plans, CSF needs to renovate the lockerrooms for the women's program. That room is big enough to be a nice lockerroom for both the women's basketball and volleyball teams. There maybe enough room to have a common "player's louge" with sofas and a TV.
Coach's Offices.
When Debbie Ayres and Denise Curry were the head coach, they had two offices for the coaches!!! That worked when Ayre had only one assistant during her first two years. But since then CSF has had three assistant coaches. In case you're a LB gradudate, that meant the three assistant coaches had to share one small office, while the head coach got her own office.
Until 2000 all three assistant coaches were in one small office, while the head coach had her own office. John Easterbrook got most of the athletic department to move into the Titan House, which freed up the office space for men's and women's basketball. Now the four women's coaches have each have their own office.
The office furniture was upgraded too, thanks to a CSF Alum, who many people saw at games but wouldn't reconize him, since he was the mascot, Titan Tuffy. Coach Ehardt was put into contact with Titan Tuffy by a CSF alum. Gone were the old metal desks and chairs that belonged in classrooms. In their place nice solid wood desks and nice comfortable chairs.
If people don't think a lockerroom or coach's offices aren't important, they have never coached or don't have a clue. Will a kid pick a school just because of a nice lockerroom or office? No. But a kid will NOT pick a school because of them.
It will be interesting to see what is in store for CSF under Marcia Foster. I think her made a mistake hiring such an inexperience staff. Hopefully that can be overcome but we'll just have to wait and see.
Things Could Be Worse
As bad as I make some Big West teams out to be, it maybe a shocker but there are still some teams that are worse!!! One of those teams resides in California. Sacramento St. The city that The Rock serenades.
Sac St. of the Big Sky Conference.
Year Overall Rec Conf. Rec.
Dan Muscatell
2008-09 9-21 7-9
2007-08 6-22 4-12
2006-07 3-27 1-15
2005-06 9-17 4-10
2004-05 8-20 4-10
2003-04 1-26 1-13
Carolyn Jenkins
2002-03 3-24 1-13
2001-02 0-27 0-14
2000-01 3-23 1-15
Sue Hoffman
1999-00 6-21 4-12
Here are the sad and sorry facts.
The entire decade Sac St. did not reach double digits in victories!!!!
Fives seasons, half the decade, that you can count their win total on one hand and not even use your thumb!!
The most wins for Sac. St this decade? 9 wins last year.
Two seasons where they didn't even win TWO games!!!
They had NINE seaons this decade with 20 losses or more.
FIVE seasons, half the decade, that they won one or less conference games!!!
Sac. St. had three coaches during the decade, Sue Hoffman who guided the program's move from D-2 to D-1. Then Carolyn Jenkins, a former assistant to the Queen at Stanford. Then Dan Muscatell, a former assistant at Oregon. Muscatell left after the 08-09 season and now a 27 year old coach, Jamie Craighead will guide Sac. St into the next decade.
Hoffman had been at Sac. St. for over 20 years as a player and coach. While it is tough for any school moving up to D-1, Sac. St was underfunded and that really hurt Coach Hoffman. Hoffman at times during the D-1 era, had no recruiting budget, had about half the scholarships as other D-1 schools, and of course played ina 1,600 seat high school gym. Hmm, why does this sound like Cal State Northridge? There were also reports that she wore her religious beliefs on her seelve.
Anyways Hoffman resigned and Sac. St. hired former Stanford assistant, Carolyn Jenkins. Even though Sac. St put more money into the program, more scholarship, a recruiting budget, Jenkins destroyed this program. What a terrible coach, she won SIX games during her three year reign of error at Sac. St. Many players hated her and her coaching ways. But unlike Faith Mimnaugh, Jenkins had a clue and did not seek a contract extension.
So Sac. St went up to Oregon and hired Dan Muscatell. Muscatell did a good job during his six years at Sac. St. When he got to Sac. St., the program was like an abandoned, run down house, that was going to be condemned. He did do a good job of building a foundation for the program. The really didn't have much to work with, when he got the job. Whether he could have taken the program is another level remained to be seen.
If there was one thing about his program, Muscatell recruited his players from the area he knew, Oregon and Washington. There weren't that many players from CA. Out of state players cost more in terms of scholarships than CA players. And to me, if you're giving a scholarship to an out of state kid, that kid better be an impact player.
During Muscatell reign, things were looking up on the facilities side too. Sac. St. students passed a fee referendum to build a new arena!!!! But the school President, did a bait and switch and instead of the money going to build a new arena, the money went to build a new football fieldhouse. The spin from the President was that they needed to teardown the old fieldhouse to make room for the new arena and student rec center. The arena now has no funding and in this terrible economy, won't find any funding. Oh well maybe the kids who are starting kindergarden this fall, will have an arena by the time they are old enough to go to Sac. St.
The reason I point out terrible program is that I'm a firm believer in you're only as strong as your weakest link. Women's basketball won't improve until the terrible programs in the women's basketball improve. I find most women's college basketball fans love the UConn's, Tenns etc. They could care less about the other programs. Well until the women's game consistently has a Cinderella at the dance, it won't have a broader appeal. The only way for Cinderella to be invited to the dance is for Cinderella to improve her appearance.
Sac St. of the Big Sky Conference.
Year Overall Rec Conf. Rec.
Dan Muscatell
2008-09 9-21 7-9
2007-08 6-22 4-12
2006-07 3-27 1-15
2005-06 9-17 4-10
2004-05 8-20 4-10
2003-04 1-26 1-13
Carolyn Jenkins
2002-03 3-24 1-13
2001-02 0-27 0-14
2000-01 3-23 1-15
Sue Hoffman
1999-00 6-21 4-12
Here are the sad and sorry facts.
The entire decade Sac St. did not reach double digits in victories!!!!
Fives seasons, half the decade, that you can count their win total on one hand and not even use your thumb!!
The most wins for Sac. St this decade? 9 wins last year.
Two seasons where they didn't even win TWO games!!!
They had NINE seaons this decade with 20 losses or more.
FIVE seasons, half the decade, that they won one or less conference games!!!
Sac. St. had three coaches during the decade, Sue Hoffman who guided the program's move from D-2 to D-1. Then Carolyn Jenkins, a former assistant to the Queen at Stanford. Then Dan Muscatell, a former assistant at Oregon. Muscatell left after the 08-09 season and now a 27 year old coach, Jamie Craighead will guide Sac. St into the next decade.
Hoffman had been at Sac. St. for over 20 years as a player and coach. While it is tough for any school moving up to D-1, Sac. St was underfunded and that really hurt Coach Hoffman. Hoffman at times during the D-1 era, had no recruiting budget, had about half the scholarships as other D-1 schools, and of course played ina 1,600 seat high school gym. Hmm, why does this sound like Cal State Northridge? There were also reports that she wore her religious beliefs on her seelve.
Anyways Hoffman resigned and Sac. St. hired former Stanford assistant, Carolyn Jenkins. Even though Sac. St put more money into the program, more scholarship, a recruiting budget, Jenkins destroyed this program. What a terrible coach, she won SIX games during her three year reign of error at Sac. St. Many players hated her and her coaching ways. But unlike Faith Mimnaugh, Jenkins had a clue and did not seek a contract extension.
So Sac. St went up to Oregon and hired Dan Muscatell. Muscatell did a good job during his six years at Sac. St. When he got to Sac. St., the program was like an abandoned, run down house, that was going to be condemned. He did do a good job of building a foundation for the program. The really didn't have much to work with, when he got the job. Whether he could have taken the program is another level remained to be seen.
If there was one thing about his program, Muscatell recruited his players from the area he knew, Oregon and Washington. There weren't that many players from CA. Out of state players cost more in terms of scholarships than CA players. And to me, if you're giving a scholarship to an out of state kid, that kid better be an impact player.
During Muscatell reign, things were looking up on the facilities side too. Sac. St. students passed a fee referendum to build a new arena!!!! But the school President, did a bait and switch and instead of the money going to build a new arena, the money went to build a new football fieldhouse. The spin from the President was that they needed to teardown the old fieldhouse to make room for the new arena and student rec center. The arena now has no funding and in this terrible economy, won't find any funding. Oh well maybe the kids who are starting kindergarden this fall, will have an arena by the time they are old enough to go to Sac. St.
The reason I point out terrible program is that I'm a firm believer in you're only as strong as your weakest link. Women's basketball won't improve until the terrible programs in the women's basketball improve. I find most women's college basketball fans love the UConn's, Tenns etc. They could care less about the other programs. Well until the women's game consistently has a Cinderella at the dance, it won't have a broader appeal. The only way for Cinderella to be invited to the dance is for Cinderella to improve her appearance.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Faith Mimnaugh
Some readers maybe wondering why I always rip Faith Mimnaugh. In case you missed it, I have included links to three stories that I wrote about Faith and her terrible record at CP.
Faith and her terrible 12 year record at Cal Poly.
Faith and her ACC schedule during the 08-09 season.
This story includes links to newspapers stories where Faith is making excuses for her sorry record and begging for a contract extension.
So now let me explain to you, why CP keeping Faith just bothers me on so many levels.
The competitive level: How can any program keep a coach around after that coach can't produce ONE winning season after eleven years? A coach should be given at most five years to turn things. If after five years, aren't getting better, a coach should be fired!!! Very, very few exceptions.
To make matters worse, all this happening in a very bad Big West. Where during the last EIGHT straight years, there have been at least TWO Big West teams that have lost 20 games or more. In 7 of those years, there were three or more teams that lost 20 or more games. So even with that Faith can only produce ONE winning season in 12 years?
I already wrote about how much of a fraud her 08-09 record is since she only beat one non conference team, Bakersfield, who had a winning record and she was only 1-4 vs the top 2 BW teams, UCSB and UCR. Even then, she only beat UCR by 2 points on a last second basket. So it was in the BWT semi final game. So what, she lost the next day to UCSB. She lost to #6 seed CSF. She only beat the bottom feeders of the BW, by an average of 8 points, while UCR and UCSB beat the bottom feeders by 12 or more points.
She lost two of her best players to graduation. I highly doubt the 09-10 team will come anywhere close to the 21 wins of last year.
Excuses, excuses, and more excuses: Everything from Faith have been about excuses. if it wasn't injuries, then it was the high academics of CP. I mean come on. Just admit you suck as a coach Faith. I mean every coach suffers injuries. Every coach has their own issues with their university. UCR built a solid program and they have tougher academics and are in the middle of nowhere. CP is in one of the most scenic places on the West Coast.
No self respecting coach who is worth a damn, would think not having a winning record, especially in such a sorry conference, is acceptable.
Denise Curry ruined the program at Cal State Fullerton by going 16-64 overall and 10-35 in the BW. But instead of making excuses and begging for an extension, Curry resigned because she knew she was a clueless head coach. So stop making so many damn excuses Faith and schedule something other than cupcakes, win against that schedule, hell just win baby!!! Since you clearly have proven you can't do that, just resign, instead of begging for an extension.
Welcome back the Soviets:
CP has been so secreative about the contract extensions given to Faith. In this story about Faith, I provided a link to a CP press release from 2007 that Faith got a two year contract extension, that ended after the 08-09 season.
But much to my surprise, after the 08-09 season, it was mentioned that Faith had ANOTHER year left on her contract. A search of the CP's website did not show any press release about Faith receiving an extension. A call and email to the CP athletics media relations office, got nowhere. The guy said, I'm not at my computer, so I can't help you. I never got a reply to my email inquiring about Faith's contract situation. Clueless AD. Comrade Alison Cone never replies to my emails or the emails from CP fans who have written Clueless Comrade Cone about Faith's terrible record.
Why does CP keep almost everything about Faith top secret? Is Clueless Cone's real last name Khrushchev or Brezhnev? Maybe she is afraid of the backlash from CP fans? Here's a toast of vodka Comrade Cone.
Seriously though, CP is a state school that is funded by public tax money. There is no reason for CP to keep things like a contract extension secret. Hell, Faith's salary is public information. So why CP won't release any information about Faith getting a contract extension, is beyond me, especially since we sure as hell don't live in Soviet Russia.
The Race Card: I know people don't like to talk about race. That is why there is and will always be a race problem in the US. Faith is white. Clueless Allison Cone, the AD at CP, is white. CP is in a lily white area. They fired the last head coach, after two terrible seasons. The coach, Karen Booker, was black.
Why was CP so quick to fire Booker but put up with Faith for 11 straight losing seasons? If you don't think it has anything to do with the fact that Faith is white, please stick your head in the sand. While there are some examples of white coaches not getting a fair chance to turnaround a program, see Cal State Fullerton, Barbara Ehardt, nobody can say that Faith didn't get a fair chance to turn CP around. ELEVEN, 11!!!! long, losing seasons before being able to produce a winning record but CP still keeps a white head coach? Would a black head coach get the same chance? If you really believe that, then I have some land to sell you.
There is no way any black head coaches would have been able to survive 11 straight losing seasons. Almost all black head coaches will only get the length of their original contract to produce a winner. In 2003 a wave a black head coaches were fired, didn't get an extension etc. Traci Waites, a former player at Long Beach St. was one of those coaches. Waites went 53-85 (.384) overall record and 20-62 (.244) Big East mark during her five seasons. Ok it was the Big East, one of the best conferences. But anybody can see that type of record isn't good enough.
This is Faith's record in her first five seasons.
2001-02 11-17 7-9
2000-01 12-17 5-9
1999-00 9-19 5-10
98-99 8-18 2-13
97-98 6-20 3-12
Totals 46-91 22-53.
Just looking at the numbers, Waites had a better overall record and only won two less games in conference. Of course comparing the Big East, with UConn, Miami, Notre Dame, Rutgers to the BW is like comparing Phillips BBQ to a national chain that cooks their ribs in an oven and drowns it in BBQ sauce. So Waites record is much more impressive, considering the level of competition she played, compared to the Hostess schedule Faith always plays.
So tell me why Faith got six more years at CP but Waites was let go by Pitt? No, it has nothing to do with Faith being white and Waites being black, right?
Faith and her terrible 12 year record at Cal Poly.
Faith and her ACC schedule during the 08-09 season.
This story includes links to newspapers stories where Faith is making excuses for her sorry record and begging for a contract extension.
So now let me explain to you, why CP keeping Faith just bothers me on so many levels.
The competitive level: How can any program keep a coach around after that coach can't produce ONE winning season after eleven years? A coach should be given at most five years to turn things. If after five years, aren't getting better, a coach should be fired!!! Very, very few exceptions.
To make matters worse, all this happening in a very bad Big West. Where during the last EIGHT straight years, there have been at least TWO Big West teams that have lost 20 games or more. In 7 of those years, there were three or more teams that lost 20 or more games. So even with that Faith can only produce ONE winning season in 12 years?
I already wrote about how much of a fraud her 08-09 record is since she only beat one non conference team, Bakersfield, who had a winning record and she was only 1-4 vs the top 2 BW teams, UCSB and UCR. Even then, she only beat UCR by 2 points on a last second basket. So it was in the BWT semi final game. So what, she lost the next day to UCSB. She lost to #6 seed CSF. She only beat the bottom feeders of the BW, by an average of 8 points, while UCR and UCSB beat the bottom feeders by 12 or more points.
She lost two of her best players to graduation. I highly doubt the 09-10 team will come anywhere close to the 21 wins of last year.
Excuses, excuses, and more excuses: Everything from Faith have been about excuses. if it wasn't injuries, then it was the high academics of CP. I mean come on. Just admit you suck as a coach Faith. I mean every coach suffers injuries. Every coach has their own issues with their university. UCR built a solid program and they have tougher academics and are in the middle of nowhere. CP is in one of the most scenic places on the West Coast.
No self respecting coach who is worth a damn, would think not having a winning record, especially in such a sorry conference, is acceptable.
Denise Curry ruined the program at Cal State Fullerton by going 16-64 overall and 10-35 in the BW. But instead of making excuses and begging for an extension, Curry resigned because she knew she was a clueless head coach. So stop making so many damn excuses Faith and schedule something other than cupcakes, win against that schedule, hell just win baby!!! Since you clearly have proven you can't do that, just resign, instead of begging for an extension.
Welcome back the Soviets:
CP has been so secreative about the contract extensions given to Faith. In this story about Faith, I provided a link to a CP press release from 2007 that Faith got a two year contract extension, that ended after the 08-09 season.
But much to my surprise, after the 08-09 season, it was mentioned that Faith had ANOTHER year left on her contract. A search of the CP's website did not show any press release about Faith receiving an extension. A call and email to the CP athletics media relations office, got nowhere. The guy said, I'm not at my computer, so I can't help you. I never got a reply to my email inquiring about Faith's contract situation. Clueless AD. Comrade Alison Cone never replies to my emails or the emails from CP fans who have written Clueless Comrade Cone about Faith's terrible record.
Why does CP keep almost everything about Faith top secret? Is Clueless Cone's real last name Khrushchev or Brezhnev? Maybe she is afraid of the backlash from CP fans? Here's a toast of vodka Comrade Cone.
Seriously though, CP is a state school that is funded by public tax money. There is no reason for CP to keep things like a contract extension secret. Hell, Faith's salary is public information. So why CP won't release any information about Faith getting a contract extension, is beyond me, especially since we sure as hell don't live in Soviet Russia.
The Race Card: I know people don't like to talk about race. That is why there is and will always be a race problem in the US. Faith is white. Clueless Allison Cone, the AD at CP, is white. CP is in a lily white area. They fired the last head coach, after two terrible seasons. The coach, Karen Booker, was black.
Why was CP so quick to fire Booker but put up with Faith for 11 straight losing seasons? If you don't think it has anything to do with the fact that Faith is white, please stick your head in the sand. While there are some examples of white coaches not getting a fair chance to turnaround a program, see Cal State Fullerton, Barbara Ehardt, nobody can say that Faith didn't get a fair chance to turn CP around. ELEVEN, 11!!!! long, losing seasons before being able to produce a winning record but CP still keeps a white head coach? Would a black head coach get the same chance? If you really believe that, then I have some land to sell you.
There is no way any black head coaches would have been able to survive 11 straight losing seasons. Almost all black head coaches will only get the length of their original contract to produce a winner. In 2003 a wave a black head coaches were fired, didn't get an extension etc. Traci Waites, a former player at Long Beach St. was one of those coaches. Waites went 53-85 (.384) overall record and 20-62 (.244) Big East mark during her five seasons. Ok it was the Big East, one of the best conferences. But anybody can see that type of record isn't good enough.
This is Faith's record in her first five seasons.
2001-02 11-17 7-9
2000-01 12-17 5-9
1999-00 9-19 5-10
98-99 8-18 2-13
97-98 6-20 3-12
Totals 46-91 22-53.
Just looking at the numbers, Waites had a better overall record and only won two less games in conference. Of course comparing the Big East, with UConn, Miami, Notre Dame, Rutgers to the BW is like comparing Phillips BBQ to a national chain that cooks their ribs in an oven and drowns it in BBQ sauce. So Waites record is much more impressive, considering the level of competition she played, compared to the Hostess schedule Faith always plays.
So tell me why Faith got six more years at CP but Waites was let go by Pitt? No, it has nothing to do with Faith being white and Waites being black, right?
Coming and Going of Coaches
There has been many chances to BW coaching staffs since the end of the 08-09 season.
Cal Poly.
Of coure, Clueless AD, Alison Cone allowed Faith Mimnaugh to stay on as head coach. Even after Faith already produced excuses for possible failure for the 09-10 season.
I love this part of the story: Mimnaugh said she doesn’t expect to have to duplicate the results of this past season — when her team tied the program record for wins and advanced to the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament — in order to be rewarded with a contract extension.
Here is another story where Faith makes more excuses about why it took so long for her to have a winning season.
Love this excuse by Faith: "Cal Poly, because of the integrity of the university and the academic excellence, it's taken longer to build this house," Mimnaugh said, "but we've done it the right way. We haven't brought in trash people, we graduate all of our kids and we play team basketball. "It's a nice strong house, and it's just taken longer."
Um, Clueless Faith, UCR has higher academic standards than CP and it didn't take John Margaritis 11 years before having a winning record. None of his kids got into trouble. He also didn't have a Hostess non conference schedule.
Great to see Cal Poly setting the bar high for the BW.
Shandrika Lee left to become an assistant at Army.
Faith hired former Cal player, Kristin Iwanaga as Lee's replacement.
Cal State Fullerton:
Marica Foster hired former UCR standout, Crystal Harris as assistant coach to complete her first coaching staff at CSF.
Cal State Northridge:
Of course CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto kept Staci Schulz, spinning her 08-09 record as one of the best turnaround seasons in the NCAA. Well, hell, when you win ONE damn game, you can only go up.
Abby Vaughn left CSN for Loyola of Maryland.
Staci Schulz hired former Hawaii and Long Beach St. assistant Pat Charity to replace Coach Vaughn. Charity was also head coach at Western Michigan. Charity is the only former D-1 head coach, working as an assistant coach in the Big West. This is a very good hire, as CSN gets a coach with over 25 years of D-1 experience.
An interesting note: Pat Charity was an assistant at Hawaii last season, when head coach Jim The JERK Bolla, kicked a player in practice!!! Of course the jerk was fired.
Here is the interesting part, Staci Schulz was an assistant at UNLV, when a coach attacked a player during practice. Schulz was NOT the coach who attacked the player. I believe the coach who did attack the player was placed on leave and didn't return to UNLV the year after. I think that coach moved onto San Jose St. How anybody can hire a coach who attacked a player, is beyond me.
What are the chances of two coaches being on the same staff, that witnessed another coach striking a player?
Long Beach St.
Jody Wynn filled out her first coaching staff at Long Beach St., with Derek Wynn, Jeffrey Cammon and Laura Freimuth.
UCI
Audi Spencer left UCI to continue her basketball career overseas. As of today, no replacement has been annouced.
Molly Goodenbour should make something right and hire former UCI assistant Chris Ellis. Ellis was the coach in charge of the program, after former head coach, Molly Tuter, resigned. He kept the team together and how was he rewarded? But not being offered a job with the new coaching staff. If any coaches are looking for a good quality assistant coach, Chris Ellis would be a great choice.
UCSB
Selena Ho a former All BW player at UOP and an Oregon assistant coach, has replaced Evan Unrau, as an assistant coach at UCSB.
For you slow people and Cal State Long Beach graduates, sorry samething, if a BW school wasn't listed that means there was no changes to their coaching staff.
Cal Poly.
Of coure, Clueless AD, Alison Cone allowed Faith Mimnaugh to stay on as head coach. Even after Faith already produced excuses for possible failure for the 09-10 season.
I love this part of the story: Mimnaugh said she doesn’t expect to have to duplicate the results of this past season — when her team tied the program record for wins and advanced to the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament — in order to be rewarded with a contract extension.
Here is another story where Faith makes more excuses about why it took so long for her to have a winning season.
Love this excuse by Faith: "Cal Poly, because of the integrity of the university and the academic excellence, it's taken longer to build this house," Mimnaugh said, "but we've done it the right way. We haven't brought in trash people, we graduate all of our kids and we play team basketball. "It's a nice strong house, and it's just taken longer."
Um, Clueless Faith, UCR has higher academic standards than CP and it didn't take John Margaritis 11 years before having a winning record. None of his kids got into trouble. He also didn't have a Hostess non conference schedule.
Great to see Cal Poly setting the bar high for the BW.
Shandrika Lee left to become an assistant at Army.
Faith hired former Cal player, Kristin Iwanaga as Lee's replacement.
Cal State Fullerton:
Marica Foster hired former UCR standout, Crystal Harris as assistant coach to complete her first coaching staff at CSF.
Cal State Northridge:
Of course CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto kept Staci Schulz, spinning her 08-09 record as one of the best turnaround seasons in the NCAA. Well, hell, when you win ONE damn game, you can only go up.
Abby Vaughn left CSN for Loyola of Maryland.
Staci Schulz hired former Hawaii and Long Beach St. assistant Pat Charity to replace Coach Vaughn. Charity was also head coach at Western Michigan. Charity is the only former D-1 head coach, working as an assistant coach in the Big West. This is a very good hire, as CSN gets a coach with over 25 years of D-1 experience.
An interesting note: Pat Charity was an assistant at Hawaii last season, when head coach Jim The JERK Bolla, kicked a player in practice!!! Of course the jerk was fired.
Here is the interesting part, Staci Schulz was an assistant at UNLV, when a coach attacked a player during practice. Schulz was NOT the coach who attacked the player. I believe the coach who did attack the player was placed on leave and didn't return to UNLV the year after. I think that coach moved onto San Jose St. How anybody can hire a coach who attacked a player, is beyond me.
What are the chances of two coaches being on the same staff, that witnessed another coach striking a player?
Long Beach St.
Jody Wynn filled out her first coaching staff at Long Beach St., with Derek Wynn, Jeffrey Cammon and Laura Freimuth.
UCI
Audi Spencer left UCI to continue her basketball career overseas. As of today, no replacement has been annouced.
Molly Goodenbour should make something right and hire former UCI assistant Chris Ellis. Ellis was the coach in charge of the program, after former head coach, Molly Tuter, resigned. He kept the team together and how was he rewarded? But not being offered a job with the new coaching staff. If any coaches are looking for a good quality assistant coach, Chris Ellis would be a great choice.
UCSB
Selena Ho a former All BW player at UOP and an Oregon assistant coach, has replaced Evan Unrau, as an assistant coach at UCSB.
For you slow people and Cal State Long Beach graduates, sorry samething, if a BW school wasn't listed that means there was no changes to their coaching staff.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Coaching Carousel
The annual coaching carousel has begun.
Long Beach St.
On April 4, 2009, Long Beach St. named Jody Wynn, head coach.
Long Beach St fired Mary Hegarty on March 11, 2009. Hegarty started off well, mostly with former coach, Dallas Bolla's players, but recruiting fell off dramatically. Good choice by Long Beach St. to let Hegarty go.
If Mark Trakh is let go at USC, don't be surprised to see Trakh at Long Beach St. Others under consideration include, Meg Sanders, assistant coach at Arizona St., Chris Danker, former head coach at Santa Clara and Colorado St. and Jody Wynn, current USC assistant.
USC:
On May 1, 2009, USC announced the hiring for former LA Laker Micheal Cooper as head coach.
The word around USC is that Mark Trakh will not have his contract renewed. If Mike Garrett does not give Trakh a new contract, he is an idiot. AN IDIOT. Trakh has done a great job recruiting, his classes are in the among the best in the nation. What has hurt Trakh is the injuries suffered by those recruits. If Trakh had those players and had this same record, he would be underachieving. But he has done a great job dealing with the injuries and still winning, 16-18 games.
Cal State Fullerton:
At Cal State Fullerton, Dr. Mary Alice Jeremiah announced that she would retire, after the 08-09 season, on October 28, 2009. Fullerton then announed that Marsha Foster signed a four year contract to replace Dr. Jeremiah.
I strongly feel that Fullerton made a big mistake by not opening up the job and seeing how good the pool of candidates maybe. Fullerton could still have included Foster in that pool. But just giving her the job is a big mistake.
This isn't a reflection of Coach Foster. But as assistant coach and the coach in charge of recruiting, she has to take some of the blame for the lack of success the past six years at CSF.
And if people don't think that Foster being black didn't have anything to do with it, go stick your head in the sand. There will be no protests by the Black Coach's Association, because Fullerton didn't do a search, because the job went to a black woman.
Cal Poly
Faith Mimnaugh, after 11 long, losing seasons, finally had a winning season at Cal Poly, going 21-11, 11-5 in the Big West. But a closer look at that record shows she padded her schedule with cupcakes.
Faith won 8 games in non conference.
New Mexico St.
USD
UM Kansas City
Idaho
USF
Illinois Chicago
Eastern Washington
Bake (a team she went 1-1, against)
Of those teams, only two teams had winning records, San Diego and Bake.
All the teams except Bake are in a conference. Bake beat a lot of other indys that padded their record.
None of those teams made the NCAA or NIT.
Overall record of those eight teams 103-135. Is that a tough schedule?
In the BW she finished 3rd in the conference. Did not beat the top two teams, UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside, in the regular season. Beat #2 UCR in the BWT.
She lost to the #6 seed CSF.
She beat both #7 seed UCI and #9 seed LB, by a total of 15 points in the four games against those two schools. And beat #8 seed CSN by 16 points in the two games. You're telling that the 3rd seed can only beat the bottom feeders of the BW by an average of only 7-9 points a games?
Just for comparison, #2 UCR beat UCI by 36 in their two games. That is an average of 18 points a game. About TEN more points per game, than Faith was able to beat UCI.
Remember this all happened in a BW, that had four teams, Fullerton, Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine, finish with 20 or more losses. Five teams, the previous four and Davis, over half the conference, that had 18 or more losses. Only 3 teams, out of 9, finished with a wining record.
Long Beach St.
On April 4, 2009, Long Beach St. named Jody Wynn, head coach.
Long Beach St fired Mary Hegarty on March 11, 2009. Hegarty started off well, mostly with former coach, Dallas Bolla's players, but recruiting fell off dramatically. Good choice by Long Beach St. to let Hegarty go.
If Mark Trakh is let go at USC, don't be surprised to see Trakh at Long Beach St. Others under consideration include, Meg Sanders, assistant coach at Arizona St., Chris Danker, former head coach at Santa Clara and Colorado St. and Jody Wynn, current USC assistant.
USC:
On May 1, 2009, USC announced the hiring for former LA Laker Micheal Cooper as head coach.
The word around USC is that Mark Trakh will not have his contract renewed. If Mike Garrett does not give Trakh a new contract, he is an idiot. AN IDIOT. Trakh has done a great job recruiting, his classes are in the among the best in the nation. What has hurt Trakh is the injuries suffered by those recruits. If Trakh had those players and had this same record, he would be underachieving. But he has done a great job dealing with the injuries and still winning, 16-18 games.
Cal State Fullerton:
At Cal State Fullerton, Dr. Mary Alice Jeremiah announced that she would retire, after the 08-09 season, on October 28, 2009. Fullerton then announed that Marsha Foster signed a four year contract to replace Dr. Jeremiah.
I strongly feel that Fullerton made a big mistake by not opening up the job and seeing how good the pool of candidates maybe. Fullerton could still have included Foster in that pool. But just giving her the job is a big mistake.
This isn't a reflection of Coach Foster. But as assistant coach and the coach in charge of recruiting, she has to take some of the blame for the lack of success the past six years at CSF.
And if people don't think that Foster being black didn't have anything to do with it, go stick your head in the sand. There will be no protests by the Black Coach's Association, because Fullerton didn't do a search, because the job went to a black woman.
Cal Poly
Faith Mimnaugh, after 11 long, losing seasons, finally had a winning season at Cal Poly, going 21-11, 11-5 in the Big West. But a closer look at that record shows she padded her schedule with cupcakes.
Faith won 8 games in non conference.
New Mexico St.
USD
UM Kansas City
Idaho
USF
Illinois Chicago
Eastern Washington
Bake (a team she went 1-1, against)
Of those teams, only two teams had winning records, San Diego and Bake.
All the teams except Bake are in a conference. Bake beat a lot of other indys that padded their record.
None of those teams made the NCAA or NIT.
Overall record of those eight teams 103-135. Is that a tough schedule?
In the BW she finished 3rd in the conference. Did not beat the top two teams, UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside, in the regular season. Beat #2 UCR in the BWT.
She lost to the #6 seed CSF.
She beat both #7 seed UCI and #9 seed LB, by a total of 15 points in the four games against those two schools. And beat #8 seed CSN by 16 points in the two games. You're telling that the 3rd seed can only beat the bottom feeders of the BW by an average of only 7-9 points a games?
Just for comparison, #2 UCR beat UCI by 36 in their two games. That is an average of 18 points a game. About TEN more points per game, than Faith was able to beat UCI.
Remember this all happened in a BW, that had four teams, Fullerton, Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine, finish with 20 or more losses. Five teams, the previous four and Davis, over half the conference, that had 18 or more losses. Only 3 teams, out of 9, finished with a wining record.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Kay Yow
Today, the game of basketball losts a true champion and legend. Kay Yow, head coach of North Carolina St. passed away after a very long battle with breast cancer. A list of Coach Yow's accomplishments would be so long. She touched the lives of so many people and is one of the true pioneers of the game.
She will be missed.
She will be missed.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Big West Conference- UC Riverside
On the on going look at Big West schools, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at UC Riverside (UCR).
UCR was a Division 2 program until they made the move to D-1 in the late 90's after students voted to raise their fees to fund the move. UCR became members of the Big West in 2001-02. Jennifer Young was the head coach for UCR when the Highlanders made the move up to D-1. Young was hired for the 1997-98 season.
1997-98 15-11
1998-99 8-19
99-00 11-16
00-01 9-18
01-02 16-13 First year in BW
02-03 8-20
03-04 7-21
Young took her team through the four year provisional years to D-1. In their first year in the Big West, UCR, went 16-13, finishing tied for second in the Big West, with Pacific. They would lose to Pacific in the BW Tournament semi finals. But that team was a senior laden team, lead by Amy Houchens and Julie Shaw. Houchen was 1st team All BW. After that season, Young faced a rebuilding year, with only Cassandra Reeves returning from the year before.
They team would struggle to an 8-20 record. The following season would also be a struggle, 7-21. Athletic Director Stan Morrison decide that Young wasn't the coach to lead UCR to greater heights and decided not to renew her contract.
In one of the best kept secrets ever, UCR did a search and found John Margaritis, an assistant at Northern Arizona, to take over the program. What I mean by best kept secrets is that, UCR never made public the people on the search committee, hell, if there was even a search committee, or any of the finalists for the job.
Hiring a male head coach may upset the old girl network that ruins women's basketball. But unlike some other hirings, San Diego St. hiring Jim Tomey, who had never coach women's or girls basketball before, UCR hired a coach with plenty of experience coaching women's basketball. I never have an issue with a school hiring a male coach, who has coached women's basketball before. But it's not right for any school to hire a male coach, who has never coached women's basketball.
Also for the idiot, female fans who hate the hiring of any male coaches, just shut up. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Coach Margaritis was lucky, in that Coach Young signed Kemie Nkele. Nkele would become the cornerstone for the turnaround of UCR. So with Nkele and basically the entire team back, who won jsut 7 games the year before, Margaritis lead them to a winning season, going 16-13, for the 04-05 season. Nkele was Freshmen of the Year and 1st team all BW.
Then Margaritis and his coaching staff signed a group of freshmen who would become great players for the program, Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo. They would go:
16-15 7-7 in the 05-06 season and won the BWT. The Highlanders ended Cal State Santa Barbara's streak of 11 straight BWT championships. UCR would lose to #1 seed North Carolina in their first ever appearance in the NCAA tourney.
In the 06-07 season, UCR improved, going 21-11, 12-2 in the BW and winning their second straight BWT Championship. They would play Arizona St. tough in the first round of the NCAA before losing.
The 07-08 season would be a struggle, 14-16, 10-6, because of injuries to Kemie Nkele. UCR would end up losing to UC Davis in the BWT semi finals.
08-09 season brought a healthy Kemie Nkele and a senior laden class. UCR would go 19-12, 14-2, and lost to Cal Poly in the BWT semi finals.
Now some people will consider that a successful 4-5 year run. While I will give UCR credit, it was a good run, I think they underachieved.
UCR did toughen their schedule during that time. They even beat a top 20 team in the 08-09 season, Vandy.
But they didn't win another BW championship after the 06-07 season. They didn't add anymore impact players to their roster after the Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo class. Hell they didn't add an outside shooter who would have really opened things up for Nkele inside. Maybe that outside shooter could have put UCR over the top?
So some questions about UCR's rise and possible fall:
But how did UCR rebuild so quickly? They had to overcome a few drawbacks. It is Riverside, there is nothing to do there. You're in the middle of the desert, hot as hell, not close to LA or the beach. Academics: It is a UC and while people say UCR is the safety school for UC's, UCR still does have a smaller pool of recruits.
So with all those drawbacks, UCR was able to find under the radar type recruits, who came together under a good coaching staff.
Why did their recruiting suffer? IMO the major reason was after assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Seton Sobolewski, left to become head coach at Idaho St. after the 06-07 season, recruiting suffered. The staff wasn't able to find or get those impact players that Seton brought to UCR.
Now UCR has recruited some D-1 transfers, including a set of twins who played at Arizona, for the 09-10 season. But they are looking a major rebuilding program. How long will this rebuilding take? Only time will tell.
They do have a very good coach who can blend together talent, quickly. He now needs to work on bringing that talent into the program on a consistent basis. Not once every 4-5 years.
UCR was a Division 2 program until they made the move to D-1 in the late 90's after students voted to raise their fees to fund the move. UCR became members of the Big West in 2001-02. Jennifer Young was the head coach for UCR when the Highlanders made the move up to D-1. Young was hired for the 1997-98 season.
1997-98 15-11
1998-99 8-19
99-00 11-16
00-01 9-18
01-02 16-13 First year in BW
02-03 8-20
03-04 7-21
Young took her team through the four year provisional years to D-1. In their first year in the Big West, UCR, went 16-13, finishing tied for second in the Big West, with Pacific. They would lose to Pacific in the BW Tournament semi finals. But that team was a senior laden team, lead by Amy Houchens and Julie Shaw. Houchen was 1st team All BW. After that season, Young faced a rebuilding year, with only Cassandra Reeves returning from the year before.
They team would struggle to an 8-20 record. The following season would also be a struggle, 7-21. Athletic Director Stan Morrison decide that Young wasn't the coach to lead UCR to greater heights and decided not to renew her contract.
In one of the best kept secrets ever, UCR did a search and found John Margaritis, an assistant at Northern Arizona, to take over the program. What I mean by best kept secrets is that, UCR never made public the people on the search committee, hell, if there was even a search committee, or any of the finalists for the job.
Hiring a male head coach may upset the old girl network that ruins women's basketball. But unlike some other hirings, San Diego St. hiring Jim Tomey, who had never coach women's or girls basketball before, UCR hired a coach with plenty of experience coaching women's basketball. I never have an issue with a school hiring a male coach, who has coached women's basketball before. But it's not right for any school to hire a male coach, who has never coached women's basketball.
Also for the idiot, female fans who hate the hiring of any male coaches, just shut up. You are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Coach Margaritis was lucky, in that Coach Young signed Kemie Nkele. Nkele would become the cornerstone for the turnaround of UCR. So with Nkele and basically the entire team back, who won jsut 7 games the year before, Margaritis lead them to a winning season, going 16-13, for the 04-05 season. Nkele was Freshmen of the Year and 1st team all BW.
Then Margaritis and his coaching staff signed a group of freshmen who would become great players for the program, Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo. They would go:
16-15 7-7 in the 05-06 season and won the BWT. The Highlanders ended Cal State Santa Barbara's streak of 11 straight BWT championships. UCR would lose to #1 seed North Carolina in their first ever appearance in the NCAA tourney.
In the 06-07 season, UCR improved, going 21-11, 12-2 in the BW and winning their second straight BWT Championship. They would play Arizona St. tough in the first round of the NCAA before losing.
The 07-08 season would be a struggle, 14-16, 10-6, because of injuries to Kemie Nkele. UCR would end up losing to UC Davis in the BWT semi finals.
08-09 season brought a healthy Kemie Nkele and a senior laden class. UCR would go 19-12, 14-2, and lost to Cal Poly in the BWT semi finals.
Now some people will consider that a successful 4-5 year run. While I will give UCR credit, it was a good run, I think they underachieved.
UCR did toughen their schedule during that time. They even beat a top 20 team in the 08-09 season, Vandy.
But they didn't win another BW championship after the 06-07 season. They didn't add anymore impact players to their roster after the Amber Cox and Seyram Gbewonyo class. Hell they didn't add an outside shooter who would have really opened things up for Nkele inside. Maybe that outside shooter could have put UCR over the top?
So some questions about UCR's rise and possible fall:
But how did UCR rebuild so quickly? They had to overcome a few drawbacks. It is Riverside, there is nothing to do there. You're in the middle of the desert, hot as hell, not close to LA or the beach. Academics: It is a UC and while people say UCR is the safety school for UC's, UCR still does have a smaller pool of recruits.
So with all those drawbacks, UCR was able to find under the radar type recruits, who came together under a good coaching staff.
Why did their recruiting suffer? IMO the major reason was after assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, Seton Sobolewski, left to become head coach at Idaho St. after the 06-07 season, recruiting suffered. The staff wasn't able to find or get those impact players that Seton brought to UCR.
Now UCR has recruited some D-1 transfers, including a set of twins who played at Arizona, for the 09-10 season. But they are looking a major rebuilding program. How long will this rebuilding take? Only time will tell.
They do have a very good coach who can blend together talent, quickly. He now needs to work on bringing that talent into the program on a consistent basis. Not once every 4-5 years.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Big West Conference-UC Irvine
On the on going look at Big West schools, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at UC Irvine (UCI).
First some background. Collen Matsuhara took over as head coach for the 1991-92 season. She replaced Dean Andrea who was the head coach for thirteen seasons. The first three seasons were tough:
1991-92 5-22
1992-93 2-24
1993-94 5-22
But things turned around during the 94-95 season, UCI went 19-11, won the Big West Tournament, and went to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Stanford.
During the 1995-96 season, UCI struggled, going 12-16 but quickly rebounded and went16-13 during the 1996-97 season. Then to the surprise of many Dan Guerrero, did not renew Colleen's contract. Yes, that Dan Guerrero, the current athletic director at UCLA. The AD who hired Tricky Ricky to lead their football program into NCAA probation. There were many theories as to why Dan didn't resign Colleen; he wanted a male coach, he didn't think Colleen could lead UCI to a higher level. Either way he did hire Mark Adams, Colleen's top assistant.
Adams would stay at UCI for seven full seasons and was basically forced to resign seven games into his eighth season.
Adams would continue some of the success of Colleen, early on but then basically went feast or famine, having one winning season, then having a bad season.
1997-98 16-11
1998-99 11-16
99-00 12-15
00-01 16-14
01-02 8-20
02-03 17-12
03-04 6-20
Some of Coach Adams' problems had to do with injuries to players. Many highly touted recruits never played or rarely played due to injuries.
Then after a 0-7 start to the 04-05 season, UCI forced Coach Adams to resign. By this time Bob Chichester was the UCI AD. Molly Tuter was named interim head coach by Chichester. Molly would go 8-14, for the rest of the 04-05 season.
Chichester, again making the mistake that many BW schools have done, didn't do a real search and just gave Molly a four year contract. Tuter had a lot of good ideas of improving UCI. The biggest and most radical difference was recruiting players from overseas. Tuter's first real recruiting class, players who entered UCI for the 06-07 season, included players from the Netherlands and Latvia. But of those four players she signed, only one player remains on the team this season, Rebecca Maessen. The following season, 07-08, she signed a player from New Zealand. But again that player, Kim Barnes left UCI.
Then in a surprise move Molly Tuter resigned in late May of 2008. There were some rumors as to why Tuter resigned, but I have too much respect for Coach Tuter and will not spread those rumors.
To my shock, UCI did do a search, even hiring a search firm, ChampsSearch to help in finding a head coach. Billie Moore, Hall of Fame coach for UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, was in charge of this search. But UCI wasted an entire month looking for a coach between the time of Tuter's official resignation and the annoucement of the hiring of the ChampsSearch.
On August 4, 2008 UCI announced the hiring of former Stanford star, Molly Goodenbour. Goodenbour was an All American at Stanford, won two national championships, being named the Most Outstanding Player for the 1992 Final Four played at the LA Sports Arena. Goodenbour would play overseas, then in the ABL and WNBA.
Goodenbour started her coaching career as an assistant at University of San Francisco, USF for the 1994-95 season. She would then continue her playing career with the ABL and WNBA. After retiring as a player, she was an assistant coach for one season at Santa Rosa JC, then became head coach for three seasons,
2002-03 20-10
03-04 24-6
04-05 25-5
Goodenbour would then return to USF as an assistant for the 2005-06 season. After that season she was named head coach at D-2 Chico St.
06-07 24-5
07-08 28-6
While Goodenbour was successful on the court, her tenture at Chico St, was marred by many players being kicked off the team and some leaving the program, including the star player and hometown favorite, and reports of verbal abuse and intimidation of players. You can read all the details here.
There are always two sides to each story and who knows whether or not the former head coach at Chico St, Lynne Roberts didn't have anything to do with it. One of the players who quit and complained the most, Amber Simmons, transfered to BW rival Pacific. Surprise!!! Pacific just happens to be where Lynne Roberts became head coach.
Now I'll be honest, I've followed Goodenbour's career since she was at Stanford. So while I try to be unbiased, I am on Goodenbour's side in this situation. I would be even if I wasn't a fan of Molly before hand. When playing sports, it's accepted that coaches will just profanity at times. It's accepted that coaches will yell at players. Of course there are limits but I don't think Goodenbour came close to crossing any lines, if in fact those allegations, mentioned in the story, are true.
Kids these days need to grow up and stop being coddled and just take the yelling and stop crying. I think many kids think being mistreated means, they didn't get their way. And they also need to learn that when things go wrong, they can't go crying to mommy and daddy and expect them to make things better. If they have an issue with a coach, go talk to that coach. You're an adult now, mommy and daddy shouldn't be a crutch anymore.
UCI is currently 3-13. Goodenbour of course deserves a chance to be successful.
So why can't UCI be successful? They have good academics, a wonderful, if boring as hell, location, and of course great weather. But some issues I've heard is the lack of commitment to athletics at UCI. This is shown by UCI having funding issues for athletics. Yes, they did add baseball but only because students voted to raise their fees to pay for it.
Facilities: While the Bren Center is a very nice arena, the other support facilities are lacking. They team doesn't have a lockerroom or a team room. Crawford Hall which houses the athletic department offices, is outdated and UCI athletics has outgrown those facilites. Now they did build some portable offices for some sports, baseball for instance to relieve overcrowding in Crawford Hall. But what about improving support facilities for the women's basketball program? Coach's Offices actually inside the Bren Center? A team room inside the Bren Center?
Salary. Molly Tuter didn't make $100,000 as a first year head coach. I do not know Molly Goodenbour's salary but I bet it's not much higher than $110,000. With that kind of salary, how does UCI expect to attract and keep good quality coaches? Factor in the high cost of housing, especially in OC, and that $100,000 doesn't go very far. Assistant coaches don't make much either. One coach actually took a pay cut from his job as a teacher, to become coach at UCI. UCI has to increase salaries for the entire coaching staff.
But dispite all this, I think UCI has made some strides. The fact that the new AD, Mike Izzi, actually did a search was shocking, since the last two coaches, Adams and Tuter, were promoted to head coach. Then Izzi figured out they don't have a clue about how to conduct a search and/or weren't getting enough good candidates, they hired a search firm. Whether that search firm found the best candidate, remains to be seen.
But I think UCI did the right thing hiring a search firm. But now they need to hold Goodenbour to a high standard. If things aren't turning around by the third year, they need to put her on notice and tell her she needs to win or she will not be getting a new contract.
With the sorry state of women's basketball in the BW, there is no reason why a team can't turn things around within three years.
First some background. Collen Matsuhara took over as head coach for the 1991-92 season. She replaced Dean Andrea who was the head coach for thirteen seasons. The first three seasons were tough:
1991-92 5-22
1992-93 2-24
1993-94 5-22
But things turned around during the 94-95 season, UCI went 19-11, won the Big West Tournament, and went to the NCAA Tournament, losing to Stanford.
During the 1995-96 season, UCI struggled, going 12-16 but quickly rebounded and went16-13 during the 1996-97 season. Then to the surprise of many Dan Guerrero, did not renew Colleen's contract. Yes, that Dan Guerrero, the current athletic director at UCLA. The AD who hired Tricky Ricky to lead their football program into NCAA probation. There were many theories as to why Dan didn't resign Colleen; he wanted a male coach, he didn't think Colleen could lead UCI to a higher level. Either way he did hire Mark Adams, Colleen's top assistant.
Adams would stay at UCI for seven full seasons and was basically forced to resign seven games into his eighth season.
Adams would continue some of the success of Colleen, early on but then basically went feast or famine, having one winning season, then having a bad season.
1997-98 16-11
1998-99 11-16
99-00 12-15
00-01 16-14
01-02 8-20
02-03 17-12
03-04 6-20
Some of Coach Adams' problems had to do with injuries to players. Many highly touted recruits never played or rarely played due to injuries.
Then after a 0-7 start to the 04-05 season, UCI forced Coach Adams to resign. By this time Bob Chichester was the UCI AD. Molly Tuter was named interim head coach by Chichester. Molly would go 8-14, for the rest of the 04-05 season.
Chichester, again making the mistake that many BW schools have done, didn't do a real search and just gave Molly a four year contract. Tuter had a lot of good ideas of improving UCI. The biggest and most radical difference was recruiting players from overseas. Tuter's first real recruiting class, players who entered UCI for the 06-07 season, included players from the Netherlands and Latvia. But of those four players she signed, only one player remains on the team this season, Rebecca Maessen. The following season, 07-08, she signed a player from New Zealand. But again that player, Kim Barnes left UCI.
Then in a surprise move Molly Tuter resigned in late May of 2008. There were some rumors as to why Tuter resigned, but I have too much respect for Coach Tuter and will not spread those rumors.
To my shock, UCI did do a search, even hiring a search firm, ChampsSearch to help in finding a head coach. Billie Moore, Hall of Fame coach for UCLA and Cal State Fullerton, was in charge of this search. But UCI wasted an entire month looking for a coach between the time of Tuter's official resignation and the annoucement of the hiring of the ChampsSearch.
On August 4, 2008 UCI announced the hiring of former Stanford star, Molly Goodenbour. Goodenbour was an All American at Stanford, won two national championships, being named the Most Outstanding Player for the 1992 Final Four played at the LA Sports Arena. Goodenbour would play overseas, then in the ABL and WNBA.
Goodenbour started her coaching career as an assistant at University of San Francisco, USF for the 1994-95 season. She would then continue her playing career with the ABL and WNBA. After retiring as a player, she was an assistant coach for one season at Santa Rosa JC, then became head coach for three seasons,
2002-03 20-10
03-04 24-6
04-05 25-5
Goodenbour would then return to USF as an assistant for the 2005-06 season. After that season she was named head coach at D-2 Chico St.
06-07 24-5
07-08 28-6
While Goodenbour was successful on the court, her tenture at Chico St, was marred by many players being kicked off the team and some leaving the program, including the star player and hometown favorite, and reports of verbal abuse and intimidation of players. You can read all the details here.
There are always two sides to each story and who knows whether or not the former head coach at Chico St, Lynne Roberts didn't have anything to do with it. One of the players who quit and complained the most, Amber Simmons, transfered to BW rival Pacific. Surprise!!! Pacific just happens to be where Lynne Roberts became head coach.
Now I'll be honest, I've followed Goodenbour's career since she was at Stanford. So while I try to be unbiased, I am on Goodenbour's side in this situation. I would be even if I wasn't a fan of Molly before hand. When playing sports, it's accepted that coaches will just profanity at times. It's accepted that coaches will yell at players. Of course there are limits but I don't think Goodenbour came close to crossing any lines, if in fact those allegations, mentioned in the story, are true.
Kids these days need to grow up and stop being coddled and just take the yelling and stop crying. I think many kids think being mistreated means, they didn't get their way. And they also need to learn that when things go wrong, they can't go crying to mommy and daddy and expect them to make things better. If they have an issue with a coach, go talk to that coach. You're an adult now, mommy and daddy shouldn't be a crutch anymore.
UCI is currently 3-13. Goodenbour of course deserves a chance to be successful.
So why can't UCI be successful? They have good academics, a wonderful, if boring as hell, location, and of course great weather. But some issues I've heard is the lack of commitment to athletics at UCI. This is shown by UCI having funding issues for athletics. Yes, they did add baseball but only because students voted to raise their fees to pay for it.
Facilities: While the Bren Center is a very nice arena, the other support facilities are lacking. They team doesn't have a lockerroom or a team room. Crawford Hall which houses the athletic department offices, is outdated and UCI athletics has outgrown those facilites. Now they did build some portable offices for some sports, baseball for instance to relieve overcrowding in Crawford Hall. But what about improving support facilities for the women's basketball program? Coach's Offices actually inside the Bren Center? A team room inside the Bren Center?
Salary. Molly Tuter didn't make $100,000 as a first year head coach. I do not know Molly Goodenbour's salary but I bet it's not much higher than $110,000. With that kind of salary, how does UCI expect to attract and keep good quality coaches? Factor in the high cost of housing, especially in OC, and that $100,000 doesn't go very far. Assistant coaches don't make much either. One coach actually took a pay cut from his job as a teacher, to become coach at UCI. UCI has to increase salaries for the entire coaching staff.
But dispite all this, I think UCI has made some strides. The fact that the new AD, Mike Izzi, actually did a search was shocking, since the last two coaches, Adams and Tuter, were promoted to head coach. Then Izzi figured out they don't have a clue about how to conduct a search and/or weren't getting enough good candidates, they hired a search firm. Whether that search firm found the best candidate, remains to be seen.
But I think UCI did the right thing hiring a search firm. But now they need to hold Goodenbour to a high standard. If things aren't turning around by the third year, they need to put her on notice and tell her she needs to win or she will not be getting a new contract.
With the sorry state of women's basketball in the BW, there is no reason why a team can't turn things around within three years.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Big West Conference- Cal State Northridge
In an ongoing look at schools in the Big West Conference, www.lawomenshoops.com looks at Cal State Northridge(CSN).
First some background Cal State Northridge moved up to Division 1 for the 1990-91 season. They struggled to find funding for all programs, including 1-AA football, and a conference to call home. In the 94-95 season they were members of a four team conference called the America West Conference. Cal Poly, Sac St, Southern Utah were the other teams in the AWC. The NCAA requires six teams for a conference to have an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament, thus with no automatic bid to NCAA championships, the AWC, wasn't really a conference. The America West Conference only lasted two seasons, 94-95 and 95-96. Starting with the 96-97 season: Cal Poly went to the Big West. CSN and Sac. St accepted invitations to the Big Sky Conference. Southern Utah would later accept an invitation to the Mid Con Conference, now call the Summitt League. After the 2000-01 season CSN became members of the Big West Conference because CSN couldn't improve their football facilities to satisfy the Big Sky Conference.
Kim Chandler was CSN's head coach from 1992-93 to 1994-95. Well, she was named interim head coach, nine games into the 1991-92 season and then got job full time after the season.
There is no doubt Chandler had a lot of things to deal with during her time as head coach. Money being a big factor, working with only about eight scholarships, which is half of what the NCAA allows for women's basketball. A limited recruiting budget. No conference and even in the American West, didn't have an automatic bid to the NCAA. Of course, the lack of facilities. Then in 1994, the Northridge earthquake. Things got so bad at CSN that the WBB program was going to be cut, if a student fee referendum in 1995 didn't pass. The referendum was passed thus saving women's basketball.
But the biggest question hanging over Chandler was, whether or not she was qualified too be a D-1 head coach. Chandler was hired as head coach when she was 26 years old. She didn't have much experience prior to be hired. She was an assistant coach at Bowling Green for a season and Florida Souther for one season, before being an assistant at CSN for a year and a half, before being named interim coach. So at best a 26 year old coach with about three years experience as an D1 assistant coach. Sixteen players and six assistant coaches left the CSN program during Chandler's tenture, many because they were unhappy with Chandler. Chandler resigned in March of 1995.
Chandler was replaced by Oregon St assistant coach Micheal Abraham. Abraham was the long time assistant coach at Long Beach St, when LB was a top 5 women's basketball program. Abraham came with some NCAA baggage. The NCAA would place Oregon St on probation for violations that occurred during the time Abraham was on staff at OSU.
Abraham was brash and confident, some would say cocky. He recruited from all over the world!! CSN had players from France, Serbia, and Sweden on the roster during Abraham's tenture. By the third season, Abraham was starting to see the rewards of his recruiting efforts, winning 14 games.
95-96 5-22
96-97 4-23 First year in the Big Sky
97-98 14-14
But in the fall of 1998, things came crashing down on Micheal Abraham. He was arrested for helping broker a drug deal. He would eventually serve time in federal prison. Of course he resigned as head coach at CSN. After his arrest, there were newspaper reports that players suspected drug use by Coach Abraham but the athletic director at the time, Paul Bubb, did nothing about their concerns. This would lead the resignation of Bubb and Judith Brame, Sr. Associate Athletic Director.
Frozena Jerro replaced Abraham as interim coach for the 98-99 season. The 98-99 season would turn out to be the pinnacle for CSN. They went 21-8, winning the Big Sky regular season and post season championships. They lost to Colorado St in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
At the Big Sky Championship game vs Portland St., it was announced that Frozena Jerro was given a contract to be the head coach at CSN. Classic case of both politics and thrill of the moment, getting the better of the athletic director, Sam Jankovich, who was hired to straighten the mess that was CSN's athletic department. Jankovich was the AD at Miami during the rise of the Hurricane football program.
But Jerro had very little experience as a college assistant coach. She was an assistant at Houston for two seasons, 93-94 and 94-95, and one season at King Junior High School in Berkeley. Then one season, 97-98 at CSN. That is not enough experience to hire somebody as a head coach.
But when a coach leads a team to their first NCAA tourney and happens to be black, there is no way you can't hire that coach without some serious badlash. But the next three years Jerro proved she couldn't handle being a head coach at the D1 level. Going from 21 wins, in her first year, to 9 wins in her last full season.
The program was a place where players recruited by Abraham, transfered and/or players not getting along with the head coach and the players recruited by Jerro were not as talented as the players they replaced. Jerro would resign five games into the 01-02 season.
1998-99 21-8
1999-2000 18-10
00-01 9-18
01-02 0-5 First year in the Big West.
Then CSN promoted Ken Turner and Paula Nirschl as interim co coaches for 01-02 season. They would finish the year with a 2-19 record.
But CSN to their credit did a full search. In a surprising move, athletic director Dick Dull, hired Tammy Holder. But unlike Jerro and Chandler, Holder had lots of experience, she was head coach at Richmond and the Seattle Reign of the ABL and was an assistant for eight years. The surprising part was that Holder told me didn't even know where Northridge was, when she saw the head coaching position opening in the NCAA news. As a side note, John Margaritis, the current UCR coach was among the finalists for the job that was given to Holder.
But after two tough seasons, she got things turned around in her third year.
02-03 3-24
03-04 6-20
04-05 18-11
But just when the future for WBB looked bright for CSN, in the summer of 05, Holder left to be an assistant at South Carolina.
Instead of doing a full search to find a replacement, CSN just promoted Staci Schulz to head coach. Schulz had only eight years of college coaching experience, never being a head coach. Her first year was a bit tough since she lost star player Ofa Tulihihifo to a leg injury. But Schulz's second season, 06-07, with Ofa and six other seniors, she again underacheived and won only 13 games. The 07-08 season saw a diaster for CSN, 1-26, sinking to depths they haven't seen since the Kim Chandler era.
05-06 10-20
06-07 13-16
07-08 1-26
So in the past 15 years, CSN has made the mistake of hiring an inexperience head coach, not once, not twice, but three times!!!! Yes, three different AD's did the hiring but they all made the same mistake.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the lack of experience of the assistant coaches at CSN. The third assistant coach is usually a former player who recently graduated, so it's expected that the coach will be inexperienced.
But the other two assistant coaches should not be inexperienced. During the 1998-99 season, Frozena Jerro, Karen Howell and Tara Harrington were the assistant coaches. The combined D-1 experience for the three? THREE years, all by Coach Jerro, who would be named interim head coach after Coach Abraham was arrested. Harrington was the third assistant, just finished her playing career at Stanford.
In the 2001-02 season, Ken Turner, Paula Nirschl, and Denise Woods had a combined, ZERO years of D-1 experience. Woods being the third assistant, after finishing her playing career at USC. Combine that with the inexperience of Coach Jero, six years in D-1, three as head coach, and you have a recipe for failure.
Even the coaching staff for the 08-09 season is inexperienced, Carla Houser has seven years experience as a D-1 assistant coach. All with CSN. Abby Vaughn has been at CSN for two years. Before that, Vaughn only one years worth of D-1 experience, at San Jose St. Cory O'Dell, was the former head coach at Chaminade and an assistant at Alaska-Anchorage, both D-2 schools, but has no D-1 experience before coming to CSN.
So increasing the salaries for both head and assistant coaches will greatly improve the ability to attract coaches with more experience. This is something the school needs to do.
As of today, CSN is 3-12. Will Staci be resigned to a new contract after this season? I believe she signed a four year contract when she was hired. Will the current CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto, make the same mistakes of three other AD's? What standards will Mazzuto use to judge her record? He certainly can't be happy with the direction the program is going. But then again he could be just like every other BW AD and maybe he could care less about the WBB program.
First some background Cal State Northridge moved up to Division 1 for the 1990-91 season. They struggled to find funding for all programs, including 1-AA football, and a conference to call home. In the 94-95 season they were members of a four team conference called the America West Conference. Cal Poly, Sac St, Southern Utah were the other teams in the AWC. The NCAA requires six teams for a conference to have an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament, thus with no automatic bid to NCAA championships, the AWC, wasn't really a conference. The America West Conference only lasted two seasons, 94-95 and 95-96. Starting with the 96-97 season: Cal Poly went to the Big West. CSN and Sac. St accepted invitations to the Big Sky Conference. Southern Utah would later accept an invitation to the Mid Con Conference, now call the Summitt League. After the 2000-01 season CSN became members of the Big West Conference because CSN couldn't improve their football facilities to satisfy the Big Sky Conference.
Kim Chandler was CSN's head coach from 1992-93 to 1994-95. Well, she was named interim head coach, nine games into the 1991-92 season and then got job full time after the season.
There is no doubt Chandler had a lot of things to deal with during her time as head coach. Money being a big factor, working with only about eight scholarships, which is half of what the NCAA allows for women's basketball. A limited recruiting budget. No conference and even in the American West, didn't have an automatic bid to the NCAA. Of course, the lack of facilities. Then in 1994, the Northridge earthquake. Things got so bad at CSN that the WBB program was going to be cut, if a student fee referendum in 1995 didn't pass. The referendum was passed thus saving women's basketball.
But the biggest question hanging over Chandler was, whether or not she was qualified too be a D-1 head coach. Chandler was hired as head coach when she was 26 years old. She didn't have much experience prior to be hired. She was an assistant coach at Bowling Green for a season and Florida Souther for one season, before being an assistant at CSN for a year and a half, before being named interim coach. So at best a 26 year old coach with about three years experience as an D1 assistant coach. Sixteen players and six assistant coaches left the CSN program during Chandler's tenture, many because they were unhappy with Chandler. Chandler resigned in March of 1995.
Chandler was replaced by Oregon St assistant coach Micheal Abraham. Abraham was the long time assistant coach at Long Beach St, when LB was a top 5 women's basketball program. Abraham came with some NCAA baggage. The NCAA would place Oregon St on probation for violations that occurred during the time Abraham was on staff at OSU.
Abraham was brash and confident, some would say cocky. He recruited from all over the world!! CSN had players from France, Serbia, and Sweden on the roster during Abraham's tenture. By the third season, Abraham was starting to see the rewards of his recruiting efforts, winning 14 games.
95-96 5-22
96-97 4-23 First year in the Big Sky
97-98 14-14
But in the fall of 1998, things came crashing down on Micheal Abraham. He was arrested for helping broker a drug deal. He would eventually serve time in federal prison. Of course he resigned as head coach at CSN. After his arrest, there were newspaper reports that players suspected drug use by Coach Abraham but the athletic director at the time, Paul Bubb, did nothing about their concerns. This would lead the resignation of Bubb and Judith Brame, Sr. Associate Athletic Director.
Frozena Jerro replaced Abraham as interim coach for the 98-99 season. The 98-99 season would turn out to be the pinnacle for CSN. They went 21-8, winning the Big Sky regular season and post season championships. They lost to Colorado St in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
At the Big Sky Championship game vs Portland St., it was announced that Frozena Jerro was given a contract to be the head coach at CSN. Classic case of both politics and thrill of the moment, getting the better of the athletic director, Sam Jankovich, who was hired to straighten the mess that was CSN's athletic department. Jankovich was the AD at Miami during the rise of the Hurricane football program.
But Jerro had very little experience as a college assistant coach. She was an assistant at Houston for two seasons, 93-94 and 94-95, and one season at King Junior High School in Berkeley. Then one season, 97-98 at CSN. That is not enough experience to hire somebody as a head coach.
But when a coach leads a team to their first NCAA tourney and happens to be black, there is no way you can't hire that coach without some serious badlash. But the next three years Jerro proved she couldn't handle being a head coach at the D1 level. Going from 21 wins, in her first year, to 9 wins in her last full season.
The program was a place where players recruited by Abraham, transfered and/or players not getting along with the head coach and the players recruited by Jerro were not as talented as the players they replaced. Jerro would resign five games into the 01-02 season.
1998-99 21-8
1999-2000 18-10
00-01 9-18
01-02 0-5 First year in the Big West.
Then CSN promoted Ken Turner and Paula Nirschl as interim co coaches for 01-02 season. They would finish the year with a 2-19 record.
But CSN to their credit did a full search. In a surprising move, athletic director Dick Dull, hired Tammy Holder. But unlike Jerro and Chandler, Holder had lots of experience, she was head coach at Richmond and the Seattle Reign of the ABL and was an assistant for eight years. The surprising part was that Holder told me didn't even know where Northridge was, when she saw the head coaching position opening in the NCAA news. As a side note, John Margaritis, the current UCR coach was among the finalists for the job that was given to Holder.
But after two tough seasons, she got things turned around in her third year.
02-03 3-24
03-04 6-20
04-05 18-11
But just when the future for WBB looked bright for CSN, in the summer of 05, Holder left to be an assistant at South Carolina.
Instead of doing a full search to find a replacement, CSN just promoted Staci Schulz to head coach. Schulz had only eight years of college coaching experience, never being a head coach. Her first year was a bit tough since she lost star player Ofa Tulihihifo to a leg injury. But Schulz's second season, 06-07, with Ofa and six other seniors, she again underacheived and won only 13 games. The 07-08 season saw a diaster for CSN, 1-26, sinking to depths they haven't seen since the Kim Chandler era.
05-06 10-20
06-07 13-16
07-08 1-26
So in the past 15 years, CSN has made the mistake of hiring an inexperience head coach, not once, not twice, but three times!!!! Yes, three different AD's did the hiring but they all made the same mistake.
One other thing that should be mentioned is the lack of experience of the assistant coaches at CSN. The third assistant coach is usually a former player who recently graduated, so it's expected that the coach will be inexperienced.
But the other two assistant coaches should not be inexperienced. During the 1998-99 season, Frozena Jerro, Karen Howell and Tara Harrington were the assistant coaches. The combined D-1 experience for the three? THREE years, all by Coach Jerro, who would be named interim head coach after Coach Abraham was arrested. Harrington was the third assistant, just finished her playing career at Stanford.
In the 2001-02 season, Ken Turner, Paula Nirschl, and Denise Woods had a combined, ZERO years of D-1 experience. Woods being the third assistant, after finishing her playing career at USC. Combine that with the inexperience of Coach Jero, six years in D-1, three as head coach, and you have a recipe for failure.
Even the coaching staff for the 08-09 season is inexperienced, Carla Houser has seven years experience as a D-1 assistant coach. All with CSN. Abby Vaughn has been at CSN for two years. Before that, Vaughn only one years worth of D-1 experience, at San Jose St. Cory O'Dell, was the former head coach at Chaminade and an assistant at Alaska-Anchorage, both D-2 schools, but has no D-1 experience before coming to CSN.
So increasing the salaries for both head and assistant coaches will greatly improve the ability to attract coaches with more experience. This is something the school needs to do.
As of today, CSN is 3-12. Will Staci be resigned to a new contract after this season? I believe she signed a four year contract when she was hired. Will the current CSN AD, Rick Mazzuto, make the same mistakes of three other AD's? What standards will Mazzuto use to judge her record? He certainly can't be happy with the direction the program is going. But then again he could be just like every other BW AD and maybe he could care less about the WBB program.
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Big West Conference- Cal Poly
I prefer to call the Big West conference, the Big Worst conference, because in women's basketball it is a terrible conference. For SEVEN STRAIGHT, that's right, SEVEN STRAIGHT years there have been two or more BW teams that lost 20 or more games.
01-02 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Irvine.
02-03 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Riverside.
03-04 season: Fullerton, Northridge, Riverside, and Irvine.
04-05 season: Fullerton, Irvine, Pacific.
05-06 season: Northridge and Pacific.
06-07 season: Long Beach, Irvine, and Pacific.
07-08 season: Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine. Cal Poly and Fullerton both lost 19 games each.
For the 08-09 season, Long Beach, Irvine, and Northridge have 10,11, and 12 losses already. Anybody dare to say two of those teams WON'T lose 20 games?
So what are the problems? Why are BW schools losing? I will take a school by school look of Big West schools that are struggling. But first some general comments.
The first question should be, what are the expectations for BW Women's Basketball. I'm not expecting any BW school to become the next UConn or Tenn. But the BW can become a good conference with a RPI, as a conference between 12-15, a solid mid major. Not the 25 over below, meaning one of the worst conferences in the nation. So what's preventing the BW from getting to that level?
In my opinions scholarship money is not one of the reasons why BW schools are losing. Yes the BW doesn't have the money of the bigger schools in conferences where football brings in a ton of money. But all Big West schools must provide 80% of NCAA maximum for scholarships. So all BW schools have at least funding for 12 scholarships. The NCAA allows 15 schoalrships for women's basketball. Twelve scholarships are more than enough to win. Plus all BW schools spend about the same amount of money for WBB. It's not like one school spends, $250,000 with another school spends, $5 million. Most BW schools spend about $750,000 a year on women's basketball. So one school doesn't have such a big advantage over the other eight schools.
That's not to say BW schools should put more money into women's basketball. They should try to find more funding for programs.
I do think the relatively low salaries for BW head and assistant coaches, is a factor in the poor quality of play in the BW. It's hard to hire good experienced assistant coaches and if you find a good quality assistant coach, it's hard to keep that coach because other schools come in an offer larger salaries.
So what are the reasons for the sorry state of Big West Women's Basketball?
Apathy towards women's basketball:
I think almost all BW schools could care less about WBB. Their attitude is get good kids, who graduate and don't get into trouble. Also don't lose too much money.
No expectations or standards.
In any business there are certain expectations and standards. If you're in sales and you don't meet you sales quotas, you're not going to be working for that company much longer. If you're a teacher and if your students aren't passing the tests, you're not going to be teaching much longer.
But in the BW, why aren't there any standards for winning in women's basketball?
If a coach has been at the school for twelve years and has never had a winning record, how is that coach still at the school?
I wanted to comment on academics. Yes, it's important for kids to graduate. Yes it's important for kids to go to class. But if you have a 100% graduation rate, but can't finish 500 overall, you shouldn't keep your job as head coach.
So let's look at each school. First up Cal Poly and head coach Faith Mimnaugh:
How can a school like Cal Poly keep Faith Mimnaugh for 12 long, losing seasons? In eleven years she was 121-185, with ZERO winning overall records and only two winning records in the BW.
This is her record at Cal Poly:
Year: Overall BW
97-98 6-20 3-12
98-99 8-18 2-13
99-00 9-19 5-10
00-01 12-17 5-9
01-02 11-17 7-9
02-03 10-17 6-10
03-04 14-14 10-8
04-05 11-16 5-13
05-06 13-14 7-7
06-07 14-14 9-5
07-08 13-19 8-8
Cal Poly was a D2 school until the 93-94 season. Starting in 94-95 they moved up to D1. Cal Poly students passing a fee referendum to pay for the move to D1. During the 94-95 and 95-96 seasons, Cal Poly was in the four team American West Conference. Then starting with the 96-97 season they became members of the Big West Conference.
Back in 2006 Cal Poly gave Faith a one year contract extension but never bothered to announce it through the Cal Poly's SID office. WHY? What do they have to hide?
Interesting that all three of Faith's assistant coaches from the 04-05 season left the program. Amy Saneholtz going to Montana St, Kristi Baker to Utah St, and Odessa Jenkins going into private business. Anytime all three assistant coaches leave, that should raise red flags. I'm sure all three assistants thought about the possibility that they would have to move on after the 05-06 season, and decided to leave on their own terms.
In June of 2007 Cal Poly did issue a release that Faith got a two year contract extension, with the contract ending of the 08-09 season.
So during the 06-07 season, what great things did Faith do to get that two year extension? 14-14 overall, 9-5 in the BW, mind you, a BW with three teams that lost 20 or more games.
Currently Cal Poly is 8-5 overall and 1-1 in the BW. But her 7 non BW wins, have come to teams with a 31-42 record. Her 4, no BW losses have come to schools with 30-12 record. Meaning she hasn't beaten a team worth a damn. Her best wins are against San Diego and Illinois-Chicago. Not exactly powerhouses.
Faith's contract is up at the end of the year. The real question is by what standards will Cal Poly use to decide whether Faith gets a new contract? If she has a 16-14 overall record will Faith get a new contract? Shouldn't the decision be over her entire career and not just ONE season or even one week's (during the Big West Tournament) of good play?
At the very least Cal Poly should see that Faith has reach her "ceiling" at Cal Poly. You know what you're going to get. Why not try to find somebody else who maybe able to acheive more?
One other thing. Faith is white. The AD at Cal Poly is white. San Luis Obispo is mostly white. The coach, who Cal Poly fired and Faith replaced after two years was black. Karen Booker had a two year record of 9-44. No doubt she should have been fired. But if Cal Poly was so quick to pull the trigger on Booker's firing, why then have they put up with Faith's losing ways, for so long?
If people don't think race plays a factor in the hiring and firing of coaches, you are clueless. Go stick your head in the sand. And it works both ways. Some black coaches should be fired but aren't because of the potential backlash of firing a black coach.
This wasn't meant to be a Faith Mimnaigh bashing. She is a very nice person who does care about her players. But it's clear to see she is not a good head coach and should not be resigned to a new contract, no matter what her 08-09 record maybe.
Next up, Cal State Northridge and Staci Schulz.
01-02 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Irvine.
02-03 season: Fullerton, Northridge, and Riverside.
03-04 season: Fullerton, Northridge, Riverside, and Irvine.
04-05 season: Fullerton, Irvine, Pacific.
05-06 season: Northridge and Pacific.
06-07 season: Long Beach, Irvine, and Pacific.
07-08 season: Northridge, Long Beach, and Irvine. Cal Poly and Fullerton both lost 19 games each.
For the 08-09 season, Long Beach, Irvine, and Northridge have 10,11, and 12 losses already. Anybody dare to say two of those teams WON'T lose 20 games?
So what are the problems? Why are BW schools losing? I will take a school by school look of Big West schools that are struggling. But first some general comments.
The first question should be, what are the expectations for BW Women's Basketball. I'm not expecting any BW school to become the next UConn or Tenn. But the BW can become a good conference with a RPI, as a conference between 12-15, a solid mid major. Not the 25 over below, meaning one of the worst conferences in the nation. So what's preventing the BW from getting to that level?
In my opinions scholarship money is not one of the reasons why BW schools are losing. Yes the BW doesn't have the money of the bigger schools in conferences where football brings in a ton of money. But all Big West schools must provide 80% of NCAA maximum for scholarships. So all BW schools have at least funding for 12 scholarships. The NCAA allows 15 schoalrships for women's basketball. Twelve scholarships are more than enough to win. Plus all BW schools spend about the same amount of money for WBB. It's not like one school spends, $250,000 with another school spends, $5 million. Most BW schools spend about $750,000 a year on women's basketball. So one school doesn't have such a big advantage over the other eight schools.
That's not to say BW schools should put more money into women's basketball. They should try to find more funding for programs.
I do think the relatively low salaries for BW head and assistant coaches, is a factor in the poor quality of play in the BW. It's hard to hire good experienced assistant coaches and if you find a good quality assistant coach, it's hard to keep that coach because other schools come in an offer larger salaries.
So what are the reasons for the sorry state of Big West Women's Basketball?
Apathy towards women's basketball:
I think almost all BW schools could care less about WBB. Their attitude is get good kids, who graduate and don't get into trouble. Also don't lose too much money.
No expectations or standards.
In any business there are certain expectations and standards. If you're in sales and you don't meet you sales quotas, you're not going to be working for that company much longer. If you're a teacher and if your students aren't passing the tests, you're not going to be teaching much longer.
But in the BW, why aren't there any standards for winning in women's basketball?
If a coach has been at the school for twelve years and has never had a winning record, how is that coach still at the school?
I wanted to comment on academics. Yes, it's important for kids to graduate. Yes it's important for kids to go to class. But if you have a 100% graduation rate, but can't finish 500 overall, you shouldn't keep your job as head coach.
So let's look at each school. First up Cal Poly and head coach Faith Mimnaugh:
How can a school like Cal Poly keep Faith Mimnaugh for 12 long, losing seasons? In eleven years she was 121-185, with ZERO winning overall records and only two winning records in the BW.
This is her record at Cal Poly:
Year: Overall BW
97-98 6-20 3-12
98-99 8-18 2-13
99-00 9-19 5-10
00-01 12-17 5-9
01-02 11-17 7-9
02-03 10-17 6-10
03-04 14-14 10-8
04-05 11-16 5-13
05-06 13-14 7-7
06-07 14-14 9-5
07-08 13-19 8-8
Cal Poly was a D2 school until the 93-94 season. Starting in 94-95 they moved up to D1. Cal Poly students passing a fee referendum to pay for the move to D1. During the 94-95 and 95-96 seasons, Cal Poly was in the four team American West Conference. Then starting with the 96-97 season they became members of the Big West Conference.
Back in 2006 Cal Poly gave Faith a one year contract extension but never bothered to announce it through the Cal Poly's SID office. WHY? What do they have to hide?
Interesting that all three of Faith's assistant coaches from the 04-05 season left the program. Amy Saneholtz going to Montana St, Kristi Baker to Utah St, and Odessa Jenkins going into private business. Anytime all three assistant coaches leave, that should raise red flags. I'm sure all three assistants thought about the possibility that they would have to move on after the 05-06 season, and decided to leave on their own terms.
In June of 2007 Cal Poly did issue a release that Faith got a two year contract extension, with the contract ending of the 08-09 season.
So during the 06-07 season, what great things did Faith do to get that two year extension? 14-14 overall, 9-5 in the BW, mind you, a BW with three teams that lost 20 or more games.
Currently Cal Poly is 8-5 overall and 1-1 in the BW. But her 7 non BW wins, have come to teams with a 31-42 record. Her 4, no BW losses have come to schools with 30-12 record. Meaning she hasn't beaten a team worth a damn. Her best wins are against San Diego and Illinois-Chicago. Not exactly powerhouses.
Faith's contract is up at the end of the year. The real question is by what standards will Cal Poly use to decide whether Faith gets a new contract? If she has a 16-14 overall record will Faith get a new contract? Shouldn't the decision be over her entire career and not just ONE season or even one week's (during the Big West Tournament) of good play?
At the very least Cal Poly should see that Faith has reach her "ceiling" at Cal Poly. You know what you're going to get. Why not try to find somebody else who maybe able to acheive more?
One other thing. Faith is white. The AD at Cal Poly is white. San Luis Obispo is mostly white. The coach, who Cal Poly fired and Faith replaced after two years was black. Karen Booker had a two year record of 9-44. No doubt she should have been fired. But if Cal Poly was so quick to pull the trigger on Booker's firing, why then have they put up with Faith's losing ways, for so long?
If people don't think race plays a factor in the hiring and firing of coaches, you are clueless. Go stick your head in the sand. And it works both ways. Some black coaches should be fired but aren't because of the potential backlash of firing a black coach.
This wasn't meant to be a Faith Mimnaigh bashing. She is a very nice person who does care about her players. But it's clear to see she is not a good head coach and should not be resigned to a new contract, no matter what her 08-09 record maybe.
Next up, Cal State Northridge and Staci Schulz.
Big West Coach’s Salaries
Big West Coach’s Salaries
Sept 9, 2005.
I read a lot of articles about women’s basketball. The past few months, the salaries of coaches listed in those articles really got my attention. I couldn’t believe how much coaches in conferences like the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference are being paid. Coaches in those two conferences are making a lot more than coaches in the Big West.
A San Diego paper listed new head coach Beth Burn’s salary at $129,000 per year. The article also listed the salaries of three other Mountain West Conference coaches. All three made much more than Burns’ $129,000. Don Flanagan at New Mexico made $170,000. Regina Miller made $189,000 at UNLV and Ardie McInelly made $144,723. So roughly half of the nine teams in the MWC make over $125,000 a year. (Union-Tribute August 30, 2005)
In the WAC, former Fresno St. head coach, Stacey Johnson-Klein made a base salary of $150,000 and with incentives she could have made over $225,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005) San Jose St. head coach Janice Richard got a two year contract extension with an increase in salary to $118,000. (Mercury News, April 7, 2005)
As for assistant coaches:
Adrian Wiggins was the first assistant at Fresno St for three seasons. He made $83,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005)
Selena Ho was an assistant at UCI for two seasons. She left UCI for Oregon and her base salary at Oregon is $50,000 as the third assistant. (Register-Guard June 1, 2005)
So this got me wondering about the salary structure in the Big West. Before I go on, I am not trying to say or imply that any of the coaches in the BW are not qualified. I am not trying to say or imply that BW coaches do not work hard. I have seen these coaches spend long hours at summer tournaments. I know they spend long days and nights preparing their teams. I have spent time interviewing and/or talking to these coaches. They know a lot about the game of basketball and how to teach that knowledge to players. All I’m trying to point out is that these coaches are underpaid and deserve more money!!!
So I asked each BW coach two simple questions:
Do you make over $100,000?
Do any of your coaches make $50,000 or more?
Of the five coaches who replied, two decided not to answer. Three coaches said they do not make $100,000 and only one said they had an assistant coach who was making $50,000. Also an article in a SLO paper listed Cal Poly’s coach Mimnaugh’s salary as less than $100,000. (The Tribune, March 19, 2005)
I do know from talking to boosters and those close to programs that two other BW coaches who did not reply, do make more than $100,000 and one other assistant coach makes over $50,000. So only two of the nine BW coaches make over $100,000 a year, compared to the MWC where four coaches make over $125,000? Only two assistant coaches make $50,000? A BW coach has been the head coach for nine years and still isn’t making $100,000? There are a lot of coaches in the BW who are being underpaid!!!!!!
Now factor in the high cost of living in California, you have a double edged sword, low pay and high cost of living. Have you seen the housing prices in the areas near BW schools? Think you can buy a house or condo in or around Orange County for less than $500,000? Do you know the cost of a two bedroom apartment in the Valley? An extra $25,000 to $50,000 a year in salary could very well the difference between buying a house and renting an apartment. Or the difference between buying a house within a reasonable commute to the school and having a two hour commute each way.
I don’t want to hear excuses that Fresno St and San Diego St. have football teams and access to more money. Most of the football money goes back into the football program. Both schools are part of Cal State University system. The salary scale at the CSU’s do not vary that much and even if they do vary, it’s certainly not $50,000 more at San Diego St than the four BW schools that are members of the CSU system.
Higher salaries allow for schools to attract, hire, and keep quality coaches. But more than that, I believe higher salaries show a commitment not only to the women’s basketball program but to the overall success of the athletic department. That may mean boosters at each school need to step up and supplement the salaries schools can pay, just like Fresno St. Or shifting resources from other sports that do not get the media attention, after all women’s basketball is a Big West priority sport and should be treated as such.
If schools can’t afford to pay the higher salaries or the booster money isn’t there, then BW schools need to get creative. Maybe the schools could buy houses in the area and then allow the coaches to live in those houses for free or at greatly reduced rent. Or at least work out some deal with home and/or apartment owners so that the coaches get a greatly reduced rate. Saving say $1,500 a month on rent can go a long way for a coach making less than $50,000 a year.
So if the BW is serious about becoming a strong women’s basketball conference they need to start paying their coaches at rates that are equal to those of schools in other conferences.
Ed. Note: I do not think comparing salaries of BW schools and WCC schools is fair. The WCC has eight private schools. Private schools practice non-disclosure when it comes to salaries.
Sept 9, 2005.
I read a lot of articles about women’s basketball. The past few months, the salaries of coaches listed in those articles really got my attention. I couldn’t believe how much coaches in conferences like the Mountain West and Western Athletic Conference are being paid. Coaches in those two conferences are making a lot more than coaches in the Big West.
A San Diego paper listed new head coach Beth Burn’s salary at $129,000 per year. The article also listed the salaries of three other Mountain West Conference coaches. All three made much more than Burns’ $129,000. Don Flanagan at New Mexico made $170,000. Regina Miller made $189,000 at UNLV and Ardie McInelly made $144,723. So roughly half of the nine teams in the MWC make over $125,000 a year. (Union-Tribute August 30, 2005)
In the WAC, former Fresno St. head coach, Stacey Johnson-Klein made a base salary of $150,000 and with incentives she could have made over $225,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005) San Jose St. head coach Janice Richard got a two year contract extension with an increase in salary to $118,000. (Mercury News, April 7, 2005)
As for assistant coaches:
Adrian Wiggins was the first assistant at Fresno St for three seasons. He made $83,000. (Fresno Bee, March 17, 2005)
Selena Ho was an assistant at UCI for two seasons. She left UCI for Oregon and her base salary at Oregon is $50,000 as the third assistant. (Register-Guard June 1, 2005)
So this got me wondering about the salary structure in the Big West. Before I go on, I am not trying to say or imply that any of the coaches in the BW are not qualified. I am not trying to say or imply that BW coaches do not work hard. I have seen these coaches spend long hours at summer tournaments. I know they spend long days and nights preparing their teams. I have spent time interviewing and/or talking to these coaches. They know a lot about the game of basketball and how to teach that knowledge to players. All I’m trying to point out is that these coaches are underpaid and deserve more money!!!
So I asked each BW coach two simple questions:
Do you make over $100,000?
Do any of your coaches make $50,000 or more?
Of the five coaches who replied, two decided not to answer. Three coaches said they do not make $100,000 and only one said they had an assistant coach who was making $50,000. Also an article in a SLO paper listed Cal Poly’s coach Mimnaugh’s salary as less than $100,000. (The Tribune, March 19, 2005)
I do know from talking to boosters and those close to programs that two other BW coaches who did not reply, do make more than $100,000 and one other assistant coach makes over $50,000. So only two of the nine BW coaches make over $100,000 a year, compared to the MWC where four coaches make over $125,000? Only two assistant coaches make $50,000? A BW coach has been the head coach for nine years and still isn’t making $100,000? There are a lot of coaches in the BW who are being underpaid!!!!!!
Now factor in the high cost of living in California, you have a double edged sword, low pay and high cost of living. Have you seen the housing prices in the areas near BW schools? Think you can buy a house or condo in or around Orange County for less than $500,000? Do you know the cost of a two bedroom apartment in the Valley? An extra $25,000 to $50,000 a year in salary could very well the difference between buying a house and renting an apartment. Or the difference between buying a house within a reasonable commute to the school and having a two hour commute each way.
I don’t want to hear excuses that Fresno St and San Diego St. have football teams and access to more money. Most of the football money goes back into the football program. Both schools are part of Cal State University system. The salary scale at the CSU’s do not vary that much and even if they do vary, it’s certainly not $50,000 more at San Diego St than the four BW schools that are members of the CSU system.
Higher salaries allow for schools to attract, hire, and keep quality coaches. But more than that, I believe higher salaries show a commitment not only to the women’s basketball program but to the overall success of the athletic department. That may mean boosters at each school need to step up and supplement the salaries schools can pay, just like Fresno St. Or shifting resources from other sports that do not get the media attention, after all women’s basketball is a Big West priority sport and should be treated as such.
If schools can’t afford to pay the higher salaries or the booster money isn’t there, then BW schools need to get creative. Maybe the schools could buy houses in the area and then allow the coaches to live in those houses for free or at greatly reduced rent. Or at least work out some deal with home and/or apartment owners so that the coaches get a greatly reduced rate. Saving say $1,500 a month on rent can go a long way for a coach making less than $50,000 a year.
So if the BW is serious about becoming a strong women’s basketball conference they need to start paying their coaches at rates that are equal to those of schools in other conferences.
Ed. Note: I do not think comparing salaries of BW schools and WCC schools is fair. The WCC has eight private schools. Private schools practice non-disclosure when it comes to salaries.
Interview with Staci Schulz
Interview with Staci Schulz: August 26, 2005
Staci Schulz will be starting her first season as head coach at Cal State Northridge. A native of South Dakota, Schulz has was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northridge for the last three seasons. Schulz has also coached at Western Illinois and UNLV.
LA Women’s Hoops had the chance to talk with Coach Schulz. Find out about her love of motorcycles (After all Sturgis is held in South Dakota) and what it will take to Northridge to continue their great turn around.
Tell us about yourself.
I played at a small school, Mount Marty College in South Dakota. It was about one hour from my home town in South Dakota. Back then in South Dakota, I didn’t know AAU basketball, travel teams. I didn’t all that stuff I know now.
I went to graduate school at Western Illinois. There I had a graduate assistantship in the PE department. I was teaching graduate level classes but at the whole time I knew I wanted something to do with basketball. So I volunteered with the women’s team with Regina Miller. Then Regina Miller got the job at UNLV and I started an entry level position at UNLV and after four years I was leading the recruiting efforts.
What brought you to Northridge three years ago?
I was looking to make a change from UNLV, since I had been there for four years. Like Northridge, UNLV at the time was it was in need of a change and was a rebuilding process. After four years at UNLV we made it to the NCAA tournament.
So the Northridge job came up and at the time before Tammy Holder got the job, I had applied here. I have family here so I wanted to be closer to my sister and her family. So I moved into the area and got the assistant’s job with Tammy.
Ed. Note: Former Northridge head coach Frozena Jerro is an assistant at UNLV, under Regina Miller. What a small world?
Talk about how you found out about Tammy resigning and going to South Carolina. Did you have any idea she was going to South Carolina.
No, I didn’t have any idea she was leaving. It was pretty abrupt. I knew she missed home. She’s from the East and is really an East Coast person. But I didn’t know that the job at South Carolina was in the works.
Tammy sat us down and told us that she was going back home. We were like WOW!!! We didn’t know but the decision was already made. It’s not like we knew before the decision was made. But she also played a key role with the administration here to make sure they communicated with us and the team to at least give us a shot at the keeping the staff here.
We were a little nervous for us. But it took a little while during the search process and we were out recruiting almost the whole month of July before we knew anything.
When did you decide to go after the head coaching job at Northridge?
Immediately, I knew I wanted to stay here for the same reasons I moved here. I have my sister here and the rest of the staff have family here too. None of us wanted to go anywhere. Really if I didn’t have the job, I don’t think any of us would still here. Just because that’s really how it goes. When they bring in a new head coach, a lot of times the new head coach wants to bring in his or her own staff. That’s just how it goes in the business. So we were all pulling together and we all wanted to stay. Everyone had the chance to speak to the administration about what they wanted to see happen. The team has their chance to talk to the administration.
The first reports after Tammy left, was that they would hire somebody as an interim coach. Do you know when they changed their minds and offered the permanent position?
Immediately when I talked to administers they told me they wanted to look into it and see where things were. They took into consideration the continuity of the current team and the continuity of the recruiting efforts. We have a good sized class, an impact type class with Ofa, to replace this year.
If they were going to put somebody in as an interim coach, that would have affected recruiting. You can’t go out and recruit someone and say “Come play for us and we’ll let you know who your coach is, in a year.” That was a huge consideration for them.
Also the current team, we had some rebuilding success. We were returning every single player and gaining two more players. I think a major change in the staff could have change the continuity of the direction of the program.
The other two assistants, Carla Houser and Margo Clark are going to stay. Are you going to have a chance to find the third assistant?
As a matter of fact the job listing just got posted today on the NCAA website. That will be a little bit of a process too. We are going to be a bit behind but we’re all been working pretty hard around here. We don’t even have time to decorate our office. (laughing) , recruiting and getting ready for the school year.
Can you talk about Carla Houser and Margo Clark?
The team loves both assistant coaches.
Carla will be taking over my position as recruiting coordinator. As far as I can tell she will do a better job than I did. (laughing) She’s pumped up about it. In the past she done some scheduling.
The new trend in recruiting is that high school junior are committing earlier so that’s been Carla’s focus. Not only are we recruiting our current class but she’s sending letters to high school juniors to get more attention to our school.
Coach Mo is like a big sister in a way. They look up to them. Coach Mo has done film exchange and she’s also our academic liaison. Our team has taken a great jump academically the last year, so she’s done a great job.
A lot of roles can change depending on who the third assistant will be. But all four coaches will be very involved with recruiting.
After you got hired did you have a chance to talk to the whole team?
Not as a whole team. Most of them were around all summer. At the time about half the team was here. So we got them together and Janet Lucas, Interim Athletic Director at Northridge, wanted to talk to them and make a presentation about the hire. They were excited. There was a shout out in the room at that moment. It was a goose bumpy moment for everybody.
Talk about your philosophy on scheduling?
Every year we want to challenge our team. I really think anything can happen. We are still challenging them with the Pac-10 and Mountain West. I’m not so worried about the end record as long as the games we are playing early are used as a learning experience.
I won’t take a big loss for money. I don’t think that prepares us either.
There seems to be some schools in the Big West who is willing to take a big loss for money. Does that help the conference?
Not always. But sometimes that out of the coaching control. I know coaches around the country who say they need so many guarantee games to help the program out.
But if you’re going to do something like that, it has to be a winnable game or at least good competition.
What are your expectations for the team?
To continue to do well. To take more steps forward. A transition can go many different ways. It can go poorly. It can go pretty good, keep it at the same level. Or take a step forward. I think with the continuity of what’s going on, I expect at least to maintain our performance from last year but our goals our to take a step forward. Our goals are to win our conference and that means going to the NCAA tournament. That’s our next goal is to increase our wins even more.
Talk about Ofa. Will she be able to play this year?
Ofa was never really an injury. It was a recurring issue. There was never an additional tear or anything. She’s back at 100%.
The thing about Ofa is that she is so unselfish that it adds to her greatness. She will always thank her team. She do not care if she doesn’t have the greatness night because that means someone else on her team did. But then she’ll turn things around and have a wonderful night.
Talk about the two new players. How did they feel about the coaching change? What kind of impact do you think they’ll make.
They didn’t have any concerns. They will contribute. I can’t say to what extent at this point but I think a great deal. I expect them to contribute but at what level it’s up to them. It’s a transition for them just going to college and then there a change with the coaching but it may go smoother for them than the returning players.
Ashley Blake is a combo guard. She handles the ball real well but she can also shoot the 3. Her high school coach Karen White is now an assistant coach at Pacific.
Crystal Hahs is a post player from San Clemente and she will battle for playing time.
With Crystal you have another post player to go with Katie Holloway and Jazelle Burries. Are you happy with your post position?
I expect all our post player to battle for playing time. I think Katie Holloway needs to battle against players like Jazelle. Jazelle has come a long way since her freshmen year. I really expect all of them to make each other better and go against each other really hard each day and share playing time. I don’t think any one post player is going to have so much more playing time than the other. I think they are all right there.
What difference will the player notice between your style of coaching and Coach Holder’s?
I think we are going to come out a little more aggressive. Coach Holder was always energetic but now we are going to take that energy and add a little killer instinct. I don’t want to change the energy this team has. I hope to press and run even more. It should be an exciting brand of basketball.
The difference between the team this year and last year was they were juniors finally. We know each other and we played with each other. It’s not like how close we can get to winning this game. It’s now we are in every game and can beat anybody. I think it’s a natural progression to have this killer instinct. We have this attitude of Respect All but fear none.
How will it be different for the team with you as Head Coach?
The role is certainly different but the one thing about Coach Holder is she always involved the entire staff in practices. She let us implement an offense.
When the three of us were assistants, I wasn’t the “fun” coach and was closer to the head coach side of things. So I think how they look at me will be similar.
What did you learn most from Coach Holder?
Have fun with this. At my previous experience it was a serious matter. My job became all I ever was. Coach Holder really taught us to have fun in what we’re doing. You have a lot of fun by working hard and getting it down.
We still take basketball very serious. But we have fun and enjoy the people around us.
What do you look for when recruiting a player?
Like our current team, they are all good people. We don’t have issues on our team in the three years I’ve been here. That a lot of Coach Holder but she instilled that on the rest of us. We recruit good people and we turn out great people.
I’m pleased to see we have good students. When you have good students, coaches get to coach. Coaches don’t have to worry about academics.
We have three scholarships for sure. We would love to get a post position who is really physical and a point guard who is really quick and can handle the ball.
The success of the program has allowed us to talk to some players we weren’t able to with the six wins. But now with 18 wins, kids are saying yes I’m interested in talking to you.
How tough is it to recruit with Northridge’s sub par facilities?
It can be challenging. But I don’t worry about that. We try to sell the coaching staff, the current team and where this program is going. We try to sell our school.
We talked about your staff and the athletic department getting new offices. How do you think getting new offices will help?
That will help. The offices themselves here are fine. But pulling up outside and walking into the hallway is not that attractive. The new building will help a lot.
Can you talk about Dick Dull resigning as Athletic Director and becoming head of major fundraising? How that affects your program?
Last year he wasn’t the direct supervisor of many sports because he was really trying to improve our athletic department’s image. I think major fundraising is an extension of that.
I think already he’s hire a wonderful administrator in Janet Lucas. (Interim Athletic Director) She has through the first year was handling the functional, day to day duties. I think the transition was smooth.
I expect great things and I expect to see him around, just not in the athletic department building.
How can the administration be more helpful for your program?
More scholarship dollars. Not that we don’t have our numbers. (NCAA max for women’s basketball is 15 scholarships) but it would give us a little more freedom to recruit across the country. Even though it is my goal is to recruit locally as much as possible. There is just too much talent around here.
Last year, what was your biggest weakness?
I would say early in the season we weren’t in top shape. I really want the team to be in the best shape going into game number one. It’s always different going from practicing for a month and your first game, so you’re always going feel that a little bit. But a lot of times we had to push through because we were a little winded.
Toward the end of the season we had a lot of players with nagging injuries, at a lot of practices we didn’t have 10 healthy players. What would happen is that a lot of players had to play a lot of minutes.
I really feel like if we get them in good shape and bring them along, we’ll have healthier people throughout the year. Which means we’ll have more people contributing and the more people that can contribute the better off you’ll be.
Last year Coach Holder wanted to find a true point guard. Have you found a true point guard?
I think Ashley Blake will contribute. I think most of that goal (finding a point guard) was met. We’re still looking for another point guard this year. Not looking to replace the point guard we have, but we’re looking for even more of a true point guard. Someone with serious ball handling skills.
Let’s talk about some issues in the Big West.
What do you think about losing Idaho and Utah State?
It will be nice not to make that trip. Going to both schools on the same weekend made it very challenging. Both programs are competitive. I’m not sure how that will effect our conference’s RPI. Everybody makes the Big West Tournament so it takes a little pressure off in that respect.
I’m pleased about not having to make the trip, even though I would love to continue to play each team but I don’t know if I want to play them there. Maybe we can combine Utah State with another Utah school.
What do you think about UC Davis coming in?
I think it’s great. They have a great friendly coaching staff, very friendly, good competitive type people. I love communicating with them. It’s been great bumping elbows with them on the recruiting trail.
Going there for the first time last year, a very fun crowd, and fun people to be around up there. It’s not that that bad of a trip with Pacific up there already.
What do you think about the 2pm Saturday afternoon games?
It’s a good efficient thing to do. Because it was between 2 and 4pm we wanted as many 4pm games as possible. Just because it’s a little later in the day and turns into evening at least, you get your shot around without getting up at the crack of dawn.
But the way the economy is right now I can understand not paying for a extra night at a hotel. So I understand it though I do not prefer it.
If I talked to you a year from now, what will have to happen for you to consider this year a success?
Number 1 I want to believe no matter what our record is, we competed every single game, every single minute. I know teams go through slumps. But I think the reason our team is a diamond in the rough, is that they have that competitive spirit about them.
Success is have a similar record and respect from the basketball community, that team really did it again.
But our goals about bigger than what I would consider success.
They still need to make a transition. They are pleased to have the current staff they had the past three years. But it’s still a transition, nobody can deny that. I think making it through the transition with a respectable record and the respect of the basketball community and the players have a good college basketball experience is success, enough.
When you want to get away from basketball what do you do?
I love riding motorcycles. I have a Road King. (That’s a Harley Davidson, for you uneducated people out there.) and I have a horse too. So those are my two escapes. It’s a great thing to be able to do for a couple hours.
(It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Coach Schulz likes to ride motorcycles. After all she’s from South Dakota, home of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Though surprisingly she’s never been to Sturgis which is like a kid in LA never going to Disneyland.)
Staci Schulz will be starting her first season as head coach at Cal State Northridge. A native of South Dakota, Schulz has was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Northridge for the last three seasons. Schulz has also coached at Western Illinois and UNLV.
LA Women’s Hoops had the chance to talk with Coach Schulz. Find out about her love of motorcycles (After all Sturgis is held in South Dakota) and what it will take to Northridge to continue their great turn around.
Tell us about yourself.
I played at a small school, Mount Marty College in South Dakota. It was about one hour from my home town in South Dakota. Back then in South Dakota, I didn’t know AAU basketball, travel teams. I didn’t all that stuff I know now.
I went to graduate school at Western Illinois. There I had a graduate assistantship in the PE department. I was teaching graduate level classes but at the whole time I knew I wanted something to do with basketball. So I volunteered with the women’s team with Regina Miller. Then Regina Miller got the job at UNLV and I started an entry level position at UNLV and after four years I was leading the recruiting efforts.
What brought you to Northridge three years ago?
I was looking to make a change from UNLV, since I had been there for four years. Like Northridge, UNLV at the time was it was in need of a change and was a rebuilding process. After four years at UNLV we made it to the NCAA tournament.
So the Northridge job came up and at the time before Tammy Holder got the job, I had applied here. I have family here so I wanted to be closer to my sister and her family. So I moved into the area and got the assistant’s job with Tammy.
Ed. Note: Former Northridge head coach Frozena Jerro is an assistant at UNLV, under Regina Miller. What a small world?
Talk about how you found out about Tammy resigning and going to South Carolina. Did you have any idea she was going to South Carolina.
No, I didn’t have any idea she was leaving. It was pretty abrupt. I knew she missed home. She’s from the East and is really an East Coast person. But I didn’t know that the job at South Carolina was in the works.
Tammy sat us down and told us that she was going back home. We were like WOW!!! We didn’t know but the decision was already made. It’s not like we knew before the decision was made. But she also played a key role with the administration here to make sure they communicated with us and the team to at least give us a shot at the keeping the staff here.
We were a little nervous for us. But it took a little while during the search process and we were out recruiting almost the whole month of July before we knew anything.
When did you decide to go after the head coaching job at Northridge?
Immediately, I knew I wanted to stay here for the same reasons I moved here. I have my sister here and the rest of the staff have family here too. None of us wanted to go anywhere. Really if I didn’t have the job, I don’t think any of us would still here. Just because that’s really how it goes. When they bring in a new head coach, a lot of times the new head coach wants to bring in his or her own staff. That’s just how it goes in the business. So we were all pulling together and we all wanted to stay. Everyone had the chance to speak to the administration about what they wanted to see happen. The team has their chance to talk to the administration.
The first reports after Tammy left, was that they would hire somebody as an interim coach. Do you know when they changed their minds and offered the permanent position?
Immediately when I talked to administers they told me they wanted to look into it and see where things were. They took into consideration the continuity of the current team and the continuity of the recruiting efforts. We have a good sized class, an impact type class with Ofa, to replace this year.
If they were going to put somebody in as an interim coach, that would have affected recruiting. You can’t go out and recruit someone and say “Come play for us and we’ll let you know who your coach is, in a year.” That was a huge consideration for them.
Also the current team, we had some rebuilding success. We were returning every single player and gaining two more players. I think a major change in the staff could have change the continuity of the direction of the program.
The other two assistants, Carla Houser and Margo Clark are going to stay. Are you going to have a chance to find the third assistant?
As a matter of fact the job listing just got posted today on the NCAA website. That will be a little bit of a process too. We are going to be a bit behind but we’re all been working pretty hard around here. We don’t even have time to decorate our office. (laughing) , recruiting and getting ready for the school year.
Can you talk about Carla Houser and Margo Clark?
The team loves both assistant coaches.
Carla will be taking over my position as recruiting coordinator. As far as I can tell she will do a better job than I did. (laughing) She’s pumped up about it. In the past she done some scheduling.
The new trend in recruiting is that high school junior are committing earlier so that’s been Carla’s focus. Not only are we recruiting our current class but she’s sending letters to high school juniors to get more attention to our school.
Coach Mo is like a big sister in a way. They look up to them. Coach Mo has done film exchange and she’s also our academic liaison. Our team has taken a great jump academically the last year, so she’s done a great job.
A lot of roles can change depending on who the third assistant will be. But all four coaches will be very involved with recruiting.
After you got hired did you have a chance to talk to the whole team?
Not as a whole team. Most of them were around all summer. At the time about half the team was here. So we got them together and Janet Lucas, Interim Athletic Director at Northridge, wanted to talk to them and make a presentation about the hire. They were excited. There was a shout out in the room at that moment. It was a goose bumpy moment for everybody.
Talk about your philosophy on scheduling?
Every year we want to challenge our team. I really think anything can happen. We are still challenging them with the Pac-10 and Mountain West. I’m not so worried about the end record as long as the games we are playing early are used as a learning experience.
I won’t take a big loss for money. I don’t think that prepares us either.
There seems to be some schools in the Big West who is willing to take a big loss for money. Does that help the conference?
Not always. But sometimes that out of the coaching control. I know coaches around the country who say they need so many guarantee games to help the program out.
But if you’re going to do something like that, it has to be a winnable game or at least good competition.
What are your expectations for the team?
To continue to do well. To take more steps forward. A transition can go many different ways. It can go poorly. It can go pretty good, keep it at the same level. Or take a step forward. I think with the continuity of what’s going on, I expect at least to maintain our performance from last year but our goals our to take a step forward. Our goals are to win our conference and that means going to the NCAA tournament. That’s our next goal is to increase our wins even more.
Talk about Ofa. Will she be able to play this year?
Ofa was never really an injury. It was a recurring issue. There was never an additional tear or anything. She’s back at 100%.
The thing about Ofa is that she is so unselfish that it adds to her greatness. She will always thank her team. She do not care if she doesn’t have the greatness night because that means someone else on her team did. But then she’ll turn things around and have a wonderful night.
Talk about the two new players. How did they feel about the coaching change? What kind of impact do you think they’ll make.
They didn’t have any concerns. They will contribute. I can’t say to what extent at this point but I think a great deal. I expect them to contribute but at what level it’s up to them. It’s a transition for them just going to college and then there a change with the coaching but it may go smoother for them than the returning players.
Ashley Blake is a combo guard. She handles the ball real well but she can also shoot the 3. Her high school coach Karen White is now an assistant coach at Pacific.
Crystal Hahs is a post player from San Clemente and she will battle for playing time.
With Crystal you have another post player to go with Katie Holloway and Jazelle Burries. Are you happy with your post position?
I expect all our post player to battle for playing time. I think Katie Holloway needs to battle against players like Jazelle. Jazelle has come a long way since her freshmen year. I really expect all of them to make each other better and go against each other really hard each day and share playing time. I don’t think any one post player is going to have so much more playing time than the other. I think they are all right there.
What difference will the player notice between your style of coaching and Coach Holder’s?
I think we are going to come out a little more aggressive. Coach Holder was always energetic but now we are going to take that energy and add a little killer instinct. I don’t want to change the energy this team has. I hope to press and run even more. It should be an exciting brand of basketball.
The difference between the team this year and last year was they were juniors finally. We know each other and we played with each other. It’s not like how close we can get to winning this game. It’s now we are in every game and can beat anybody. I think it’s a natural progression to have this killer instinct. We have this attitude of Respect All but fear none.
How will it be different for the team with you as Head Coach?
The role is certainly different but the one thing about Coach Holder is she always involved the entire staff in practices. She let us implement an offense.
When the three of us were assistants, I wasn’t the “fun” coach and was closer to the head coach side of things. So I think how they look at me will be similar.
What did you learn most from Coach Holder?
Have fun with this. At my previous experience it was a serious matter. My job became all I ever was. Coach Holder really taught us to have fun in what we’re doing. You have a lot of fun by working hard and getting it down.
We still take basketball very serious. But we have fun and enjoy the people around us.
What do you look for when recruiting a player?
Like our current team, they are all good people. We don’t have issues on our team in the three years I’ve been here. That a lot of Coach Holder but she instilled that on the rest of us. We recruit good people and we turn out great people.
I’m pleased to see we have good students. When you have good students, coaches get to coach. Coaches don’t have to worry about academics.
We have three scholarships for sure. We would love to get a post position who is really physical and a point guard who is really quick and can handle the ball.
The success of the program has allowed us to talk to some players we weren’t able to with the six wins. But now with 18 wins, kids are saying yes I’m interested in talking to you.
How tough is it to recruit with Northridge’s sub par facilities?
It can be challenging. But I don’t worry about that. We try to sell the coaching staff, the current team and where this program is going. We try to sell our school.
We talked about your staff and the athletic department getting new offices. How do you think getting new offices will help?
That will help. The offices themselves here are fine. But pulling up outside and walking into the hallway is not that attractive. The new building will help a lot.
Can you talk about Dick Dull resigning as Athletic Director and becoming head of major fundraising? How that affects your program?
Last year he wasn’t the direct supervisor of many sports because he was really trying to improve our athletic department’s image. I think major fundraising is an extension of that.
I think already he’s hire a wonderful administrator in Janet Lucas. (Interim Athletic Director) She has through the first year was handling the functional, day to day duties. I think the transition was smooth.
I expect great things and I expect to see him around, just not in the athletic department building.
How can the administration be more helpful for your program?
More scholarship dollars. Not that we don’t have our numbers. (NCAA max for women’s basketball is 15 scholarships) but it would give us a little more freedom to recruit across the country. Even though it is my goal is to recruit locally as much as possible. There is just too much talent around here.
Last year, what was your biggest weakness?
I would say early in the season we weren’t in top shape. I really want the team to be in the best shape going into game number one. It’s always different going from practicing for a month and your first game, so you’re always going feel that a little bit. But a lot of times we had to push through because we were a little winded.
Toward the end of the season we had a lot of players with nagging injuries, at a lot of practices we didn’t have 10 healthy players. What would happen is that a lot of players had to play a lot of minutes.
I really feel like if we get them in good shape and bring them along, we’ll have healthier people throughout the year. Which means we’ll have more people contributing and the more people that can contribute the better off you’ll be.
Last year Coach Holder wanted to find a true point guard. Have you found a true point guard?
I think Ashley Blake will contribute. I think most of that goal (finding a point guard) was met. We’re still looking for another point guard this year. Not looking to replace the point guard we have, but we’re looking for even more of a true point guard. Someone with serious ball handling skills.
Let’s talk about some issues in the Big West.
What do you think about losing Idaho and Utah State?
It will be nice not to make that trip. Going to both schools on the same weekend made it very challenging. Both programs are competitive. I’m not sure how that will effect our conference’s RPI. Everybody makes the Big West Tournament so it takes a little pressure off in that respect.
I’m pleased about not having to make the trip, even though I would love to continue to play each team but I don’t know if I want to play them there. Maybe we can combine Utah State with another Utah school.
What do you think about UC Davis coming in?
I think it’s great. They have a great friendly coaching staff, very friendly, good competitive type people. I love communicating with them. It’s been great bumping elbows with them on the recruiting trail.
Going there for the first time last year, a very fun crowd, and fun people to be around up there. It’s not that that bad of a trip with Pacific up there already.
What do you think about the 2pm Saturday afternoon games?
It’s a good efficient thing to do. Because it was between 2 and 4pm we wanted as many 4pm games as possible. Just because it’s a little later in the day and turns into evening at least, you get your shot around without getting up at the crack of dawn.
But the way the economy is right now I can understand not paying for a extra night at a hotel. So I understand it though I do not prefer it.
If I talked to you a year from now, what will have to happen for you to consider this year a success?
Number 1 I want to believe no matter what our record is, we competed every single game, every single minute. I know teams go through slumps. But I think the reason our team is a diamond in the rough, is that they have that competitive spirit about them.
Success is have a similar record and respect from the basketball community, that team really did it again.
But our goals about bigger than what I would consider success.
They still need to make a transition. They are pleased to have the current staff they had the past three years. But it’s still a transition, nobody can deny that. I think making it through the transition with a respectable record and the respect of the basketball community and the players have a good college basketball experience is success, enough.
When you want to get away from basketball what do you do?
I love riding motorcycles. I have a Road King. (That’s a Harley Davidson, for you uneducated people out there.) and I have a horse too. So those are my two escapes. It’s a great thing to be able to do for a couple hours.
(It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Coach Schulz likes to ride motorcycles. After all she’s from South Dakota, home of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Though surprisingly she’s never been to Sturgis which is like a kid in LA never going to Disneyland.)
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