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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

Interview with Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah

Interview with Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah: August 11, 2005.

Dr. Jeremiah will start her third season back as head coach at Cal State Fullerton. Dr. Jeremiah had a 112-83 record in her first seven seasons as head coach at Fullerton. She then because Senior Women's administrator, a position she held for eleven years. During that time Dr. Jeremiah was chairperson of the Women's Selection Committeee for two years. She served on the committee for an additional two years.

Dr. Jeremiah coached at Cedarville University, Dayton, and Indiana. Where she becames good friend with Bobby Knight. Coach Knight was a guest speaker at a Fullerton fundraiser back in the early 1990's because of his friendship with Dr. Jeremiah.

I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Jeremiah and talk about her team at Cal State Fullerton. I would like to thank Dr. Jeremiah for taking the time for this interview.


What drives you to be a coach?

Since I was a little kid, I’ve loved the game of basketball. If you know something becomes a part of you, you find out who you are. The game has been so good to me. Basketball has been a jumping off point for everything that I have done in my life.

I think the game is such a life lesson thing. It can impact young people in such a positive way. What we want to do is to develop the complete player which are, the physical development, the social development, intellectual development, and their emotional development of a young person. Everything in our program is based on the development of the young person in those four dimensions.

Talk about your coaching staff:

I think I have the most experienced coaching staff west of the Mississippi River. By experience being the number of years in the profession.

Barb Bausch spent tens years as head coach of Division III, Guilford College in North Carolina. They went to the NCAA many years. What’s interesting was she not only went here, (Cal State Fullerton) but she was in my coaching class that I taught. She was my student!!! She’s a tactician of the game. She’s very technical. She’s very smart. A very, very good teacher of the game.

Marcia Foster is one of the best recruiters. Both Marcia and Barb could be head coaches at Division I schools if that’s what they want. And I know that’s what they want. I told them when they came onto our staff, I will help them in any way I can to get them a job anywhere they want to go. Marcia is just great. She’s a tremendous recruiter.

Eugenia Rycraw was a tremendous player her at Fullerton. Maybe the best player ever to come out of here, she still holds five national records. She played overseas for five years and one year with the Sparks. She’s such a great role model for our players.

The thing I like about my staff the most is that they are ethical, highly principled, they wouldn’t cheat, they wouldn’t be mean to people intentionally. They are the heart and soul of this program.

Is it tough recruiting to Fullerton with it’s lack of top notch facilities?

A basketball court is 94’ by 50’. Is Titan Gym, the Pyramid? No. Is it the Bren Center? No. I don’t concentrate on that because I can’t do anything about that. In my lifetime as a coach, we’re not getting an arena. I hope somewhere down the line that there will be an arena. There has to be and I think there will be. But in my lifetime as a coach, we won’t have an arena. I think it hurts a little bit. But look at the WCC, they all play in gyms except the Jenny Craig Center and Gonzaga’s new arena.


Talk about recruiting. What do you look for?

We try to get better players than what we have. Certainly you look for talent. But we’ve passed up talent for other things. I want players who are serious, disciplined and who are committed, as much as they can be when they are 18. Now that’s the caveat. Kids who want to get a college education. Out of all the years I’ve coach, that includes hundreds of players at four different colleges plus a high school, every player, but one, who has completed their eligibility has a college degree. I have four degrees. I grew up in a college president’s home. So education is a tremendous valve and it still is. Basketball is a means to an end.

So one of the thing we have to know is that these kids want to get a degree. I’ve never talked to a kid who doesn’t want a degree. Some are a little better prepared than others. We will not just take those who are 4.0 students, obviously. We have diversity in our team and in out whole university. But we do want kids who have goals. I always ask them “If you can see yourself doing anything you want, ten years from now, what would it be?” I love dreamers. Nothing is ever achieved unless you dream about it first.

So we look for talent, kids with goals, kids who are as well prepared for the rigors of college academics as we can find. We don’t have a lot of kids who are at risk and we work very hard for the ones that are.

While we’re talking about kids who are having academic problems, can you talk about how Andrea Adams is doing?

She’s not too much at risk anymore!! She came in the year before I came back and had academic problems. Her second year she was not eligible to play the first semester. The second semester she still was not eligible. So we decided it was really important for her to get an idea of what she wanted in life and where she wanted to go. We told her, ‘You need to go get yourself prepared.’ She left the program for a year. I really felt she would go to a JC and get everything going. But she didn’t. She went to school here. But she couldn’t play. She wanted to continue to practice but I said “You haven’t proven you want to be a college student.’ She got herself eligible and she wanted to come back and play. So I told her ‘Yes’ Now she’s totally eligible, she didn’t have to go to summer school, she’s got two more years to play.

Do you think it was Andrea maturing?

I think it was a lot of things. Having something she loved taken away from her. When you have something taken away from you, you can do two things; be very bitter and mad or I got that taken away from me for something I did.

I think her parents were very supportive of her. They wanted her to go to college. They were very supportive of me.

When you were hired, they gave you a three year contract. This is the third year. What is the status of your contract?

No, they extended it to a five year contract. So I have three more years left on my contract. I don’t think about that too much. But I think it has significance for recruiting. But I love what I’m doing and if I think I’m making an impact and we’re getting better, I’ll continue doing it.


What is your philosophy about scheduling?

We have to win the conference tournament because until the conference gets stronger we’re only going to get one team into the NCAA’s. That’s why we play the schedule we play. We open with Colorado, we play USC, I hope we get UCLA back on our schedule. We’ve even talked to Texas Tech about playing there. I get to see my friends, Bobby Knight and Marsha Sharp. I want to play good teams. I know we’ll probably have a hard time beating those teams but that improves our RPI.

Our schedule to me is extremely important. I don’t want to put teams on it that we’re not going to win. We need to win. I told my assistants ‘We need to be a lot better this year. This is a big year for us. If we’re not significantly better than we have to look at what we’re doing.

You said Significantly better, can you put a number of win on that?

As far as number of wins for next year, we need to be over 500. We won eight games both years. Last year was a little bit of a disappointment, I really thought we should have won more than eight games. Are players need to learn how to play together and we have to teach them to play together.

31-0 would get us into the NCAA tournament. That will always be my goal. We were in the tournament two times in seven year and there were only 48 teams and we never won the conference. I would really like to get back there. The conference was stronger back then. Long Beach won the conference, Hawaii and Vegas were strong.


Let’s talk about some issues in the Big West:

Do you agree with having the men and women playing the same days and times?

I liked it better Thursday and Saturday instead of Friday and Sunday because of our player. I think that if you can give players one day when they don’t have to do anything it’s a great thing. When you go Friday-Sunday, you give them Monday off of practice but they still have to go to school. If I can give them a day off, I try to make it Sunday so they can do something else.

What do you think of the 2pm Saturday afternoon starts?

Well I have to wait and see what that does to our small fan base. We don’t have a big fan base and hopefully if we win it get bigger. I think the jury is still out on this.

What do you think of Davis coming into the BW?

I like it. I was on the administrative committee that went to do the review of them for three days. They have great facilities. Sandy Simpson is a good friend and good guy.

What do you think about Utah State and Idaho leaving the BW?

I loved watching Idaho play last year. Those two kids, Mitchell and Emily Faurholt were just awesome. It’s not good that we lose the competitiveness of those two schools.

But it’s good it makes us more homogenous as a conference. All schools are state schools except for Pacific.

Do you think some schools in the BW need to take women’s basketball more seriously in order for the conference to improve?

Yeah to some extent. I think everybody has tried to get on board with full staffing (Having three assistant coaches) and salaries would make a difference in the quality of your staff.

I think they need to pay more competitively but in the conference it’s relatively competitive. But when you’re competing against other conferences it might not be as competitive.

I don’t know a school that is not fully funded with scholarships. I think the big thing is quality and experience of the coaches and having a little more of a national vision. I don’t fool myself, we’re not the Pac-10, Big 10 or all those conferences. We need to be as good as the WCC and at one time we were better than the WCC.

I don’t think a lot of the coaches think about the NCAA tournament. That’s all I think about, being one of the top 64. Everything we do in this program is towards that end. I won’t feel I’ve reached the goals we set for this program until we get back to that tournament. I think they need to be a little bit more like that. Mark French (UCSB head coach) and I are about the only ones that talk about the NCAA. We know about and we want to be there. I think they other ones do too but it just seems so unreachable.

The schools need to support women’s basketball more with the promotions and marketing end of it. They also have to allow them to play who they want but make them play better teams. They need to demand excellence from us and hold us accountable if we don’t achieve it. We need to held accountable. If you’re sitting here five years from now and we’re still winning five games, you’re probably going to be interviewing someone else.

Can you talk about the three players you signed. Who do you expect to make the biggest impact?

Toni Thomas from AB Miller HS has only played basketball for three years. She averaged 20 a game both her junior and senior year. She was conference player of the year. We are really excited about her.

I think Thomas will make the biggest impact only because she plays the 4 or 5 position and we don’t a lot of strength in that position. We have go to get some bigger, impact post players.

Jessica Kallar played on Leon Wood’s team, OC Swish. A very good shooter and passer.

Weathersby is 5’2’ and she can jump out of the gym. She’s going to be our point guard of the future. I think she’ll play some, I wouldn’t be surprised if she played quite a bit.

All these kids are excited about coming here.

Talk about Charlee Underwood

One of the former assistants gave me her name. She played at a small private school. She speaks fluent French. She’s improved so much. Big player from the outside, great rebounder. She’s matured a lot in two years. She needs to step up and be a leader.

The one quote I remember from your press conference was, We’re going to be Fit, Focused and Famous. How far along are you in achieving those three things?

This year we better be more fit than we were last year. Amber has lot a lot of weight and she better have lot a lot more. I think as players they don’t know what they can do. I think we’re more fit than we’ve ever been. I’m a real stickler on that. I just don’t want overweight players.

I think we’re much more focused. We’re not famous yet.


Do you notice a change in the kids from the first time you coached?

Yeah I do but I don’t see it as a negative. I see a lot of negative things. I think they see things more as an entitlement than a privilege and we try to change that. I think they are much more willing to question what you do. They are a product of their upbringing. They are not held accountable.

I think I’m better with them than I was before. I think I’m just as hard, maybe hard. But I’m more willing to talk to them. I’m more willing to sit down and say, ‘I want to know what you think.’ I’m going to tell you what I think. Then we’re not going to talk about it after that. But I’m going to hold them accountable after that. We have a rule, if they don’t go to class they don’t practice. They will sit out as many practices as the amount of classes missed. But I don’t check up on them. But everybody on this campus knows me. I tell them, ‘I feel bad for you. You can’t make a mistake on this campus that I won’t know about. You can’t miss class without me knowing about’ The first year I was here we had 17 practices missed by kids because they didn’t go to class. This year 2 practices were missed by our kids.


Your expectations for the 2005-06 season?

I want to finish in the upper half of the conference because I want to be seeded so I can get to the final game in the conference tournament. I think that’s doable. I think it’s going to be hard. I think our players have to believe we can do it. But we have to do it. I would like to be well over .500 going into the conference.

Interview with Molly Tuter

Interview with Molly Tuter: April 27, 2005

LA Women's Hoops had a chance to sit down with UC Irvine head coach Molly Tuter. We talked about her expectations for UC Irvine, her playing career and people who have influenced her.

I would like to thank, Coach Tuter for taking the time out of her busy schedule to do the interview. I would also like to thank Stacey Shackleford, UCI sports information director for her help, setting up the interview.


Talk about Molly Tuter, give us some background about yourself.

I grew up in a small town in Alaska. The name of the town is Soldotna. I grew up there from the time I was four years old until I went to college. I was recruited by quite a few colleges. Then I had the opportunity to go to Arizona State, played my four years there. My senior season the WNBA popped up and I had the opportunity to play for the Phoenix team. After that season (Summer of 1997) was over, I went over to Luxembourg to play. After that season was over I got my first coaching job at UCLA, as the third assistant over there. That was seven years ago.

What was it like playing with Hall of Famer, Nancy Liberman?

It was great. It was a lot of fun. She’s the toughest competitors and toughest ballplayers I’ve ever been around. She taught me a lot. I played the position behind her and she was pushing me in practice everyday. I was doing my best to keep up with her. I learned a lot from her. Playing against somebody who is in the Hall of Fame and done what she has done and one of the pioneers of women’s basketball, it was a great experience for me.

At ASU did you play for Charlie-Turner Thorne or Jacqueline Hullah?

I played for both. I got recruited by Maura McHugh, then she resigned. Then I played for Jacqueline Hullah for three years. Then my senior year I was able to play for Charlie.

(Coach Tuter is the third leading scorer in ASU history, with 1,374 career points. She was also a two time honorable mention All Pac-10)

Do you still talk to Charlie?

I sure do. I talked to her a couple days ago. She’s an outstanding coach. She’s done a great job at ASU. Who better to take advice from than somebody who took a program that was basically nothing, when I was there, to a very strong program, not a powerhouse but it’s getting there.

When you were at UCLA, that was their Elite Eight season. Talk about that experience and working for Head Coach Kathy Oliver.

It was an amazing experience. It was a lot of fun to be able to work with a school such as UCLA. To be that successful with that coaching staff was a great experience. Being able to learn and thrown into the fire camp-wise, learning how to direct a camp right away. The second day I was over there, I was in charge of camp. So I didn’t have much of a learning curve.

I was a great experience working with Kathy Olivier. It was a lot of fun. I’m very lucky to work with Pam Walker (Current UCLA assistant coach) and Willet White (Current head coach at Northeastern University, in Boston)

How you became the interim head coach?

Right after Christmas is when I found out about Coach Adams resigning. The administration asked me if I was interested in taking over and finishing out the season. At that point I really didn’t think I had much of a shot to get the full time permanent head coach here.

As time went by the team really bought into what I was selling them. They worked their tails off and it was fun.

Why did you feel that you didn’t have much of shot at being the full time head coach?

Well I had been a part of Coach Adams staff for a long time. There were years we were successful and there were years we weren’t successful and I wasn’t sure what direction they were going to go. I just wanted to make sure the players here had a decent experience to finish out the year. Especially players like Ashley Biggins and Courtney Ferguson, who put their hearts and souls into this program for several years, and I wanted to make sure they had a good experience to finish it out.

What happened after the season? How did you get the permanent job?

Bob Chichester (UCI Athletic Director) asked me if I was interested in the job. I told him “Yes” We talked several times about the job. From those talks I got to know Bob pretty well and I believe he has a pretty good feeling for me. Competitive-wise we are on the same page. I want to win and he wants to win. I have a lot of confidence in his ability to lead the whole athletic program and I know he has a lot of confidence in me to lead the basketball program.

What did you mean when you said “Competitive-wise we are on the same page. I want to win and he (Bob Chichester) wants to win.”

The whole point of Division One athletics is, outside of making successful student-athletes, is winning basketball games. I’m not here so we can be mediocre. I’m not here so we can be happy that we finish 500. I’m not here so we can just win a couple game and one game in the Big West tournament and everybody gets excited. I want to win the Big West Championship. If I’m not aiming for that, I’m not sure why people do this.

I know Bob shares that same feeling in regards to this program and he’s going to provide for me and this program way to be able to compete in the conference year in and year out.

What are you going to need from Bob, facilities wise, to compete in the Big West?

Right now, I don’t think we need anything. I need to do my job and do a good job recruiting these guys and build a work ethic and become more disciplined. I need to teach my team to further, how to win basketball games. They were catching on toward the end of the season on how to finish out basketball games.

As far as administration goes, they have showed me a ton of support and I really don’t believe we need anything but to sign any a couple talented kids.

And for those kids to stay injury free too right?

STAY INJURY FREE. Right. We have had a little bit of bad luck. The team right now is down in the weight room, lifting. Mike Nagler, our strength coach is doing an excellent job with injury prevention type stuff. Shayla Penn our trainer is doing all she can to help out. So we all communicate well to figuring out ways to prevent the injuries we’ve had in the past.

Have you hired any new assistant coaches?

I’m hiring three new assistant coaches. Within the next couple of days, a week at most, I should have my whole staff in place.

What are you looking for in an assistant coach?

People who share my same work ethic and they put an importance on this program that is very similar to mine. I think I need people here that, a lot of their strengths are my weaknesses. I had to sit down and be pretty real with myself to know what my weaknesses were. I also need assistant who are going to be able to relate well with my players. They need to be good mentors to them.

Talk about last year and how the team came together.

Being around the many people I’ve been around while playing and coaching, I think success has a lot to do with confidence and work ethic. So the thing our team needed was some confidence and to feel good about themselves. They need to have fun doing what they were doing. So we set up some drills in practice. We cut back on the time we were spending in the gym. Our practices were about an hour and a half. The first couple games all our focus was to have fun and to improve on a couple thing and relax. We set goals for ourselves in practice. As we achieved those goals as a team and individually, we build our confidence and we felt better about ourselves. And it just snowballed from there and at the end of the season, we won four out of our last six games.

What are you expectations for your team next year?

I expect them to work out people, out rebound people, play a very pressure defense. We aren’t going to make a lot of mistakes. We are going to make all our lay-ups. Make our free throws. Limit our turnovers.

We are going to have higher expectations. These guys now know they can do it. I can be harder on them than I was last year. I think if I am not harder on them, they will be disappointed.

Is everybody from last year’s team coming back?

Everybody but Kristee Davidson, she will be going to Abilene Christian in Texas.

Are you going to be able to sign anybody during the late signing period?

A kid that was with us a couple years ago will be coming back. Shayna Stanley transferred to Southwest LA JC and will be getting her AA. So she’ll be back here next year.

UCI signed three players in November. LAWH has already interviewed Lindsay Allen. Are Kirian Ishizaki and Kelly Cochran still coming to UCI?

All three of them are still coming here. I had a big part recruiting them. I’m excited to have them here, playing for me. As far as I’m concerned they are my recruits and people that I signed.

What are your expectations of Kirian and Kelly and how much of an impact do you expect them to make?

I’m really comfortable with the team we have here right now. I think Kelly and Kirian will add to us. They will give us depth at several positions. They are talented enough to battle for starting spots but they are going to have to earn it. I’m excited for them to come here. They will be good players by the time they are done at UCI.

Do you think the UC admissions requirements hinder your recruiting?

Maybe a little bit. But I don’t think so. It helps us because we find kids who want to go to a high academic institution.

How is the academic support for the team?

It’s outstanding. We have a wonderful support services group. They do everything they can to make sure our kids are successful. We haven’t had anybody fail out since I’ve been here and it’s not going to start now.

Talk about Angie Ned. What does she need to improve upon to be a better player?

The thing that makes Angie is her work ethic, her desire to be successful. One of her goals is to play professional basketball. She’s going to be a great leader for this team. Ned’s not going to take no for an answer and she won’t settle for losing.
Ned’s always done what I’ve asked her. She’s worked endless hours on her jump shot. She needs to improve her ball handling.

I have very high expectations for her. She has very high expectations of me and we both have very high expectations of this program.

Who do you expect to improve the most next season?

Kimberly Martin. She hasn’t played in a couple years and she’s working her tail off right now to get in shape. She’s had a complete attitude change from the time she was 17 years old, as a freshmen, now she’s 20, 21. She’s a great kid. She’s an outstanding teammate. She has so much desire to win, even more so than Ned.

Kalee Davidson, Stephanie Duda, I think Miranda Forry is going to improve a lot. I think everybody is going to improve. Everybody wants to improve.

Who is your most competitive player?

Duda. There are probably three players whose button I can push, to send them over the edge. I think Stephanie will do whatever it takes to win. I just know she’s going to figure out a way to get playing time.

Duda is coming back from a knee injury right?

Yes, she’s had two knee surgeries. I’ve seen what she’s gone through with those surgeries.

How do you feel about the point guard position?

I’m comfortable with the point guard situation. Melissa Jacob is not a true point guard but can she step in and do a great job for us, like she did last year? No question. Kirian is a freshmen point guard from San Jose and I expect her to get some minutes at point. I’m sure Annie Mai will get some minutes at the point too.

The point guard position has been kind of a weaker position for us but at the same time, all it is, dribble the ball up the court and learning how to penetrate a little bit. I think it has a lot to do with me and my assistants coaching them and learning how to play as a team.

What did you learn most about yourself last year?

Last year was quite the learning curve for me, getting thrown in the fire. I knew confidence was important, but exactly how it can affect a team. I think I learned more about our team than I did about myself. They learned to pull together when they had to. The easy thing to do last year was to fold. A lot of things I’ve learned growing up, I implemented with these guys and I found myself believing it even more.

Talk about the Big West:

I think it’s getting stronger and stronger every year. Last year was a very solid year for the Big West. I thought Long Beach and Idaho would get into the NIT. Santa Barbara is still the cream of the crop. Northridge had an outstanding year. Mary Hegarty has done a great job at Long Beach State. Jeremiah at Fullerton has picked up that program up. John Margaritis at Riverside has done a great job there. I think across the board, they are taking women’s basketball more seriously, including UC Irvine.

How do you feel about UC Davis coming into the Big West?

I think they will be an excellent addition. Sandy Simpson does an excellent job. They beat us twice last year, so we have to find a way to get that stopped.

How does losing Idaho and Utah State effect the Big West?

It’s a little disappointing. I enjoyed competing against Mike. He’s a very competitive guy. He’s a lot of fun to coach against. Raegan did an excellent job at Utah St the first two year.

It’s a little disappointing but at the same time it allows us to get another non conference game in there.

Will the Big West change travel partners now that each school will play Davis?

Yes, they are going to rotate it. We had a Big West coach’s meeting and they were talking about the rotation system.

Have they finalized the rotation system?

I don’t believe so. But it will be Pacific and Davis as travel partners.

Can you talk about your schedule for next year? Was it already set when you took over as head coach?

95% of it was set. The only game I scheduled was UCLA on November 30th. Other than that, Mark had the entire schedule set.

What is your scheduling philosophy?

I want to build our confidence to start the season. Once we get our confidence built, I want to get some games that challenge us. But I’m not going to schedule the top 10 teams in the country. But schedule games that can improve out RPI and give us a measuring stick of where we are at.

I scheduled UCLA next year because mainly for us it will be a good situation. I think it’s a win, win for us. I want to go back to Pauley Pavilion.

Interview with Sandy Simpson.

Interview with Sandy Simpson.

June 15, 2004

Sandy Simpson will be entering his eighth season as head coach at UC Davis. UC Davis is making the move up to Division One and will be a full Big West member in 2007-08. UCD finished 16-12 in the 2003-04 season. Coach Simpson took the time to answer questions from LA Women's Hoops.

Much thanks to Coach Simpson and UC Davis SID, Bill Stevens for their time and help with this interview.

Talk about having former UCD player, Jennifer Gross as an assistant coach. What does she bring to your coaching staff? (Gross spent the last two years as an assistant coach at San Diego St)
We are VERY fortunate to have Jen joining us as we transition to Division I and the Big West Conference. Jennifer was an All-Region player for us back in the mid-90's and, as a senior, captained a 29-3 squad that placed third in the NCAA DII Championship Tournament. Her character, leadership qualities, talent, and academic commitment (she was an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship recipient) established her as one of the all-time great players in UC Davis history and in 2003; she was inducted into the UC Davis Hall of Fame. In short, she personifies what UC Davis athletics strives to be: a well-rounded student-athlete who compromises in neither the academic or athletic realm.

How will her experience at SDSU help her at UC Davis?
As we transition to Division I play, Jen's experience at SDSU will be invaluable. From the logistics of recruiting, to familiarity with future West Coast opponents, Jen will offer the perspective of someone with recent experiences at DI. She knows what is necessary in order for us to become successful at the next level and I intend to fully utilize her expertise.
Who will be leaving your coaching staff?

Greg Bruce, who contributed a tremendous amount in his three-years with our program, is pursuing a return to the head coaching ranks, where he has already enjoyed a storied career at the DII, DI, and professional ranks. We were fortunate to have his contributions over the past three seasons and wish him the very best in his future pursuits.
What year will UC Davis come into the BW?We will become full-members of the BWC at the advent of the 2007-08 season. Until then, we will play a modified Big West schedule and will continue with the NCAA provisional-member transition steps toward full Division I certification.
Will UC Davis be eligible for the Big West Tournament right away?
No. As part of the NCAA transition process, we will be ineligible for NCAA championship play, and, thus, Big West Tournament play, until we achieve full certification for the 07-08 season.
Have you had a chance to see many BW teams play in person? What did you think of the BW?
I saw the conference tournament this spring and we played Cal Poly SLO back in December. Obviously UC Santa Barbara has been a power for some time and are the current standard for the Big West. Mark French has done an incredible job and it was nice to see them give UConn such a battle in the NCAA's. Idaho was also strong this year and should have, I believe, received an NIT bid. The rest of the conference is improving. I feel Long Beach State will be an impact team next year. Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton both made good strides this year and UOP was, once again, a contender. At the BWC Tournament, I was impressed with the level of athleticism on all of the teams and realized that we have some work to do to be physically competitive.
The last D-2 school to make the move up was UC Riverside. In their first year in the BW, they tied for second. And let's face it the BW isn't a strong conference. Do you think your team will be competive in the BW right away?
UC Riverside's first-year showing was impressive, but...and this in no way diminishes that accomplishment...the Big West is better now. I don't think you'll see that same scenario again. It's hard to speculate how we might do in our first year or two. We're like an entering freshman player...that first year's value is in developing an understanding of just what it takes to be successful at the next level of play. It will be an educational year for us.
How has your scholarship and recruiting budget grown since the move to D-1?
With 26 sports here at UC Davis, we're a broad-based program that endeavors to serve the needs of all of our sports programs. As a result, we will phase in resources over the four-year transition period. Our scholarship money and recruiting budget will increase each year. We're excited about moving in a direction where we'll be able to help our student-athletes to a much greater degree financially.

Did you change your recruiting focus knowing that UCD was moving up to D-1? If so, how did you change your focus?
Yes and no. No in the sense that we will continue to focus on character and academic aptitude. We're a team sport and we feel that team sport athletes need to be selfless and capable of understanding the riches to be gained from giving of oneself to the team, to the group. And we are adamant that our academic standards will not suffer. Lots of people view that as a constraint, but I see it as a positive. First, our recruiting pool is narrowed for us and we don't dissipate staff time by pursuing non-qualified students. Second, self-discipline is a character trait, whether it be academically or in terms of athletics. There's usually carryover, so we have an opportunity to pursue young women who are goal-oriented, high achievers in all aspects of their lives. However, we are setting our sights on the level of athlete necessary to compete in the Big West. The increase in scholarship aid available will help tremendously. We've been operating on the equivalent of 1.5-2 full-ride scholarships, so moving toward 12-15 full-rides will definitely help.

What are the best selling points about UCD and UCD basketball?
Where to start? A beautiful campus. Great college-town atmosphere. An education second-to-none and the opportunity to play in a program with a tremendous tradition. We are blessed with great fan support, both from our student-body and from the community (averaged 1,200 in home attendance last year). Our location is centrally located, a great jumping-off point to San Francisco, the Napa Valley, and Lake Tahoe.
Why should a player choose to continue her basketball career at UCD?
Well, for the reasons stated above, plus this: she will have the opportunity to build something special. She will be part of a group that establishes a legacy for generations to come. Anyone can sustain a program; building something is the opportunity of a select few. At UC Davis, a young woman of ambition can have a tremendous athletic experience without compromising on the academic front.

What are your teams goals for your first season in D-1?
To learn. We will enter the season ready to compete. But we will also be assessing ourselves to determine where we are relative to the established DI programs and identifying what steps will be needed to be ready to compete for a Big West title in 2007-08.

I haven't seen your schedule for next season but I assume most of the games will be against D-1 teams. I believe you will play each BW school except Santa Barbara, twice. To fill out the rest of your schedule, was it hard getting D-1 schools to schedule Davis?
Not really. Wouldn't YOU be lining up to play us?! Actually, I believe that there were some programs who didn't realize we would count as a DI program for scheduling and RPI purposes. Once that was cleared up most schools were open to scheduling us. Plus, we are fortunate to have so many DI schools in Northern California that presented natural potential rivalries. Sacramento State, obviously, but also many of the Bay Area schools such as St. Mary's, Santa Clara, USF and San Jose State. I would love to eventually get Cal and Stanford on the docket. How do your returning players feel about their upcoming first season in D-1? I'm not sure they could be more excited. I've never seen our players more motivated for Spring workouts and I'm sure that is largely due to the anticipation of playing Division I level teams. They are all competitors and understand that we face a unique and exciting challenge next year. What do you think will be the toughest part about the move to D-1? Probably the physical nature of play at that level. It's not that Division II has been a namby-pamby experience...far from it. But, with DI, we're talking physical play by generally bigger, stronger, faster athletes. Of those characteristics, the strength, or power, of the DI game will probably be the biggest challenge to us. What style of play can Big West fans expect to see from your team? I believe in applying pressure at both ends of the court. Transition offense and pressure defense. Having said that, I believe you need to be well-rounded and adaptable to be a championship level team. One dimensional teams of any sort eventually succumb to the inherent weaknesses of being so narrow in their focus. Fast break teams have to be able to execute in the half-court. Pressure teams need to be able to adapt to quicker, more athletic opponents. Versatility is a must for championship squads.

Interview with John Margaritis

Interview with John Margaritis: June 8, 2004


John Margaritis was hired as the UC Riverside coach on April 22nd. He was an assistant coach for the last eight years at Northern Arizona. Coach Margaritis is very familiar with the Big West, as NAU won eight of their last nine games against Big West schools. He also was a finalist for the Cal State Northridge head coaching job that went to current coach, Tammy Holder. He is also familiar with the Riverside/Inland Empire area as he coached at Cal State San Bernardino. Cal State Northridge assistant coach, Eric Fundalewicz, was a student assistant at NAU when Coach Margaritis was coaching there.

I would like to thank, Brian Blank and Ross French of the UCR athletics media relations department, for their help in setting up the interview with Coach Margaritis.

Who is John Margaritis and what motivates him?

I am a product of my parents and where I was born. I was born in Athens, Greece. Then came here and spoke no English. Went through all the struggles, anywhere from learning the language to adjusting to bad neighborhoods.

The motivational part has changed. In the beginning I wanted to show people. Now its because I can help people. So what motivates me? If I can play any part in somebodys life in a positive way. That motivates me.

Talk about your coaching staff: Why did you decide to keep Seton who was with the previous staff?

First some background. I feel that in order for a coach to do well in a new situation, the more familiar they are with the situation the better they''ll do or they'll get to that point quicker. I felt that, if I would have a chance at any school in the country to do well at all, it's somewhere, where I've been there before or at least in the area. Being that I was at Cal State San Bernardino, I know the area. I knew something about UCR. I felt that going in; I felt I wouldn't be spinning my tires as somewhere else. In order for me to secure that, I wanted to have the type of staff that would enable me to progress quickly. So I felt that every position was important to be filled by somebody that would help us progress.

Seton is one of those pieces. He brings continuity from last year's staff to this year's staff. When I came here and I had a question about any of the players, even their names, he would help. If I needed to go down campus, he would tell me how to go there or walk me there. Now why Seton?

Well I knew Seton from before. Seton showed up to my office at Northern Arizona and asked if he could help out. He had just come back from (playing in) college, he had one more year to finish school and he was going to Northern Arizona and wanted to be a part of our basketball program. So he was student manager and he helped develop some of the former players. He was in practice. He broke down practice film. So I knew him, we worked together for a whole year. .. So I've known him for sometime. So having someone that I've known, trust and liked. And then him having the experience he's had here (at UCR) in terms of knowing the players, knowing the (athletic department) staff, and knowing the university, it was a no brainer. I really appreciate the fact they allowed me to hire the people I wanted to hire.

The reason why I hired Cathy Bogh, well she played from me at Cal State San Bernardino. She was a great leader. She took care of all the things that we as coaches aren't allowed to do. If somebody needed to be picked up and taken to the grocery store, as coaches you're not suppose to give them rides. So she was someone that would step up and do things. I found out later about all the things she would do as a leader for the team I thought that what better person than someone who is from this area. Someone who has all these people she knows. She will be able to get us involved with the community. I really feel that it's so important that we get involved with the community.

Lindsey Foster is the third assistant. She was a point guard at Northern Arizona. She really understands what we are going to teach. So if Seton and Cathy are out recruiting, Lindsey and I can run the practice and I'm not going to be worried about the other end of the floor. She's not going to be teaching something wrong. She's been with us for five years. So there's a reason for everybody and I'm glad I had the chance to hire them.


What type of offense and defense will you run?

I just think that this game is the type of game that offenses don't score points and defenses don't stop people from scoring points. People score points and people stop other people from scoring points. To me it's a lot more important, instead of what offense I'm going run or what defense I'm going to run, is how well will I be able to teach our players to understand whats going on around them. My approach to the game is such that instead of teaching somebody or guiding somebody to run an offense or a defense, maybe I can teach them to guide themselves through it. We would run a motion offense and we would run a man to man defense.

What was it like meeting your team for the first time?

I walked in the room. I said Hi to everybody. I knew everybodys name before I met them. I even knew a little bit about them before I met them. What I had done was I had done a scouting report of our team. So I kind of knew a little bit about each one of them. About what they did in the past. How they play. How good they are. A little bit of how they fit into what I'm trying to do. So we sat down put all the chairs in a circle and we talked. It was very comfortable. I did not want to mislead anybody. I did not want to say things; I felt they wanted to hear. I just wanted to be me. And I wanted them to be them. Well find out who we really are later, anyways.


What did you say to the team the first time you met them.

We are all in the same boat. When we are all in the boat, everybody is rowing. Nobody is going for a free ride. The other thing I told and this is straight from Pat Riley: If you fall outside the boat, meaning you have a problem, you have to be a willing participant of your own rescue. We're not going to try to help you out if you're screaming and kicking, saying "Leave me alone" You're not going to screw up and then we are saying We'll give you a chance if you dont want one.

We're not going to bring anyone in either, for next year. The reason why is when I took over about three-four week ago, there is an early date in November and thats long gone. Theres a late signing date starting in April and when I got hired that was half way through. Anybody who is left is not somebody that anybody wants otherwise they would not be left. (unsigned) I want to take a group of people we have here and work as hard as we can and start building from there. I want to build a base.

So when you go out recruiting this summer what are you looking for?

I can go to Chicago and go to the park and find five great basketball players and win games but I don't think I'll be successful. I think winning is part of being successful but its not the whole thing. I want to be able to have something that people can look at and say this is a good program and it's not just because we're winning. I want our young woman out in the community and the community says I want to go back and watch them.

I think we need to get players from this area. I'm looking for quality people. I'm looking for people who have certain abilities in terms of basketball. But also people who demonstrated that they have an interest in academics. I don't believe in tutoring and all this other stuff is how youre going to get people through college. You get somebody who wants to go through college and then demonstrate they are good students and you'll do just fine. The gpa at NAU was 3.5.

Ed. note: Coach Margaritis told me that travel at NAU was very difficult on the players as well as the coaches. NAU is in Flagstaff, AZ. The closest airport is Phoenix, which is about a two hour drive from NAU. So every trip would be four hours roundtrip from campus to the airport. So for the NAU women's basketball team to have a 3.5 GPA is even more impressive with some of the travel/time issues the players had to deal with.

How do you approach discipline?

I think coaches back themselves in a corner by having way too many rules. I think it's real simple approach. Do what is right. If you don't know what is right, ask. There is a right and a wrong and everybody really knows something about it. It's more important they understand I mean what I say, instead of what punishment is going to come. I don't want to play those games. I don't want after ten sprints later, hope that you don't do the same thing again. But I think it's important that I'm consistent with these people. But we're talking about responsibility.


What do you think about the support from the athletic department and the university?

Stan Morrison, what a wonderful person. What a great situation for me as a coach to be at the same university as he is. He has all that knowledge and experience. The other day I told him I'm going to take advantage of that (Morrisons knowledge and experience) I'll go into his office and ask What do you think about this? I can learn from him. I think you can always learn.

As we talked about before, he allowed me to hire who I wanted as my assistant coaches. That's a big things.

Talk about the process about why you wanted the head coaching job at UCR?

I always thought that if a job opened up somewhere: Would I want to be a part of that? So when the UCR job opened up, I thought: One, I know the area. Two, I know there are a lot of players I can recruit from the area. Do I want to live there? Yes. Who do I want to work for? When you have Stan Morrison, how can you not want to work for him? If you have a situation where you're a coach and you have somebody who has done so well and done exactly what you want to do. You want to be a part of that.

Talk about your schedule. Did you have many dates to fill?

No it was done. I think our schedule is not one of the toughest. It's not high on the RPI. But all the teams that we play are good teams. It will be challenging.

Whats your philosophy about scheduling?

You have a couple things. How do you spread your schedule out? Last year at NAU we had a young team. The first four games were once a week. It was almost like football. We had a whole week to prepare. The first couple days, go over the things you didn't do well last game and then you have four more days to prepare for the next team. You have to spread it out in such a way that you have a chance to prepare for your next opponent.

Then you have to do it in such a way that you give your fans an opportunity to show up. Don't play at a time when nobody can make it. Don't play at a day when youre competing with a local high school and people are trying to decide whether they want to go see their kid or you. You're going to lose out every time.

Think about at what level you want to play. You need to prepare your team, so you have to play a tough schedule. You don't want to go into conference 0-7 and pretend like its OK. So those are some of the things you look at when scheduling.

What are your impressions of the Big West Conference?

I think that it is a well coached conference. I think the coaches do a good job. I believe that its the type of conference that not all the schools have a lot of money. So we are all in the same boat. People are working really hard. I've been around coaching long enough to know that they are out there recruiting their butts off. So if they didn't get their players, it's not because they weren't trying. They will get some players because they are working hard. And the people they have, they do a good job with them. I think it will be a challenge.


In the BW, Idaho with Mike Divilbiss, has turned things around in three years. Is that the standard now for all the BW coaches?

I don't think there is a standard. The reason why I say that is you look at Mark French. He didn't turn Santa Barbara around right away. Yet he built it.

How many players does it take to be a good team? Just say two. If you get those two players can you sustain it? After this recruiting class can you do it again? And can you do it again?

Now Mike Divilbiss at Idaho, you said it and I said it; he's a very good coach. He knows what he is looking for. He got the type of kids he wants and those kids are going to play hard for him.

You only have a small window of opportunity as a coach. You start coaching and not winning, you go into a recruit's home and they are wondering are you building a basement? Which way are you going? You're building but what are you building?

What do you think of the facilities here at UCR?

I think they're great. I'll tell you why. They best team I've ever been a part of was at Northeastern Illinois. The floor warped. We went 29-4. We beat everyone in Chicago. When I was at Fresno St we played in the North Gym and that was a great facility. Great atmosphere. Why would you want to play in a 17,000 seat arena with 500 people in the seats? Why not play in our facility and get 4,000 fans? Then all of a sudden it's a great facility. I don't know, I have as many baskets as everywhere else I've ever been. .. If we lost a player because of our facilities then that player is looking for all the wrong things.

How do you measure success?

I measure success by results. Not always wins and losses. But by how much have we been able to accomplish. Cause we set our minds to achieve a goal. Putting ourselves into a situation where good things will come. The process is important.

If I talked to you a year from now, what would you consider a successful year?

That we improved. That we got better from game to game. We actually didn't have too many practices where we didn't come out and work hard. Every now and then that's going to happen. But it's not going to be that many. Academically we are doing well.