Things Could Be Worse

As bad as I make some Big West teams out to be, it maybe a shocker but there are still some teams that are worse!!! One of those teams resides in California. Sacramento St. The city that The Rock serenades.



Sac St. of the Big Sky Conference.

Year Overall Rec Conf. Rec.
Dan Muscatell
2008-09 9-21 7-9
2007-08 6-22 4-12
2006-07 3-27 1-15
2005-06 9-17 4-10
2004-05 8-20 4-10
2003-04 1-26 1-13

Carolyn Jenkins
2002-03 3-24 1-13
2001-02 0-27 0-14
2000-01 3-23 1-15

Sue Hoffman
1999-00 6-21 4-12

Here are the sad and sorry facts.

The entire decade Sac St. did not reach double digits in victories!!!!

Fives seasons, half the decade, that you can count their win total on one hand and not even use your thumb!!

The most wins for Sac. St this decade? 9 wins last year.

Two seasons where they didn't even win TWO games!!!

They had NINE seaons this decade with 20 losses or more.

FIVE seasons, half the decade, that they won one or less conference games!!!

Sac. St. had three coaches during the decade, Sue Hoffman who guided the program's move from D-2 to D-1. Then Carolyn Jenkins, a former assistant to the Queen at Stanford. Then Dan Muscatell, a former assistant at Oregon. Muscatell left after the 08-09 season and now a 27 year old coach, Jamie Craighead will guide Sac. St into the next decade.

Hoffman had been at Sac. St. for over 20 years as a player and coach. While it is tough for any school moving up to D-1, Sac. St was underfunded and that really hurt Coach Hoffman. Hoffman at times during the D-1 era, had no recruiting budget, had about half the scholarships as other D-1 schools, and of course played ina 1,600 seat high school gym. Hmm, why does this sound like Cal State Northridge? There were also reports that she wore her religious beliefs on her seelve.

Anyways Hoffman resigned and Sac. St. hired former Stanford assistant, Carolyn Jenkins. Even though Sac. St put more money into the program, more scholarship, a recruiting budget, Jenkins destroyed this program. What a terrible coach, she won SIX games during her three year reign of error at Sac. St. Many players hated her and her coaching ways. But unlike Faith Mimnaugh, Jenkins had a clue and did not seek a contract extension.

So Sac. St went up to Oregon and hired Dan Muscatell. Muscatell did a good job during his six years at Sac. St. When he got to Sac. St., the program was like an abandoned, run down house, that was going to be condemned. He did do a good job of building a foundation for the program. The really didn't have much to work with, when he got the job. Whether he could have taken the program is another level remained to be seen.

If there was one thing about his program, Muscatell recruited his players from the area he knew, Oregon and Washington. There weren't that many players from CA. Out of state players cost more in terms of scholarships than CA players. And to me, if you're giving a scholarship to an out of state kid, that kid better be an impact player.

During Muscatell reign, things were looking up on the facilities side too. Sac. St. students passed a fee referendum to build a new arena!!!! But the school President, did a bait and switch and instead of the money going to build a new arena, the money went to build a new football fieldhouse. The spin from the President was that they needed to teardown the old fieldhouse to make room for the new arena and student rec center. The arena now has no funding and in this terrible economy, won't find any funding. Oh well maybe the kids who are starting kindergarden this fall, will have an arena by the time they are old enough to go to Sac. St.

The reason I point out terrible program is that I'm a firm believer in you're only as strong as your weakest link. Women's basketball won't improve until the terrible programs in the women's basketball improve. I find most women's college basketball fans love the UConn's, Tenns etc. They could care less about the other programs. Well until the women's game consistently has a Cinderella at the dance, it won't have a broader appeal. The only way for Cinderella to be invited to the dance is for Cinderella to improve her appearance.