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pilight
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pilight
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Queenie
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
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 Posted: 03/15/21 4:46 pm ::: |
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| Today is a very good day to be Stormeo.
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Ardent believer in the separation of church and stadium.
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pilight
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bcdawg04
Joined: 12 Apr 2016
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| Posted: 03/15/21 5:47 pm ::: |
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Oh thank goodness. I thought she might get a pass this year, but the program definitely needs a new direction. She was good at Long Beach St, but I guess she just couldn't make that jump to a major conference.
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019
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ClayK
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
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| Posted: 03/15/21 6:23 pm ::: |
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This is a surprise because she had at least two years left on her contract. Washington is taking women's basketball seriously, it looks like.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
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| Posted: 03/15/21 7:49 pm ::: |
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I'm old enough to remember when people swore Rizzotti was the heir apparent at UConn ...
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Youth Coach
Joined: 23 Mar 2008
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| Posted: 03/16/21 6:29 am ::: |
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I followed Hartford when she was the coach there but when she moved to GW, she kind of fell off my radar. I was surprised to see it had been five years since she got hired. Time flies. |
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purduefanatic
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
Posts: 2819
Location: Indiana
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| Posted: 03/16/21 8:20 am ::: |
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| PUmatty wrote: |
I'm old enough to remember when people swore Rizzotti was the heir apparent at UConn ... |
I would have been one of those people. She really seemed like a rising star.
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019
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| Posted: 03/16/21 9:09 am ::: |
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| ClayK wrote: |
This is a surprise because she had at least two years left on her contract. Washington is taking women's basketball seriously, it looks like. |
Two things.
1) I think the fact that every other Pac-12 program in the Pacific Northwest – particularly WSU – has now usurped the Huskies put more pressure on Jen Cohen, our AD.
And 2) Cohen's also faced many, many calls to somehow fire our men's coach, even though he's signed for the next four seasons at a much higher salary than Wynn was. I'm thinking Wynn's firing was a bit of a scapegoat firing so that Cohen could say she was trying to fix things & she could turn at least one shitty basketball program around to make things easier on herself. I too am a little surprised Cohen didn't let Wynn have a year with what I believe would've been (and could still be) our highest-ranked recruiting class. But, desperate times, I guess. Fine by me.
So then, I wonder if Cohen will go after the same candidates she went after the last time we needed a new coach (Mark Campbell and Melanie Balcomb) or if she has someone different in mind. I really freakin' hope it's finally Campbell though; that's the only way Wynn's firing truly makes sense in my mind.
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IM in OC
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: 03/16/21 9:22 am ::: |
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| Stormeo wrote: |
| ClayK wrote: |
This is a surprise because she had at least two years left on her contract. Washington is taking women's basketball seriously, it looks like. |
Two things.
1) I think the fact that every other Pac-12 program in the Pacific Northwest – particularly WSU – has now usurped the Huskies put more pressure on Jen Cohen, our AD.
And 2) Cohen's also faced many, many calls to somehow fire our men's coach, even though he's signed for the next four seasons at a much higher salary than Wynn was. I'm thinking Wynn's firing was a bit of a scapegoat firing so that Cohen could say she was trying to fix things & she could turn at least one shitty basketball program around to make things easier on herself. I too am a little surprised Cohen didn't let Wynn have a year with what I believe would've been (and could still be) our highest-ranked recruiting class. But, desperate times, I guess. Fine by me.
So then, I wonder if Cohen will go after the same candidates she went after the last time we needed a new coach (Mark Campbell and Melanie Balcomb) or if she has someone different in mind. I really freakin' hope it's finally Campbell though; that's the only way Wynn's firing truly makes sense in my mind. |
Coaching changes often brings along recruits changing their minds because of them. Interesting to see who stays and who goes.
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ClayK
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
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| Posted: 03/16/21 12:19 pm ::: |
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Hiring Mark Campbell, a white male, in these times is not exactly what the PR doctor ordered ...
But give him money and time, and we'll see how much of Oregon's success has been him, and how much credit goes to Kelly Graves.
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purduefanatic
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
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| Posted: 03/16/21 12:32 pm ::: |
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| Stormeo wrote: |
| (Mark Campbell and Melanie Balcomb) or if she has someone different in mind. I really freakin' hope it's finally Campbell though; that's the only way Wynn's firing truly makes sense in my mind. |
I wouldn't be at all upset if Balcomb made the move west.
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PUmatty
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
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| Posted: 03/16/21 2:06 pm ::: |
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| Stormeo wrote: |
| ClayK wrote: |
This is a surprise because she had at least two years left on her contract. Washington is taking women's basketball seriously, it looks like. |
Two things.
1) I think the fact that every other Pac-12 program in the Pacific Northwest – particularly WSU – has now usurped the Huskies put more pressure on Jen Cohen, our AD.
And 2) Cohen's also faced many, many calls to somehow fire our men's coach, even though he's signed for the next four seasons at a much higher salary than Wynn was. I'm thinking Wynn's firing was a bit of a scapegoat firing so that Cohen could say she was trying to fix things & she could turn at least one shitty basketball program around to make things easier on herself. I too am a little surprised Cohen didn't let Wynn have a year with what I believe would've been (and could still be) our highest-ranked recruiting class. But, desperate times, I guess. Fine by me.
So then, I wonder if Cohen will go after the same candidates she went after the last time we needed a new coach (Mark Campbell and Melanie Balcomb) or if she has someone different in mind. I really freakin' hope it's finally Campbell though; that's the only way Wynn's firing truly makes sense in my mind. |
Balcomb's profile sure hasn't been helped by being part of Purdue's sinking ship the last couple of years ...
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019
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| Posted: 03/16/21 2:30 pm ::: |
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| IM in OC wrote: |
| Coaching changes often brings along recruits changing their minds because of them. Interesting to see who stays and who goes. |
Agreed. We were scheduled to have at least 16 players on scholarship next season, so I think we'll be able to survive a few departures, even if more of them come from the recruiting class. Hopefully the new coaching staff is able to at least keep some of the key players (namely Sadler, Miller, and a few freshmen).
| PUmatty wrote: |
| Balcomb's profile sure hasn't been helped by being part of Purdue's sinking ship the last couple of years ... |
Agreed. I can't see her getting another interview.
Someone put out this list of ideal candidates and I can't say I would be too upset with any of them (other than that dark-horse candidate lmao). Some are a little random, but I think any of them would be better than Balcomb at this point.
| ClayK wrote: |
Hiring Mark Campbell, a white male, in these times is not exactly what the PR doctor ordered ...
But give him money and time, and we'll see how much of Oregon's success has been him, and how much credit goes to Kelly Graves. |
Clay, do you really think hiring a white male would garner backlash here? I haven't heard of fans clamoring to give Wynn more chances because of her womanhood, or even that a woman of color should've gotten the job to begin with instead of Wynn – I've heard of fans wanting to replace Wynn with a coach who can actually win! IMO, reasonable & legitimate fans of a team will give any coach some amount of time to find their footing, and then want them fired whenever that time is considered up – no matter who it is, & no matter what they look like.
I also don't recall Husky fans being upset about going from Tia Jackson to Kevin McGuff, but I admittedly didn't start following the team until the McGuff years; and that was also a decade ago when times were different. If anyone can say that Husky fans decried that hire for the reasons Clay's suggesting, let me know!
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PickledGinger
Joined: 04 Oct 2013
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| Posted: 03/16/21 4:06 pm ::: |
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| Stormeo wrote: |
| I also don't recall Husky fans being upset about going from Tia Jackson to Kevin McGuff, but I admittedly didn't start following the team until the McGuff years; and that was also a decade ago when times were different. If anyone can say that Husky fans decried that hire for the reasons Clay's suggesting, let me know! |
I would prefer a female coach, but as long as they win I don't really care. They really need to go all in though, and invest in someone who they know can win. I would probably be happy with any of the 5 on that list, but I for one hope the Huskies try to poach Lisa Fortier from Gonzaga. She's coming off her best season at Gonzaga and has proven to be a game-winning coach who gets the most out of her talent. She's also losing 4 starters, so the timing couldn't be better for her to capitalize off of her success. She's familiar with regional recruiting - although she admittedly would need to do so at a higher level. And on a personal level, her children are young enough to not have their social lives upended by the move. I just think that it would be a match made in heaven, and that she is a program leader that could elevate the Huskies into a consistant tournament program.
It didn't happen when they tried with Graves in 2011 but I just have a great feeling about this.
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Last edited by PickledGinger on 03/16/21 4:21 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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CamrnCrz1974
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
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purduefanatic
Joined: 10 Aug 2011
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| Posted: 03/16/21 5:21 pm ::: |
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Good timing as they will have plenty of candidates in and around the San Antonio area for the next few weeks.
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summertime blues
Joined: 16 Apr 2013
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| Posted: 03/16/21 5:58 pm ::: |
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| purduefanatic wrote: |
| Stormeo wrote: |
| (Mark Campbell and Melanie Balcomb) or if she has someone different in mind. I really freakin' hope it's finally Campbell though; that's the only way Wynn's firing truly makes sense in my mind. |
I wouldn't be at all upset if Balcomb made the move west. |
I have never shared other people's high opinion of Balcomb. Never. She left Vandy in the state it was for Steph White and Steph can't get it out either.
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It takes 3 years to build a team and 7 to build a program.--Conventional Wisdom
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bcdawg04
Joined: 12 Apr 2016
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| Posted: 03/16/21 6:30 pm ::: |
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| Stormeo wrote: |
| I also don't recall Husky fans being upset about going from Tia Jackson to Kevin McGuff, but I admittedly didn't start following the team until the McGuff years; and that was also a decade ago when times were different. If anyone can say that Husky fans decried that hire for the reasons Clay's suggesting, let me know! |
Not that I know of. Jackson needed to go. She was hired at a time when the football program was in the dumps and the money wasn't there to go after a big name. The athletic department took a chance on someone without head coaching experience. She had the pedigree and was a great recruiter, but it didn't work. Part of the problem was certainly that Jackson brought a little too much East coast with her. It wasn't a good fit, and it showed in her results.
When Jackson was at UW, Washington became the first NCAA school with three Black coaches heading, respectively, football, men's basketball, and women's basketball. (In my opinion, Coach Romar is a great coach, but the NBA age rule changed men's college recruiting completely and he couldn't...let's say, adapt.)
I certainly hope we give serious consideration to candidates who are women of color or women in general. However, any serious candidate needs to have West coast ties. McGuff was really close to staying, but ultimately him returning to Ohio was only a surprise because of the timing - he signed an extension with UW like a couple of days before he left. Neighbors was never going to stay. To coaches like them, this is a stepping stone. If we get Campbell, I think the main question will be whether he can make the jump from assistant to head coach.
This is UW. Given the academics, the conference, and the amount of local talent it is inexcusable to have this program consistently in the bottom half of the Pac-12.
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009
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| Posted: 03/16/21 8:11 pm ::: |
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Beth Cunningham?? Is she ready to re-build a program with 4 small kids at home? Being from Bloomington she probably has some help nearby.
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“Thank you for showing the fellas that you've got more balls than them,” Haley said, to cheers from the crowd.
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Stormeo
Joined: 14 Jul 2019
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| Posted: 03/16/21 11:07 pm ::: |
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| PickledGinger wrote: |
I would prefer a female coach, but as long as they win I don't really care. They really need to go all in though, and invest in someone who they know can win. I would probably be happy with any of the 5 on that list, but I for one hope the Huskies try to poach Lisa Fortier from Gonzaga. She's coming off her best season at Gonzaga and has proven to be a game-winning coach who gets the most out of her talent. She's also losing 4 starters, so the timing couldn't be better for her to capitalize off of her success. She's familiar with regional recruiting - although she admittedly would need to do so at a higher level. And on a personal level, her children are young enough to not have their social lives upended by the move. I just think that it would be a match made in heaven, and that she is a program leader that could elevate the Huskies into a consistent tournament program.
It didn't happen when they tried with Graves in 2011 but I just have a great feeling about this. |
Fortier would make a fine hire. Despite being at Gonzaga for many years now, she's only been their head coach for six or seven, so I do wonder how ready she'd be to leave & take on the challenge presented at Washington. She could much more easily keep Gonzaga at the top of the WCC than rebuild a Pac-12 program surrounded by fierce competition. I see she's from a small town in California, so I wonder if she'd even want to move to a big city like Seattle (Spokane's a decent-sized city as well, but it probably feels more like her foothills hometown than Seattle does). I also wonder if she thinks she can ever build Gonzaga wbb into anything like its male counterparts, where it's arguably harder to do in mbb with all that parity than wbb.
Anyway, my main choice is Campbell because he's young, he's actually from here, he has received national accolades for his assistant coaching performance, he's a proven recruiter at the Power-5 level, and maybe – just maybe – he can bring a recruit or two from Oregon over to here to expedite the re-rebuilding process.  And like I mentioned, he has interviewed with us last time, which signals to me that he's not content to just wait X amount of years for Graves to retire and hand the Duck keys over to him. If we don't get him, I fear another Pac-12 program will and take full advantage of his services. Like you pointed out in the transfers thread, Utah has had a couple key ones lately, which might lead to Lynne Roberts getting axed pretty soon here. It could be now or never this time arround if we still want him. I hope Oregon (and Gonzaga) get eliminated from the Tourney early on, in the hopes that it speeds up this hiring process. 
| bcdawg04 wrote: |
Jackson needed to go. She was hired at a time when the football program was in the dumps and the money wasn't there to go after a big name. The athletic department took a chance on someone without head coaching experience. She had the pedigree and was a great recruiter, but it didn't work. Part of the problem was certainly that Jackson brought a little too much East coast with her. It wasn't a good fit, and it showed in her results.
When Jackson was at UW, Washington became the first NCAA school with three Black coaches heading, respectively, football, men's basketball, and women's basketball. (In my opinion, Coach Romar is a great coach, but the NBA age rule changed men's college recruiting completely and he couldn't...let's say, adapt.)
I certainly hope we give serious consideration to candidates who are women of color or women in general. However, any serious candidate needs to have West coast ties. McGuff was really close to staying, but ultimately him returning to Ohio was only a surprise because of the timing - he signed an extension with UW like a couple of days before he left. Neighbors was never going to stay. To coaches like them, this is a stepping stone. If we get Campbell, I think the main question will be whether he can make the jump from assistant to head coach.
This is UW. Given the academics, the conference, and the amount of local talent it is inexcusable to have this program consistently in the bottom half of the Pac-12. |
Thank you for all this insight!! Yeah, it's definitely crazy how up-and-down Husky wbb has been – especially within the past 6 years or so. No excuses given all the resources, especially considering how good virtually all our other women's sports have been in comparison. I'm glad, and very lucky, I missed most of those bad years leading up to McGuff and then Neighbors. The play of one Jaz Davis single-handedly piqued my interest in the program – and subsequently collegiate wbb – and I've been invested ever since. 
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ClayK
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
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| Posted: 03/17/21 9:01 am ::: |
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| I don't think fans are the issue in terms of hiring a white male right now -- it's more the internal politics of the university and how they relate to public perception of UW's wokeness. And "the public" is the broader public in the state and around the country, most of whom are uninterested in the basketball team but very, very invested in giving people of color, especially female people of color, every opportunity to succeed.
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pilight
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