Allegations of Abuse & Mistreatment at Texas Tech

[Carnac]

Ok, I will take that bet! Only because I want to believe that schools will do a better job vetting coaches and what their "character is".
That said, I guess some former coach/player who worked with or under Stollings/Dawkins would "sell" Stollings or Dawkins skills and the fact that the two of them have mended their ways and will be on a short leasch, but I HIGHLY DOUBT either will ever be a head coach again. Just too much downside for a program to take that chance, I mean after all both Swoopes and Connie Yori got jobs after being let go with cause so you unfortunately have past history on your side of the bet...

That's one bet I sincerely hope you win.

 

[JellyBean]

This is definitely not a good look for Texas Tech and their WBB program as well as Coach Stollings and her staff. The strength & conditioning coach definitely crossed the line. Surprised that he didn't get fired from the jump for his actions. He took the easy way out and quit. The thing that rubs me the wrong way is, we all have either been at a practice (male or female coach) at the high school or college level or attend a game (male or female) and hear coaches making comments towards a player(s). Some of the comments are cringeworthy but depending on the coach or the program, those comments get pushed to the side and we get "That is coach being coach." Then 5, 10,15, 20 years down the road, we hear how when "coach was being coach", the player(s) that was/were called out, now suffering from some type of PTSD situation. The bottom line is, no matter the coach or their success level, if wrong is wrong, folks gotta call them out and be consistent across the board.

 

[southie]

Texas Tech coaching disasters beginning to taint Kirby Hocutt’s legacy

Yet another coaching disaster has rocked Texas Tech and threatens to taint the legacy of AD Kirby Hocutt, who was once untouchable.

wreckemred.com

Opinion: Texas Tech should drop AD Kirby Hocutt after he failed women's basketball players

Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt knew for many months there was trouble with the women's basketball program but was slow to fire coaches.

www.usatoday.com

Williams column: Stollings mess puts Hocutt in hot seat

Spike Dykes, when he was far along in his 13-year tenure as Texas Tech football coach, used to tickle the funny bone of an audience with this line: They

www.lubbockonline.com

 

[Urshurak]

Karen Aston a possibility?

 

[DefenseBB]

Wow, the Williams column makes the comment that he was not sure Hocutt wanted to hire Stollings and references "hiring a women" that cut the pool of candidates in half. To me, the fact of wanting to hire a women is not the issue, hiring the RIGHT women is. Where was the vetting process for Stollings especially now that we are hearing the rumblings from Minnesota and VCU. We do know Hocutt let Stollings hire Dawkins who was formally let go over abusive behavior at New Mexico and for that, he should be admonished.

 

[Plebe]

'An environment of fear': Former Gophers describe playing for Marlene Stollings

Three of Marlene Stollings' players with the Gophers said she mistreated them, too.

www.startribune.com

“The culture sounded familiar because all of that is true,” said Brunson, who was recruited by Stollings out of New York and played two seasons for her at Minnesota before finishing her Gophers career with two seasons under Lindsay Whalen.​

​

Added Bello, who is from Michigan and was in the same graduating class with Brunson this past spring: “The first thing that came to my mind when I read the article was, ‘that sounds about right.’ ”​

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Karen Aston a possibility?

I suspect that picking up a Texas cast off would not sit well with the alums. Then there is the fact that Aston enjoyed high caliber recruits with the Texas cache, but year after year her teams feel short.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Texas Tech Former Captain says there is plenty more abuse from former Coach and staff. Buddy on another board put me on this. She was drafted 17th in WNBA second round this year,

Brewer speaks: Former Texas Tech captain backs up abuse claims

EDITOR’S NOTE: Former Texas Tech women’s basketball player Brittany Brewer, now with the Atlanta Dream of the WNBA, penned this personal

www.lubbockonline.com

 

[DaBball]

 

[nwhoopfan]

Seriously? There's been speculation about him taking a HC position eventually, I really thought he would've held out for a more desirable, high profile position.

 

[oldude]

Seriously? There's been speculation about him taking a HC position eventually, I really thought he would've held out for a more desirable, high profile position.

Graves isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. TX Tech is a pretty good opportunity imo. TX is loaded with HS talent, and you’re playing in a top-heavy conference with only Baylor and maybe a rejuvenated TX under a new HC to worry about. Good opportunity for a young coach.

 

[lebronfan23]

I would have went with Tina Langley. She can definitely can coach.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Graves isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. TX Tech is a pretty good opportunity imo. TX is loaded with HS talent, and you’re playing in a top-heavy conference with only Baylor and maybe a rejuvenated TX under a new HC to worry about. Good opportunity for a young coach.

TT is at BEST the 4th best program in the state behind Baylor, Texas and A&M, I'd probably put them behind TCU at this point. Marsha Sharp had a good thing going there until she retired after the 05-06 season. Since then they've been thru 3 coaches, only ONE season over .500 in conference, only 2 NCAA Tourney appearances. That's a pretty crappy 15 year run. I would not call TT a good job/program at this point. I still think Campbell could've easily found something better.

 

[oldude]

TT is at BEST the 4th best program in the state behind Baylor, Texas and A&M, I'd probably put them behind TCU at this point. Marsha Sharp had a good thing going there until she retired after the 05-06 season. Since then they've been thru 3 coaches, only ONE season over .500 in conference, only 2 NCAA Tourney appearances. That's a pretty crappy 15 year run. I would not call TT a good job/program at this point. I still think Campbell could've easily found something better.

Time will tell. Campbell brings a lot of energy, and from all indications he is an excellent recruiter. If he can swing a couple top kids to Lubbock, who knows.

 

[DefenseBB]

A few thoughts come to mind for me:
1. What a great and I mean GREAT written response by Brittany Brewer. For those who haven't clicked on Rocky's link, I implore you to do so. I am now a huge Brittany fan.
2. From the snippets I have seen of Mark Campbell, his positivity is exactly what this program needs. He has watched 1st hand how Kelly took a terrible program and made into a National program, one of the 10 best jobs in a short amount of time. Given the Tech history in WCBB, I do think this is a good job for him. At the moment it is well behind Baylor, TCU, Texas and A&M in Texas alone but it does have significant capability and I hope Mark gets the job.

While I certainly can understand @nwhoopfan perspective, I sort of disagree that any other P5 job that would come open would also have its limitations. Just what program is nearing a need to hire that isn't A) really terrible (think Pitt, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington/WSU, Colorado, Ole Miss, Auburn, Vanderbilt) or has an outdated perspective of itself-Purdue, LSU, Alabama.

He has a huge opportunity here and lots of upside.

 

[DaBball]

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Her team was 24-7 last year and co-champs of the Sun Belt Conference. Here is her Bio.

Krista Gerlich - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Texas Arlington Athletics

Krista Gerlich has guided a resurgence for the Lady Mavericks since being named head coach on April 11, 2013. Gerlich, who recently wrapped up her seventh season

utamavs.com

 

[JDuro]

 

[nwhoopfan]

So much for the talk about Campbell.

It this an out of left field hire? Someone mentioned the Rice coach somewhere in this thread, she's really done a nice job building that program. I really don't know anything about UT Arlington.

 

[nwhoopfan]

While I certainly can understand @nwhoopfan perspective, I sort of disagree that any other P5 job that would come open would also have its limitations.

Washington

Points taken. Out of all the schools you mentioned, UW stands out. The last 3 years have been really tough, but they went to Final 4 in '16, Sweet 16 in '17, won 20+ games 6 years in a row starting in '11-'12 and were over .500 in conference all but the first year of that stretch, in a tough conference. Their success is not nearly as far in the rear view mirror as some of the other schools mentioned, or non existent like a few of them.

 

[nwhoopfan]

2. From the snippets I have seen of Mark Campbell, his positivity is exactly what this program needs. He has watched 1st hand how Kelly took a terrible program and made into a National program

Prior to being on Graves' staff at UO, he was with Rueck at OSU and also saw first hand their ascendancy from terrible to national program.

 

[DaBball]

So much for the talk about Campbell.

It this an out of left field hire? Someone mentioned the Rice coach somewhere in this thread, she's really done a nice job building that program. I really don't know anything about UT Arlington.

Not exactly. Former player and has done a solid job turning UT Arlington into a 20-win team for the most part.

Agree on the Rice coach, Tina Langley. She may want a school that is stronger academically, similar to Banghart, who said UNC, UVA, and Duke were the lone schools who would have been able to pry her away from Princeton.

 

[DefenseBB]

Points taken. Out of all the schools you mentioned, UW stands out. The last 3 years have been really tough, but they went to Final 4 in '16, Sweet 16 in '17, won 20+ games 6 years in a row starting in '11-'12 and were over .500 in conference all but the first year of that stretch, in a tough conference. Their success is not nearly as far in the rear view mirror as some of the other schools mentioned, or non existent like a few of them.

One of my favorite phrases solely due to the visual that is represents is "that's like putting lipstick on a pig" in that your comment is a bit out of context as Neighbors rode all of Kevin McGuff's recruits to that final four and along with the program having significant transfers shortly after Neighbors left, leaving the program bereft of any talent, leaving a horizon that looks horrible. But hey, far be it from me to say obfuscate the "but they went to Final 4 in '16, Sweet 16 in '17, won 20+ games 6 years in a row starting in '11-'12 and were over .500 in conference all but the first year of that stretch, in a tough conference" quote. I know you are much more astute that fondly thinking the success prior to the current coaching and what Neighbors left you with are just a short term blip...they aren't. That said, it looks like Campbell is staying at UO for the near term.

I would say to @DaBball that this is not a great hire for Texas Tech. It's a "cop out" hire that will not propel the Red Raiders to the forefront of the Big12. In 7 years of coaching in the Sun Belt Conference she never once won 2 games in their conference tournament, never made it to the NCAAT and never played a great OOC with 2018-19 being their best ranking finish of 88. Mostly never lower than 120. So yes, this is out of left field from P5 school picking a coach from the 21st Ranked conference. This was not the best option, not even the safest given her Drunk driving arrest in 2015. That AD has to go....

 

[nwhoopfan]

One of my favorite phrases solely due to the visual that is represents is "that's like putting lipstick on a pig" in that your comment is a bit out of context as Neighbors rode all of Kevin McGuff's recruits to that final four and along with the program having significant transfers shortly after Neighbors left, leaving the program bereft of any talent, leaving a horizon that looks horrible. But hey, far be it from me to say obfuscate the "but they went to Final 4 in '16, Sweet 16 in '17, won 20+ games 6 years in a row starting in '11-'12 and were over .500 in conference all but the first year of that stretch, in a tough conference" quote. I know you are much more astute that fondly thinking the success prior to the current coaching and what Neighbors left you with are just a short term blip...they aren't. That said, it looks like Campbell is staying at UO for the near term.

Well...the Tia Jackson era was fairly dismal, and that was immediately rectified as soon as McGuff was on board. Prior to Tia, there was some measure of success w/ June Daugherty and more so under Chris Gobrecht before her. Winning on Montlake is not a ludicrous proposition. The Plum years were the height of the program's success, but well prior to that there were a handful of 1st and 2nd place finishes in conference, and that was while Tara was doing her thing at Stanford.

Even with the current state of the program, I think it's not comparable to most of the others you mentioned. Several have never had any type of success at all, and some others haven't been particularly successful for something like 20 or 30 years. Maybe Vandy, LSU and Purdue could be resurrected under the right coach. The rest of those schools, I have a hard time seeing them ever go anywhere.

 

[southie]

Schovanec: After coach hire, Lady Raiders' program to be reviewed

Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec says the university will thoroughly review the situation inside the Lady...

www.lubbockonline.com