She is a good coach in the world of women's hoops, and face it, who are they going to get who is better? The women's basketball world is not filled with terrific coaches, certainly not noticeably more successful than she. UConn fans are spoiled. Probably have the best coach in the history of women's hoops. He gets in the way of a few people having championships. How many times since he's been at UConn have really key injuries opened the door to another school winning the NC.? I mean key injuries, like to Sales, and Ralph and Abrosimova to name a few. 8 NCs is not quite an accurate measure of how dominant his program has been. This is an era, where with all due respect - I mean it - to Pat Summitt , the depth of the challenging field during UConn's rise is greater than during much of hers. They are rarely in a close game period, and certainly even more rarely against a team that doesn't figure to belong on the same floor as them. Their down years are just about everyone else's dream year.
Muffett comes reasonably close as a game coach. Tara, very good, but she's not going anywhere. Walz, time will tell. Mulkey, only one NC with a dominant force and one other. Coale? Good coach, no NCs. Andy Landers, the guy who has done less with more except for HOF Sylvia Hatchell (hope she comes through her ordeal ok) than maybe any long-tenured coach in women's hoops? C.Viv has been considered a great coach. The point is, the list of candidates that would be available to any school who seem better than Brenda is darn small (doesn't make her great, just better than the competition) and among those active coaches, none are going to leave their program to go to Maryland. Even among the more successful coaches at mid-majors, the chances of any of them being an upgrade to her are slim. Assistant coaches from other programs? Not an option. Even among Geno proteges, Rizzotti is the only one who jumps out as maybe someone who could get the job done in the right setting. Brenda does have an NC under her belt, a claim not too many current coaches can make.
Sorry to belabor this, but Harry Peretta is, to me, a great example of the real difference between major college men's and women's hoops. I'm not saying it is necessarily good or bad. How long does anyone think Villanova would have retained a men's team coach with Harry's record or approach to the game? His style will not ever attract the kind of talent needed to challenge at the top level of the sport. I think he has a better basketball mind than does Brenda. But Brenda is getting the kind of talent that keeps her team in the top level discussion and is successful enough to preserve her status.
