Congrats to Jimmy Dykes & Arkansas Women.

[CocoHusky]

May the chirping from his detractors that came with the hiring of Jimmy Dykes at Arkansas last year forever simply Go Away. For those that do not recall the chirping sounded like this “ There are so many better qualified female candidates” “He’s never coached women before” , “He is not going to do well in the SEC-the best conference in WCBB” , “He would not even have been a candidate if he was not alumni of Arkansas” “He is coming from broadcasting”……

Congrats to Jimmy for getting it done and proving that it does not need to take 5 years and you don’t necessarily need blue chip players if you have enough passion.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I didn't know who Jimmy was until a few years ago, but I liked his enthusiasm announcing men's college games for ESPN. He was stoked today.

As Rebecca and Kara noted, Arkansas plays hard and sticks to the game plan. Those things can get you 20 wins in many leagues, even with modest talent.

 

[ThisJustIn]

I have nary an issue with the so-called "chirping." There was nothing to suggest that he was at all prepared for the position and everything support what you call "chirping." Of course, hindsight is 20-20, no? Would love to see your posts suggesting Dykes was a brilliant hire.

Or, now that you're on his bandwagon, can you start making predictions about his and Arkansas' future?

 

[CocoHusky]

I have nary an issue with the so-called "chirping." There was nothing to suggest that he was at all prepared for the position and everything support what you call "chirping." Of course, hindsight is 20-20, no? Would love to see your posts suggesting Dykes was a brilliant hire.
Or, now that you're on his bandwagon, can you start making predictions about his and Arkansas' future?

I was not a poster on this board at the time of the Dykes hiring therefore I have no posting here to suggesting Dykes was a good hire.
There were people who did more than Chirp and were brave enough to go on the record. Kate Fagan ( who I respect immensely but on this issue strongly disagree with ) called the hiring a double standard, Geno was quoted as saying the hiring was "out of the box". I have no idea if Geno meant good out of the box or bad out of the box. But Fagan used Geno quote to imply that there was something wrong with this hiring.
http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-comme...pnw-basketball-double-standard-coaching-hires
To be clear my disgust was with the process and the implication that anyone ( man or woman) is more entitled for consideration of the position by virtue of their sex. Is the same kind of disgust I feel at the suggestion that WCBB would be better if its best coach were a woman-utter garbage IMO.
Dykes was qualified for the position. His resume included being an assistant basketball coach for Men at the college level OK St. He saw an opportunity at his school and he went for it. Did that give him the inside track? Absolutely. But that is the way the entire world works. If you know someone on the inside work that angle-use that alumni network. My prediction for the Arkansas women going forward is that they will continue to play passionately because they have Jimmy Dykes as coach. WCBB is better.

 

[CocoHusky]

More Data Points. I was wrong there was more than chirping people were down right angry.

“The blowback stems partly from the fact that Dykes, who worked as a men's assistant for six schools and spent several years as an NBA scout, has never held a position in the women's game. Mostly, though, it's because Dykes is a man.”

Tara VanDereer-Stanford Coach

"It (Dykes Hiring) was very depressing," "To me, it just showed where we're at. Would they do something like that in men's basketball? I'm not believing it."

Chris Gobrecht Yale Coach tweeted that Arkansas was "not showing respect for our game and our athletes by making that hire."

Brenda Paul, a former coach at Mississippi State wrote a newspaper column calling the Dykes hire a "slap in the face to all in the profession.

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/06/03/jimmy-dykes-espn-arkansas-womens-basketball

 

[j66kicker]

If Arkansas was at all concerned with any of the criticism (which I doubt), they probably consider Dyke's 10-seeded team 'slapping' 7 seed Northwestern today as vindication.

 

[tennparker3]

I was all for him when he was hired. New perspective, new energy, new everything. Arkansas has always been able to get solid recruits because of an above average talent pool in state and surrounding states so he could be quite successful if he continues to put together teams that fight as hard and buy in to a system as much as this years team does. I'm not sure how successful of program he can build but he has done a commendable job with 9 players in his first year.

He returns a lot of talent next year and has some solid recruits coming in so I see Arkansas continuing to rise for the next few years at the very least.

 

[HuskyNan]

Another great Kate Fagan article:

[Bill] Laimbeer took over the [WNBA's Detroit] Shock in the middle of the 2002 season after the team's 0-10 start. One of the first games of his tenure was against the Charlotte Sting, coached by Anne Donovan, a women's basketball lifer. On her staff as an assistant was up-and-comer Cheryl Reeve, who would go on to work with Laimbeer in Detroit and is now head coach of the Minnesota Lynx. "I remember we were standing at half court before shootaround and we ran into Bill," Reeve says. "Anne said to him, 'Welcome to the women's game.' And Bill said, 'Oh, I've been in the women's game. I coached my daughter's AAU team.'"

That was the extent of Laimbeer's coaching experience. And, for Reeve and Donovan, his pronouncement was the equivalent of saying, "Oh, I've been a chef before: I once microwaved Spaghetti-O's." The two women walked away rolling their eyes and thinking, "Here we go again." Laimbeer was just another NBA guy swooping in to take a coveted job, an opportunity many female assistants in the league believed they would never get.

Reeve summarizes the WNBA's thinking at the time: "'Hey, we got an NBA guy sitting around here somewhere? He should be able to do something.' We saw so many NBA-type gimmick hires that were just awful, and terrible for the game."

 

[cabbie191]

I recently met a woman whose daughter is an assistant coach (field hockey) at a Big Ten university. Lauren is an avid women's sports fan - and very knowledgeable in particular about WCBB.

She expressed resentment over the general trend of men taking head coaching positions on women's teams. As it pertains to WCBB, her perspective is that it was women like Pat and Jodi and Vivian and others who paved the way, and that men only began taking these jobs when the sport's profile grew and the salaries increased.

She also said the same trend line exists in other sports such as her daughter's.

I am not saying she is right or wrong factually, because I don't know enough about the history of coaching trends to reach a conclusion, but I thought her feelings were interesting, and I wonder how widespread they are and if they factored into the reaction to the hiring of Dykes.

 

[2Husky]

He's done a nice job, and I like him. What I didn't like was the waiver to the hiring rules, so they could hire him more quickly. Jimmy probably was the best candidate for reasons beyond basketball, not to say he wasn't qualified basketball wise. But the optics of rushing through the hiring process for someone who hadn't coached in years warranted some criticism.

 

[connboy77]

I was all for him when he was hired. New perspective, new energy, new everything. Arkansas has always been able to get solid recruits because of an above average talent pool in state and surrounding states so he could be quite successful if he continues to put together teams that fight as hard and buy in to a system as much as this years team does. I'm not sure how successful of program he can build but he has done a commendable job with 9 players in his first year.

He returns a lot of talent next year and has some solid recruits coming in so I see Arkansas continuing to rise for the next few years at the very least.

How can you not root for a guy like Dykes? Arkansas will only get better with a coach like Dykes.

 

[Huskies Rule]

It seems the Dykes hiring 'controversy' can only be judged over time. Whether you like him or hate him now, if Arkansas becomes a top SEC program and a regular to the NCAA tournament, then his can be considered a good hire. If not, then all the naysayers will gleefully remind everyone "I told you so." His gender, experience, and annoying drawl will ultimately prove to be secondary to the question- can he coach, recruit, motivate at the D1 level. In big time WCBB, winning is the true test, all the other stuff is political BS. Oh yeah, watching this guy's frenetic, animated sideline antics brings to mind a pretty decent coach from years back who a lot of folks still don't like.

 

[zls44]

Another great Kate Fagan article: [Bill] Laimbeer took over the [WNBA's Detroit] Shock in the middle of the 2002 season after the team's 0-10 start. One of the first games of his tenure was against the Charlotte Sting, coached by Anne Donovan, a women's basketball lifer. On her staff as an assistant was up-and-comer Cheryl Reeve, who would go on to work with Laimbeer in Detroit and is now head coach of the Minnesota Lynx. "I remember we were standing at half court before shootaround and we ran into Bill," Reeve says. "Anne said to him, 'Welcome to the women's game.' And Bill said, 'Oh, I've been in the women's game. I coached my daughter's AAU team.'" That was the extent of Laimbeer's coaching experience. And, for Reeve and Donovan, his pronouncement was the equivalent of saying, "Oh, I've been a chef before: I once microwaved Spaghetti-O's." The two women walked away rolling their eyes and thinking, "Here we go again." Laimbeer was just another NBA guy swooping in to take a coveted job, an opportunity many female assistants in the league believed they would never get. Reeve summarizes the WNBA's thinking at the time: "'Hey, we got an NBA guy sitting around here somewhere? He should be able to do something.' We saw so many NBA-type gimmick hires that were just awful, and terrible for the game."

Yeah, Bill really didn't work out.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

I have kind of an inverse perspective - I have no problem with a man coaching a women's team, but women need to be given equal opportunities to coach men's teams. Are there even any female assistant coaches (coaches, not administrators) in MBB? To me, that is the REAL problem.

I cheer/watch WBB the same as I watch MBB. The same comments to players to get in their heads, etc. (nothing ever off color, FTR) I've occasionally had people say I should give them a break "because they're women". Talk about condescending.

 

[rocky rococo]

Foghorn, I share your position. There is, finally, one female asst coach in the NBA, Becky Hammon, with the (no surprise here) Spurs.