Coquese Washington Named Rutgers Head Women’s Basketball Coach

[Coler]

Coquese Washington Named Rutgers Head Women’s Basketball Coach - Rutgers University Athletics

 

[Dillon77]

Now, even an ND alum and observer can say, that's a surprise.

It's not as if I think Coach Q can't do a good job: she started off well at Penn State, but then had an inexorable slide to the mediocre state of things. Interestingly, she had an ok last two years of recruiting (Lauren Ebo -- ironically, now at ND for a grad year -- and Karima Ortiz, former HS teammate of Haley Jones among them. But she wasn't around to coach them.

However, she hasn't been ND's top recruiter (that role is probably split between Coach Ivey and Michaela Mabrey), so I don't know how well she knows the current scene in Jersey. And there's a lot to learn. It will be essential for her to keep/bring in folks that know the state and will make connections to key high school and AAU programs.

 

[HuskyMJ]

New Jersey is a natural recruiting ground for Penn State so did Coquese have a track record of recruiting good players from Jersey to Penn State? If not then this hire is a little more difficult to get

 

[choochoo]

I am kinda shocked that it is not a former C Viv player as many are in the NCAA coaching ranks. A couple come to mind but who knows why this hire.

 

[Dillon77]

New Jersey is a natural recruiting ground for Penn State so did Coquese have a track record of recruiting good players from Jersey to Penn State? If not then this hire is a little more difficult to get

The best player out of her last round of recruits was McKenna Marisa, by far and away Penn State's best player the last two years. However, she's from western Pa., but -- hey -- that was Penn State territory and Rutgers does venture into Pa. She's also recruited two other players - Shay Hagan and Anna Camden -- who are from the I-95 corridor. Mya Bembry, from West Orange, NJ, was also in that class but transferred from Kieger to transfer U: Seton Hall University and was a starter on that team that got to the NIT finals.

Ironically, Washington's best player ever -- Maggie Lucas -- was just hired by Carolyn Kieger, Washington's successor, to be Director of Player Personnel at Penn State.

 

[bbsamjj]

I am kinda shocked that it is not a former C Viv player as many are in the NCAA coaching ranks. A couple come to mind but who knows why this hire.

There was not a clear "CVS" successor in the coaching ranks.

• Jolette Law, currently an assistant at SC, played and coached for CVS. But she was not a success when head coach at Illinois.
• Chelsea Newton also played and coached for CVS. But she's never been a head coach, and just went with Joni Taylor to A&M as the associate head coach.
• Katie-Abhamson Henderson was already scooped up by UGA
• Karen Lange just joined Kara Lawson's staff at Duke
• Courtney Locke is a head coach, but at a D2 school

Lots of other former players are assistant coaches.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

This is sort of an underwhelming hire but can't say it's a bad one. Washington was good, not great, early on at PSU but never did anything with her success and it was downhill after a point. She does know the B10 and the general area so that could be helpful.

I think RU athletics has experienced some financial challenges and wonder if they have the resources to put in for a major hire or invest in their program. This is just my thoughts from what I've read about a revenue shortfall somewhere along the way. If anyone has more concrete information or I'm just plain wrong, feel free to share.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

This is sort of an underwhelming hire but can't say it's a bad one. Washington was good, not great, early on at PSU but never did anything with her success and it was downhill after a point. She does know the B10 and the general area so that could be helpful.

I think RU athletics has experienced some financial challenges and wonder if they have the resources to put in for a major hire or invest in their program. This is just my thoughts from what I've read about a revenue shortfall somewhere along the way. If anyone has more concrete information or I'm just plain wrong, feel free to share.

Oh, Rutgers sports is a bottomless pit from what I've heard. One of the most subsidized (by taxpayers, ultimately) school athletic programs, as of a few years ago, and no reason to think it has changed. The one advantage of being the State University of NJ.

That said, her salary for next year is over $700K apparently, and in the $4.5 million range over 5 years. Not quite Vivian's $1.2 million for being on leave, or her $800,000 "severance", but still more than respectable.

The big program investment - shared with the men's side and to a lesser extent other sports - was the glistening practice facility that opened a couple of years ago, purportedly one of the finest in the country. It was what Rutgers lacked for years. While there have been and I suppose continue to be upgrades at what is now called Jersey Mike's Arena (but will always be the RAC to me), there is only so much you can do. But it is 8000 seats, considered intimidating to opponents when full, and I suspect not likely to be replaced.

 

[JellyBean]

Loving this hire for Rutgers. Coach Coquese is the right person to help get this once proud program back on the right track. It is not going to be pretty, but Coach C has the right mindset for this challenge. Talking about a complete roster overall. Rebuilding of a Culture. Coach is the one. Great hire, Rutgers

 

[UConnCat]

I'd like to know the list of candidates. I don't see this hire changing things on the banks.

 

[Dillon77]

Oh, Rutgers sports is a bottomless pit from what I've heard. One of the most subsidized (by taxpayers, ultimately) school athletic programs, as of a few years ago, and no reason to think it has changed. The one advantage of being the State University of NJ.

That said, her salary for next year is over $700K apparently, and in the $4.5 million range over 5 years. Not quite Vivian's $1.2 million for being on leave, or her $800,000 "severance", but still more than respectable.

The big program investment - shared with the men's side and to a lesser extent other sports - was the glistening practice facility that opened a couple of years ago, purportedly one of the finest in the country. It was what Rutgers lacked for years. While there have been and I suppose continue to be upgrades at what is now called Jersey Mike's Arena (but will always be the RAC to me), there is only so much you can do. But it is 8000 seats, considered intimidating to opponents when full, and I suspect not likely to be replaced.

Rutgers does not hesitate to put resources into favored sports, that's for sure. So, it won't be a lack of resources that holds a new coaching regime back.

I think the first years of this are going to be tough:

• the "will she stay/will she retire" questions surrounding C. Vivian Stringer have hung over this program for a few years. It's resulted in a constant string of transfers coming in and out. In fact, Rutgers had nine (9) people enter the portal this year thus far.
• And the transition from Coach Stringer to Coach Washington has happened relatively late in the "after season" time period. This timing could affect everything from who was interviewed/hired to what transfers are available now to fill out rosters.
• Lastly, Coach Washington will obviously have to work in hurry to build up a recruiting base moving forward. To help that, I think she'll have to hire a knowledgeable and dynamic recruiting presence for the I-95 corridor/New Jersey area. Interesting, Washington has kept strong connections to the Flint, Michigan area (her hometown) so don't be surprised to see some Michiganders pop up by the Raritan River.

Stay tuned.

 

[Dillon77]

Hey,
Coach Washington, in her introductory press conference, got support from her former Irish charges. Jersey women Dara Mabrey and Olivia Miles and New York City resident Nat Marshall all came to Rutgers to support Coach Washington. Here's a story on that:

Three Notre Dame women’s basketball players attend former Irish assistant’s introductory press conference at Rutgers

There was a heartwarming moment on the campus of Rutgers Wednesday. Three Notre Dame players made it possible.

www.on3.com

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I'd like to know the list of candidates. I don't see this hire changing things on the banks.

According to an insider, which he definitely is, they did look at some of the obvious high profile folks - Barnes-Arico, Berube, Jolette Law (supposedly urged by Dawn and CVS), Chelsea Newton, of course Chris Dailey, none interested. These coaches either had just signed contract extensions, didn't want to come to Rutgers, or it was just the timing. I think with different timing, Barnes-Arico might have been a possibility, while CD was of course a no-go.

He mentioned Ashley Langford of Stony Brook, Toyelle Wilson of SMU and particularly Megan Duffy of Marquette as candidates; while he would have liked them to consider Tammy Reiss of Rhode Island, apparently her contract situation was prohibitive although they did look at her briefly. He hinted, without naming Washington, calling it someone everyone knew from when she was a coach in the B1G.

As to changing things - here's the nub. It is difficult to assess the last 10 years that Vivian was there. Clearly, the last year that she actually "wasn't" there has to be discarded. In those 10 years, Rutgers was not really competitive on the national scene, but clearly had a number of successful seasons by most standards. Made some NCAA's, but didn't advance. Collapsed at ends of seasons with some evidence of locker room issues. Had some decent players but the results were less than the sum of the parts, and a lot of those parts eventually moved on, both before and after the portal. A number of those parts, however, reached high places in RU player rankings and did move on to the WNBA, where it is hard to argue that Copper, Laney and Wheeler are doing well.

I wasn't a Washington fan at Penn State, but she seems to be blaming internal fallout from the Sandusky affair for some of her issues towards the end, and someone checked and found that this was a rocky period in PSU athletics, so there could be some truth to that. Clearly she recruited a star and had success with her in the early part of her career there, and she certainly inherited a disaster at the end of the Rene Portland reign.

I am pretty sure that Rutgers will - once they recover from last season - be competitive and have some decent seasons. Good enough? Don't know. Back on the national scene - definitely not betting - one way or the other - on this.