Early Coaching Hotseat Edition | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Early Coaching Hotseat Edition

DefenseBB said:
I find it a bad public relations release to claim 6 players are all lying. What is their motive?
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Hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. We are one year removed from an investigation of a prominent men’s coach revealing unfounded public accusations.
 
JstVisiting said:
Hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. We are one year removed from an investigation of a prominent men’s coach revealing unfounded public accusations.
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I am still dubious given the whole societal stigma and derision thrown at women when accusations are made and often discounted. False accusations do occur but given the number of plaintiffs, I am siding with them. Usually a "smoking gun" of past bad behavior would exist or other players would be counter-claiming that Tory did not behave in such a manner. None of which has appeared so it is interesting.

The school, who hired him, has to show full support at this time otherwise, they look like they did a poor job overseeing the situation.
 
As long as Quentin Hillsman is coaching, I’ll believe that many schools don’t care about athletes and if coaches can get away with something , they will do it. Until dangerous coaches face criminal prosecution, change seems unlikely.
 
While looking at the potential conference tournament bracket match-ups, I was reminded that the ACC and Big 10 do not let all their teams participate (only 15 of the 18 teams) so in theory, after Sunday, some teams could be moving on with their coaching searches.

In the ACC, the 3 teams not making the ACCT are Pitt, SMU and BC. SMU just hired Adia Barnes so she is safe but I really think she will continue to be abysmal in this job. Pitt is in finishing year 3 of Tory Verdi era of a 5 year deal. He has shown no improvement so while I doubt they would get rid of him now, I put it at 50/50.
BC will have to move on from Bernabei-McNamee as it has be really, really bad the past two years.

In the Big 10, Northwestern, Penn St and Rutgers are the bottom dwellers. Uncle Joe is retiring at NW so I would have they already have a plan in place to target someone outside the program. If they hire from within, they are doomed to be a bottom dweller. PSU has to move on from Kieger. Rutgers is now in year 4 of the Coquese Washington experiment and it has also just been a failure. They really need to move on from her.

While Purdue has made the tournament, Geralds has gone 5-13; 3-15; 3-15 in her last three years in the conference. This is her 5th year. I just think they will move on from her as well.

There are some other curious teams I have been monitoring-Cal and Charmine Smith, while 17-12, I am not sure if they are really showing the improvement in year 7 of this. Last year was her only year above .500 in conference play at 12-6 (prior was 17-62) so does 9-9 really show improvement in weak league?

Kate Paye is only in year 2 for replacing Tara but they are not likely to make the NCAAT for the 2nd straight year which is really not a good look. They are 17-12 but will likely finish 7-11 in conference play. They won't fire her but the signs are clearly there she isn't the answer. When has the top assistant who was designated to replace the legend ever been the answer?

Speaking of "designated heirs", Niele Ivey seems to have ND playing much better ball now and could make some noise in the ACCT and even make the Sweet 16. She is NOT on the Hot Seat.

Any other P4 thoughts?

As @Vowelguy has correctly noted, the mid-major talent is noticeably down this year so the P4 schools will get 30-34 of the 37 "At-large" bids this year so teams like Oregon, Nebraska, Miss State could all get bids that normally would not and thus save their coaches from scrutiny.
 
As somoene noted earlier, key issue is when the contracts end. I think a bunch of schools -- BC, Rutgers, for example -- are unlikely to pay buyouts and will allow the current coach to run her course barring something unethical.
 
Vowelguy said:
As somoene noted earlier, key issue is when the contracts end. I think a bunch of schools -- BC, Rutgers, for example -- are unlikely to pay buyouts and will allow the current coach to run her course barring something unethical.
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My understanding is BC didn't get rid her last year due to the 1 remaining year on the contract so this should be it for her. Same for PSU who had given Kieger one more year but this should be her last year. I think Washington has 1 more year left so Rutgers fans will have to suffer one more year. .

Purdue has Geralds signed until April 2029 but has a buy-out of $1.6 million after this season. Not likely to invoke that but they do have oodles of money now so who knows. She's made 1 NCAAT play-in game in 2023 and two NIT tournaments in 2022 and 2024. Again, the roster is bereft of talent without any notable recruits in the top 100 in any of the last 3 years 2024/2025/2026. She has not done well in the PORTAL so why they would keep her is not logical. It has to be about the money....
 
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DefenseBB said:
My understanding is BC didn't get rid her last year due to the 1 remaining year on the contract so this should be it for her. Same for PSU who had given Kieger one more year but this should be her last year. I think Washington has 1 more year left so Rutgers fans will have to suffer one more year. .

Purdue has Geralds signed until April 2029 but has a buy-out of $1.6 million after this season. Not likely to invoke that but they do have oodles of money now so who knows. She's made 1 NCAAT play-in game in 2023 and two NIT tournaments in 2022 and 2024. Again, the roster is bereft of talent without any notable recruits in the top 100 in any of the last 3 years 2024/2025/2026. She has not done well in the PORTAL so why they would keep her is not logical. It has to be about the money....
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Agreed that it hasnt worked out. Unclear if they have "oodles of money." Rutgers athletics somehow is running a deficit despite B1G payouts. And it's not like they're paying big money to get 5 star FB or MBB recruits.
 
DefenseBB said:
In the ACC, the 3 teams not making the ACCT are Pitt, SMU and BC. SMU just hired Adia Barnes so she is safe but I really think she will continue to be abysmal in this job. Pitt is in finishing year 3 of Tory Verdi era of a 5 year deal. He has shown no improvement so while I doubt they would get rid of him now, I put it at 50/50.
BC will have to move on from Bernabei-McNamee as it has be really, really bad the past two years.
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It's hard to say what direction SMU goes in. Adia has shown herself to be at least a competent coach in the past (though she clearly has her issues) and SMU has pumped significant amounts of cash into other programs (including volleyball, which is barely a cut below the top shelf in the ACC--Pitt, Louisville, and Stanford). Maybe if there are signs next season that she can bring the team to the middle of the pack, the donors will pump in more cash. I'd wait and see with this one.

Pitt? He's done whether the administration is willing to admit or not. He's not getting any ACC-caliber players from here on out.

BC--it's a shame that COVID wiped out Bernabei-McNamee's best chance at an NCAA tournament berth. I thought last year's team underachieved (they did make the WBIT). Once the mass exodus took place after they exited the WBIT, I knew that her time was up. This year's team looks like a high school team. It's awful to watch.

DefenseBB said:
PSU has to move on from Kieger.
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She'll be gone. The better question here is, "who will they pull to replace her?"

DefenseBB said:
Kate Paye is only in year 2 for replacing Tara but they are not likely to make the NCAAT for the 2nd straight year which is really not a good look. They are 17-12 but will likely finish 7-11 in conference play. They won't fire her but the signs are clearly there she isn't the answer. When has the top assistant who was designated to replace the legend ever been the answer?
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Last season, I thought Stanford's biggest issue (besides Paye) was that their roster wasn't built to the demands of the ACC. This season, I see that they have better athletes yet they are still terrible. It's Paye. She's the issue.

DefenseBB said:
Speaking of "designated heirs", Niele Ivey seems to have ND playing much better ball now and could make some noise in the ACCT and even make the Sweet 16. She is NOT on the Hot Seat.
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I agree that she's not on the hot seat, but I disagree that they're set up to make any type of NCAA Tournament run.

DefenseBB said:
As @Vowelguy has correctly noted, the mid-major talent is noticeably down this year so the P4 schools will get 30-34 of the 37 "At-large" bids this year so teams like Oregon, Nebraska, Miss State could all get bids that normally would not and thus save their coaches from scrutiny.
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With Colorado coming on strong and both UVA and Clemson making late season pushes themselves, I'm not so sure that those teams (in bold) make it. Oregon maybe--because they can finish with a 0.500 conference record. The other two teams are going to finish well below 0.500 in their respective conferences.

DefenseBB said:
There are some other curious teams I have been monitoring-Cal and Charmine Smith, while 17-12, I am not sure if they are really showing the improvement in year 7 of this. Last year was her only year above .500 in conference play at 12-6 (prior was 17-62) so does 9-9 really show improvement in weak league?
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Charmin Smith was on the hot seat when Cal played in the Pac 12 because she didn't seem like she had the pieces to figure out that league. By contrast, she's figured out enough of the ACC to at least be a middle of the pack team. She'll be fine unless they fall out of the middle tier.
 
I largely agree with @WBBTakeover with 2 comments -

If Rutgers does not replace Washington after this nauseating season - then they have proven that they no longer care about women's basketball. Of course, there was always some doubt - even in the best of Vivian's years, school support was probably stronger for the mediocre men's team. Just sayin, it is the case at plenty of schools.

Adia Barnes will certainly improve over this season. She has issues that we saw first hand - my opinion was that they involved outdated treatment of athletes (nothing bad, just old school, wait your turn, etc.) and a spoken comment that she doesn't understand why you should play any decent teams OOC as it doesn't seem to help you??? Adia is very likable and can probably recruit, but I'm not sure she can retain and not sure how successful she will be. As I've said several times, her players generally liked her, they just in the end didn't want to play the roles she expected them to.

I don't follow Rutgers or Adia - or a lot of other past WBB interests all that closely, but in general, I want Rutgers to have success (it is my alma mater) and I wish Adia well.
 
Not sure Barnes at SMU the right hire, but it does show that the booster money is now moving over to WBB, which is a good thing.

Rutgers? Somewhat shocking, but it's been big news in NJ the past 2 weeks. Rutgers athletic department has lost $400 million in the years since joining the Big10, and that's with the Big10 football payouts! So yeah, no money for a buyout there.

Amazingly, Florida State facing a similar problem.

Maryland has surprisingly been able to keep their situation OK and improving.
 
who is the first P4 coach to be given walking papers this year?

this often corresponds to which school ends its season earliest
 
Vowelguy said:
who is the first P4 coach to be given walking papers this year?

this often corresponds to which school ends its season earliest
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Well, I thought of three immediately: Kieger at Peen State, Bernabee-mcnamee at BC, and Verdi at Pitt. But with the accusations against him and the really horrible results, I gotta go with Tory Verdi. Pitt seems to be circling the wagons, though, and Carolyn Kieger has done nothing for longer at PSU, so I guess I really don’t know.

(Edited to correct gender of Tory Verdi, thanks Vowelguy.)
 
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Bigboote said:
Well, I thought of three immediately: Kieger at Peen State, Bernabee-mcnamee at BC, and Verdi at Pitt. But with the accusations against her and the really horrible results, I gotta go with Tory Verdi. Pitt seems to be circling the wagons, though, and Carolyn Kieger has done nothing for longer at PSU, so I guess I really don’t know.
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Penn State should play its last game on Saturday. Kieger will be gone by Monday, perhaps earlier.
 
Bigboote said:
Well, I thought of three immediately: Kieger at Peen State, Bernabee-mcnamee at BC, and Verdi at Pitt. But with the accusations against her and the really horrible results, I gotta go with Tory Verdi. Pitt seems to be circling the wagons, though, and Carolyn Kieger has done nothing for longer at PSU, so I guess I really don’t know.
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Tory is guy. And last Pitt said was they were going to vigorously defend him. That was a much stronger response than "we are investigating" which is what we usually hear. So I'd be a little surprised if we get a quick decision.

I think PennSt is a good guess.
 
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On the hiring side ... gotta wonder if Meg Barber from NYU has aspirations. 150-21 and back-to-back NCs.

D3 -> D1 is a biiiig jump

D3 legend Nancy Fahey flamed out at Illinois
But Carla Berube has done well at Princeton

I'd at least check her out.
 
Vowelguy said:
Tory is guy. And last Pitt said was they were going to vigorously defend him.
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DOH! I knew he was a he, I’ll try to correct. And, yeah, I did point out that Pitt is circling the wagons.
 
Vowelguy said:
who is the first P4 coach to be given walking papers this year?

this often corresponds to which school ends its season earliest
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Yeah. We will have some names this time next week as teams get bounced early from their conference tournaments. Of course, some schools MAY start early who don’t even qualify for big tournaments like the big Ten.

Penn State?
 
With PennSt's improbable win over USC tonight, Nittanies just might make the B1G Tourney, and thus wouldn't be done on Saturday. They are tied for the last spot, 15th, but beat Purdue so they likely hold the tiebreaker.

The Boilers do play Northwestern in their finale ....
 
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The only Big 12 candidate I can think of is Sytia Messer
 
Vowelguy said:
On the hiring side ... gotta wonder if Meg Barber from NYU has aspirations. 150-21 and back-to-back NCs.

D3 -> D1 is a biiiig jump

D3 legend Nancy Fahey flamed out at Illinois
But Carla Berube has done well at Princeton

I'd at least check her out.
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Isn’t a big part of D3 success based on just dwarfing everybody else in spending? Genuine question. Feel like I’ve heard that before re: long D3 streaks in other sports.
 
Vowelguy said:
Of Stanford's final 8 games, 5 are against the bottom half of the conference. And the 3 top half (VaT, Va, Clem) are at home. 6-2 is feasible
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so much for that 2-4, likely 3-4 with 1 to go
 
The big rumor on VolNation is both Florida and Texas A&M have already made decisions to move and have target candidates. Interesting in that A&M is finally playing Better albeit slightly and Florida just had a nice win. MSU has to be considering a change as well…
 
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Didn’t realize Stephanie Gaitley was with FDU. Did she leave Fordham on her own terms?
 
Joetro said:
Didn’t realize Stephanie Gaitley was with FDU. Did she leave Fordham on her own terms?
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Don't believe she did. I recall there was an investigation in regards to how she treated players and she left/resigned right afterwards.
 
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cancontent said:
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This is one of the most protracted "break up is hard to do's" in quite some time. It was obvious that the coach/school couldn't hold onto P5 talent and was almost a Triple AAA team for Duke, UNC and others. It was also obvious, BC didn't want to move on before the contract ran out (read, cheap and/or desperate).

Joanna Bernabei-McNamee started off well but then the departures started and I couldn't figure if it was her or the state of D1 hoops or some combo thereof. I think her later teams played well early, then the dearth of talent just caught up.

She'll pop up somewhere that can match with her talents and/or limitations. BC's gotta decide if they really want to play ball.

 
Wow, it is amazing that these schools agree to this large buyout options, some schools just never learn. I mean it wasn't like there were warning sighs for Washington after having failed at PSU...speaking of which, Kieger is now on the clock...
 
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