Early Coaching Hotseat Edition

[cancontent]

Was her contract up?

If not, maybe the piggy bank is empty after paying Franklin's buyout.

No one knows when it's set to expire. Penn State didn't provide details when she got her extension in 2022. I'm of the same opinion regarding Penn State hedging letting her go after paying Franklin.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Yeah, Wow! I was kind of shocked when I found out that Rutgers had hired Coquese. She had a few good years at Penn State, but I'm not sure she's ever had a winning season without Maggie Lucas and Alex Bentley on her team. Her last few years at Penn State were dismal. Then to find out she got a six year contract with apparently a 100% buyout, that's mind-numbing.

On the surface, it's surprising. But she did graduate from ND's Law School--so she knew exactly how to get what she wanted.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Wow!

Rutgers fires Women’s Basketball head coach Coquese Washington

The Scarlet Knights made the move official on Monday.

www.onthebanks.com

Washington is owed $1.675 million left on her contract,

As I said in an earlier post - this thread or a different one - Rutgers had to make this move if they cared about women's basketball at all. 1-17 in conference, with the various other issues that have occurred along the line with some players in the previous years were signs that it was time.

As to the money, as I also noted in a different thread - Rutgers sure do spend money. One of only 4 B1G football programs paying $20 million to the coaching staff. And of course Rutgers is synonymous with B1G football success.🙄.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Didn’t realize Stephanie Gaitley was with FDU. Did she leave Fordham on her own terms?

Probably not, she spent a year coaching high school before moving over to FDU.

Very old school coach, a very long career, 750 wins. I remember her at St. Joseph's the first year we followed Women's Basketball, Rutgers' last year in the old A10. We attended the conference tourney at St. Joseph's.

 

[Dillon77]

Yeah, I get the results were objectively poor and I’m not saying she’s a great coach, but the BC job comes with stronger headwinds than most, if not all, P4s.

I'm not dumping on her, outside of having one of the hardest names to type. 😉
When playing her BC teams in the early years when she had (and was able to retain) talent, they were well-coached and always featured wings and tall guards that could attack the rim, both with the ball and as offensive rebounders. They were a tough out. But something happened and talent started leaving. Could've been talent management, but I'm guessing most of it had to do with NIL.

My issue/guess is the same lack of funding for the overall retention of talent is what led, paradoxically, to her hanging around: the BC administration didn't want to spend the money paying off a year or two of the contract.

I'd have a massive "be aware of what you're getting into" here. I think she'll do fine....still relatively young and hopefully wiser for the wear.

 

[Dillon77]

On the surface, it's surprising. But she did graduate from ND's Law School--so she knew exactly how to get what she wanted.

She was one of the first union presidents (if not the first) for the professional leagues.

 

[cancontent]

 

[Vowelguy]

Open P4 Jobs

1. Northwestern
2. BC
3. Rutgers
4. Pitt

tbd: Wake, FSU, UCF, Cinci, KSt, Kan, PennSt, Pur, Nebr, MissSt, Fla, TAMU

 

[triaddukefan]

Open P4 Jobs

1. Northwestern
2. BC
3. Rutgers
4. Pitt

tbd: Wake, FSU, UCF, Cinci, KSt, Kan, PennSt, Pur, Nebr, MissSt, Fla, TAMU

Wakes coach is safe.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I don't think Purcell is gone unless he tries for another job, but we are definitely in the mid zone. Doing okay on some fronts but not many and attrition has been a problem. However, our AD is worse, so I don't Purcell being forced out.

 

[Vowelguy]

I don't think Purcell is gone unless he tries for another job, but we are definitely in the mid zone. Doing okay on some fronts but not many and attrition has been a problem. However, our AD is worse, so I don't Purcell being forced out.

I wouldn't put him as likely to go, but was just listing any of the ones where I think there's some debate.

 

[triaddukefan]

Open P4 Jobs

1. Northwestern
2. BC
3. Rutgers
4. Pitt

tbd: Wake, FSU, UCF, Cinci, KSt, Kan, PennSt, Pur, Nebr, MissSt, Fla, TAMU

Wakes AD gave the MBB coach a vote of confidence and he will be back for his 7th season. Wake hasn't been to the NCAAs in his tenure. Meanwhile the WBB coach is in her 4th season, and was hired by the current AD. Wake Forest has had I think 2 20 win seasons in 55 years .. A tournament appearance in 1988 and in the crazy covid season when they went 12-12. Expectations aren't that high, realistically the best they can hope for is a WNIT bid every now and then. All that to say that unless she resigns.,. She will be back for her 5th season in Winston Salem.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Nebr

?

This year was a step back, but the previous several seasons were solid. I don't think she is anything like the position some of these other coaches are.

Yeah, she's gone to the Tourney 3 of 4 years, last 2 years, winning 20 games consistently. This year despite being disappointing they are 18-11.

 

[cancontent]

?

This year was a step back, but the previous several seasons were solid. I don't think she is anything like the position some of these other coaches are.

Yeah, she's gone to the Tourney 3 of 4 years, last 2 years, winning 20 games consistently. This year despite being disappointing they are 18-11.

Factor in not having Potts on the court as well. She's a key cog for that offence in the paint.

 

[Vowelguy]

?

This year was a step back, but the previous several seasons were solid. I don't think she is anything like the position some of these other coaches are.

Yeah, she's gone to the Tourney 3 of 4 years, last 2 years, winning 20 games consistently. This year despite being disappointing they are 18-11.

As I said in another post, I was casting a wider net here -- the pool of coaches who are not 95% safe.

 

[Bigboote]

As to the money, as I also noted in a different thread - Rutgers sure do spend money. One of only 4 B1G football programs paying $20 million to the coaching staff. And of course Rutgers is synonymous with B1G football success.🙄.

I sure wouldn’t want to go to a school where $400 of my tuition was going to the football coaches. (Yes I know that’s not literally true.) I wouldn’t be crazy about 40 bucks to unload a women’s basketball coach’s ill-advised contract either.

 

[Dillon77]

Don't believe she did. I recall there was an investigation in regards to how she treated players and she left/resigned right afterwards.

That was a bam-bam situation. Rumors went public and she was gone. Coached high school for a year or two and then went to FDU.
She can coach and recruit: she did a great job at Fordham in terms of finding talent off the beaten path, ranging from New Zealand to Maine and the parochial schools of Westchester! And FDU got to the NCAA's, if memory holds, by shooting a kazillion threes.

Has she changed whatever were the errors of her ways or was there something that Fordham just found untenable knows?

 

[WBBTakeover]

Wakes AD gave the MBB coach a vote of confidence and he will be back for his 7th season. Wake hasn't been to the NCAAs in his tenure. Meanwhile the WBB coach is in her 4th season, and was hired by the current AD. Wake Forest has had I think 2 20 win seasons in 55 years .. A tournament appearance in 1988 and in the crazy covid season when they went 12-12. Expectations aren't that high, realistically the best they can hope for is a WNIT bid every now and then. All that to say that unless she resigns.,. She will be back for her 5th season in Winston Salem.

Then there was no point in firing Jen Hoover (who has one of those NCAA tournament appearances and is a Wake alum). This coach hasn't reached the NCAAs and isn't likely to do so.

 

[Dillon77]

Wakes AD gave the MBB coach a vote of confidence and he will be back for his 7th season. Wake hasn't been to the NCAAs in his tenure. Meanwhile the WBB coach is in her 4th season, and was hired by the current AD. Wake Forest has had I think 2 20 win seasons in 55 years .. A tournament appearance in 1988 and in the crazy covid season when they went 12-12. Expectations aren't that high, realistically the best they can hope for is a WNIT bid every now and then. All that to say that unless she resigns.,. She will be back for her 5th season in Winston Salem.

With you on this...I think the Coach is safe for next year.

The situation with Megan Gabbia at Wake Forest kind of has some BC-ish vibes with Joanna Bernabei-McNamee to me. Gabbia was a successful coach in the Patriot League and was hired after winning a few league titles for American, of all places.

She can coach when she has talent (like most coaches), such as Jewll Spear most notably. But Spear wanted a chance to do more than merely lead the Demons to a post-season tourney and left for Tennessee (I'm sure NIL had something to do with the final location, as well.) Gabbia recruited and developed Kylie Theuerkauf from northern New Jersey. Theuerkauf, after averaging 12 ppg her sophomore year, left for Georgia, for probably the same reasons as Spear. And Malaya Cowles graduated, but used her grad year to leave Wake and her hometown to play for ND. Has Wake, like BC, become a Triple A supplier to teams?

I've seen Wake play more than a few times and their teams are well coached, play hard, but wear down. The overall talent level is not up to snuff with league leaders and there's not a lot of depth. Knowing Wake (one of my children went there), I can't guess that women's hoops is a focus, which is one reason they'll be mired in the "eh, good 'nuff" cycle.

 

[Dillon77]

Then there was no point in firing Jen Hoover (who has one of those NCAA tournament appearances and is a Wake alum). This coach hasn't reached the NCAAs and isn't likely to do s

An objective take, for sure, and one that was tossed around here when AD John Currie fired Jen Hoover relatively late after the close of the season (in fact, I think she was either going to/coming back from representing the Wake athletic dept. when he decided to deep six her.). Who knows? Maybe Currie thought someone could do a bit better a the time? Or there was a personality conflict?

I do know this: Wake is one of the smaller schools in D1 and they've got to be swimming against the current to keep a D1 football program afloat. I've got to wonder how much money is left for other sports.

 

[WBBTakeover]

An objective take, for sure, and one that was tossed around here when AD John Currie fired Jen Hoover relatively late after the close of the season (in fact, I think she was either going to/coming back from representing the Wake athletic dept. when he decided to deep six her.). Who knows? Maybe Currie thought someone could do a bit better a the time? Or there was a personality conflict?

I do know this: Wake is one of the smaller schools in D1 and they've got to be swimming against the current to keep a D1 football program afloat. I've got to wonder how much money is left for other sports.

It seems like this (bolded) may have been the case (from the outside looking in).

And this is no knock on Megan Gebbia. She's a solid coach. She had a team this season that fought hard. They're just not very talented (the little talent they have are underclassmen). If she were coaching Stanford or Miami (underachieving teams due to coaching, IMO) instead, they may be NCAA Tournament bound.

 

[LETTERL]

With you on this...I think the Coach is safe for next year.

The situation with Megan Gabbia at Wake Forest kind of has some BC-ish vibes with Joanna Bernabei-McNamee to me. Gabbia was a successful coach in the Patriot League and was hired after winning a few league titles for American, of all places.


I've seen Wake play more than a few times and their teams are well coached, play hard, but wear down. The overall talent level is not up to snuff with league leaders and there's not a lot of depth. Knowing Wake (one of my children went there), I can't guess that women's hoops is a focus, which is one reason they'll be mired in the "eh, good 'nuff" cycle.

She has a good, young team at Wake. They hit their first SEVEN threes and scored 33 points in the first quarter when they hosted NC State in January...had an 18 point lead and still lost by 18 at the end. If she can get her team to mostly come back and maybe hit the portal, they could be much more competitive next year.

 

[Vowelguy]

We've now had a bit of a lull. Thought we'd have more changes.

Open P4 Jobs (68 positions)

1. Northwestern
2. BC
3. Rutgers
4. Pitt

TBD
season done: Wake, FSU / Cinci, UCF / PennSt, Pur
waiting ...: Nebr / MissSt, TAMU
cnf tourney: KSt, Kan / Fla

 

[Joetro]

I think Finley is well liked and her teams peak at right time. Why is she on hot seat?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I think Finley is well liked and her teams peak at right time. Why is she on hot seat?

She hasn't had any real success. And no "track record" coming in, as she was a promotion.

Actually, I have tended to like her, but you ultimately have to have some success.