Hiring a P5 Coach-prior Head Coach experience, former P5 assistant or other experience altogether? | The Boneyard

Hiring a P5 Coach-prior Head Coach experience, former P5 assistant or other experience altogether?

DefenseBB

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So, with our annual Coaching Hotseat discussion, the most recent started by @Vowelguy the other day, got me thinking as @nwhoopfan, @Dillon77 @milfordhuskey and I have had any number of private or comments within threads about the best paths to pursue when replacing a coach.

The data of all 65 Power-5 coaches based on the prior role the coach held has 6 distinct categories.
  • 43 Head Coach at another school in D1-subdivided into P5 or non-P5
  • 4 Head Coach at D2 or D3
  • 14 Assistant Coach at D1-subdivided into P5 or non-P5
  • 1 Head Coach in WNBA
  • 1 Head Coach in High School
  • 2 No coaching experiences
I will group into Good-great; solid, wait and watch and disappointments.

43 were Head Coaches at another D1 school, 10 of these were HC at another P5 before joining their current school.

Of the 33:
  • Tara, Kelly Graves, Dawn and Wes Moore have been unbelievably successful.
  • Solid coaches who are not in any danger include Katie Meier, Bill Fennelly, Lisa Bluder, Joe McKeown, Suzy Merchant, Kim Barnes Arico, Mike Neighbors, Kenny Brooks, Charli Turner-Thorne, Mark Trakh, Teri Moen and Robin Pingeton.
  • New P5 coaches with good starts include Courtney Banghart, Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, Raegon Pebley, Kirsta Gerlich, Carolyn Kieger and Kamie Ethridge.
  • Two coaches whose trend is up but are not viewed as “solid coaches yet” in my mind are Jen Hoover and Yolett McPhee-McCuin (she’s new, she recruits well but her coaching is not game ready, plus it is thought Austin will be leaving after this year-that’s my reasoning for her here).
  • The safe for now but under wait/watch include Lynne Roberts (2 years left) and Nikki McCray-Penson (bad start at MSU but in 1st year).
  • The last coach of this group, absolutely a disappointment is Sharon Versyp whose contract expires next year.
Of the 10 HC with P5 experience includes:
  • Good to great coaches of CV Stringer, Vic Schaefer, Brenda Freese, Kevin McGuff, Gary Blair and Nell Fortner at the top of this list.
  • Next as solid if not unspectacular are Kristy Curry, Jeff Mittie and Amanda Butler.
  • Which lead us to Nikki Fargas at LSU. She has one more year left and has underwhelmed at a known WCBB school. This should be a “hot seat” situation.
4 Coaches were HC at D2 or D3.

Brandon Schneider and Mike Carey coached at D2 with much success. Nancy Fahey and Scott Rueck coached at D3 also with much success. Carey and Rueck have had a lot of success at D1. Schneider has been abysmal. Fahey is still unknown as the results seem less but the effort and the recruiting are trending up.

13 were Assistant Head Coaches at P5 schools. The 4 most successful are Jeft Walz, Quentin Hillsman, Sue Semrau and Cori Close.
  • There are 4 who are trending up-Adia Barnes, Jim Littell, Cam Newbauer and Joni Taylor.
  • There are 2 whose data is too soon to tell but I would say it is less than hoped in Kyra Elzy at Kentucky who inherited a large amount of talent and has underperformed. Niele Ivey also falls into this category as she too has lots of McDonald’s All-Americans and her late game coaching leaves a lot to be desired, but as I stated, still way too early, noting a trend to watch.
  • The last 3 are Tina Thompson, Lance White and Charmain Smith. The launch of their HC Careers is not good. Not sure many of us see any light at the end of the tunnel. For all of Pitt’s glimpses of improvement They are 12th of 13 teams this year, 3-9 in league play and 5-10 overall in year 3 of his regime. Tina in year 3 is a disaster. They quit the season so we have no idea if they could improve. Cal under Smith is at least playing this season and trying hard. Not much recruiting success on the horizon for either at this juncture.
1 Coach was at non-P5 school before they became HC at P5. Kim Mulkey was an Assistant at La Tech before Baylor. Nuf ced!

Data now gets very parsed for the last 4 coaches.

1 Coach-Stephanie White was a pro coach in the WNBA prior to Vanderbilt. This has been a disaster no matter how you judge it. She makes too much money with no buyout and a bankrupt Vandy Athletic Department, so Vandy fans are stuck for 1 more year until April 2022.

1 Coach-Sherri Coale went from High School to Oklahoma where she had unprecedented success. However, her last 6 years have been bad especially when considering she is paid in the top 10 of salaries at $1,150,000.

2 did not have any coaching experience what so ever-Lindsey Whalen and Kara Lawson. Whalen inherited some talent and a soft OOC schedule where she won her 1st 12 games (thank you Marlene Stollings!) and parlayed that into an extension in the middle of the 1st year. Since then, she has been terrible without any glimpse of improvement. Lawson is 4 games into her career and let’s be honest, quitting on the season is NOT a good look for her. That said, she has recruited well already and has a known WCBB commodity in Duke.

Based on these deep dive of data, the most logical and effective method is to hire a coach at another D1 school who has had noted success running a program and recruiting D1 players.

Schools will view themselves either as “leaders in WCBB” (NCAA’s every year), solid programs in NCAAT almost every year, or “need to improve our program” group where not much is expected as priorities were or are elsewhere. That categorization will frame the expectations, money spent and efforts expended by the schools.
 

nwhoopfan

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@DefenseBB is it my imagination or have you declined to put Jody Wynn into any of your meticulously categorized groups? :rolleyes:
 

nwhoopfan

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Yeah, that's always the dilemma. If you can't get someone proven at a high level, do you go for a non P5 coach who has been successful, or even D2 or D3? Do you go for an assistant coach w/ a good pedigree but no head coaching experience? It may work out occasionally but I am NOT a fan of tabbing someone w/ no coaching experience at any level, I don't care how good of a player they used to be (Whalen is my poster child for this). Unfortunately it's a gamble most of the team, you just have to hope it pays off.
 

DefenseBB

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@DefenseBB is it my imagination or have you declined to put Jody Wynn into any of your meticulously categorized groups? :rolleyes:
child smile GIF
 

DefenseBB

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I hate to say this but this was a test to see if you were paying attention to this. As I noted because we regularly talk about Ms. Wynn, I did leave her off the list, she actually belongs in the:
  • The safe for now but under wait/watch with Lynne Roberts and Nikki McCray-Penson grouping. Why do you ask? Well, like Lynne, Jody has 2 years left after this year and she has her best recruiting class ever coming in the fall. I know it's the news you want to read but if her next year's performance improves (how could it not?), I could foresee a case of the UW administration giving her another year to 2024 to see how the 2021-22 freshman develop.
 

nwhoopfan

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I hate to say this but this was a test to see if you were paying attention to this. As I noted because we regularly talk about Ms. Wynn, I did leave her off the list, she actually belongs in the:
  • The safe for now but under wait/watch with Lynne Roberts and Nikki McCray-Penson grouping. Why do you ask? Well, like Lynne, Jody has 2 years left after this year and she has her best recruiting class ever coming in the fall. I know it's the news you want to read but if her next year's performance improves (how could it not?), I could foresee a case of the UW administration giving her another year to 2024 to see how the 2021-22 freshman develop.
I'll be surprised if any of next year's Fr. are difference makers their first year. 5 or 6 years isn't gonna make any difference, she's been a massive failure.
 

DefenseBB

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I'll be surprised if any of next year's Fr. are difference makers their first year. 5 or 6 years isn't gonna make any difference, she's been a massive failure.
Well, at least you have Washington State to root for...oh, wait...never mind...
 

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