Jen's Intro Presser

[Woof 101]

A chance to hear from Jen and not just anybody and everybody.
George Washington University powered by College Sports Live

 

[Plebe]

Thanks for posting this. That's the first time I've seen a full interview with Jen. She's extremely well spoken, and I think GW will be a great fit for her.

The part at the end with the band and cheerleaders was the only awkward moment.

 

[DaddyChoc]

nice interview... thanks for posting

 

[HardHatGuy#2]

It will be interesting to see what she does, there. She's been quoted several times saying that she was happy with where she was at Hartford, appearing content with the status quo. I wonder if watching Shea on the sidelines, and hearing speculation regarding Geno's ultimate successor and not being part of the speculation anymore, has put a burr under her saddle?

I'm hoping she finds the drive that she had when she started at Hartford. GW is a good place to start; fertile recruiting ground, a solid conference, and a nice team to start with. Could she be the alumnus who builds the team that finally beats Geno?

 

[Sonny44]

She's really at home with the mic, impressive speaker. I hope she does a Syracuse within the next few years.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Yes, the most impressive speaker in the room, but her interviews have always been great. I guess her husband will be an assistant or not and someone will tell us someday? The strain of the last couple of weeks was lurking just beneath the surface, but she persevered. A glass of water was out of the question, huh?

 

[Fiftyish]

Very polished speaker. She's in a great position in her career growth. Next stop UConn??

 

[Goodgood]

Great catch for GW. She was ready to go and GW is a good fit. She will love the area.

 

[bags27]

The president of GW is a really, really good guy. Nice for him to be there. It's a very good environment, a school that, like NYU, was always the "second best" in its city, but has improved markedly academically and has all the feel of an institution on the move.

Too bad Red Auerbach is dead (I'm sure he feels the same way!): he used to go to all the men's home games (Red and Me is a great read) and might have been wooed over to the women's side, too.

 

[UcMiami]

It will be interesting to see what she does, there. She's been quoted several times saying that she was happy with where she was at Hartford, appearing content with the status quo. I wonder if watching Shea on the sidelines, and hearing speculation regarding Geno's ultimate successor and not being part of the speculation anymore, has put a burr under her saddle?

I'm hoping she finds the drive that she had when she started at Hartford. GW is a good place to start; fertile recruiting ground, a solid conference, and a nice team to start with. Could she be the alumnus who builds the team that finally beats Geno?

Jen really was all about starting and raising her family for the last 15 years and recognized that Hartford with grandparents a short drive away was the perfect support staff for that process while pursuing her career. With the boys now grown from the clinging phase to more independence she was ready for a move to a more challenging job with much better prospects. There is no comparison of the talent available within an hour of the school, nor of the attraction of location or academic reputation for players further removed.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Jen was an honors student in high school and/or college. She's highly articulate.

 

[UcMiami]

Jen was an honors student in high school and/or college. She's highly articulate.

She is a 2016 inductee into the CoSida hall of fame which recognizes both athletic and academic excellence - hadn't realized she majored in Biology (definitely a standard athletic major ) and was twice an academic AA:
http://www.cosida.com/news/2016/4/7/AAA_0407aaahofclass.aspx

 

[CL82]

The event was well done. Jen's speech, poise and presentation were all great.

I did not know Mile Aresco was on the search committee. I wonder if Geno had any input.

 

[BroadwayVa]

I made the same trip dc to Tolland every other weekend while working there---not a fun trip then and much much more traffic now. The only "easy way " over the Hudson is by helicopter--all the bridges are mobile parking lots.
The trip will get longer and longer in between as time goes by. I make it 3 times a year now and each time say never again.
All that aside --Congratulations to GW they are getting one of the very best of the best coaches in the nation and terrific point guard. I hope her husband is somewhere near as good as Jen a hubby/wife team isn't always the right way to go.
How about that RED AUREBACH comment above---funny, just funny. I don't know, but I would suspect that Red is not pleased with his current condition.

 

[MilfordHusky]

She is a 2016 inductee into the CoSida hall of fame which recognizes both athletic and academic excellence - hadn't realized she majored in Biology (definitely a standard athletic major ) and was twice an academic AA:
CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame Class of 2016 Announced

Like Sue, Jen is one smart cookie.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Jen has always been a "class act", whether as a WCBB player at UCONN, or in the WNBA, or as a coach at Hartford. She'll remain a class act at GWU! She'll have a lot more success at GWU than Hartford, as they really take their WBB seriously, not as the University of Hartford has done in recent years!
She'll be able to recruit nationally at GWU and she'll make what ever players better at the end of 4 years than they came in!
It'll be like a little Geno in practice and the games as Jen has always been known for her fire in the belly approach to playing & coaching!

 

[j66kicker]

In addition to the coach's personality and reputation, a school's academic reputation, weather and geography, etc, other issues with recruiting are the athletic budget, staff and facilities. Does GW have the resources to send Jen and her assistants all over the place to high school games, AAU games, etc, all year long? Do they have enough assistants to do that? Do they have the medical and training staff and facilities.

UCONN spends $6 million per year on WBB out of a total athletic dept. spending budget of about $72 million. The non-football portion of this total is about $53 million, for comparison to GW. So WBB's $6 is about 11% of our non-football spending. GW's total athletic spending is about $25 million. If their WBB spending was the same % of that total as UCONN's, that would be about $2.8 million, or less than half of UCONN's (admittedly a great deal of UCONN's WBB spending is on Geno's unusually high salary).

GW has benchmarked their A10 competitors in all sports and their strategy is to match at the high end of the conference. That's what the expectation should be for Jen - not the high end of the NCAA including the P5 conferences. You can only do so much with half the resources.

BTW if she is successful, I think Jen will be in a much better position to potentially take over for Geno than Shea, if Shea sticks around the whole time.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

"She said Friday that she doesn't know whether she would ever be interested in the UConn job." A friend from another WCBB site(who can be a dog at times) put me onto this useful information. I know, I know: "What else is she going to say." BUT she said something after 17 years. Also answers the hubby question. Very good read.

After 316 Wins At UHart, Jen Rizzotti Leaving To Coach At George Washington

 

[UcMiami]

In addition to the coach's personality and reputation, a school's academic reputation, weather and geography, etc, other issues with recruiting are the athletic budget, staff and facilities. Does GW have the resources to send Jen and her assistants all over the place to high school games, AAU games, etc, all year long? Do they have enough assistants to do that? Do they have the medical and training staff and facilities.

UCONN spends $6 million per year on WBB out of a total athletic dept. spending budget of about $72 million. The non-football portion of this total is about $53 million, for comparison to GW. So WBB's $6 is about 11% of our non-football spending. GW's total athletic spending is about $25 million. If their WBB spending was the same % of that total as UCONN's, that would be about $2.8 million, or less than half of UCONN's (admittedly a great deal of UCONN's WBB spending is on Geno's unusually high salary).

GW has benchmarked their A10 competitors in all sports and their strategy is to match at the high end of the conference. That's what the expectation should be for Jen - not the high end of the NCAA including the P5 conferences. You can only do so much with half the resources.

BTW if she is successful, I think Jen will be in a much better position to potentially take over for Geno than Shea, if Shea sticks around the whole time.

The starting place for the Uconn WCBB budget is coaching salaries of $2.7M or thereabouts and I suspect that is $2M +/- more than GW. Add in other 'first class' aspects of the Uconn expenditures and I suspect the budget for the actual nuts and bolts of the program would not be that different. Facilities I am sure are not as good, but I suspect Jen will be competing on equal footing with programs in her 'weight class' - it is certainly not a big P5 program, but it is a program that is likely much better supported internally than many of those schools.

 

[UcMiami]

"She said Friday that she doesn't know whether she would ever be interested in the UConn job." A friend from another WCBB site(who can be a dog at times) put me onto this useful information. I know, I know: "What else is she going to say." BUT she said something after 17 years. Also answers the hubby question. Very good read.

After 316 Wins At UHart, Jen Rizzotti Leaving To Coach At George Washington

It is interesting to read that, and I do think there is a huge difference between Tufts (Berube), Hartford, and GW (Jen) vs. Uconn, ND,and their like. The difference starts with the recruiting - players who are recruited to Tufts and the vast majority of those that consider Hartford, GW, and similar programs are selecting a school for their education and using an aptitude for basketball as a means to pay for their education or just continuing their association with a sport. That is of course similar to many that choose Uconn or ND or similar schools, but a large proportion that are recruited to those schools have realistic dreams of turning their aptitude into a professional career.

For the coaches, that is a huge change of perspective and a shift in responsibility and focus, and it may not be one they are willing to make. It is not just about competitive juices - you cannot tell me that either Jen or Carla do not burn white hot in that regard. It is more to do with how they view their players and the balance they place on personal growth. I posted in another thread about world class athletes being similar to other human endeavors at 'genius' and how in almost every instance it requires imbalanced personality that can border on madness. That single minded pursuit of excellence is amazing to watch from the outside, but to enjoy working and training those personalities daily may require something that not everyone wants. Nice to visit for a month with USA basketball gigs, but to live it every day for years - maybe not.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

It is interesting to read that, and I do think there is a huge difference between Tufts (Berube), Hartford, and GW (Jen) vs. Uconn, ND,and their like. The difference starts with the recruiting - players who are recruited to Tufts and the vast majority of those that consider Hartford, GW, and similar programs are selecting a school for their education and using an aptitude for basketball as a means to pay for their education or just continuing their association with a sport. That is of course similar to many that choose Uconn or ND or similar schools, but a large proportion that are recruited to those schools have realistic dreams of turning their aptitude into a professional career.

For the coaches, that is a huge change of perspective and a shift in responsibility and focus, and it may not be one they are willing to make. It is not just about competitive juices - you cannot tell me that either Jen or Carla do not burn white hot in that regard. It is more to do with how they view their players and the balance they place on personal growth. I posted in another thread about world class athletes being similar to other human endeavors at 'genius' and how in almost every instance it requires imbalanced personality that can border on madness. That single minded pursuit of excellence is amazing to watch from the outside, but to enjoy working and training those personalities daily may require something that not everyone wants. Nice to visit for a month with USA basketball gigs, but to live it every day for years - maybe not.

Jen did say last week that every coach should strive to make their program what UConn is (Kib winces!). Believe I quoted it in another thread and forgot about it.

Here's some in depth quotes from Jen about her plans for GW:

New women's basketball coach wants to build on program success - The GW Hatchet

 

[UcMiami]

RMB2 - agree, but there is a difference between emulating Uconn's pursuit of excellence, and wanting to be a first class organization, and actually being at that world class level of athletic achievement - a school like GW is unlikely to reach the latter. If that was Jen's aim, she likely would have waited for a different option to open up.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

RMB2 - agree, but there is a difference between emulating Uconn's pursuit of excellence, and wanting to be a first class organization, and actually being at that world class level of athletic achievement - a school like GW is unlikely to reach the latter. If that was Jen's aim, she likely would have waited for a different option to open up.

Don't disagree, but GW isn't necessarily her last port of call.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Reasonable goals for Jen should be to win the conference, get into the NCAA tourney either by automatic berth or at-large, and be ranked in the top 25. The Colonials have done those things before.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Reasonable goals for Jen should be to win the conference, get into the NCAA tourney either by automatic berth or at-large, and be ranked in the top 25. The Colonials have done those things before.

I wonder what kind of OOC schedule her predecessor has left Jen and what kind of incoming class (which hopefully will actually come in). All of this I can research of course, but is someone way ahead on this? No disrespect to her new conference intended, but I think a strong OOC schedule will be important when the time is right.