Lindsay Whalen: Gophers' midseason tumult was 'awful'

[Plebe]

Lindsay Whalen: Gophers’ mid-season tumult was ‘awful’

But the U’s women’s basketball coach says the culture of her program is “worth fighting for.”

www.twincities.com

 

[bballnut90]

Lindsay Whalen: Gophers’ mid-season tumult was ‘awful’

But the U’s women’s basketball coach says the culture of her program is “worth fighting for.”

www.twincities.com

Gotta be tough when your best player quits midseason and then trashes the program on her way out. Also, it's par for the course and part of the risk in hiring someone with zero coaching experience to take over a P5 program. Even with her stellar playing career, there's no substitute for experience and in many ways she's learning on the fly.

 

[azfan]

I saw the Pitts transfer is more reflection of the player than the coach. It'll certainly be interesting if Destiny Pitts endd up down in Tucson. i

To me the public displays of disrespect or animosity to your coach say an awful lot more about the character of the sender than the receiver.

Whalen, speaking I think in general and not about a player says in the article:

"The culture here and what can be done at Minnesota on the women’s basketball team (is) worth fighting for because it’s something that changed my life and it’s so special to me,” Whalen said."

She goes on to mention respect and accountability as pillars of that culture. hard to disagree with that and while I recognize it's very difficult to instill that, with a type of personality as Whalen recruits her type of players I hope she is able to achieve that kind of culture.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I saw the Pitts transfer is more reflection of the player than the coach. It'll certainly be interesting if Destiny Pitts endd up down in Tucson. i

To me the public displays of disrespect or animosity to your coach say an awful lot more about the character of the sender than the receiver.

Whalen, speaking I think in general and not about a player says in the article:

"The culture here and what can be done at Minnesota on the women’s basketball team (is) worth fighting for because it’s something that changed my life and it’s so special to me,” Whalen said."

She goes on to mention respect and accountability as pillars of that culture. hard to disagree with that and while I recognize it's very difficult to instill that, with a type of personality as Whalen recruits her type of players I hope she is able to achieve that kind of culture.

What she is doing really is trying to return to the culture that they had when she was a player there. I suspect it is difficult to instill if the program drifted from it, I imagine it is "old school". That was a heck of a team she played on in the day, I even managed to root mildly for them when she was playing.

It also doesn't mean other coaching styles are a problem. Adia is completely different from CVS who is different from Geno (obviously, but they share more than you would think) etc. And that Marlene Stallings was different from Whalen doesn't mean Marlene was bad.

 

[DefenseBB]

What she is doing really is trying to return to the culture that they had when she was a player there. I suspect it is difficult to instill if the program drifted from it, I imagine it is "old school". That was a heck of a team she played on in the day, I even managed to root mildly for them when she was playing.

It also doesn't mean other coaching styles are a problem. Adia is completely different from CVS who is different from Geno (obviously, but they share more than you would think) etc. And that Marlene Stallings was different from Whalen doesn't mean Marlene was bad.

Just for clarity (and Irony), I hope you realize that Brenda Freeze actually coached Lindsey's Minnesota team to the best finish in the Big10 in 2002 and took them to the second round. Cheryl Littlejohn recruited Lindsey but was let go after Lindsey's freshman year. After Brenda, Pam Bolton led Lindsey's team to the Sweet 16 and Final Four before starting the slide.
As far as mentioning Marlene Stollings-why? She plays significant soft OOC scheduling, significantly worse than Brenda, finished tied for 3rd one time in 4 years in the Big10 (6th, 5th, 10th previous) parlayed that into a Texas Tech gig and is again scheduling cream puffs. She should not be mentioned in the same breath as Adia, CVS or Geno. Thems fightin words to do so!

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Just for clarity (and Irony), I hope you realize that Brenda Freeze actually coached Lindsey's Minnesota team to the best finish in the Big10 in 2002 and took them to the second round. Cheryl Littlejohn recruited Lindsey but was let go after Lindsey's freshman year. After Brenda, Pam Bolton led Lindsey's team to the Sweet 16 and Final Four before starting the slide.
As far as mentioning Marlene Stollings-why? She plays significant soft OOC scheduling, significantly worse than Brenda, finished tied for 3rd one time in 4 years in the Big10 (6th, 5th, 10th previous) parlayed that into a Texas Tech gig and is again scheduling cream puffs. She should not be mentioned in the same breath as Adia, CVS or Geno. Thems fightin words to do so!

Yes, I remember Brenda being there (very briefly). At the time, my wife and I were prepared to think highly of Brenda, an opinion that changed only when we watched her on the Maryland sidelines, heard assorted gossip at Rutgers and watched "Under the Shell" a very long time ago.

I always liked Pam Borton, slide is relative. She had some poor seasons, but some very good ones in-between, her last season at Minn. was 22-13 and she only had 2 losing seasons in 12 years.

I'm not touting Stollings, my specific comment was simply that, because her "culture" was different from Lindsay's ideal does not specifically mean it was "bad". It might have been bad or good, it just was "different" apparently. I heard Stollings getting some love in an interview with Texas Tech's former head coach Marsha Sharp. Granted that Marsha still works for Texas Tech in some limited capacity, I get that she probably wouldn't say bad things even if she wanted to, but she seemed genuine in her remarks.

 

[DefenseBB]

Yes, I remember Brenda being there (very briefly). At the time, my wife and I were prepared to think highly of Brenda, an opinion that changed only when we watched her on the Maryland sidelines, heard assorted gossip at Rutgers and watched "Under the Shell" a very long time ago.

I always liked Pam Borton, slide is relative. She had some poor seasons, but some very good ones in-between, her last season at Minn. was 22-13 and she only had 2 losing seasons in 12 years.

I'm not touting Stollings, my specific comment was simply that, because her "culture" was different from Lindsay's ideal does not specifically mean it was "bad". It might have been bad or good, it just was "different" apparently. I heard Stollings getting some love in an interview with Texas Tech's former head coach Marsha Sharp. Granted that Marsha still works for Texas Tech in some limited capacity, I get that she probably wouldn't say bad things even if she wanted to, but she seemed genuine in her remarks.

Thanks for the perspective, I would add I have watched quite a bit of TT games, pregame and postgame game interviews and think Stollings to be less than good but wants to tout being elite which she most certainly is not and even called her team out over such. You can’t expect 8th graders to read at a college level...but that’s what Marlene expects...

 

[willtalk]

I believe it would be very difficult to begin or establish an "Old School Program" with today's type of player. You would have to have an established coaching reputation to even have a shot. But for a young coach coming in that would really present a problem.

 

[DefenseBB]

...ah, these millennials..."hey, KID, get off my lawn..."