Lister Resigns

[bluedevil]

In terms of hierarchy, Isn't Geno above all those people?

Only in the salary he makes..

 

[uconnfan68]

Only in the salary he earns...

Ftfy

 

[connboy77]

Jamelle would be be an excellent replacement, but I don't think she wants to coach anymore. My second choice would be someone that is young and can relate to the recruits.

 

[HopJim]

Jamelle did appear to enjoy her return to coaching, and her work with Liv achieved great results in a short period of time. If Jamelle comes back she can not only work with Liv some more, but she will have the opportunity to mold two newbies (Aaliyah & Piath) into frontcourt impact players.

Jamelle seemed to do a good job with ONO but not so much with her old team. Cin. did not show better skills over time, nor did they excel at recruiting. We developed great post players prior to Jamelle - another younger bigs coach would be helpful, but not my number one priority. My vote goes for a great recruiter. UConn pays some of the highest assistant salaries in college basketball and can afford most they target.

 

[triaddukefan]

Geno would never steal the heart and soul of the Duke program.

well if you wait til March.... no stealing would be required

 

[oldude]

Jamelle seemed to do a good job with ONO but not so much with her old team. Cin. did not show better skills over time, nor did they excel at recruiting. We developed great post players prior to Jamelle - another younger bigs coach would be helpful, but not my number one priority. My vote goes for a great recruiter. UConn pays some of the highest assistant salaries in college basketball and can afford most they target.

Jamelle took over a bad program at Cincinnati and eventually turned it around, finishing 19-13 in her last season as HC while earning a WNIT berth. Her team had to play in a HS gym while a new on-campus arena was being constructed, and then, with everything set to go, Cincinnati inexplicably fired her. The Cincinnati team that won 22 games this season was largely made up of Jamelle’s recruits.

 

[EricLA]

Jamelle took over a bad program at Cincinnati and eventually turned it around, finishing 19-13 in her last season as HC while earning a WNIT berth. Her team had to play in a HS gym while a new on-campus arena was being constructed, and then, with everything set to go, Cincinnati inexplicably fired her. The Cincinnati team that won 22 games this season was largely made up of Jamelle’s recruits.

+100!

Let me just add to that - at the American Conference Tourney the year before last - first season after Jamelle was fired - we got to speak to the dad of one of the Cinci players. He said that the players all loved Jamelle. She had the program on the rise. His daughter actually wanted to play for UCONN, but she wasn't good enough.

 

[MSGRET]

Many people on here are wanting Geno to hire a young coach so that they can relate to the players. There is only ONE problem right now with that thought. Currently there is a hiring freeze at UConn which is not good for the chance of being able to hire someone. So with Jamelle currently on as an assistant there is no need to do it until at least next Spring. All of the current players are familiar with Jamelle and that is a good thing. While the new class coming in had most likely had some interaction with her. If the freeze is lifted it won't be until at least early Summer, which would not be a good time to bring someone into the program that is not familiar with how it runs or with the players.

 

[Monte]

Is Jim Calhoun available?

 

[Cornell Lt]

I would suspect that filling a vacancy within the program will not be that big of a deal. Cornell has the same hiring freeze in place, but when the head Men's Lacrosse coach bolted for Johns Hopkins they hired (promoted) an assistant as head coach and promoted another assistant to associate head coach.

 

[Rocket009]

well if you wait til March.... no stealing would be required

How about we take JPM as an assistant and Duke gives us their spot in the ACC?

 

[dogged1]

Conspiracy Kitty says:
Hmmmm, Muffet resigns suddenly just before a spot opens on the UConn staff?

Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. How far did you wander from the conference realignment board?
Haven't seen you in ages.

 

[HopJim]

Jamelle took over a bad program at Cincinnati and eventually turned it around, finishing 19-13 in her last season as HC while earning a WNIT berth. Her team had to play in a HS gym while a new on-campus arena was being constructed, and then, with everything set to go, Cincinnati inexplicably fired her. The Cincinnati team that won 22 games this season was largely made up of Jamelle’s recruits.

I used to travel to Cincinnati frequently and saw her team play several times. Fully understand the many issues she worked with but not impressed with the job she did. Against relatively poor competition her rah rah approach had the team playing hard, but her strategies at times seemed random. Not considered a strong recruiter. I guess opinions vary.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Geno could rescue Nykesha from Coach Abe!

If I'm not mistaken Nykesha owns a real estate business down there and both coaches and runs that show.

 

[oldude]

I used to travel to Cincinnati frequently and saw her team play several times. Fully understand the many issues she worked with but not impressed with the job she did. Against relatively poor competition her rah rah approach had the team playing hard, but her strategies at times seemed random. Not considered a strong recruiter. I guess opinions vary.

The AAC is not a strong conference. It takes years to build a program, which is exactly what Jamelle did at Cincinnati. One individual who was unequivocal in his criticism of Cincinnati’s decision to fire Jamelle was Geno, who understood as well as anyone the job she did there. It will be interesting to see if Cincinnati can maintain the success she built with the program or fall back into mediocrity.

 

[Alydar]

Many people on here are wanting Geno to hire a young coach so that they can relate to the players. There is only ONE problem right now with that thought. Currently there is a hiring freeze at UConn which is not good for the chance of being able to hire someone. So with Jamelle currently on as an assistant there is no need to do it until at least next Spring. All of the current players are familiar with Jamelle and that is a good thing. While the new class coming in had most likely had some interaction with her. If the freeze is lifted it won't be until at least early Summer, which would not be a good time to bring someone into the program that is not familiar with how it runs or with the players.

Don't worry too much about any hiring freeze. I worked for the St of CT for 33 years and experienced at least a dozen "so-called" hiring freezes. The only thing that changed was that hires needed approval from the Dept of Admin Serv. (state personnel). I'd say that in almost every case hires were made, they were high level positions or given to political allies that in some cases weren't even asked for by the department. The AC position in question would be almost guaranteed to be considered "essential" and I can't think of a CT politician who would oppose it publicly.

 

[BobbyJ]

For the record, rooting big time for Jamelle to stay. But... Just for kicks, throw another name out there - Sharonna Reaves. I know she's older (late 40's), but...

A third-year member of the staff, Sharrona Reaves joined the Lady Vol basketball program on April 19, 2016, when Holly Warlick hired her as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.

Reaves wasted little time demonstrating her abilities, spearheading Tennessee's approach in signing the No. 1 recruiting class with the 2017 group of Evina Westbrook, Anastasia Hayes, Rennia Davis and Kasiyahna Kushkituah. She followed that with the No. 4-rated group in 2018, including Rae Burrell, Mimi Collins, Zaay Green and Jazmine Massengill, and the No. 8 class in 2019, including No. 2-ranked recruit Jordan Horston and 6-foot-5 inside players Tamari Key and Emily Saunders. Eight of those 11 were McDonald's All-Americans.

It's a bit of an out of the box candidate, but if UCONN can land Westbrook after her unhappy stint in Tennessee, maybe a proven recruiter like her might be good fit (if Jamelle is not interested in staying)... I know some will say "many of those kids transferred out", but I think that's more on the Head Coach than the recruiting coordinator... and more to the story of those kids leaving than most people know.

Amazing that she was able to get all those kids in there without them finding out what a dope Warlick was. Pretty slick.

 

[MSGRET]

Don't worry too much about any hiring freeze. I worked for the St of CT for 33 years and experienced at least a dozen "so-called" hiring freezes. The only thing that changed was that hires needed approval from the Dept of Admin Serv. (state personnel). I'd say that in almost every case hires were made, they were high level positions or given to political allies that in some cases weren't even asked for by the department. The AC position in question would be almost guaranteed to be considered "essential" and I can't think of a CT politician who would oppose it publicly.

I tend to disagree with your assessment, first the current situation is nothing like the previous dozen "so-called" hiring freezes. You have millions of people that have been deemed "Non-essential", do you think they would look at any politician who thinks that an assistant coach of a college basketball team is "essential" be it in CT or elsewhere. Here in NV the women's BB team hired a new coach, she is currently the ONLY coach on the team due to the hiring freeze and I don't see anyone coming on board until the Govt lifts the current restrictions.

 

[BobbyJ]

You realize that under your selection system Lister would have never been hired?

I'm all for giving UConn grads an edge but not to the exclusion of non-UConn coaching candidates. Geno needs someone young enough to speak and translate teenage phrases for him.

Yeah, to explain to Auriemma what Bueckers means when she refers to him as "my slime."

 

[soxfan23]

If Lister resigning opens the door for Jamelle to stay on the coaching staff, I will take that trade 100/100 times! Coach Elliott did more in a few months than Lister did in her entire time at UConn. Not a knock against Lister, she is a young coach finding her way, but Jamelle just brings that experience and nastiness that this team has been missing for a while.

 

[Steelerone]

A class act. Hope the future is bright. Godspeed Jasmine.

 

[JellyBean]

Oh man. Wish Jasmine the best going forward and whatever it was that caused her to take a leave of absent, has been resolved.

 

[DEpup]

I believe long term Jamelle wants to be in administration but my wish would be for a younger wing/forward focused couch who recruits and get Jamelle to stay on part time as a consultant during the season for additional post coaching. Win win!

 

[PacoSwede]

... Coach Elliott did more in a few months than Lister did in her entire time at UConn. Not a knock against Lister,...

c'mon, that's NOT a knock against Lister??? sure as hell is.

no need to demean the woman in this thread. geez. why do that?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I used to travel to Cincinnati frequently and saw her team play several times. Fully understand the many issues she worked with but not impressed with the job she did. Against relatively poor competition her rah rah approach had the team playing hard, but her strategies at times seemed random. Not considered a strong recruiter. I guess opinions vary.

I wasn't impressed from much further away, but wouldn't try to assess the reasons - school and history, conference, coach, etc.

I don't care for "rah rah" styles (if that was hers), it always makes me think of Carolyn Peck and Brenda Frese, neither of whom are favorites. Still getting them to play hard is part of the battle.

I got to see Niya Butts working "up close" at Arizona and followed former RU Associate HC Carlene Mitchell at UCSB. Both showed some of the downfalls that new coaches can face, especially when their team is ultimately not as talented as teams they have more experience with. Michell (especially) seemed to have too high a play making expectation for her team. Butts tried the PHS style of hard play and defense, but without the plusses of PHS's experience and ended up with a team that went stretches where they looked like they forgot how to play BB.

I personally think Jamelle needs simply to take stock of her plans - whether she wants to be a HC to a team where they are a good match or whether she is content to work for a few years as an assistant gaining (always) more experience.