In all candor, I think the only reason that Stephanie White didn't follow Coach Drew out the door is because she's only halfway though the six-year contract she was signed to in 2016. Even for a new AD (who could look in his rear view mirror and assign blame), that's a lot of cash to be paying out to "exe's" in your first few months on the job.
Some high...no, make that low lights. Ones that are tough to ignore:
- White has a 28-63 record, including a 9-39 SEC mark. Her past two seasons — 7-24 in 2017-18 and 7-23 in 2018-19 — were the worst in program history, just like Drew’s team did in the same two seasons.
- For context, Melanie Balcomb was coming off one losing record, then a, say, mediocre one. The tank was not empty (Overbeck was there).
2010-11: 20–12 NCAA First Round
2011-12: 23–10 NCAA Second Round
2012-13 21–12 NCAA Second Round
2013-14: 18–13 NCAA First Round
2014-15: 15-16
2015–16: 18–14
- Four players with eligibility remaining left after the 2017-18 season. Kayla Overbeck (Southern Cal), Erin Whalen (Dayton) and Blessing Ejiofor (Chipola College) transferred, and Paige Warren left the team but remained enrolled at Vanderbilt. And now Walker is hitting the road.
- The best player on the team is Mariella Fasoula (who some UConn and ND fans would love to have as a grad transfer) and she'll work with a large incoming class. Two top-100 players but not a "right the ship quickly" class.
So, given this news that she'll back, I think this year had better see marked progress. They're not paying her to change that culture (Jim Foster and Balcomb did a pretty good job in that department). She's got to, err, win.