Memphis WBB investigation finds "negative culture"...

[Plebe]

... but stops short of recommending the coach be fired.

Memphis women's basketball investigation: Culture is negative but firing coach not recommended

An investigation into the Memphis women’s basketball team did not recommend the firing of coach Melissa McFerrin.

www.commercialappeal.com

The report attributes the negative culture to a poor AD-coach relationship and "Title IX disparities between the men’s and women’s basketball programs," which to me is the most interesting part:

The biggest concern, according to the report, was Memphis’ decision to house only the men’s basketball program at the $21-million Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center without a viable and equitable plan for women’s basketball. This, the investigation claimed, placed the women’s program at a serious disadvantage. ...​

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Among those promises were improvements to the Elma Roane Fieldhouse, where the women's team practices and plays its home games. Per the report, a plan and time frame for renovations, including a women's basketball office suite, were not implemented.​

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

No wonder the relationship is bad; WBB isn't being given the same resources to succeed as MBB.

 

[triaddukefan]

Never heard of a program building a new practice facility and only letting MBB use it.

 

[Magy Cannon]

Never heard of a program building a new practice facility and only letting MBB use it.

Unbelievable and horrible

 

[dws3665]

When you sell your soul to Penny Hardaway ...

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Never heard of a program building a new practice facility and only letting MBB use it.

Specifically, perhaps not. But years of traveling to away games when we were living by Rutgers revealed some serious discrepancies between Men and Women at various facilities.

Among others, Seton Hall, Georgetown and Providence are, quite simply, below par playing facilities. Not the only ones. And the "separate but equal" mandate for WBB rarely is.

Even at Rutgers many years ago, the men's and women's locker rooms were not comparable, and you really don't want to know what the field hockey locker room looked like. In this regard, I think at most schools, changes have been made over the years. But still, WBB is often the stepchild.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Specifically, perhaps not. But years of traveling to away games when we were living by Rutgers revealed some serious discrepancies between Men and Women at various facilities.

Among others, Seton Hall, Georgetown and Providence are, quite simply, below par playing facilities. Not the only ones. And the "separate but equal" mandate for WBB rarely is.

Even at Rutgers many years ago, the men's and women's locker rooms were not comparable, and you really don't want to know what the field hockey locker room looked like. In this regard, I think at most schools, changes have been made over the years. But still, WBB is often the stepchild.

Who do you support out in Arizona?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Who do you support out in Arizona?

We are in Tucson, so U of A. As you may know, my wife has been battling ill health for a number of years, and hasn't 100% recovered from her liver transplant of last December, so we haven't been particularly "active" in our fandom. There is absolutely every reason to think that - at some point - we will be able to go to games again.

We have and have kept our football, volleyball, women's basketball and softball season tix, as we don't want to lose our seat locations.

Really enjoy the WBB team and new coach, after the lean years, but we have not (obviously) been able to be active in the fan events. Away games - due to geography - are mostly unlikely, but we hope to make the PAC 12 tourney in Las Vegas (before it moves back to Seattle the following year) this season, and may go to the Texas game as we have family in Austin that we visit regularly.

By the way, while I participate in our local dislike of the "team up north" (ASU), we don't really have any problem with their WBB program. The rest of their sports can go to h..l.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

We are in Tucson, so U of A. As you may know, my wife has been battling ill health for a number of years, and hasn't 100% recovered from her liver transplant of last December, so we haven't been particularly "active" in our fandom. There is absolutely every reason to think that - at some point - we will be able to go to games again.

We have and have kept our football, volleyball, women's basketball and softball season tix, as we don't want to lose our seat locations.

Really enjoy the WBB team and new coach, after the lean years, but we have not (obviously) been able to be active in the fan events. Away games - due to geography - are mostly unlikely, but we hope to make the PAC 12 tourney in Las Vegas (before it moves back to Seattle the following year) this season, and may go to the Texas game as we have family in Austin that we visit regularly.

By the way, while I participate in our local dislike of the "team up north" (ASU), we don't really have any problem with their WBB program. The rest of their sports can go to h..l.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife's troubles. I hope that improves in the near future. My brother is also in Tucson, a professor at U of A and gets season tickets for WBB. He's been excited about their prospects.

 

[DefenseBB]

Specifically, perhaps not. But years of traveling to away games when we were living by Rutgers revealed some serious discrepancies between Men and Women at various facilities.

Among others, Seton Hall, Georgetown and Providence are, quite simply, below par playing facilities. Not the only ones. And the "separate but equal" mandate for WBB rarely is.

Even at Rutgers many years ago, the men's and women's locker rooms were not comparable, and you really don't want to know what the field hockey locker room looked like. In this regard, I think at most schools, changes have been made over the years. But still, WBB is often the stepchild.

Whoa there KnightBridge. WBB IS NOT OFTEN THE STEPCHILD. Look at virtually any other women's sport or any non-revenue men's sport at many schools and especially the state schools. WBB is often the "Star" child, given more coaches, academic advisors, Athletic Department Personnel and Student Managers. Look at all the schools and tell me what Women's program has more than the basketball program? The salaries of the coaches among the Women's sports-Basketball FAR OUTPACES all the others. Heck the schools you reference above treat their Swim Team deplorably Seton Hall has 50 Swimmers for both Men's and Women's with 1 Head coach and 2 assistants, Georgetown has 53 Swimmers with 1 Head Coach and 2 assistants and PC has it even worse, 55 swimmers with 1 Head Coach and 1 Assistant. Never mind none have the full compliment of scholarships. BTW, Rutgers cut the Men's team due to Title IX consideration so they wish they were a "stepchild" instead of put up for adoption.
So, while yes, the Memphis women being promised facilities by the AD and then not given them is deplorable, Melissa's behavior was still not good and her salary is 6 times that of the Swim coaches as is the salary for many of the WBB coaches vs. all the other non-revenue sports.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Whoa there KnightBridge. WBB IS NOT OFTEN THE STEPCHILD. Look at virtually any other women's sport or any non-revenue men's sport at many schools and especially the state schools. WBB is often the "Star" child, given more coaches, academic advisors, Athletic Department Personnel and Student Managers. Look at all the schools and tell me what Women's program has more than the basketball program? The salaries of the coaches among the Women's sports-Basketball FAR OUTPACES all the others. Heck the schools you reference above treat their Swim Team deplorably Seton Hall has 50 Swimmers for both Men's and Women's with 1 Head coach and 2 assistants, Georgetown has 53 Swimmers with 1 Head Coach and 2 assistants and PC has it even worse, 55 swimmers with 1 Head Coach and 1 Assistant. Never mind none have the full compliment of scholarships. BTW, Rutgers cut the Men's team due to Title IX consideration so they wish they were a "stepchild" instead of put up for adoption.
So, while yes, the Memphis women being promised facilities by the AD and then not given them is deplorable, Melissa's behavior was still not good and her salary is 6 times that of the Swim coaches as is the salary for many of the WBB coaches vs. all the other non-revenue sports.

I was referring almost exclusively to facilities. In large part many schools put (and lose) a lot of money in WBB because it is their "star" sport after MBB and Football. That doesn't mean I think it is all well spent, and plenty of schools have proven that, if you sink some money in a niche sport you can be successful there too. Think Volleyball at Nebraska for example. But of course, they are likewise not necessarily money makers.

I don't claim to have the answer about facilities. Seton Hall and Georgetown for example play where they play because the men's team plays in an arena the school doesn't own - and which they could not (and should not) be expected to pay for a poorly attended women's game. But to not sink a few bucks into the facility that the women do play in seems unfair to me as well. Some of them were, at least 10 years ago, dumps, and reportedly locker rooms were often not much either. I know that, "before CVS" the locker room for the women at Rutgers wasn't very nice, while the Men's was much better. This has changed, probably at most schools.

Credit to the U of A, which generally supports its various women's programs very well (and has had respectable success in both its men's and women's programs). Yet, when WBB tanked under Niya Butts they kept her to the end of her contract, and especially since she was underpaid (well, by the standard for WBB coaches) to not make a change and leave the program in the condition it was when Adia took over is almost inexplicable. Especially when they were - 3 years later - willing to fund hosting WNIT games and sell out the arena for the finals, and give Adia a raise.

In the end, there is no good answer. And I'm not out there touting sinking increasing amounts of money into women's programs, or cutting men's programs, or anything else. I am going to stick to my opinion that facilities for some schools are just sub-par, even if for financial reasons it is unavoidable.