Not saying she didn't do well at Minn. Just that when you bring back an assistant to be HC it's usually to reconnect with the "good old days when X was HC." I doubt MN views Borton as the good ol days. Not impossible to hire MM, just seems less likely given her connection, however tangential, with a coach they fired.
It would be like ND football hiring back a Bob Davie assistant to be Head.
An obvious counterexample would be Pitt & Shea Ralph. Though Agnes B was ultimately fired, the Shea years in Pitt were some of their best ever and things went downhill, coincidentally or not, after she left.
.
Not saying she didn't do well at Minn. Just that when you bring back an assistant to be HC it's usually to reconnect with the "good old days when X was HC." I doubt MN views Borton as the good ol days. Not impossible to hire MM, just seems less likely given her connection, however tangential, with a coach they fired.
It would be like ND football hiring back a Bob Davie assistant to be Head.
An obvious counterexample would be Pitt & Shea Ralph. Though Agnes B was ultimately fired, the Shea years in Pitt were some of their best ever and things went downhill, coincidentally or not, after she left.
In many cases, your example makes absolutely spot-on sense, but I'm not certain it entirely holds in all instances. In looking at Minnesota,
- Barton wasn't that bad. Shad a 236-152 record with the Gophers, including 104-94 in Big Ten play.
- She coached Minnesota to the NCAA tournament in six of her first seven seasons, including a Final Four and two Sweet 16 appearances. But the Gophers haven’t made the NCAA tournament since the 2008-09 season.
- Guess when Morisa was there? She would probably be associated with the "good old days," in part...
- because Minnesota is on now on a third athletic director since then. The one that fired her -- Norwood Teague -- was ultimately let go for undisclosed reasons, many of which transpired at his previous job at VCU (and involved former HC and now Irish assistant coach Beth Cunningham). Guess who he hired after firing Borton? Cunnigham's replacement at Minnesota, Stallings.
OK, check that....maybe it's not the athletic administration that has the long memory here: it should be the possible candidate!
After perusing too many articles on this, I read that one of the reasons Borton was let go was her inability to recruit Minnesota better, yet her last prize recruit, Carlie Wagner, was arguably Minnesota's best player this year and might be drafted tonight. And the post--mortems on Stallings give her credit for getting transfers but not ...you guessed it...being able to recruit Minnesota. Maybe the recruits are keeping track?
Marisa, Niele: tread carefully.....
p.s. Your Davie example is spot-on. A catch-all phrase for something that is so bad is: "Blame Davie."
