No Coaching experience to Head Coach and who's been successful

[DefenseBB]

While reviewing the slate of games on the Weekly thread Post by our fine colleague @Plebe (plug for his Herculean efforts to keep it easy for all of us), I noticed the schools who's coaches had ZERO previous college coaching experience and it got me to thinking, how successful of path is that for school to go and choose someone without any Coaching in the college ranks.
We saw a colossal failure with Sheryl Swoopes
We are witnessing Steph White flailing at Vandy.
Lindsey Whelan in year 3 needs to really prove her coaching chops against good D1 schools and in the Big10 and not just beat up on the Marlene Stollings scheduling of cupcakes to pad the wins. But yet, the Minn regents extended her to 2024.
Kara Lawson is obviously in year 1 of Duke
The only one I can think of is Dawn Staley went right to Temple without ever assistant coaching so that seems to have turned out ok
I turn to my fellow posters to hear what others have been thrown (or jumped) into the pool of Head Coaching without having been an assistant and how these coaches have fared.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lindsey Whelan in year 3 needs to really prove her coaching chops against good D1 schools and in the Big10 and not just beat up on the Marlene Stollings scheduling of cupcakes to pad the wins.

Playing what I think is a solid Drake team who is off to a 1-2 start after a tough schedule, I'm sure they are hungry for a win today.

 

[CL82]

The closest I can think of is Kevin Ollie. He had only a few years of assistant coaching experience. In his first year he was not eligible for postseason play because the NCAA changed the rules and applied them retroactively to a year UConn already been punished for. (Don’t get me started on this.). In his next year Connecticut won the national championship.

 

[Plebe]

While reviewing the slate of games on the Weekly thread Post by our fine colleague @Plebe (plug for his Herculean efforts to keep it easy for all of us), I noticed the schools who's coaches had ZERO previous college coaching experience and it got me to thinking, how successful of path is that for school to go and choose someone without any Coaching in the college ranks.
We saw a colossal failure with Sheryl Swoopes
We are witnessing Steph White flailing at Vandy.
Lindsey Whelan in year 3 needs to really prove her coaching chops against good D1 schools and in the Big10 and not just beat up on the Marlene Stollings scheduling of cupcakes to pad the wins. But yet, the Minn regents extended her to 2024.
Kara Lawson is obviously in year 1 of Duke
The only one I can think of is Dawn Staley went right to Temple without ever assistant coaching so that seems to have turned out ok
I turn to my fellow posters to hear what others have been thrown (or jumped) into the pool of Head Coaching without having been an assistant and how these coaches have fared.

This question came up at some point in the past year or two.

Pat Summitt is surely the most successful example of a straight-to-HC career path, Obviously, she became HC at Tennessee at a very different time in the sport, when it was not uncommon at all for HCs to be hired without AC experience. At this point this pathway effectively only open to very highly decorated former players who are pivoting into coaching.

Staley is undoubtedly the most successful example among currently active coaches.

Other examples:

• Sherri Coale: a lot of good years at OU, but none recently.
• I believe Jen Rizzotti had no college coaching experience when hired by Hartford in 1999.
• Cynthia Cooper, hired as HC at Prairie View A&M in 2005 (she's now HC at Texas Southern).

There have been many instances of (male) coaches being hired with no experience in coaching the women's collegiate game, perhaps the most notorious among them being the hire of Jimmy Dykes at Arkansas.

 

[Argonaut]

Lindsay Whalen going directly from the WNBA to coaching at Minnesota -- but obviously we don't really have much to go by at this point in terms of success.

 

[Bigboote]

While reviewing the slate of games on the Weekly thread Post by our fine colleague @Plebe (plug for his Herculean efforts to keep it easy for all of us), I noticed the schools who's coaches had ZERO previous college coaching experience and it got me to thinking, how successful of path is that for school to go and choose someone without any Coaching in the college ranks.
. . .
We are witnessing Steph White flailing at Vandy.
. . .

I just saw this; apologies for the late reply.

Stephanie White was an assistant in the NCAA for a few years before her tenure as an assistant and head coach in the WNBA. It was awhile ago, but she still had the experience.