Dillon77
WBB Enthusiast; ND Alum, Fan
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The Athletic posted a wide-ranging interview with Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer. A number of questions and answers caught my attention, particularly the ones regarding coaching: composition and size of staffs and getting former players into the mix, among them.
Geno is mentiond in one of these, whch is why I posted this thread here, rather than on the general board (moderators, feel free to move if I guessed incorrectly).
In any case, since The Athletic is a paid publication, I won't just drop a link to the whole article. I'll cut and paste those subjects I was referring to.
Here's the one on composition.
Question: We’ve seen a lot of women join the coaching staffs of NBA teams in recent years. It’s been 30 years since Rick Pitino hired Bernadette Mattox at Kentucky, and there’s only one woman on the staff of a men’s basketball team, and that’s Edniesha Curry at Maine. How long do you think it will be before that starts to change?
Tara VanDerveer Answer: "I think in some ways, that’s a good thing and a bad thing. In some ways, we’re taking some of the very top women — like Becky Hammon, who has had a front-row (seat) in the NBA — we’re taking a great future potential women’s coach and they’re in the men’s game, which already has a lot of coaches.
"It’s a little bit of a double-edged sword, in my perception. It is great for even the young guys that they’re coaching to have a woman on their staff and to see women in these roles. There’s no doubt that there are great women coaches and that they can do the job. It’s just a matter of opportunity.
"I think Rick Pitino was smart. When you look at a lot of the recruitable athletes, they’re raised in single-family homes and raised by women. Most of their teachers are women. I think an ideal staff is a mixed staff of men and women in the same way that a community or a board room (are). I think to be able to value both male and female ideas and the way they work and values and everything like that.
"Having said that, so many places in the women’s game are taken up by men. We’re only a quarter, really, of the (college basketball coaching) jobs. Men have (all of the men’s) jobs and half the women’s jobs, so we have to really pump up that pipeline of great female future coaches, and I think that’s on all of us — including male coaches.
"I give props to Geno (Auriemma), who has a great female staff and encourages them and helps them get jobs and is developing coaches. It’s not just women coaches that can do it. Male coaches can do that, too. … (But to your point), I think a men’s coach would be smart to have that person on their staff."
Dillon druthers: The comment on (a lot of) recruitable athletes benefitting from mixed coaching staffs is interesting and I tried to have that on the coaching staffs (not always possible due to availability).
Geno is mentiond in one of these, whch is why I posted this thread here, rather than on the general board (moderators, feel free to move if I guessed incorrectly).
In any case, since The Athletic is a paid publication, I won't just drop a link to the whole article. I'll cut and paste those subjects I was referring to.
Here's the one on composition.
Question: We’ve seen a lot of women join the coaching staffs of NBA teams in recent years. It’s been 30 years since Rick Pitino hired Bernadette Mattox at Kentucky, and there’s only one woman on the staff of a men’s basketball team, and that’s Edniesha Curry at Maine. How long do you think it will be before that starts to change?
Tara VanDerveer Answer: "I think in some ways, that’s a good thing and a bad thing. In some ways, we’re taking some of the very top women — like Becky Hammon, who has had a front-row (seat) in the NBA — we’re taking a great future potential women’s coach and they’re in the men’s game, which already has a lot of coaches.
"It’s a little bit of a double-edged sword, in my perception. It is great for even the young guys that they’re coaching to have a woman on their staff and to see women in these roles. There’s no doubt that there are great women coaches and that they can do the job. It’s just a matter of opportunity.
"I think Rick Pitino was smart. When you look at a lot of the recruitable athletes, they’re raised in single-family homes and raised by women. Most of their teachers are women. I think an ideal staff is a mixed staff of men and women in the same way that a community or a board room (are). I think to be able to value both male and female ideas and the way they work and values and everything like that.
"Having said that, so many places in the women’s game are taken up by men. We’re only a quarter, really, of the (college basketball coaching) jobs. Men have (all of the men’s) jobs and half the women’s jobs, so we have to really pump up that pipeline of great female future coaches, and I think that’s on all of us — including male coaches.
"I give props to Geno (Auriemma), who has a great female staff and encourages them and helps them get jobs and is developing coaches. It’s not just women coaches that can do it. Male coaches can do that, too. … (But to your point), I think a men’s coach would be smart to have that person on their staff."
Dillon druthers: The comment on (a lot of) recruitable athletes benefitting from mixed coaching staffs is interesting and I tried to have that on the coaching staffs (not always possible due to availability).
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