Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="southie, post: 3353350, member: 2527"] Should Texas be searching for a new head coach after this season, I think many Texas fans who overvalue the history of our women's hoops program are in for a shock as to candidates who would truly be interested in the job, and who would actually accept it. Yes, Texas won a national title in 1986, and had enormous fan attendance in the 80's and 90's. Texas was one of the few athletic programs back then who had made a commitment to women's athletics. But, despite all the advantages we had, just one Final Four in 1987 and 2003 after that. Coach Conradt was regarded as a "pioneer" in women's basketball, but she didn't really produce at an elite level the last 20 years of her time at Texas; there was no reason why she couldn't have had half the success Pat Summitt did. Obviously, they weren't cut from the same cloth. So, when we pursued Gail from Duke with all her success, some questioned why she would even be interested in Texas. She told her players that she had to listen, as "It's Texas". That to me was her perception of Texas as she observed the growth of college women's basketball over the decades. And, of course, there were issues with her AD at Duke and the money being offered that were the ultimate factors in her accepting the Texas job. For the majority of coaches Texas might pursue from Top 10 programs, I believe all are compensated extremely well, have great fan attendance (some due to their hard work and success), and are competing for a national title and will be for the immediate future. Some Texas fans are throwing out names like Jeff Waltz and Vic Schaeffer; they just don't realize those coaches are earning twice as much as Aston, and they have zero reasons to be interested in the Texas job (other than to get their AD's to increase their salaries to keep them). So, that leaves coaches from the PAC who really are not paid very well (in most women's sports); forget if Graves is being compensated like Waltz and Schaeffer. Texas was able to lure Oregon's very successful softball head coach 18 months ago because their AD wouldn't pay him what Texas was offering him. Not sure that would be the case if Texas made overtures to Graves. UCLA is notorious for not paying their women's head coaches well at all. So, Cori Close would be the most attainable coach out there, IMO. But, UCLA is her alma mater, and doubling her salary might not be enough motivation for her to leave the West coach. She is a great recruiter, including getting kids from Texas and Australia. While she hasn't gotten to the Final Four yet, I think she's really "close" ;-) The other dynamic at Texas is that up until just 2 years ago, the men's and women's athletic departments were separate and headed by two different ADs (one male and one female). The female AD, Chris Plonsky, seems to have had an aversion to hiring male head coaches for the women's athletic programs. She recently did hire male coaches to lead our rowing, tennis, and golf programs; low and behold, all are doing great. With a combined athletic program now being led by one male AD, the hiring of a male head coach for the softball program and the Track & Field program under his leadership now has Texas with only 3 female head coaches (Swimming, Basketball and soccer, the latter two which are not doing well). I don't know how this number compares to other programs across the country, but hiring the most qualified candidate should be the objective regardless of gender; still, there are many who are upset that women head coaches across the board are decreasing in numbers in favor of male head coaches. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach

Forum statistics

Threads: 164,444

Messages: 4,396,528

Members: 10,209

Latest member: gemini*trvl