Women’s Basketball Coaching News (Update w/ Caulton Tudor’s thoughts)

Thanks to a link on another thread, WRAL is reporting that Stephanie Glance will not be promoted to head women’s basketball coach at NC State. I don’t really follow women’s basketball, but didn’t want the BB Byte thread to be taken over by this emotional topic.

UPDATE: Ronnie Brown, Kay’s brother, talked to WRAL and also provided a copy of the letter that Coach Yow sent Lee Fowler and Chancellor Oblinger.

Caulton Tudor weighs in on Saturday morning.

But there’s a wise old adage that the hands of the dead should not dictate the hands of the living. On this issue, there’s more to be taken into account than the last wish of the legendary Yow. Her request should be a primary consideration, of course. But even more than honoring Yow’s request, Fowler and his superiors owe it to her memory to hire the very best candidate the school can afford.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

General Kay Yow NCS Basketball Non-Revenue

132 Responses to Women’s Basketball Coaching News (Update w/ Caulton Tudor’s thoughts)

  1. pack98 04/09/2009 at 8:57 PM #

    Xphoenix87, most of what you said is true but I do have to correct one comment you made. Kristen Gillespie is NOT the daughter of Billy Gillespie. She is the daughter of Mike Gillespie, the former coach at Florida A & M. Mike played freshman basketball at State during the Norm Sloan era before transferring to DePaul.

  2. choppack1 04/09/2009 at 9:05 PM #

    I haven’t watched a lot of women’s basketball – but I did follow their results the last few years.

    Unfortunately, I think it’s time for a change. If Lee goes another way here, I can’t blame him.

  3. boxorice 04/09/2009 at 9:15 PM #

    The team hasn’t been competitive in quite some time. Why on earth would anyone want to continue down that path by promoting the second banana to the top job is beyond me. Of course, if your sentimentality is your driving factor…

  4. old13 04/09/2009 at 9:41 PM #

    Question: According to her bio, Anne Donovan spent about 8 years as a D1 assistant and has spent the last 14 in the pros. Does that qualify her for D1 HC? She’s never run any kind of college program. (I never heard of her before.)

  5. xphoenix87 04/09/2009 at 9:43 PM #

    pack98 – thanks for catching that. I just wrote down the wrong former coach ๐Ÿ™‚

    boxorice & choppack1 – One of the things you have to realize about the last few years is that, as great a coach as Yow was, her condition made it extremely hard to recruit, and as we all know, it’s tough to win without talent. When other coaches can say “yeah, you can go to N.C. State, but who knows how long Yow is going to be there”, it’s a pretty severe handicap. They’ve also had to deal with the head coach being absent for a few stretches over the last few years, and some terrible luck with injury. When it’s tough for you to recruit talent, and the talent that you do have keeps getting injured, it’s difficult to win. And, if I may point out, the team was 21-13 in 07-08, and in 06-07 they finished 25-10, ranked 12th in the coaches poll, made the Sweet Sixteen, and had wins over #2 UNC and #1(and undefeated) Duke. If they weren’t “competitive” that season, perhaps you’d like to define the term for me.

    I’m not usually one for making excuses, but there are some legitimate reasons the Women’s Basketball program has had some trouble over the last few years. Last year’s record certainly shouldn’t be used as an argument against Glance. I don’t think you could have put any coach in her spot after Yow left and expect them to have a winning record even, much less be competitive. I’m fine with turning down Glance if the program can bring in an established, proven winner like an Anne Donovan. If they’re going to bring in a mid-major coach or an assistant (Shea Ralph at UCONN has been mentioned), then I would rather have Glance.

  6. WV Wolf 04/09/2009 at 9:51 PM #

    I can understand the position of those who wanted to give the job to Glance. And I think she would have been capable of maintaining the program’s current status.

    However, like the men’s team, women’s basketball has fallen behind Dook and Carolina and other national powers. But I don’t think the women has fallen near as far as the men have and aren’t that far from being a good, solid program. I wasn’t convinced that Glance could make up that ground, maybe she could have but now we’ll never know. I think some new blood might do the program some good.

    xphoenix87 mentioned Kristen Gillespie, I went to the first home game vs BC after Coach Yow passed away and came away very impressed with Kristen. On a very emotional night she was the first person on the bench to pick those girls up when you could tell they were hurting and hurting bad. Whoever the new coach turns out to be I hope they consider keeping her on staff.

    But that’s just my opinion, I don’t follow the women’s team as closely as I once did, those that do probably have a more educated opinion.

  7. wufpup76 04/09/2009 at 9:56 PM #

    ^Donovan was an assistant at ODU and then head coach at ECU for a couple of seasons before going to the pro coaching ranks.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Donovan

  8. xphoenix87 04/09/2009 at 9:56 PM #

    old13 – Donovan was head coach for 3 years at ECU. You’re right though, the majority of her coaching experience has come in the pros and internationally (she’s been the assistant or head coach for the US Basketball team 13 times, including last year when she was head coach for the gold medal winning squad). She also won a WNBA championship in 2004. Even if she doesn’t have as much college head coaching experience, she’s a Hall of Famer and a legend in the women’s game who definitely has coaching chops. We’d be lucky to get someone of her caliber.

  9. old13 04/09/2009 at 10:04 PM #

    Thanks. I misread about her HC time at ECU. So it is consdiered that she does have enough of the right kind of college coaching experience to step in and do well early?

  10. xphoenix87 04/09/2009 at 10:18 PM #

    In my mind, absolutely. The difference between the pros and college isn’t as severe in women’s basketball as it is in men’s (in my opinion at least), So the Xs and Os shouldn’t really be an issue. Obviously, recruiting is a whole different ballgame, but I think 9 years of assistant/head coach experience in college should give you a pretty good idea of what you’re doing. More than that, she’s a legend, one of the greatest players of all time, and has instant name recognition. That’s invaluable on the recruiting trail.

  11. leewolf 04/09/2009 at 11:25 PM #

    While I respect everything that Coach Glance did when Kay Yow had to step aside various times, this is probably the right move. You hire the best person for the job. Period. Given how much Coach Yow loved this program, wouldn’t the best tribute be to rebuild a top program? Coach Glance may have been able to do that but obviously the committee thinks they found someone better suited to do that. I patiently await their new coach to be announced, hopefully they turn out to be right.

  12. Greywolf 04/10/2009 at 12:18 AM #

    Anne Donovan: Just read her write-up in Wiki. Da-yum!

  13. Daily Update 04/10/2009 at 6:53 AM #

    So what exactly are we waiting on? Why is this coaching search taking so long?

  14. RickJ 04/10/2009 at 7:32 AM #

    Kellie Hardin, the head coach at Western Carolina is a name that has been floated around. You may remember her as Kellie Jolly, one of the most popular and dynamic players ever to play at Tennessee. She is in her early 30รขโ‚ฌหœs and her husband is an assistant coach at Western.

  15. Bubba 04/10/2009 at 7:44 AM #

    Daily

    Could the hire be pending till the BOT meeting next week?

  16. Daily Update 04/10/2009 at 8:00 AM #

    I don’t know of any other coaching search that takes this long. Either we just do things differently than everyone else or there has to be some explanation of why this is taking so long.

    NC State is a cluster%$^*

  17. Alpha Wolf 04/10/2009 at 8:01 AM #

    I personally hope that Glance gets a job at a major program and has some major success.

    It would amuse me to no end to see her take a team to a Final Four or even win a national championship.

    In Yow’s letter, she talks about Glance being offered the head coaching job at Kentucky but staying loyal to NC State. Shows you what loyalty gets you.

  18. Red_Terrors 04/10/2009 at 8:08 AM #

    In my opinion, this hire could be a double-edged sword. On one hand you want State to make a good hire, but then that might make Foulup look like he did a good job. And we all know he’s as worthless as tits on a boar. It’d be nice if we could have another great coach like TOB just fall into our laps without Jed having anything to do with it. I want “coach” gone as fast as possible, but not at the risk of potentially screwing up another coaching hire.

  19. choppack1 04/10/2009 at 8:17 AM #

    I have to think that this is the perfect example of a “trap” hire.

    By making her intentions known, Yow forced Oblinger’s and Fowler’s hand here. So, had they kept on Glance – and she was a failure, they’d be blamed. OTOH, if they go another direction – they look heartless and inconsiderate.

    Like I said earlier, I think the women’s b’ball program needs a change. I see no evidence whatsoever that Glance is the answer. The only evidence appears to be a) Yow wanted her to have this job and b) Kentucky considered her for their job.

  20. packof81 04/10/2009 at 8:18 AM #

    I’m surprised Glance wasn’t named head coach but then I don’t know basketball or have a contract.

  21. wolfpackbball 04/10/2009 at 8:19 AM #

    I’m with Alpha on this one. I’d like to see Glance get a job and go big time. It wouldn’t upset me too much to see her drag us a couple of times with Jed still here at the helm.
    Sorry, my spitefulness is at work this morning.

  22. BAC79 04/10/2009 at 8:24 AM #

    Daily update hit the nail on the proverbial head. A lot of us, like myself, probably do not follow Wbb enough to have an informed opinion about who should be coach. But, we have all watched LF conduct “coaching searches”.

    If he, they, or whoever, decided not to hire Glance, why haven’t we already hired someone else. Having to replace Kay Yow was not a surprise.

    This is just more evidence that LF is truly incompetent. KY and VA can conduct coaching searches quickly, quietly and efficiently. Apparently we can achieve none of these goals during any coaching search.

  23. wufpup76 04/10/2009 at 8:31 AM #

    What an absolute shock! Another coaching search that takes months to complete and makes N.C. State look foolish and idiotic in the media and elsewhere.

    The end must be near. It has to be.

  24. BAC79 04/10/2009 at 8:32 AM #

    One further point. LF has obviously not considered what may happen if he strikes out a la the mens basketball search. Now he has burned his bridges for a “safe sentimental” hire. Great strategy Lee.

  25. Packman02 04/10/2009 at 8:33 AM #

    The main pain point here is that Fowler and his cronies in the Athletic Department are, again, AGAIN staging a dramatic, incompitent and ,most importantly, PUBLIC bungling of a coaching search – and this one has direct ties to one of the most beloved figures in NC State athletic lore…

    We’ve been through this before, three years ago…

    Fool me once…y’know?

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