Women's Basketball Coach Candidate Thread

[Zinzan 123]

Bring back Nell Fortner?

[ellitor 33,077]

4 hours ago, Zinzan said:

Bring back Nell Fortner?

No

[ellitor 33,077]

9 hours ago, AU02 said:

In my opinion, I think a great fit for the women's basketball coach would be Marquis Daniels. Think about it, he is familiar with the program, the student-athletes have a lot of respect for him, his resume speaks for itself and he is a Auburn man. It's proven that he can work well with both males or females in basketball based on the great job that he does with his daughter. 

@AU02 Welcome & thank you for posting. Just wanted to let you know we have a candidates thread & I merged your thread with it.

[MyAU03 0]

10 hours ago, AU02 said:

In my opinion, I think a great fit for the women's basketball coach would be Marquis Daniels. Think about it, he is familiar with the program, the student-athletes have a lot of respect for him, his resume speaks for itself and he is a Auburn man. It's proven that he can work well with both males or females in basketball based on the great job that he does with his daughter. 

I totally agree!! He was an AUsome player and I feel like he would work out well!! I hope his name is on someone's radar

[MyAU03 0]

I hope someone has added Marquis Daniels name to this list of candidates!! He definitely needs to be on the radar!!

[steeleagle 2,945]

29 minutes ago, MyAU03 said:

I hope someone has added Marquis Daniels name to this list of candidates!! He definitely needs to be on the radar!!

Sorry I don't want an experimental coach, who has never recruited or coached a college womens BB team.

We need to stay on course w/ starting from a better vantage point for bringing this program back to something resembling the competitive teams under Ciampi and for a while Fortner. While C. Prewett would be interesting, since he did coach girls BB in HS, and assists now on the men's, it still would have so many questions than answers if we go the unknown route of Prewett or Daniels. 

[WarEagle2423 357]

I like the idea of Chad Prewett getting the job. I think he would excel. And he’d probably be a cost-effective hire, if they are worried about that. 

[AU9377 4,920]

8 hours ago, Zinzan said:

Bring back Nell Fortner?

I love Nell and will always have her back.  That said, she would acknowledge that her time as Auburn coach has passed.  She made the decision to step down and she is now building something special at Ga Tech.  She is and has always been a terrific ambassador for Auburn.

[AU9377 4,920]

2 hours ago, MyAU03 said:

I hope someone has added Marquis Daniels name to this list of candidates!! He definitely needs to be on the radar!!

I have nothing against MD, but I believe the program is respected enough to hire someone that has experience coaching women's basketball.

[AU9377 4,920]

During the last search, we waited until Tennessee was out of the tournament before making a final decision because we were waiting to see if they would name Holly Warlick as Pat Summitt's replacement at UT.  Had they not done so, I believe we would have offered Holly the Auburn job.  She may not be interested in coaching again, but she has so much experience at the highest level that I would ask if she was interested in interviewing.  She didn't fail as HC.  She simply followed a legend and that is always a near impossible thing to do. In her 7 seasons as HC, she won the SEC Tournament once (2014) and the regular season SEC title twice (2013 & 2015)  Her record as HC is below.

2012–13	Tennessee	27–8	14–2	1st	NCAA Elite Eight
2013–14	Tennessee	29–6	13–3	T–2nd	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2014–15	Tennessee	30–6	15–1	T–1st	NCAA Elite Eight
2015–16	Tennessee	22–14	8–8	T–7th	NCAA Elite Eight
2016–17	Tennessee	20–12	10–6	5th	NCAA Second Round
2017–18	Tennessee	25–8	11–5	T–4th	NCAA Second Round
2018–19	Tennessee	19–13	7–9	T–8th	NCAA First Round

[ellitor 33,077]

1 hour ago, AU9377 said:

During the last search, we waited until Tennessee was out of the tournament before making a final decision because we were waiting to see if they would name Holly Warlick as Pat Summitt's replacement at UT.  Had they not done so, I believe we would have offered Holly the Auburn job.  She may not be interested in coaching again, but she has so much experience at the highest level that I would ask if she was interested in interviewing.  She didn't fail as HC.  She simply followed a legend and that is always a near impossible thing to do. In her 7 seasons as HC, she won the SEC Tournament once (2014) and the regular season SEC title twice (2013 & 2015)  Her record as HC is below.

2012–13	Tennessee	27–8	14–2	1st	NCAA Elite Eight
2013–14	Tennessee	29–6	13–3	T–2nd	NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2014–15	Tennessee	30–6	15–1	T–1st	NCAA Elite Eight
2015–16	Tennessee	22–14	8–8	T–7th	NCAA Elite Eight
2016–17	Tennessee	20–12	10–6	5th	NCAA Second Round
2017–18	Tennessee	25–8	11–5	T–4th	NCAA Second Round
2018–19	Tennessee	19–13	7–9	T–8th	NCAA First Round

I respect the hell out of HW & loved her as a player but with all the resources available to her at UT & all that school puts into women's basketball that's an undewhelming slide her last 4 years there. I'd rather go with someone young & hungry. We are going to have to have a great recruiter to turn this around fairly quickly. I don't know who the best P5 coaches are but I would be in favor of getting one of the best G5 coaches like ADG did getting CBH in football.

[AU9377 4,920]

Like I have said before, there are multiple candidates that I believe could get the job done.  Others I would consider include...

1. Karl Smesko, current HC at FGCU. His record as a HC is 488-93.

2.  Sam Purcell, AC, Louisville https://gocards.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/sam-purcell/87

3.  Kelly Bond-White, Associate HC Texas A&M https://12thman.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/kelly-bond-white/1235

4. Tempie Brown - Assistant Coach Stanford https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/tempie-brown/707

#3 and #4 would be minority hires and may have the edge.  If so, Kelly Bond-White should have a clear edge.

Chad Prewitt, if he is interested, may get a look.  I think the fan base could live with that, but I'm not sure AD AG wants to go that route.  A couple of people have mentioned Marquis Daniels.  My question is .. Would you consider him for the men's program?  Alabama gave their women's basketball HC position to Wendell Hudson a few years ago.  He has a storied history at bama due to him being the first African American basketball player at the school.  The move seemed disrespectful to their program and I can't help but think many would feel the same if Daniels was named HC.

[AU9377 4,920]

23 minutes ago, ellitor said:

I respect the hell out of HW & loved her as a player but with all the resources available to her at UT & all that school puts into women's basketball that's an undewhelming slide her last 4 years there. I'd rather go with someone young & hungry. We are going to have to have a great recruiter to turn this around fairly quickly. I don't know who the best P5 coaches are but I would be in favor of getting one of the best P5 coaches like ADG did getting CBH in football.

You mean group of 5?  Your points about Holly are legit, however , she was in a no win situation at UT.  She had the #1 recruiting class the year before she was let go.  She won 25 games the year before she was dismissed.  I'm all for young and hungry, provided that they have ties to our recruiting footprint.  If they don't, they will struggle recruiting the SEC calibre athletes we need.  I realize that is an over generalization and that there are those that could do it, but that is my fear.

[ellitor 33,077]

1 hour ago, AU9377 said:

You mean group of 5?

Yes G5. OP fixed.

[TexasTiger 12,828]

2 hours ago, AU9377 said:

I love Nell and will always have her back.  That said, she would acknowledge that her time as Auburn coach has passed.  She made the decision to step down and she is now building something special at Ga Tech.  She is and has always been a terrific ambassador for Auburn.

How about Joe Ciampi? Rested and ready. 😉

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, AU9377 said:

Like I have said before, there are multiple candidates that I believe could get the job done.  Others I would consider include...

1. Karl Smesko, current HC at FGCU. His record as a HC is 488-93.

2.  Sam Purcell, AC, Louisville https://gocards.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/sam-purcell/87

3.  Kelly Bond-White, Associate HC Texas A&M https://12thman.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/kelly-bond-white/1235

4. Tempie Brown - Assistant Coach Stanford https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/tempie-brown/707

#3 and #4 would be minority hires and may have the edge.  If so, Kelly Bond-White should have a clear edge.

Chad Prewitt, if he is interested, may get a look.  I think the fan base could live with that, but I'm not sure AD AG wants to go that route.  A couple of people have mentioned Marquis Daniels.  My question is .. Would you consider him for the men's program?  Alabama gave their women's basketball HC position to Wendell Hudson a few years ago.  He has a storied history at bama due to him being the first African American basketball player at the school.  The move seemed disrespectful to their program and I can't help but think many would feel the same if Daniels was named HC.

Outside of Sam Purcell, the others seem to me to be 2nd tier possibles, if we don't dont get who we want from a better first tier list. 

Smesko, has been down there forever...and would be a real challenge to jump into a P5 recruiting and performance need.

Bond and Brown, were entrenched in their respective schools for a good long while. Brown I think stepped down last year to spend time with family. And they seem older coaches that I don't think Auburn needs right now.

I'll take a strong AC that is still young and eager to get out there and recruit and has a good resume for what type of offense and defense they want to run at a major college WBB program.

[AU9377 4,920]

10 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

How about Joe Ciampi? Rested and ready. 😉

He did retire way too early, but I think that ball rolled away some time ago.  LOL

[AU9377 4,920]

5 hours ago, steeleagle said:

Outside of Sam Purcell, the others seem to me to be 2nd tier possibles, if we don't dont get who we want from a better first tier list. 

Smesko, has been down there forever...and would be a real challenge to jump into a P5 recruiting and performance need.

Bond and Brown, were entrenched in their respective schools for a good long while. Brown I think stepped down last year to spend time with family. And they seem older coaches that I don't think Auburn needs right now.

I'll take a strong AC that is still young and eager to get out there and recruit and has a good resume for what type of offense and defense they want to run at a major college WBB program.

Bond is in her 40s.  That can't be too old. She is at most 5 years older than Purcell.  She graduated undergrad in the spring of 1999. Purcell graduated undergrad in the Spring of 2003.  I would rather hire Purcell due to his connections to the area and being an Auburn graduate, but she is certainly not a tier down.  They are about as equally qualified as it gets. We will need to at the very least interview qualified minority candidates.

I have heard that Purcell is at the top of the list at this point, but there will be a real effort made to hire a minority candidate. The same was the case at Ms State, Ole Miss,  Kentucky, & Georgia when they made their recent hires.  That is the same reason that TWF got the job over Kellie Harper 9 years ago.  I don't care what someone's race is.  I just want the best fit, but we would be fooling ourselves to think it won't be a consideration.

Update..... I believe that Johnnie Harris, Associate HC at Texas, formerly with Vic Shaefer at Ms State, is someone to keep an eye on as well.

[AUpreacherman22 3,883]

I think ADAG is doing an excellent job and has made some fantastic hires.  I believe he’ll do the same here.  
The new coach is going to have a total rebuild, similar to the hand Bruce was dealt.   Very few coaches can pull off what Bruce did.  Best of luck to our new coach, and to Coach Flo on her future endeavors.

[AUBwins 10,070]

7 hours ago, AU9377 said:

Karl Smesko, current HC at FGCU. His record as a HC is 488-93.

A coworker of mine has a daughter that plays for Bellarmine in Louisville.  I have heard her talk about playing FGCU. Sounds like they are a tough team to beat.  I know they have a girl my coworker said was 8'2" the way she plays lol.  Tough tough.  

[PigskinPat 2,575]

After reading his bio, my first call would be to Purcell. Sounds like we could catch lightning in a bottle there.

[bigbird 60,446]

FWIW, I've been told that Bill Clark has turned down the job

[AU9377 4,920]

2 hours ago, PigskinPat said:

After reading his bio, my first call would be to Purcell. Sounds like we could catch lightning in a bottle there.

I did not realize this until this morning, but Sam Purcell is married to the former Meghan Ciampi, daughter of legendary former Auburn coach Joe Ciampi.  If that doesn't give someone a foot in the door, I don't know what does.

[steeleagle 2,945]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

FWIW, I've been told that Bill Clark has turned down the job

Phew! I was worried he was on the list.

 

[steeleagle 2,945]

19 hours ago, AU9377 said:

Bond is in her 40s.  That can't be too old. She is at most 5 years older than Purcell.  She graduated undergrad in the spring of 1999. Purcell graduated undergrad in the Spring of 2003.  I would rather hire Purcell due to his connections to the area and being an Auburn graduate, but she is certainly not a tier down.  They are about as equally qualified as it gets. We will need to at the very least interview qualified minority candidates.

I have heard that Purcell is at the top of the list at this point, but there will be a real effort made to hire a minority candidate. The same was the case at Ms State, Ole Miss,  Kentucky, & Georgia when they made their recent hires.  That is the same reason that TWF got the job over Kellie Harper 9 years ago.  I don't care what someone's race is.  I just want the best fit, but we would be fooling ourselves to think it won't be a consideration.

Update..... I believe that Johnnie Harris, Associate HC at Texas, formerly with Vic Shaefer at Ms State, is someone to keep an eye on as well.

I didn't say Bond-White was old, I said she and Brown had been at their respective schools for a long time. My goodness she has been there for 18 years...

And I don't think we do well hiring coaches with hyphenated last names.

As for minority candidates, and this is only my opinion, I think that every hire doesn't have to be a minority hire. I can surely understand making sure minorities are interviewed and given fair evaluations, and Auburn recently certainly has promoted and hired minorities at every level of the athletic programs, so I think we have done well. 

Now whether Greene feels compelled to continue to hire a minority, who knows if that will be part of his thinking.