Wow. We languish through way too many years of tedious mediocrity and then decide to improve things by hiring a new coach with ZERO head coaching experience. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I'm extremely unimpressed and see more of the same coming for women's basketball. And to be clear, Vic Schaefer turned MSU into a nationally competitive program, not Johnnie Harris. If she was such a key catalyst in the MSU ascension, why was she not hired as his replacement? The MSU AD probably knew her as well as anyone and she had the blessing of Schaefer for the job, yet they hired someone else. I suspect she is a fantastic assistant who nobody thinks is ready to be a head coach...except Allen Green.
The true beauty of most sports, however, is that there is an objective measure of success that's visible for everyone (excluding gymnastics, ice skating and the like) to see. I hope Ms. Harris returns AU Women's Basketball to national relevance, wins the SEC and thumbs her nose at people like me. However, I'll believe it when I see it.
She was the heir apparent at MSU but the AD had the misguided illusion that he could hire Jeff Walz from Louisville and offered him a big salary to come to MSU. Coach Harris then pulled her name and announced she would be following Vic to Texas. I don’t blame her a bit. Of course, Jeff Walz used MSU to get a substantial raise at Louisville. MSU was left with neither coach and then hired whoever is there now. Sorry, I don’t know her name. You only have to look at the players Coach Harris recruited to MSU and Texas A&M to know that she certainly does know how to recruit in the SEC. I urge you to read her complete bio on the Auburn Athletics website. As far as I am concerned, our recruitment is about to take a major jump up.
Johnnie Harris named women's coach
in AU Basketball Forum
Posted
She was the heir apparent at MSU but the AD had the misguided illusion that he could hire Jeff Walz from Louisville and offered him a big salary to come to MSU. Coach Harris then pulled her name and announced she would be following Vic to Texas. I don’t blame her a bit. Of course, Jeff Walz used MSU to get a substantial raise at Louisville. MSU was left with neither coach and then hired whoever is there now. Sorry, I don’t know her name. You only have to look at the players Coach Harris recruited to MSU and Texas A&M to know that she certainly does know how to recruit in the SEC. I urge you to read her complete bio on the Auburn Athletics website. As far as I am concerned, our recruitment is about to take a major jump up.