Overview of Coaching Success at UT

I think last year or the previous year there was some griping about Karen A, as there is this year. Okay, everyone has their feelings and we're just venting. The one thing I always wonder is if people have selective amnesia or memory of the past. I break down coaching into: recruiting, development, in-game strategy.

Here's my 2-cents.

Jody C is in sainthood because she brought us our only national championship and got the team to 3 Final Fours. But, I started getting feeling the game was passing her by. Near the end, the player skills started getting sloppy. She would go on the record about needing to get more discipline onto the team, but it really wasn't working. Maybe she felt she wasn't getting to the players anymore and then called it a career. Pure speculation. Jody was a great recruiter, but then it fell off and Mulkey, Coale, and Blair were outworking her for recruits. Development used to be spectacular, but then fell off near the end. But, she still had the wiley in-game coaching...but often from way behind.

And then we went out and bought ourselves a $1M coach. I thought, "Yeah! We're showing the country we're serious about good basketball in Austin." And then it went Pfffffttt. Gail recruited poorly, developed players poorly, and was so-so as an game strategist. Basically, she fired herself.

When the Jody Conradt band was disbanded, I thought, "I wonder if that pit bull Karen Aston will ever make it back to Austin? Nah, probably never happen". So when it did, I was quite pleased and even put up with a poor first year. She was still dealing with the "passes to no one" habits of Gail's players. I think the reason that a certain coach in Waco takes every chance to slight us is that she knows Karen has pulled up even to her in terms of getting the best players. Player development? I would say a B+. In-game strategy, I would say she's a B- whereas Mulkey is an A+.

I went and gathered the season averages of Jody's last 5, all of Gail's and all of Karen's winning percentages and listed in the chart below. Also, I listed comparative competition. The measuring stick used to be Tennessee. But now, they're off-and-on. And of course, Baylor.

Read into it what you want. Baylor has owned us and that's become an obsession. But other than Baylor, we're doing pretty good and I think Karen's doing a great job. Yes, we don't get the salad bowl Big 12 award while the witch rules in Waco. But, heck just wait for someone to knock them off like is most likely in the NCAA tournament and we just worry about getting to the Final Four, which I think will be soon.

 

Not so sure the griping had been KA's performance in relation to previous UT coaches, but more in relation to her peers.

 

I actually knew Gail pretty well and I can tell you that she was absolutely caught off guard by how hard it was to recruit kids to Texas. She had been led to believe (or misunderstood) that “elite”
student athletes fell into your lap because they had grown up wanting to play only for UT.

Had she known that wasn’t the case, I doubt she would have come. When she arrived she told me, “give me two years” but after the first year, she told me with sadness that it would take several.

That said, she did more with less in my opinion. She was an was an exceptional strategist. Does anyone remember the B12 tourney game against Baylor where she coached us from a 22 point deficit at half to a stunnning upset? She swept A&M in their final B12 season.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for her realizing it wasn’t going to work and leaving after 5 seasons blaming no one but herself. She was a class act. She is a Hall of Fame coach with a couple of Olympic coaching medals. I enjoy seeing/hearing her call games now on tv.

Jody created a world where people actually cared about women’s basketball and women’s sports in general. She is the reason we fans have the audacity to have such high expectations for the program. I have nothing but good things to say about Jody.

I did not like Karen in her first year. Now I can say that she has exceeded all expectations for returning this program to elite status. Very few coaches actually win a national championship. I believe she will.

Pat Summit was hired in 1974 and didn’t get her first NC until 13 years later.

Geno was hired at UConn in 1985 and won his first National Championship 10 years later.

Kim was hired at Baylor in 2000 and amazingly got her first NC 5 years later. She didn’t repeat again until 2012 and hasn’t done it again. No argument that she is a great coach. I reserve judgement on the kind of person she is based on her actions and words. Personally, I would never want her coaching my child nor coaching at my university. Baylor lost a head football coach and a president for insane and neglectful stupidity in dealing with rape in this the 21st Century. Kim’s response was to tell fans to punch you in the face if you dared to say that you didn’t want your daughter to go there.

I value respect, integrity, diversity and professionalism more than a trophy. And I refuse to believe those are mutually exclusive.

 

I’m going to recycle a comparison I did the other day:

Coach X

• Season 1: 10-18
• Season 2: 14-15
• Season 3: 18-15 (WNIT Round 2)
• Season 4: 25-10 (Sweet 16)
• Season 5: 25-8 (NCAA 2nd Round)
• Season 6: 29-5 (Sweet 16)

Karen Aston

• Season 1: 12-18
• Season 2: 22-12 (NCAA 2nd Round)
  
• Season 3: 24-11 (Sweet 16)
• Season 4: 31-5 (Elite 8)
• Season 5: 25-9 (Sweet 16)
• Season 6: 22-5 (???)

Coach X (Dawn Staley) is in her 10th season at her current school after taking over a program that was facing an entrenched conference power (Tennessee).

 

Love these coaching comparison threads, graphs and charts. I crunch numbers by day so I would never put them together. LOL!!

Anyways, I started watching JC at the end of her career. I could tell it was time for her to retire.

I thought GG was going to be the end all be all. I was sooo excited!! Like someone else mentioned she had no idea how to recruit because her Duke players came to Duke because it was Duke. The school name did the recruiting. I believe she thought the same thing was going to happen at TX. RUDE AWAKENING. She inherited the 6 pack/greatest rated freshman class ever. They were injured or a dud. I also believe her not being from TX and understanding TX/southern culture hurt her. I thought once she started recruiting her players she would turn it around eventually. I hoped she would right the ship. But too little too late.

Hardest job ever, is coming after a great coach/CEO/pastor, etc. You usually have to hit rock bottom and you become collateral damage for the next coach/CEO/pastor, etc.

I was still kind of salty when KA became coach. I just watched, observed, criticized and waited. She's growing on me. No fault of her own, it's not that I don't like her or anything like that. I just wanted GG to lead us to the promise land. So now I'm waiting on KA to lead us.

Can't wait for KA to figure out Mulkey. I wanted to win Monday. I was going to the Big 12 tourney but I just don't want to see us get beat again by BU.

I know Tina has helped tremendously developing our girls. I'm scared she'll be gone before long. Love me some Tina and I want her to master this coaching thing. But I'm sure going to miss her. #GOAT I'm more afraid of this than anything else. Tina is able to teach things KA can't because Tina has done it. DONE IT ALL!!! You can't teach experience. I wonder whose knocking down Tina's front door.

 

Everyone learns from everyone. I have no doubt Karen has learned from Tina and Tina has learned from Karen. You just don’t get a program this far this fast if you are not a good coach. She has one more school to conguer. There was a time when we were behind Oklahoma, A&M, Baylor and could barely beat Tech and OKS. We frequently split with Iowa State and WV. Karen has come a long way in a short amount of time.

I still think it is silly for anyone to be upset when we actually have a very good chance of being a Final Four Team.