there were chemistry problems for the past few years. you don't change that overnight. there were reports of bad attitudes, personality clashes, and other interpersonal confilcts and issues with this team when coach g. arrived. she stuck her neck out and showed the players what type of person she is -- one who would be there for them, help them overcome negativity, and nurture them into a unified group. it is obvious that not ALL of the players have bought into this -- as any realistic person surely knew would be the case. the biggest question was who would do their part in turning things around and who wouldn't. to gail's credit, she gave everyone a clean slate and an opportunity for a fresh start. you have to respect that sense of fairness. after having gone through the ups and downs with this group during this season, i'm pretty sure she is evaluating what needs to happen in order to have that assembly of players who are willing to work as hard as her and her staff to become the team they should. while a part of me still hopes for a small miracle and a turnaround as we approach the last two weeks of the season, i wait anxiously anticpating what measures will be taken to snap this program back into shape. it will happen -- no doubt about that!
0-hoops, I agree....there have been a lot of "issues" on the team....personalities, work ethic, attitudes....etc. One thing you cannot fully gauge when you are considering whether or not to go after and recruit a player is the "X FACTOR".....i.e.; personality, work ethic, and attitude, as well as what I call "amicability".... Coach Conradt recruited some of the most talented players in the country in her career....but not all of them lived up to what I am sure she thought was their potential, as well as what we thought it was. That was then, this is now. The pronouncements that "all will be different when Coach G has her OWN recruits" may or may not prove to be true....she (like Conradt) does not have a crystal ball to see whether or not a player will actually perform up to their potential, "play well with others" or which ones will get injured and be lost for a year or more. (this is me knocking on wood on that last one)
Everyone seems to have such a low opinion of our "graduated superstar"....why is that? Dd I miss out on something during her time here? I always thought she was very well liked. My only problem with her was that our only game plan during her tenure was to "get the ball into" her and unfortunately she couldn't work miracles with 3 people hanging off of her. Did she do something to make people think she was "poisonous" to the team? She was at the game on Sunday supporting the team.
an incredible athlete and no doubt one of the most gifted players ever to wear a texas uniform. i'm not going to cite specifics, but the status of the program when she entered compared to where it was when she exited (and its steady progressive decline) was no coincidence. was happy to see her graduate. 'nuff said.
She gets the blame for that? I would consider that more of a coaching issue, personally. I mean if a coach is allowing one player to change a team so much, he/she needs to step in and address that issue and put an end to it. I see a decline in a team more related to coaching issues or lack of skill rather than one player bringing a team down.
i don't disagree. should she have gotten a better hold of the situation? i'm sure. but blaming coach conradt for everything going bad has become quite redundant -- particlularly given the fact there'd be no days of past glory to yearn for had it not been for jody. personally, i'd rather move on and be thankful for what she did for our program, and look forward to gail bringing us back to the top. coach conradt was an incredible ambassador for wcbb, and i'm thankful that she was the texas coach. i'm also thankful that, with her influence (whether she takes credit for it or not), we've assembled one of the most awesome coaching staffs in the game. even if conradt was totally removed from the recruitment and hiring of her successors, it was her groundwork that shed the bright light on the texas program -- making that vacancy such an appealing opportunity.
Orangehoops, Oh, so now it Tiffany's fault. I guess we've always got to blame somebody. You imply that you have some inside information which allows you to call Tiffany "poisonous," yet you aren't going to "cite specifics." You even suggest that her poison lingers on, which explains why we're having problems this year, too. A bit harsh, isn't it? I find it hard to swallow. Why would you want to slam TJ, who played her heart out while she was here. If we have to blame someone, let's keep it to the coaches, who are at least getting paid a lot (to say the least).
joe dallas, fall back, okay? i seriously doubt that you have the authority to tell anyone what to think or where to lay blame. it was what it was, and it is what it is. period. ask anybody that knows anything about the team's dynamics during the last four years. you obviously do not.
Yep, please enlighten us. If Coach Conradt was displeased with something TJ was doing, she certainly kept it private. I've never heard her praise a player as much as she did TF, unless it was Clarissa.
glad the new staff is in place in the wake of coach conradt's retirement, and anticipating great things for the texas wbb teams for years to come. looking forward to new recruits coming in. nothing out of the ordinary about that. look elsewhere for details about the past.
Things go on that effect chemistry that only the players know about. The coaches are not always on the inner loop and that is not their fault. Of course it is up to the coaches to dicipline their players when things go bad or at the first signs of it, but many times they have no idea of what is actually happening. These young women are with eachother wayyy more than they are with the coaches/staff. Many of them live together in the dorms, have classes together, eat together, and go to study hall together... in addition to all of the demands from basketball. It is illogical to think that some problems will not arise, but this bunch of young ladies was not put together well. Everyone wants to have the top recruiting class talent wise, but talent is not even half of what it takes to make a team successful. Personality, attitute, habits, and as someone else stated, "amicability" make up a player as well and some of these traits must be evident during the thorough recruiting process. You can have all of the All-Americans you want, but if more than enough of them have diva, bitchy, or invincible attitudes, there are undoubtedly going to be problems. This teams poor chemistry was recognized too late and in my opinion, Conradt didn't have it in her to fix it anymore. Being a ambassador for the game and being able to handle/relate to/dicipline 17-22 year old young women are two different things. And when "leadership" roles are placed upon people who don't want or deserve them, this is the result of what happens. Everyone knows that Tiffany was not the overall leader of this team while she was here. She may have led in scoring and rebounding, but being an overall leader is something she was not. It is tough for young women entering college as it is, and it does not take much for them to be influenced in the wrong ways and have the wrong perceptions about priorities put into their head. It is up to the upper classmen of a team to teach their younger teammates the ropes on the importance of work ethic, going to class, actually caring about how the team does, not getting senioritis ect... and when they don't, this is what happens. On the upside, Coach G appears to have a good relationship with MOST of the girls to encourage them to make the necessary changes. They have come strides from last year and when it is all put together, they will once again be a top contender... and hopefully when more of G's own recruits come in, players will actually have to compete for playing time, instead of it just being handed to them because of a "lack of depth" (due to injurines, dismissals, or whatever the case may be) and chemistry will improve
I infer from what you all are saying that there are some bad attitudes, not caring that much, not working that hard, maybe jealousies and resentments on the team that I just wasn't aware of. I thought it was that they were trying hard and just not jelling very well, and perhaps lacking balance and outstanding talent in key positions. The bad attitudes aren't obvious to me when I watch them play. They look like they're trying hard. But maybe not. And maybe it is TJ's fault. I have some trouble seeing how she could be having such a poisonous effect a year after she's been gone, but maybe so. It's kind of hard to see why Coach G would choose to come here if she knew about the the kind of inner problems, bad attitudes, etc., that were going on here. Maybe nobody told her the real low-down.
I would have been frustrated if I were Tiffany Jackson for the same reason I'd have been frustrated if I were Tim Duncan during the last Olympics.
Statalyzer, Sorry, I don't remember Tim Duncan in the Olympics. Can you refresh my memory? I'm not sure what point you're making. Thx.
The team kept losing games they should have won and relied on him to carry the scoring load because none of them could make an outside shot, the rebounding load, and to be the primary stopper on defense.
I don't think Coach G really likes Ebay. She benches her for 'personal reasons' and non-production all the time. My guess is that she'll be happy when she's gone next year.
BBV, i don't think anyone said there were players that didn't believe in coach g. there are still some issues-- although coach g. has performed a near miracle with this group in putting most of the old stuff to rest. she's a great person to play for. i, like you, think the suggestion that she doesn't like e-bay is rather silly. i also love that she sets high expectations of her players and runs a tight ship. it's that formula that will play a big role in driving us to achieve great things.
bbv, since you insist on being argumentative the statement that ALL players have bought into what gail is preaching doesn't say they don't believe in her. you are putting words into the mouths of others. what it does mean is that she's managed to change most bad attitudes into good ones, instilled confidence in some where there was none, and has performed a pretty small miracle in taking a group that was tainted by so much negative energy and unified them. having said this, there are still a couple of issues -- so obviously every player hasn't gotten with the program. the new staff is an incredible collection of coaches to play for, and they will turn it around. where it may not be obvious to some, the program has already been drastically tranformed and is headed in the right direction.
