You know, we should each think back to how we reacted on this board when Karen was hired by Plonsky. I didn't agree with the hire based on her inexperience as a head coach, and no proven track record in the post-season. But, for whatever reason, Plonsky did a 180 in her hiring approach compared to when she hired Gail Goeskenkors (who had a resume' that screamed success). Did we ever even hear of any other candidates who were interviewed for the job? When have you ever known Texas to hire a replacement head coach at a lower salary than their predecessor? But, Plonsky hired Karen for like $450k after having paid Gail $1 million a year for 5 years. It could be that Plonsky's boss(es) told her to hire on the cheap in order to recover some of that money spent on Gail and yielded only limited results.
I was eating my words as Karen was gaining recruiting momentum early and often immediately after being hired. On the court, the first year was hard to bear for everyone who loves our program (and that could be endured again next season whether we have a different head coach or not). But, in year two she makes the post-season, and despite a ragged first round win, she makes us all proud in a close loss at Maryland. In year three, she has us in the Sweet 16 after another ragged first round win, but an impressive upset win at Berkeley. In year four, Karen leads us to an Elite 8 appearance. In years five and six, two more Sweet 16 appearances. I would never have predicted that. That run of hers might qualify as first or second best in program history in the last 30 years."
AGREE. The first year I was in horror. The each year the team seemed to get better.
"I can't blame Aston for taking the Texas job which she was offered by Plonsky; it was her dream job, and she was willing to take the low salary offered knowing that she would have the opportunity to prove herself. To say she didn't earn her last couple of raises based on her job performance would be completely false. And, despite the last 2 seasons of uneven and disappointing play, she's the one who made Texas relevant again nationally. It's extremely unfortunate that she couldn't maintain her own success; but, it happened to Barnes, Mack, and Augie (even though two of those were able to win national championships at Texas). Why it happened to Karen remains a mystery to me as she has always been a hard worker and a fighter; someone suggested a while back that perhaps her priorities in life have changed, and new family situations have bumped family ahead of her job; who can judge her for that?"
Even good to great programs have some ups and downs. I still think it possible that Aston could go back on the upswing. Her timing is bad though. The new stadium means CDC is unlikely to want to take a chance. Get new basketball coaches for next season so they have a chance to start building. I doubt Karen has stopped working hard or lost her passion for coaching. Working hard is one of KA's greatest strengths and one not to be minimized. I think KA has made some mistakes, and continues to make some of the same mistakes. Then there is always the bad break here or there. Maybe Higgs last year would have been enough to help Texas win a couple more games last year including at least a game in the tournament.
My biggest disappointment with Karen has been in her hiring of assistant coaches (none of who ever had MORE coaching experience than she did). Folks here seemed to love the hires of Carey and Jackson because they were former players at Texas who Aston helped bring to Texas, and helped coach them as players at Texas); I wasn't one of them. No "new" ideas or concepts as all basically came from the Conradt way of doing things.
I also have been disappointed in the assistant coaching hires. Aston's first staff seemed to work well. Travis Mays' experience balanced the relative inexperience of Jalie Mitchell and George Washington, and Jalie and George each offered value in different areas. Since that time, each individual assistant coach is qualified and could add value to a staff. But taken as a group, the coaches hired do not, in my opinion, show an awareness by Aston of what her weakness are and do not mitigate those weaknesses. I expect many people, like me, did not want to say anything negative about the hire of Tiffany Jackson on the message board. At home and to my friends? Yes. I thought Aston needed to hire another veteran coach to balance the staff and bring qualities to balance Aston's strengths and weaknesses. Alas, one of KA's weaknessess appears to be the lack of ability to figure out the people she needs on staff to complement her strengths and mitigate her weaknesses.
"So, this lack of a contract extension is not common at Texas. Could be that Karen and CDC had agreed prior to the season that an extension wasn't in the cards. Maybe it was Karen's preference; maybe she is burned out. Maybe she no longer has the drive to be in the coaching profession. Maybe CDC told her to coach this season and then decide if she has the desire to remain the head coach at Texas. Or, maybe CDC is taking the same approach he did with Connie Clark and already decided that that program needs to go in a different direction next season."
Another possible whole thread: Is it still possible for KA to save her job? What would it take? Sweet sixteen? Win the Big 12 tournament and one game in the tournament? Beat Baylor at least once and win one or two games in the tournament? Or, less that we think?
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