Kathy Harston

J

justawbbfan

25+ Posts
It's reported that Kathy has resigned from the University of Tennessee to "pursue other opportunities". She was director of basketball operations at that school. She, along with new coach Aston, was at the University of Texas during Jody's tenure.
 
Kathy was BOD for Tennessee for 3 years. You have to wonder had her timing been right that she'd end up in the same capacity at Texas. Ortega iirc is undertaking her new role as BOD without any experience.
 
Don't understand why they didn't keep CathyMac here...seems dumb, she does such a good job, but maybe she and Aston didn't get along while they were together here??

Dunno...

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On paper Coach Aston and her staff are singularly unimpressive. Fortunately games are not played on paper.

I don’t doubt her ability to coach basketball. I have seen enough to understand that she is a good coach.

It is still reasonable to have doubts about her ability to run a program and recruit.

One aspect of running a program is staffing. At this point I am trying to believe that she is a genius for being able to see things that escape everyone else….not just on this board, but apparently across WCBB in general. Most of this staff was simply not going to get a job in a D1 WBB program of any significant prominence. There was no shortage of experienced D1 coaches wanting to come to Texas. I want to believe, but I confess to being a bit of a doubting Thomas.

The bigger issue is recruiting. It is no accident that the best coaches seem to have the best players. There are coaches who have the ability to get more than seems possible out of average talent. I appreciate that. But, you don’t see those coaches winning championships. For every great coach there was some point in the past when they recruited an elite talent or two, had some success, and starting winning consistently. THEN they were perceived as being great coaches and the best young players wanted to go play for them. They didn’t get that reputation with average players, even though their coaching was probably pretty much the same.

I don’t think all coaches are equal. But, I do think most D1 coaches could be pretty successful if you gave them a roster full of players like you find at Uconn, Tennessee, and Stanford. This is where Coach Aston and her staff will have to prove themselves. George Washington had better be money when it comes time to sell the University of Texas…….I have trouble understanding how he will be a better messenger than someone who played or coached with Karen at Texas……..If this staff can bring elite players to Texas everything will fall into place. If not someone is going to have a lot of splainin’ to do.

Fortunately the roster is already pretty well set for this season. If Cokie Reed uses her fifth year they have the potential to bring back everyone the following season. I expect some injuries and attrition. But it is a little ironic that Coach A will be trying to build a reputation with players primarily recruited by Coach G, most of them better talents than anyone she recruited as HC at UNT or Charlotte. This is probably very good timing. If Coach Aston is able to have some success with these players it will make recruiting much easier down the road.

But, she has to have some success and have it quickly. I’ll always support this program and HC. The more casual fan and the potential recruits would not react well to disappointing results. They will just see a coach and staff with no track record of success continuing their trend. There would be no room for benefit of doubt based on past results.

So, I also hope for some luck. This team has been cursed with bad health. Texas needs to finally catch a break in that regard. With a reasonably healthy roster I believe Coach Aston can have enough success to at least have a realistic chance to recruit effectively. Sometimes all a good coach needs is an opportunity to prove that they can be great. Unfortunately, the chance usually only comes once. I’ll be cheering for Coach Aston to make the most of this opportunity.
 
I'm trying to remember when Kathy Harston joined Conradt's staff; all I know is that she was around in the early 90's when the program's downward spiral began.
 
I agree with outlookdude's last post. We will see how this staff works together and how they do in the very critical area of landing top recruits. If healthy, Karen and her staff have some players that will allow the team to make an immediate impact in the league. That's the key component--if healthy.

I like Karen, Travis and Amie, but then I know them. The rest I hope for the best because they now represent Texas WBB. They have a chance to help move Texas WBB into the top ranks. I'm optimistic that they will take full advantage of this opportunity.
 
It seems pretty obvious that Aston wasn't going to bring in anyone with more coaching experience than herself.
 
Re: Typically such vitriol is displayed after the team has played a few games, at the very least. Hence the "under the bus" doctrine you subscribe to.

Or you could subscribe to the old schtick solution: Typically such vitriol is displayed after the team has played a few games, at the very least. Hence the "under the bus" doctrine you subscribe to, a**hole.
 
I would venture out on a limb and feel very secure about where I sit, when I say that I believe that KA truly bleeds burnt orange, and that is where you can start building on a positive note. TExas is built on tradition, alumni and the pride of being at THE University of Texas. KA maybe wasn't born in Texas, but as the bumper stickers say, she got here as fast as she could. She knows the history, the tradition, and let us not forget that she did work under JC.
The last staff, if I recall the postings on this site like I believe I do... did not do as much to help keep the traditions that are UT alive. Now as a fan and a true one at that, I believe that the fact Karen is even proud to have these traditions is a great asset to the program.

Another thing about KA that you should remember is that she turned around a program in Denton that the year before she got here ony won 8 (I do believe) games, and that gave the UT team from last year a scare.....

So with just these few facts, I am unsure how anyone could not at least be willing and even more EAGER to see whats going to happen next year.

I really wish that we could all quit that verbal
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and at least give the new staff and the players a chance, and heck the other thing that should be a great sign is how excited the alumni seem to be about the direction the program is headed.

keep your horns up my friends
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