Maryland vs Louisville

Had we beat the Terps, Texas would have really overachieved. I like the direction of the program. The next two classes should have us in conversations about championships. A bit optimistic? You bet!

Building a winning program from mediocrity takes time. Even the detractors have to admit Texas is on its way up.

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I will ask you this though, had Karen started immediately after JC do you think the program would've been in better shape NOW? If so, why? The past two years, while she's certainly assended the program in a major way, she also had a much better launch point w/ Chas Nneka and Imani than GG did. Just curious, no bias just your honest opinion.
 
No I don't, as Aston was an associate HC at Baylor before her head coaching position at Charlotte. So I don't really think she'd have the program on the rise as quickly as she has these past 2 years because she wouldn't have been hired. The one thing that I know would have enhanced her chances at success if she was hired was that the good portion fn the team back in 07 (Arriaran, Raven, Nash sisters, E-Bai) were either recruited by Aston or Coach Conradt's staff, but she still wasn't a HC back then. Do I think Aston would have endured a 10 game losing streak to Texas A&M or 4 early exits in the tournament? Nope, but I will concede she probably wouldn't have even made the Tournament in her 1st year either. Recruiting would have been better IMHO at least in-state due to her strong Texas connections. Coach Conradt didn't exactly leave an empty cupboard either but a good number of players on that team were from that heralded #1 class. But no point in rehashing the reasons why they didn't pan out as expected.

It's debatable whether Imani is truly considered a gg recruit although Imani did commit to Texas under previous coach and reaffirmed her commitment to the new Coach. Chas and Nneka are/were A players (at least on the Texas team) and would have benefited the coach who came in after Conradt's retirement.

I read from somewhere that Aston left for Baylor as her time at Texas was getting "stale", not in a negative way but from a personal enrichment/learning perspective.

Let's hope Aston sticks around for the long haul for stability purposes. Texas is a destination and the resources, tradition and brand are all there for Texas to thrive once again in WBB.
 
I can agree with most of what you said seattle. And if she does indeed reap the fruits of her recruiting labor and return Texas to it rightful standing in the bball world, I couldnt imagine her leaving for another school seeing as how they likely wouldnt have anything to offer that we couldnt match.
 
We should have hire her, after JC left. We would already be in the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.The key to a good team is, Recruiting and Coaching.She has done both. Look at the Recruits we have coming the next 3 year's.Money wasted for 5 year's.If you want me to tell the truth.
 
From what I remember, Coach Aston left Texas for Baylor because she asked Plonsky if she would be considered for the Texas head coaching job when Jody retired, and she was told she would not be.

As good a recruiter as Karen was an assistant coach (no denying she played a huge part in assembling the 2003 Final Four team), she failed to land Courtney and Ashley Paris, and that utlimately sent OU and Texas in totally different directions as programs. Some will argue that she still signed the #1 recruiting class in the country that year, but, IMO, it wasn't. Defintiely never panned out.

Coach G's biggest mistake was the hiring of her coaching staff. I still will never understand why she hired Lakale Malone from Nebraska. I can understand bringing Gayle from Duke, and hiring Micki Demoss; unfortunately, none proved to be the correct hires.

Not sure what would have happened if we had hired Karen immediately after Jody's retirement. But, a majority of her recruiting success as the head coach at Texas is because she hired George Washington as an assistant coach; 6 years ago or so, he may not have even been a qualified candidate. If you think about it, if Coach G had hired someone like George Washington (with so many high school and AAU connections in the state), things might have turned out differently.

Based on what we've seen so far, there is no denying that Coach A works extremely hard at recruiting. I'm glad she uses just about all 15 annual scholarships at her disposal; conversely, Coach G preferred a smaller roster, and I disagreed with that philosophy; as it turned out, injuries and attrition affected her program, and not having quality depth on the roster was a huge flaw.

As much as I want this program to be successful, keep in mind that our "glory days" were in the mid to late 1980's. Since 1988, we have had only one Final Four appearance (2003). So, that's a span of 25 years. We only had about 3 or 4 Sweet 16 appearance since 1988. How Jody could go that long between Final Fours was so frustrating; she had the facilities, resources, and fan support which put her program light years ahead of just about everyone else, and couldn't translate it into success in the NCAA tourney. Upset losses in early rounds at home to teams like Lamar, UCLA, La Tech, etc. were very disappointing. That 25 year span of mediocrity is why it's been an uphill battle to try to return Texas to where we were in 1987 or so.

We can all point fingers as to why there hasn't been much success in the last 25 years or so, but the fact is that Jody was the one in charge for almost 20 of those years.

Glad we're trending upwards. Getting to the Sweet 16 next year is critical, IMO. I think it could be first of many appearances, and that is where you want the program to be regularly (at a minimum).
 
Agree with all Moo said.

I think 3 things were keys for Aston
1) the coaching staff and their ability to recruit
2) going in to the junior college ranks to supplement the PG position
3) getting the injured/non contributing players out in Year 1

Would Aston have made all these moves if she'd been hired without head coaching experience or without the benefit of seeing Goestenkors' lack of success? Who knows. If Goestenkors had done 2 and 3 above in her first 2-3 years I think she'd still be coaching here.
 
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