Michigan

Highly Unlikely. I do think that all of her press conference statements were true and she had truly hit a burnout phase in her career. And it would take a tremendous amount of energy to continue to try and rebuild the Michigan. But this transition at UM has been rare to say the least, I have never heard of a coach leaving a BCS school willingly to take over a mid major program...........
 
If I were betting, we'll see Gail at some UT games next season and towards the end of the season it will be announced she's taking either an assistant or head coaching position in the WNBA.
 
Mooooo based on their performance, attendance and history the past 10 or 15 years I'm not even sure anyone would even consider TCU a D-1 basketball school on the men's side lol. Just saying
 
Quote from article, "Earlier in the search process, U-M approached Waterford native Gail Goestenkors about the job, but Goestenkors did not show interest. Goestenkors formerly coached Duke and Texas."
 
Would have been a very good hire for Texas too, a real up and comer instead of the has-been/never was that just got hired. I hope I am wrong, but the news on the recruiting trail is not looking good.
 
Good to know Txtreefan. At 41, you can be an up and comer. At 47, you are a never was-has been. Did you think Gary Blair would win a national championship at A&M?

Forget news on the recruiting trail. It is way too early. What about news from campus? Can we expect a healthy, fit Cassie Peoples? Can Shanice or Ashley Roberts be an adequate back-up pg? I am looking for results on the court. A sweet 16 appearance would do wonders for recruiting. Rebounding, defense and guard play are the keys. I have followed the Big 12 stats pretty closely throughout the Big 12's existence. With few exceptions, I have found that team defensive stats track conference finish far better that offensive stats. The last couple of years, Texas has scored a lot of points but hasn't been able to stop a good team and rebounding has been weak.
 
Treefan is wrong on a few fronts. One the news from the recruiting trail w/ the exception on one recruit has been nothing but positive. HS coaches are familliar with KA and that goes a long with with how they advise their players.

Barnes-Arico would not have been such a great pick up for Texas IMO. Because lets not forget that it took her 10 years to build up St. Johns into a Big East contender. And NY is a talent rich area in the game of WBB so idk if we would've had the patience to wait for her to bring success to UT.

If you compare the resume's Karens Looks better to me if you speak in terms of talent available. Just my opinion
 
I am trying to get behind this hire, but if you think Aston has a better resume than Barnes-Arico, I'll have some of what you are smoking. Barnes-Arico took a team that the year before she was hired did not win a single Big East game to contender status. She has also done something no TX coach has ever done - beat CT. All with minimal resources, and in a market where no-one watches WCBB, and at a school with almost zero national brand recognition. Nothing impacts recruiting like winning, and Barnes-Arico is a way superior head coach to a head coach who has yet to win a single NCAA tournament game.

We are hoping that Aston can recruit TX back to national relevance. There is very little in her resume to suggest that she can coach her way there, plus elite recruiting is not like it was even ten years ago. Game changing players rarely stay in state. Griner is the exception. The Ogumwikes moved from Texas to Stanford, Candace Parker from Illinois to TN. Taurasi from CA to CT. Maya Moore from GA to CT. Danielle Adams from MO to A&M. If you are an elite recruit in TX, being recruited by the likes of Geno, Tara, McGraw, Mulkey, even Coale, why on earth would you look at Texas? I don't care what your high school coach says. If you want to stay in state, go to one of the last 2 national champions. Gary Blair took an Arkansas team to the final four long before A&M hired him. TX has been mediocre for a very long time. We needed an excellent X's and O's coach who can get results with less than elite talent, until TX starts winning again and can start recruiting on our record - not someone who has not even shown the ability to dominate mid-majors, let alone hold her own in a tough conference with national powerhouses. Recruiting for Jody Conradt is a very different proposition than recruiting for a head coach with no record of BCS conference success, no record of placing any player in the WNBA etc. I get that Aston is a sentimental hire with good intangibles, but until she starts winning here, which I hope she does, she is a mediocre head coach with a mediocre record, and if she was the only coach considered in the hire, there was a failure of due diligence.

On paper Barnes-Arico would have been a MUCH better hire and I fear Michigan which does not have TX's illustrious, albeit ancient history, will fare better in the foreseeable future than us, but as we know the games are not played on paper.

The fact that for all her touted connections, Aston is deterring the second ranked player in the state, and the Canadian twins are also looking shaky, makes me think that Plonsky has misread that way recruiting works now, and the fantasy that an old gal recruiting network is still in place is going to return to bite us in the ***. The cupboard, however, is not bare, and I suspect another middle of the pack Big 12 finish next year, though I see no reason to expect to make the tournament and in three to four years another head coach search.

I will renew my season tickets, cheer for the team, and hope to be eating crow on this board next March.
 
TreeFan I think its fantastic to have a healty debate between fellow fans.

Now I dont want to discount anything that K-BA has done at St. Johns, but lets not pretend like she's done it over night. 10 yrs is a long time, and I dont think this base would have the patience for that here. Plus I dont think she would be able to attract kids away from Mulkey and Blair and Coale with the personality that she has. She doesnt seem to have that fire that her counterparts in this league would have, she is more into saying the correct thing and playing nice with everyone. Kids dont want that now a days as shown in recruiting. As far as K-BA beating Geno, GG was the tx coach and I believe that she did it 3 times so I dont think that means much.
You also said that St. Johns doesnt have any brand recognition, and that may be true for kids in the south, but on the east coast they dont lack exposure at all, they play in MSG for pete's sake. And NY is proably the 3rd best area to recruit wbb talent from, aside from Tx and CA. You mentioned NCAA records and K-BA still has a losing record in the tournament so I dont think thats something that we could really reference. I dont even think shes made the tourny more than 4 times in her tenure as she's only had 5 20-win seasons. This was only her 3rd first rd win, and 1st sweet 16 appearance in 10 years. So its still unknown if she actually "built" a program that could sustain success and expectations or it this was just a flash in the pan so to speak.

I also think you underestimate the influence of HS and AAU coaches, Referenceing players lost from other states to UCONN on Tenn is almost unfair. Its starting to die down, but there was a period of time where they had the #1 and #2 recruitng classes 7out of 9 years.
Im also not discounting K-BA's ability as an x's and o's coach, but we had GG who was also that and as we saw it just wasnt enough.
Also this was the best season in the History of St. Johns program, and they had 1 McDonalds AA and 2 other top 100 players on the roster so I wouldnt necessarily call that doing more with less.
K-BA wasnt even Michigan's 1st choice, she was the 4th coach called. So thats why I dont think she would've been any better for TX.

As for Aston, you have to factor in her connections within the state. She's worked for 3 national champion coaches and she elevated a totally unknown program to be a league contender at Charlotte and she TRIPLED the wins at UNT, those kids has only won 17 games in the previous 3 years COMBINED. I wouldnt really want to question her x's and o's if I were you.
 
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