The real 'winner'

[saahorn]

is Geno and UCONN ..... for all the bashing about Kim, Gayle, Karen and who is a "winner.". I give the program and him ultimate props. They just reload and come back. He is the one I would want to head my program.

Why all the Geno hate?

 

[txtreefan]

I don't get the hate either. He is the best recruiter and coach in WCBB. He would never come here. Walz, on the other hand, might have. Why he was not even interviewed, when he was clearly the best coach in the country with doing more with less, which is what Texas needed, is staggering to me. Instead TX got the sentimental, nepotistic, don't have a clue, do less with more, never won an NCAA tourney game, 12-19, former coach of UNT!!! I guarantee 4 more losing seasons, and then the powers that be might be forced into hiring someone who can actually coach.

 

[TEXASMADE]

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[Seattle4UT]

Coach A

Funny how the doomsday bellringers were absent during the Renaissance.

 

[DINO22]

Give Coach A time.
She will turn it around at Texas

 

[txtreefan]

I feel sick too, but it is coming. Next year will be slightly better - let's say 14-17 rather than 12-19. The real weaknesses of the team won't be addressed: point guard play and no game-planning or in-game adjustments, but TX will be a little more experienced and the Big 12 will be perhaps weaker than this year - its worst year in program history (Only 1 team in the top 25 RPI, and not a single team in the Elite 8), the following year with Fussell gone will be even more of a disaster on the offensive end.

And this is assuming that Imani does not transfer. I don't think she will: she is a trooper and not a diva, but if she did, who could blame her. She has a real shot at the WNBA, but for that she needs post-season experience and exposure and she is not going to get it with this team or coaching staff. Aston will never sniff on a player of her caliber, so TX needs to make the most of her time here.

And now Aston has to recruit with this 12-19 record. Academically stellar elite recruits from the state of Texas will go to Duke and Stanford as they have done for the last decade (e.g. Lindsay Harding and the Ogumwike sisters). Less academically inclined students who want to play for national powerhouses will go to TN or UConn or OK (Simmonds, Charde Houston, Whitney Hand etc), and TX players who want to stay in Texas will go to Baylor or A&M, programs who have won NC titles in their lifetimes. TX will be left with leftovers, and Aston's style of play, essentially a rebound, defense turning into offense, hustle, hustle, hustle, half-court offense - what's that? needs huge advantages in athleticism and talent to succeed, and why would those players come here, especially guards, who are what the team needs? Aston is a reasonable developer of post talent, and worse than useless with guards. Davenport is a baller, but I suspect she has worked out how to drive and dish on her own. Aston essentially tries to play a nineteenth century offense in a twenty-first century game. TX hired a pale copy of the Pat Summit, Jody Conradt school of the first wave of great WCBB coaches. Neither of whom could EVER coach a half-court offense.

Texas currently has the worst coach in the Big 12. TX beat two teams who actually made the tournament. The team had 19 turnovers in the first game of the season and never got better. They lost twice to a KSU team who by the end of the season was suiting up 7 players and did not have a single player over 6 feet. If Jeff Mittie, the coach of TCU, the only conference opponent TX swept, had the talent of TX, he would have gone at least 50% in conference, drinking problem notwithstanding. It hurts me to say this in a conference with Kristy Curry, who is also a terrible coach, but I think Aston is a worse coach.

I would hope that 3 losing seasons in a row would be enough to get Aston fired, but I fear that her contract will be honored: Plonsky is stubborn, Aston is part of the good ole white gals network and she will be given her full term to REALLY run the program into the ground.

TX fans are in for another four years of major butthurt, and probably longer, because whoever inherits this disaster in the making is going to have a very tough task.

Midseason, I was willing to be wrong, but the record speaks very eloquently for itself, and I did not see anything on the floor that remotely suggested that Aston was learning on the job. And then I watched real teams in the tournament. For the first time, I saw Kim Mulkey get out coached. I saw a Cal team which could not make a free throw make the Final Four because their rebounding on offense was so spectacular. I saw twenty plus coaches working to maximize the talents of their teams and minimize their deficiencies, making adjustments, creating mismatches, thinking on the fly, and realized that I had not seen ANY of that in all the games that this TX team played, except in the second half of the game against KSU in Austin which I am increasingly inclined to regard as a fluke.

TX won't make the NCAA tournament as long as Aston is the head coach, and even after that, it will take a much smarter hire and a few years before the program will recover. I wish it weren't so, but there is ZERO evidence to the contrary.

 

[Seattle4UT]

you're entitled to your negative opinion. I see greatness in the coming years. We have a real coach who gets Texas. We will be competing for Big 12 championships in a few years. The pretentiousness of the previous regime will no longer stymie our program. The players that mesh with Coach A's system will prove that our beloved Plonsky made the "homerun" hire. I'm not worried, nor should anyone else that supports Texas basketball. Good times are coming! The neggy nellies need to tone their rhetoric and vitriolic statements 2 notches down. After the end of 5 years, if their self-fulfilling prophecies do come true, then by all means they were right. To blatantly criticize the current staff after one year is uncalled for, nor in the tradition of being a real Longhorn.

 

[txtreefan]

Dream on . . .

If you actually watched the games; you would see a team lost on the floor, a coach with NO CLUE: every possession on offense with a 50/50 chance of a turnover, because a halfwit could predict the passing lanes. Nneka, Chas, Imani and perhaps Empress would be starters on any Big 12 team except perhaps Baylor this year. Every game, we see talented players being ABUSED by coaching ineptitude.

It is easy to spout cliches from Seattle without the Longhorn network, when you cannot see any games. Those of us who have to WATCH the horrible performances of the team have a different perspective.

I wasn't a fan of GG, but compared to Aston, she walked on water. That is how bad it is for WCBB on the 40 Acres.

 

[Seattle4UT]

I will give you that as you have access to the LHN.

The 51-49 loss to KSU coupled with a no show in the NCAA Tournament should prove to be motivating for next year's horns. With Chas being a Senior coupled with 4 dynamic freshmen that are eager to be a part of the rebuilding, we should be OK.

I love this picture.... although heartbreaking, the lessons learned from the first year will prove invaluable for the coaches and returning players.

 

[txtreefan]

I agree it is heartbreaking, but get used to it. Aston and the program are going to be on their knees for the next four years. I am hoping it is only two more years, but I think 4 more years of losing might get the job done and a smarter hire can be made.

 

[TXSNOS]

Coach Aston has a plan for the program that is evident by the commitments that she already has in place for the 2014 and 2015 classes. It may take a little time to get there, but Coach Aston is as driven for success as any coach you will find. Give her time and she will prove you wrong.

 

[ViperHorn]

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[Moooooo]

The jury is still out on Aston as far as actual coaching in games, and wins.

On the recruiting trail, she is doing a great job. How much of that is due to asst. Coach Washington's connections, I'm not sure. But, she hired him, so for that, I give her credit. Had Coach G done something similar with one her early hires (instead of LaKale Malone from Univ. of Nebraska), things might have gone differently for her with in-state recruiting.

Personally, I wish we could swap the arrival of the 2013 recruiting class with that of the 2014 recruting class. Seems like filling immediate needs would be addressed better if that was an option.

But, with Aston being hired in April 2012, and the short time to recruit for Texas, she still signed 4 good recruits last November. My fingers are crossed that she can sign a JUCO guard or two next Wednesday.

While many are upset with Aston, it was Plonsky who hired her. So, if Aston doesn't work out, I think Plonsky is the one who should also get the axe. Just my opinion, but her failure to consider male head coaches for any of her programs is very short-sighted, and will be her demise.

 

[flash34]

WOW ! It didnt take long for the dialogue to turn really ugly on the new staff. Going forward, I am encouraged with the post from the Woodlands for this fall.........we desperately needed or need a second post player. The other three ladies I dont think will be an impact this next year. Hope I am wrong. I see a NCAA team next year but without much if any success. The following class will be where we will have some potential difference makers. I believe that the 2014-15 season will be something we finally will be optimistic about. It sure is too early to judge one year into the new program. Having a true difference making center is a huge building block. Let's try and be supporters of the staff and not be so quick to turn on it with really ugly negativity.

 

[notanative]

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