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2021-22 Wake Women's Hoops Thread - Hoover fired after 10 seasons

Pilchard said:
I'm poking PhDeac because he has resisted acknowledging that the decision to delay the firing was detrimental to: a) the players on the current roster (as noted above), b) and the short term prospects for WF women's basketball. It has become clear that this move was in the works for months, but the formal act of terminating Hoover was delayed two months to save money on the buyout. That's why the assistant coaches abandoned the program in March and April, as they knew their jobs were toast.

A few things about the way this done:

a) No one (or almost no one except Jen Hoover) disagrees with move; it was time to find a new direction for WF WBB. Guessing that the decision to fire Hoover was such a good thing among the few that care about women's hoop would just prefer to overlook the shitty timing of the move or the adverse impact on the current players or WF women's basketball short term prospects;

b) By waiting to make the move, while money was saved, WF women's basketball will again be at a competitive disadvantage as compared to all WF's compeitors, and let's use UVA as an example, as UVA made a coaching change at the end of the season, and on March 21, 2022 UVA named Amaka Aguga-Hamilton as it's new coach, since that date:

1) April 4, 2022 - UVA names a new staff
2) April 14, 2022 - UVA signs a 2022 recruit
3) April 25, 2022- UVA signs a top 100 2022 recruit
4) April 29, 2022 - UVA adds a transfer from Minnesota
5) May 9, 2022 - UVA's new coach is named to the USA Basketball U18 Trials staff
6) There's probably a ton of other changes/improvements that UVA women's basketball has made over the last two months that aren't identified above

c) So, it's now May 17, 2022, and WF still has no coach. The window to sign class of 2022 has closed (absent unusual circumstances), the window to land transfer portal candidates is limited, if not closed, and WF is falling further behind getting its name out to the Class of 2023.

Pretty clear that WF women's hoop is not a huge priority for the athletic department. Understand. There's a finite amount of resources for the WF budget, and WF women's hoop is at best, in the middle of the pack on the priority list. So, if that means that WF bags a key recruiting period and the window to find the best coaching candidates, I'm not going to challenge the decision to save some money even if it means further falling behind the ACC schools that WF is trying to beat. Even so, let's not deny that reality.

Whomever WF brings in will need a long runaway because WF's ability to compete in women's hoop was already limited, and WF is now pretty much back to square one.
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I missed this post when it happened, but I'll respond because it's so absurdly panicky. Six days after Currie fired Hoover, Pilch complained that Currie's timeline for hiring a coach didn't match the UVA search which took two weeks.

He complained that the timing has negative effects for the current roster and short term prospects even though no players entered the portal while all the assistants left and no players entered the portal after Hoover was fired. He keeps complaining about it hurting recruiting even though both recruits are still committed and there are no roster spots available.

Could going this long without active recruiting hurt the program? Sure. And I'm sure Currie took that in mind in terms of timing in regard to the original contract. The new coach will have to hit the ground running, but they'll also have a honeymoon period as well. As it stands, the new coach will have a complete roster for 2022-23 with up to five scholarships available for 2023 recruits.
 
So, if there are WF players in the transfer portal, would that change your take?

The transfer portal is not public:

From this article: https://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/2021/03/how-does-ncaa-transfer-portal-work-here-are-4-steps-in-process.html


Now, there are a few easy steps to the process:

1) The athlete tells his/her compliance office that he/she wants to transfer.

2) The compliance office has two business days to digitally register that athlete in the portal.

3) Coaches can see who is in the portal, but it is not public information.

4) Athletes can withdraw from the portal; it’s then up to the school to decide whether to take that athlete back and restore his/her scholarship.


What is your source for "no players have entered the portal" and "for both recruits are still committed"? Haven't seen reporting either way on the status of the WF roster and the WF incoming class. Have no idea if any players entered the portal or if the incoming class is still committed, and would be great if that is true. Please confirm.

Also, does recruiting the Class of 2023 not matter? Forbes and staff have been working that class hard. Find it odd the unwillingness to acknowledge that lack of any basketball staff during evaluation periods hurts recruiting, while literally every other program, and our own men's program, have been busting it on the recruiting trail over the last two months.
 
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At this point, I'm not sure what you're arguing.

Of course, I would have preferred Currie have fired Hoover back in March or April. But given that he fired her 10 years almost to the day of her original contract, it seems like the buyout was a factor. I'm not for the timing, but I understand the timing. And it's better than not firing her at all.

I haven't seen reporting either way which is a pretty good sign nothing has changed. I did get a good laugh that you seem to think that our players wouldn't tweet that they're transferring or other programs wouldn't report that they got a commit from our transfers. If you know something we don't, just post it. Don't save it for a weird gotcha.

I find it odd the unwillingness to acknowledge what I posted above, "Could going this long without active recruiting hurt the program? Sure." Of course not having a basketball staff for any period of time hurts recruiting. But not having a staff for 2 weeks is the price you pay for bringing in a better coach.
 
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Women's basketball coaching carousel still spinning. Rutgers just announced hiring of Coquese Washington (former PSU coach) to replace the legendary C. Vivian Stringer who retired at age 74.
 
I think that was the only P5 job open. Last time I looked there were a few mid-major jobs open. Washington had 4 NCAA appearances (2 Sweet Sixteens) in 12 years. Basically took a few years to get to the tournament, had success, and then fell off before getting fired and getting hired as AHC at OU.
 
Deaconblue said:
Women's basketball coaching carousel still spinning. Rutgers just announced hiring of Coquese Washington (former PSU coach) to replace the legendary C. Vivian Stringer who retired at age 74.
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Sucks that Rutgers ruined their once great program by waiting too long to hire Stringer's replacement.
 
birdman said:
Sucks that Rutgers ruined their once great program by waiting too long to hire Stringer's replacement.
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Stringer “ruined” the program by retiring at the end of April.
 
inspectah said:
I thought I read somewhere that the other assistants followed Dickerson to W&M but that may be wrong.
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This is true, I just learned. Seems damning of Hoover in that case. That both assistants left for the same job in a worse conference. Dickerson hadn't even been at Wake for that long.
 
atldeac23 said:
This is true, I just learned. Seems damning of Hoover in that case. That both assistants left for the same job in a worse conference. Dickerson hadn't even been at Wake for that long.
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Pretty good chance that the staff knew at that point that Hoover was unlikely to return.
 
Megan Gebbia new head coach. 3 NCAAT's in 9 years at American. Towson alum. 49 years old.
 
Apparently under Currie, we now pick up our new coaches in jets!! :)
 
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