ewbrooman1

She didn't mention Haliegh Reinoehl. Hopefully she's still around. Probably their best player.

WAKR interview today with Melissa Jackson. http://wakr.net/personalities/sam-bourquin/item/163612-melissa-jackson-named-ua-women-s-basketball-coach

Melissa Jackson named Zips women's basketball coach. http://gozips.com/news/2018/6/26/melissa-jackson-named-head-womens-basketball-coach-at-akron.aspx

If this is true, it certainly doesn't seem to say much about the financial state of the athletic department or lay a foundation to give candidates and recruits much confidence in the program's resources. We're not talking about paying off a coach with a year or two left on their contract. It's only a couple of months overlap.

She signed a 5 year contract in 2013 that took her though the end of this season, so buying her out wouldn't really have been a consideration. Some move was going to have to be made anyway. Losing 19 MAC games in a row over two seasons obviously didn't bode well. I was wondering then what might happen at the end of the season and am surprised it didn't happen sooner after our season ended. For what it's worth, BGSU endured 4 years of big losing before letting their long time (assistant and the head) coach go. I think the beginning of Kest's downfall was not capitalizing on the NCAA success with successful recruiting classes for 14-15 and 15-16.

Yeah, I also have to disagree about which is the better job/program -although we may have been paying a bit more. BGSU has been an elite program in the MAC going back to the 80s. Our program was nothing until Kest got here. BGSU has a much stronger fan base, evidenced by the fact they drew almost 3 times the fans the Zips did despite having a similarly dismal season this year. They also drew more fans this year than we did in our NCAA tournament year. They also have an active chat room focused on women's basketball. The challenge will be for the new Zips regime to build the team and program back up to where it is at an elite level. We saw Buffalo and CMU raise the bar this year in the NCAA tournament. That was fun to watch.

Signing any players without knowing for sure who the head coach is going to be would be a pretty good audition, at least for recruiting skills. Late May or early June sure seems like a long time for a head coaching search, although Kest's departure did come kind of late. Then again, there is no need to wait until the season ends as BGSU probably had to do with Fralick. According to Wikipedia, "2018–19 season - as of May 8, 2018 there are 41 vacancies or newly filled positions (counting one interim head coach), of which 10 are still vacant." Not sure of their exact source.

I would think if Jackson was going to get the job, they would have signed her by now, but if she is signing recruits that is interesting. Buffalo and CMU definitely raised the bar this year, so that may explain the deliberate search for a coach. I would have expected an announcement before the semester ended, though.

Has anybody heard anything about the new women's head coach search? It's been a month since Kest retired.

I get the plugging holes aspect of this, but I still don't see any reason there shouldn't be at least a couple of freshmen with potential, even if they redshirt. This isn't Groce's first year and he should have enough historical recruiting ties in the area to get them. Not all of these transfer guys are going to be able to play anyway just based on the numbers. I wonder how they will take having to sit. I also assume we have all these new guys discussed previously, but the athletic dept doesn't seem to be announcing any of it. Maybe they still have to clear everybody first?

I agree about Ivey. Also about the heavy concentration of multiple high school and college transfers. Where is the traditional freshmen class? Guys like Big Dog, Kwan, Reggie and Jake.

Is Groce recruiting any "traditional" freshman? I see a lot of multiple high school/academy/prep, juco, transfer guys but no freshmen class yet.

If that's what happens, I won't.

Sorry, losing 4 guys, 3 who played significant minutes as freshmen isn't good. If it's merely reflective of today's players and recruiting that's not good either. I have no interest in following a constant turnstile roster. Hopefully things will settle down.

This is getting a bit ridiculous and not reflecting well on the program - players or coaches. I certainly don't wish anything bad on the departing players, but I'm not going to "stay tuned." Spare me the thank you notes about growth, etc. when you're leaving after a year. I don't expect Groce's public calling out of the team helped much either. KD pretty much avoided that. Oh well, they are all still kids.