mes102

Once the coaching changes & transfer portal calms down, this site will have a scholarship chart for every D1 women's basketball program. Right now, it got ripped down to a minimum with all the changes. It's the best centralized site for college women's basketball in my opinion. It says it can't be found right now, but once it gets uploaded, this should be the link to Akron's scholarship and recruiting news. https://wbbblog.com/akron-womens-basketball-recruiting/

“Former assistant coach Wyatt Foust left the program for another coaching opportunity,” a UB Athletics spokesperson said. “He was a primary contact for those student-athletes during their recruiting process and with his departure they had [a] change of heart and requested their release which was granted.” Not sure how normal it is for it to take so long, but I know for a fact that at least two of those five requested their release over 25 days ago and didn't get approved until last week. NCAA finally got to it Friday/today.

An Olmsted Falls senior has decommitted from Buffalo. One of five Buffalo H.S. recruits to decommit. Apparently, Buffalo had a 100% assistant coach turnover rate after the head coach's first season.

I'd rather have the new head coach use this time to talk to the remaining players on the roster, work on recruiting HS,JUCO, and Transfer Portal, and getting his staff put together instead of having a press conference right away that can wait.

Did the players like Coach Jackson? Of course, or they most likely wouldn't have been here this past season with the way the transfer portal has been the past couple seasons. As for the timing, it's not like Guthrie let her go with any seasons left on her contract. He just simply said when her contract was up, it wasn't getting renewed. The personal situation with Coach Jackson was of course bad timing, but Guthrie can't let that get in the way if he believes that the program needs a change. I had to look at this from a different perspective because I know a ton of high school girls basketball coaches and have been on the sidelines for several years. I like Coach Jackson and hope she lands somewhere as an assistant coach and gets another head coaching opportunity again, but I had to look at this objectively. For those saying not renewing Coach Jackson was the wrong move, if a head coach of a men's basketball program would have a record of 55-56 through four seasons (with these conference seeds and tournament results below) and the 5th season went 17-13 overall (#6 seed in conference with a quarterfinal loss by 24 points), would anyone be upset if the AD didn't renew the contract for the men's coach? Year 1 - #8 seed and lost to #9 seed in First Round Year 2 - #8 seed and lost to #9 seed in First Round Year 3 - Did not qualify for conference tournament, Finished 11th in conference play (only top 8 in tourney) Year 4 - #3 seed, beat #6 seed in quarterfinals, lost to #2 seed by 39 points in semifinals. Expectations should be a part of every program, and it's evident here that Guthrie has high expectations for his programs. Even though I do like Coach Jackson the person, I have expected more out of her and the rest of the staff and have been disappointed most seasons, especially in conference play. I had to look at this objectively, and concluded I'm not sure how many programs would be content with those results above. If this was Groce, I'm sure plenty of people would be saying that we needed a change on the men's side after Year 3.

I'm not sure (and we won't know), but if I had to guess, Gensler was probably above Schaben. Gensler hiring made more sense. Schaben rumor might have been more about what's going on at Iowa State right now than it was being seriously considered for the Akron opening.

I'm mad at myself for picking the wrong Illinois assistant as a candidate 😂 Get used to the term "EGB" going forward.

1:35:18 into video for Gensler's interview.

My thoughts too. Still doesn't fit the other hires under Guthrie so it makes me curious what made him stand out from those with HC experience.

Coach Gensler's bio on Illinois's website https://fightingillini.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/ryan-gensler/1696

It left me scratching my head as well (just doesn't fit with Guthrie's hiring history so far), but that Twitter account has been right a lot so far this off season with coaching moves which is why I posted it assuming it was just needing to finalize. Makes more sense no decision has been made yet.

That's why this hire was so unexpected to me. Every head coaching hire so far under Guthrie was someone with head coaching experience, regardless of level (which is why I suggested Stephens, Pickens, and Hans).

The timing of the Iowa State transfers along with this hire is interesting. Here is a tweet with a reply that makes me hopeful.

More insight into Coach Schaben and the staff at Iowa State. I'm still not sure how I feel about this hire, but I'll keep an open mind and give her, her staff, and players time to see if it will work. This didn't fit the parameters that I thought would be with the next hire and frankly, it doesn't really fit with the hires Guthrie have made in other sports either. Odd choice and part of me wonders if she's out the door if Toledo and/or Iowa State has a head coaching opening.

This was one I wasn't expecting. Coach Schaben has been at Iowa State for so long under the head coach there. Her Twitter handle is even "@LadyCyclones" and bio reads "Love Coaching at Iowa State". I put her in the same category as above with Moren/Wierzba, Auriemma/Dailey, and Groce/Ford that I didn't think it was a possibility. It is interesting timing as practically the entire Iowa State team is in the transfer portal already.

https://cyclones.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/latoja-schaben/1920 Toledo graduate & Mansfield, Ohio native.

Possible, but he's been on the HC's staff for a while now and was even on her staff at Indiana State before they both came to Indiana. Normally, those assistant coaches rarely leave the HC (Examples - John Groce/Dustin Ford, Geno Auriemma/Chris Dailey)

Cleveland State? In my opinion, that coach would look at it as a lateral move (or even a step down to some). They made the NCAA tournament and return a lot back. I don't see him leaving for Akron.

There are some intriguing P5 assistant coaches too. There are some I didn't include here due to my assumption they would go from their P5 assistant job to a P5 HC job. This was one of them, but an article was just posted on her so I might as well share it.

"Columbia's Griffith is an east coaster, born and raised in King of Prussia, PA and she played at Columbia and was an assistant at Princeton. I suspect that it might be difficult to pry her from her alma mater unless there's a substantial pay raise involved." Very true, Clark. I'm probably putting too much weight on the connection between Columbia's coach and Guthrie.

Intrigued. I might check my original list again

My gut is telling me Columbia's head coach but we'll see.