Carly Thibault-Dudonis Named Fairfield Head Coach

Ignatius L Hoops

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FAIRFIELD, Conn – Fairfield University Women's Basketball Head Coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis will be officially introduced to the campus community this Tuesday, April 19 at 11 a.m. on the lower level of the Barone Campus Center. The event is open to the public and will be broadcast live on the Stags Sports Network
 

ecoperson

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I didn't read that post as anything other than wondering whether the SAs might want to leave if they felt most bonded with the assistant rather than the head coach. You introduced the idea of "getting out" of the scholarship. Regardless, if they want to leave, they can leave without any repercussions.
You can't free transfer after signing your National Letter of Intent without cause. If that were the case, there would be utter chaos. Players would be literally leaving every day after signing period for 'greener pastures.' Commitments are already not worth anything. The National Letter of Intent is meant to protect both player and school.

The first year players would have to be released from their NLI for cause. They can't just say that they want to go to another school instead because an assistant coach leaves. They can if the head coach leaves.
 


Ignatius L Hoops

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Bye-Bye River Falls

Blake DuDonis has stepped down as UW-River Falls head women's basketball coach, as announced Friday, April 15 by athletic director Crystal Lanning.

DuDonis will pursue another coaching opportunity. His wife, Carly Thibault-DuDonis, was recently named head coach at Division I Fairfield, in Connecticut. She had been an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, not far from the River Falls campus.
 

Ragnor

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Bye-Bye River Falls
figured, probably not good to hire a spouse of a division 1 assistant coach, since they are likely to move on whether or not the team is good or bad.
 
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gwbbfan82

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Curious to see if her husband becomes an assistant coach.
 

Ignatius L Hoops

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Some tidbits from Carly's presser:

Blake DuDonis and Carly met while scouting players at an Ohio gym in 2014, while Blake was an assistant at Buffalo and Carly an assistant at Eastern Michigan. They married in 2017. Most recently head coach at Wisconsin-River Falls, he is expected to join the Fairfield staff as an assistant.

[...]

Several Fairfield players are in the transfer portal, including Lou Lopez-Senechal, who averaged 19.6 points last season as a senior and has indicated she would like to use her final season of eligibility elsewhere. Lopez-Senechal is being recruited by UConn and is scheduled to visit the Storrs campus in the coming days.

“She’s earned the right to go look at some of these cool schools,” Thibault-DuDonis said. “But she’s definitely open to seeing what we’re going to do here.”
 

Ignatius L Hoops

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Additional tidbits:

After living nine years away from her family, Thibault-DuDonis was looking to come back to the East Coast. But it had to be the right fit.

“This is the first time in nine years I’ve been in driving distance to anybody in the family,” she said. “I was ready for that when the right opportunity came along.”

It was difficult for her to leave Minnesota. She’s known Whalen since Whalen was drafted by the Sun in 2004. Thibault-DuDonis remembers rebounding for Whalen at Sun practices and when Whalen had surgery one year, she stayed in Connecticut in the offseason and spent a lot of time at the Thibaults’ home.

“That was the hardest part [leaving Minnesota],” Thibault-DuDonis said. “I always joked that she was my dad’s favorite daughter.”
[...]
“When I went to Monmouth [as a player], I got the same gut feeling when I stepped onto campus as I did when I stepped on Fairfield’s campus a few weeks ago,” she said. “I knew this is where I was meant to be.”
 












Gopherfan84

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To be fair, she did not cast a wide net.
Most coaches don’t when creating their staffs. Most have backtracked before they are hired and have a couple already lined up. Whalen hasn’t found a new one in a month. I doubt She was unaware of Carly’s HC aspirations
 

whalenfan

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What’s worse is that she had time to have things like this lined up while Carly was interviewing. Final four was in her backyard this year to even help her more.
final four was in Minneapolis but Whalen was in New Orleans that weekend because of the hall of fame stuff. Also is the timeline really that crazy? Nebraska has had an opening since midway thru the season and its still unfilled. Michigan had a coach leave about a week before MN and they announced their coach last week. NW around the same time just announced their new assistant. Its been around a month and while we'd all like to see it quicker it seems like a pretty normal timeline.
 

gwbbfan82

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Most coaches don’t when creating their staffs. Most have backtracked before they are hired and have a couple already lined up. Whalen hasn’t found a new one in a month. I doubt She was unaware of Carly’s HC aspirations
Carly was named one to watch regarding HC jobs. I kept wondering for the past couple of years when she would move on.
 

Gopherfan84

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final four was in Minneapolis but Whalen was in New Orleans that weekend because of the hall of fame stuff. Also is the timeline really that crazy? Nebraska has had an opening since midway thru the season and its still unfilled. Michigan had a coach leave about a week before MN and they announced their coach last week. NW around the same time just announced their new assistant. Its been around a month and while we'd all like to see it quicker it seems like a pretty normal timeline.
I know where she was during the final four. Curry or others could’ve been backchanneling. I understand the announcement can take a couple weeks after the choice is made to go through our compliance. This has more of the feel that nobody believes she’ll be here after next year so she’s getting told no. Is anyone even hearing any steam on anyone?
 

whalenfan

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I know where she was during the final four. Curry or others could’ve been backchanneling. I understand the announcement can take a couple weeks after the choice is made to go through our compliance. This has more of the feel that nobody believes she’ll be here after next year so she’s getting told no. Is anyone even hearing any steam on anyone?
Your feel could be right but last year there was no steam on the Shimmy hiring last year either, it just happened one day. There was alot of names thrown out on here and I dont think her name ever came up til the day she was announced.
 

Gopherfan84

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Your feel could be right but last year there was no steam on the Shimmy hiring last year either, it just happened one day. There was alot of names thrown out on here and I dont think her name ever came up til the day she was announced.
I hope that’s the case and you bring some good data to prove it. Hope we hear something soon.
 








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