Sara Scalia enters the transfer portal

[gwbbfan82]

My concern since day 1 is who LW surrounded herself with. I knew there was going to be a major learning curve. I accepted that and was ok with that and still am. However, I question the assistants that were hired. Young with no great track record. Certainly no great head coaching experience from assistants. IMO she needed older experienced coaches surrounding her. Coaches who may have admired her as a player, but had the experience to offset her lack of experience. While nice people, the assistants have never had proven winning track records as head coaches at any level that I am aware of. Did Shimmy have a winning season at St. Louis? What was Royslands record at Macalaster? I don't think she even achieved a 500% season at a D3 school did she? What about Carly? Has she even had head coaching experience? She has a great bloodline and will probably get a shot at a head coach spot down the road, and probably would have been a nice assistant had we initially had a stronger supporting staff. Even O'Banion in the first year had a brutal head coaching record at Kent State previously I believe. If LW isn't able to turn this program around, I think this will be what brings her coaching tenure at the U down. Thoughts?

My concern from day 1 was the hiring of a coach with zero coaching experience at a P5(6?) B1G school.

 

[ecoperson]

I am sorry to see Scalia leave. She is a great player. However, I am sure that she has aspirations of playing pro basketball and her opportunities/value will be greater if she plays for a contending or marquee team. I think the loss of our seniors/graduate student players and Sissoko means that there is too much work to do to make the Gophers a contender next year. Scalia will be able to exhibit her talents and get more media attention elsewhere. I wish her the best.

Players will pro aspirations are just as likely to be discovered playing at Podunk U as they are at UConn. If you are prospective pro, they will turn over every rock to find you.

 

[BleedGopher]

Hello...Mark Coyle...Hello...are you there?

"Trust me, nobody wants to win more than Lindsay Whalen. I talked to her last week and I can see her will to win in her eyes. It's my job to support her and provide her the resources. But I will reiterate, that nobody wants to win more than Lindsay Whalen." - Mark Coyle

Go Gophers!!

 

[Roland Brooks]

I am sure quite a few coaches are in town this week Scalia shouldn’t have a problem helping get her search started….

 

[ecoperson]

This is beyond disappointing. Sara was Whalen's first high school commit. I am as positive as they come but something is clearly amiss. The Pitts thing was the pits but I presumed that this was a one off. Now that we are seeing a number of transfers from starters, it is time for some answers.

I guess the one positive is that the first year players will get to jump in with both feet and log big minutes. Borowicz, Micheaux, Smith, and Czinano are the only returning players!

 

[Gopher Ally]

This feels like a big gut punch, I hope the highly rated incoming class sticks. I’m sure they have insight as to what’s going on in the program. Sucks watching these Minnesota girls win all over the country from Utah to Creighton to UCONN

 

[hungan1]

My concern since day 1 is who LW surrounded herself with. I knew there was going to be a major learning curve. I accepted that and was ok with that and still am. However, I question the assistants that were hired. Young with no great track record. Certainly no great head coaching experience from assistants. IMO she needed older experienced coaches surrounding her. Coaches who may have admired her as a player, but had the experience to offset her lack of experience. While nice people, the assistants have never had proven winning track records as head coaches at any level that I am aware of. Did Shimmy have a winning season at St. Louis? What was Royslands record at Macalaster? I don't think she even achieved a 500% season at a D3 school did she? What about Carly? Has she even had head coaching experience? She has a great bloodline and will probably get a shot at a head coach spot down the road, and probably would have been a nice assistant had we initially had a stronger supporting staff. Even O'Banion in the first year had a brutal head coaching record at Kent State previously I believe. If LW isn't able to turn this program around, I think this will be what brings her coaching tenure at the U down. Thoughts?

It’s worrisome to see two of the best players transfer out. Do we see a change of assistant coaches? There is a downside to hiring friends when the program has not make significant strides.

 

[Roland Brooks]

Maybe the friends are better coaches then Whalen?

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

My concern from day 1 was the hiring of a coach with zero coaching experience at a P5(6?) B1G school.

And who had never publicly expressed an interest in coaching. We're getting what we expected

 

[rwlarson]

Maybe the friends are better coaches then Whalen?

Bingo!

 

[skiumah1]

This is a mess

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

A word from Jasmine Powell

 

[Belzx009]

I am bummed about this. I actually thought in the Green Bay game was the first time I really saw a fire and leadership in her. I was really excited about seeing her with these younger girls.

I completely agree with whoever talked about the Whalen staff. Those exact things have been my concern from the get go. I know the wheels came off for the mens program too, but having Dave Thorson on that staff is so huge.

Also this transfer portal is quickly disrupting college sports. Kids should not be going to 2 or 3 colleges to play sports. However society has created this problem early on in student athletes. Kids make high school announcements like someone committing to a colleg now when they are transferring high schools. Athletes are playing on all sorts of AAU teams to see where they get the make exposure. However I get that the Gophers now need to utilize the portal. In the long run I do not think it’s good for the game.

 

[MNGophers3]

A word from Jasmine Powell

These players have been let down by their coaches, plain and simple. It hurts to see the exodus, but they deserve better than what Lindsay and the U can give them.

 

[MRJ]

"Trust me, nobody wants to win more than Lindsay Whalen. I talked to her last week and I can see her will to win in her eyes. It's my job to support her and provide her the resources. But I will reiterate, that nobody wants to win more than Lindsay Whalen." - Mark Coyle

Go Gophers!!

More utter drivel from Coyle. Of course she wants to win. Every coach and player at every school in the country want to win. Do they have the skills to make it happen? In Whalen's case, a resounding no has been the answer. Now the situation has worsened. Good lord, who does he think he's convincing with this stuff? It's ridiculous.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

A word from Destiny Pitts

 

[Ragnor]

My concern since day 1 is who LW surrounded herself with. I knew there was going to be a major learning curve. I accepted that and was ok with that and still am. However, I question the assistants that were hired. Young with no great track record. Certainly no great head coaching experience from assistants. IMO she needed older experienced coaches surrounding her. Coaches who may have admired her as a player, but had the experience to offset her lack of experience. While nice people, the assistants have never had proven winning track records as head coaches at any level that I am aware of. Did Shimmy have a winning season at St. Louis? What was Royslands record at Macalaster? I don't think she even achieved a 500% season at a D3 school did she? What about Carly? Has she even had head coaching experience? She has a great bloodline and will probably get a shot at a head coach spot down the road, and probably would have been a nice assistant had we initially had a stronger supporting staff. Even O'Banion in the first year had a brutal head coaching record at Kent State previously I believe. If LW isn't able to turn this program around, I think this will be what brings her coaching tenure at the U down. Thoughts?

Sounds like there is a lot you don't know about the staff so I will help you out here so you can update this post based on the facts and not imprssions. I am interested in if any of your thoughts change based on this info.

Carly Thibault-DuDonis - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Minnesota Athletics

Carly Thibault-DuDonis (pronounced TEE-bow doo-DON-iss) was named assistant coach at Minnesota on April 23, 2018 and was promoted to the title of associate head

gophersports.com

Shimmy Gray-Miller - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Minnesota Athletics

Shimmy Gray-Miller was named assistant coach for the Minnesota women's basketball program on May 18, 2021. In her current role, Gray-Miller works with M...

gophersports.com

Kelly Curry - Women's Basketball Coach - University of Minnesota Athletics

A former standout player and assistant coach at Minnesota, Kelly Curry (née Roysland) was named assistant coach at Minnesota on April 23, 2018. ...

gophersports.com

In my opinion Carly is a fantastic addition and coached on back to back national championship game teams at Mississippi State along with the fact her dad was a successful coach and her husband is a successful coach means she eats and breaths buckets.

Shimmy has been on winning teams and even an interim HC gigg. and she has a lot of experience so I like her addition.

Kelly, again has a parent that is a head coach, she has been a head coach and brings more institutional knowledge of the recent gopher BB history. She has been on winning programs as a player and coach. Solid addition but maybe the one I would be least excited about. Just based on Lindsey and Carley, we know they know what it takes to win and they just need the players and team chemistry to do it. I would say the biggest problem is too many recruiting misses as far as performance and temperment of players. We don't have much evidence of player development yet either since there has been too much player turnover. Fingers crossed that the 4 minnesota kids are as good or better than advertised. and the recruiting portal is fruitful.

 

[MNMaroonMom]

A word from Jasmine Powell

Curious to why this matters?

 

[leib0039]

I admittedly dont watch/follow the womens bball team like I do other sports at the U, but this screams epic disaster. The team has progressively gotten worse over the years and every single year we lose top players. Outside of a top end recruiting class this year (which by all accounts LW hasnt dont a great job developing anyway), and a big name, why again is Whalen getting an extension? I said this one the mens forum, local ties hires are great....until you hang on to them for 2-3 years longer than you should because you feel more loyalty to them, that can end up making the rebuilding years upon years longer.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Curious to why this matters?

Thoughts from her peers

 

[Mulligan]

I'm as down about this mess as much as I was during the exodus under Borton. Had such high hopes, but this almost seems like a death knell, despite next year's class.

 

[blkroll]

So I’m not apologizing for Whalen or the rest of the coaches, but how is it their fault that the other players don’t have the work ethic Scalia refers to? Other than that they are recruiting misses.

 

[gophsfan]

Sounds like there is a lot you don't know about the staff so I will help you out here so you can update this post based on the facts and not imprssions. I am interested in if any of your thoughts change based on this info.

Appreciate your follow up. No change in opinion, in fact probably strengthened what I had thought. Some solid assistant coaching tenors for our assistants, but no solid head coaching winning experience even for Shimmy from what my limited research found. I agree with what you said about Carly, but again, she was most likely a tag along on the Schaefer lead teams that were already really good prior to her joining the staff versus the reason those teams won. She was what, the 3rd or 4th assistant on those teams. Her dad is great (heck he's basically Bball royalty) and her husband appears do be doing a really great job also. No doubt she has a bright future and could have been a great 3rd or 4th assistant coach in year one on LW's staff if we had a more solid #2 Asst coach. She's a positive pedigreed up and comer. When I was talking about winning experience, I was really referring to that of being a head coach. I would have preferred finding a top notch #2 Asst coach with a winning D1 head coaching track record, if even for just 1 season, not a track record of losing over multiple seasons at the D1 level, let alone D3 level. I don't know that we hired an Asst coach that even had a winning regular season record at any level of college basketball did we? Maybe those types of Asst coaches just don't exist and I'm wrong.

 

[PhiloVance]

Let's see how the local sports media address these transfers. Are they going to ask the tough questions of Whalen? Will they communicate with those who left the program to find out why they did?

 

[short ornery norwegian]

as of today, if the Gopher women's basketball team was going to hold a practice, they would have to play 2-on-2.

I will say this - the portal works both ways. Lindsay Whalen was hired in large part because she was a famous player. the expectation was that top players would be flocking to play for her.

It's time to prove it. this program needs help and it needs some good news ASAP.

 

[Ragnor]

Appreciate your follow up. No change in opinion, in fact probably strengthened what I had thought. Some solid assistant coaching tenors for our assistants, but no solid head coaching winning experience even for Shimmy from what my limited research found. I agree with what you said about Carly, but again, she was most likely a tag along on those Schaefer lead teams. She has a bright future and could have been a great 3rd or 4th assistant coach if we had a more solid #2 with solid head coaching experience. Winning experience, not a track record of losing at the D1 level, let alone D3 level regardless of the reason. If you didn't think you could turn a D3 program, don't take the job in the first place imo. Once you take it and don't turn it, or even bring it to 500% I question your ability to build a program. Again maybe that type of coach would be a good 3rd assistant or 4th?

no solid head coaching winning experience even for Shimmy:
I don't expect solid coaching winning experience with an assistant. I think that would be a unicorn because any solid head coaching winning experience would make her a head coach in a solid program, not an assistant. It would be phenomenal though or even to have some head coaching even if middling or losing brings perspective, I just don't think "head coaching winning experience" is realistic.

Carly, but again, she was most likely a tag along on those Schaefer lead teams. She has a bright future and could have been a great 3rd or 4th assistant coach if we had a more solid #2 with solid head coaching experience.:
I think by definition an assistant coach is a tag along. Their role is to provide one on one coaching experience for players at specific positions, help in recruiting and attracting players, provide head coach with different perspectives on players and game strategy. I think Carly is ALMOST a perfect division 1, 1st. assistant coach. She has been a good player as a guard (her position expertise), she has ton's of coaching knowledge from coaching and growing up with a successful coaching parent and being married to another coach. As part of this coaching knowledge much of it comes from winning coaches and programs so she has a perspective of what a winning program and players look like.

Winning experience, not a track record of losing at the D1 level, let alone D3 level regardless of the reason. If you didn't think you could turn a D3 program, don't take the job in the first place imo. Once you take it and don't turn it, or even bring it to 500% I question your ability to build a program. Again maybe that type of coach would be a good 3rd assistant or 4th?
I'm not sure what this is directed to other than maybe Kelly. Kelly is very qualified to be a Div 1 assistant and she was an assistant at minnesota previously as well as in ND. She has a lot to offer, if depends on what Lindsey felt she could offer. She was at Mac for less than 4 years but she brought them from 3-11 in her first year (5-20) before to a high water mark of 11-14 in her 3rd year. For Mac this is solid for a short tenure and I would never expect them to be outstanding. Go to the university's web page. You have to dig to even find athletics.

Shimmy very experienced coach, been on winning programs and the position coach of need (BIGS) and if you follow her twitter at all she is a very positive person so I think she is solid.

 

[ecoperson]

I admittedly dont watch/follow the womens bball team like I do other sports at the U, but this screams epic disaster. The team has progressively gotten worse over the years and every single year we lose top players. Outside of a top end recruiting class this year (which by all accounts LW hasnt dont a great job developing anyway), and a big name, why again is Whalen getting an extension? I said this one the mens forum, local ties hires are great....until you hang on to them for 2-3 years longer than you should because you feel more loyalty to them, that can end up making the rebuilding years upon years longer.

The great recruiting class is still sitting in High School English class. They will arrive on campus this summer so Whalen hasn't had an opportunity to develop them yet.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Players will pro aspirations are just as likely to be discovered playing at Podunk U as they are at UConn. If you are prospective pro, they will turn over every rock to find you.

Correct, she is the leading scorer for Lindsey Whalen. Scouts know who she is. She wants to win next year.

 

[ecoperson]

The assistants are NOT the problem.

Don't forget that Danielle O'Banion was originally on this staff and she is now head coach at Loyola.

COACHING HISTORY
2021-22: Loyola University (Head Coach)
2018-21: University of Minnesota (Assistant Coach)
2016-18: University of Memphis (Associate Head Coach)
2012-16: Kent State University (Head Coach)
2009-12: University of Memphis (Associate Head Coach)
2008-09: University of Memphis (Assistant Coach)
2007-08: Episcopal High School (Va.) (Head Coach)
2002-07: University of Minnesota (Assistant Coach)
2001-02: Harvard University (Assistant Coach)

 

[ecoperson]

Correct, she is the leading scorer for Lindsey Whalen. Scouts know who she is. She wants to win next year.

My point to walleye was that players don't need to hop programs to get noticed by the pros. Players can leave for a bunch of reasons but this is not one of them.