What Has Happened to the Women's Team?

Donate To GopherHole
H

Honyocker

Gophers-In Good or Bad Times
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
1,127
Reaction score
0
Points
36
I see the women have lost five in a row and they are 4-7 in the Big Ten. I thought they were supposed to be pretty good this year. It was a bad omen when they lost to Winona State to begin the season, I guess.
 

I have gone to a couple games this year. This team looks like they have no joy or excitement about playing basketball. There is really something wrong here. They look like they are poorly coached and lead. Borton must not be a great recruiter and motivator. Maturi will probably have to pay big bucks to get rid of her.
 

I think Maturi hired her...they should both go.........buy em both out......
 

Maryland is sure good every year in womans hoops...You can find our old coach over there.
 

It's not a lack of effort. The biggest problem is simply a lack of offensive punch. In particular, seniors Ohm and Ellis-Milan have really struggled this year. I don't think any perceived lack of joy is causing losses, it's the losses that are causing the lack of joy.
 


millions2spare said:
I think Maturi hired her...they should both go.........buy em both out......
Click to expand...

From Star Tribune:

Byline: Michael Rand; Staff Writer

Pam Borton knows she wasn't the University of Minnesota's top choice to replace former women's basketball coach Brenda Oldfield.

She wasn't even afraid to joke about it during her job interview.

"When I came to her, she said, `You mean I wasn't your first choice?' " said Gophers Women's Athletic Director Chris Voelz, who made the hire. "She has a great sense of humor."

Perhaps a dose of humor was in order from Borton, a former Boston College associate head coach who was introduced as the Gophers' new coach…
 

Borton

Her recruting has bee awful- the two twins she gave scholarships to last year dont even play. All the players she recruits are 5'11 and slow.

She blew it they Broback, Podominick quit alos Williams and Lacy transferred that year.. they could have been good and kept the momentum going.

Karel from Wisc good start in her back court.
 

They probably won't even make the WNIT this year. They just got drubbed at Michigan 74-40 to fall to 11-12. Longest losing streak in Borton's tenure now at 6.

@ Penn State
v. Ohio State
@ Iowa
@ Indiana
Michigan
@ Michigan State

Those are their final games. I would guess they go 2-4 or worse during that stretch.
 

Not only are they losing, but they have shot in the 20%s the last two games.

That is disgustingly putrid. No major conference team should struggle that poorly offensively twice in one season, let alone in back to back games.

Now Borton has only missed the NCAAs once in her tenure, so I'm sure Maturi will cite that as a reason to keep her around. However, must we forget that this was legitimately a top 10 program 5 years ago?

They have a solid fan base and top notch high school talent. There would be coaches lined up around the block for interviews.
 



NateDawgUM said:
However, must we forget that this was legitimately a top 10 program 5 years ago?

They have a solid fan base and top notch high school talent. There would be coaches lined up around the block for interviews.
Click to expand...

The presence of Chris Voelz not only drove Brenda Frese out of town, but it also kept the lines for interviews pretty short. How many schools with Lindsey Whalen and Janel McCarville on the roster and an excited fan base drawing big numbers have to settle for an associate head coach from Boston College? I don't question Coach Borton's coaching ability or work ethic. I question if she's capable to building and fostering a healthy culture within a basketball program.
 

I believe they also had a threat of sanctions which kept a lot of candidates at bay.
 


akgopher said:
Wasn't that gone after Frese left? I thought it was an issue after Littlejohn.
Click to expand...

Yes it was cleared up after Frese left, Littlejohn nearly had the program axed by the NCAA for major sanctions. The men's major sanctions previously was what even brought the consideration for the program to be axed. Voelz didn't allow men to interview for the new coaching job given to Borton though, which reduced a lot of candidates and 2 interviewees backed out at the the last minute, giving Borton the job.

Here's an old article from MPR: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200207/02_wilcoxenw_sanctions/
 



Who were the two who backed out? Again, I'll point to Chris Voelz for that situation. Not only did we have a great team, rabid fan base, but also a damn good pipeline of local talent coming out the HS ranks without any real local competition for them. It was no accident that Frese had enough of Voelz to walk away from what she had going here and the best we could do was an assistant coach from a good, not even great program.
 

Cheryl Burnett was one of the coaches who backed out and she actually turned out to be far, far worse than Borton. She went to Michigan and was an absolute disaster.
 

I don't think you can say that the Gophers were legitimately a top 10 program. They caught lightning in a bottle for one year and got to the Final Four.

To be a top 10 program, you have to show results over a more extended time frame.
 

This has become a train wreck and it looks like Borton might have lost the team. She almost always got her players to play hard even if they had trouble shooting the ball. However, there have been several games in this losing streak where the effort just wasn't there and today sounded brutal.

Brenda Frese wasn't going to stick around. She was a young coach who fell into a perfect situation and parlayed it for the big time. She stated she had a better chance to win at Maryland because there was a lot more talent out East to recruit. She was right as she won a national championship and will probably contend again.

The university was lucky as hell with Whalen and McCarville. They were lightly recruited out of high school. If Summit or Geno had known their potential, I doubt either would have ended up here. Odds of it happening again are very slim. Borton has had recruiting misses but it's typical Minnesota provincialism to think we'd be contenders if only she would get all of the Minnesota kids. We would be better, but you still need stars to be a top 10 team.
 

I Agree

akgopher said:
The presence of Chris Voelz not only drove Brenda Frese out of town, but it also kept the lines for interviews pretty short. How many schools with Lindsey Whalen and Janel McCarville on the roster and an excited fan base drawing big numbers have to settle for an associate head coach from Boston College? I don't question Coach Borton's coaching ability or work ethic. I question if she's capable to building and fostering a healthy culture within a basketball program.
Click to expand...

You said a great deal when you said the "healthy culture" was a factor. Recently heard that from parents of a current player. Maturi will not deal with it.
 

It's simple why they're struggling. Too many slow, unathletic players without much ability. Doesn't help when you can't shoot and you turn the ball over so much. Seems like they've had at least 20 turnovers in about every Big 10 game. Ohio State and (usually) Purdue are the only good women's programs in the Big 10. The rest are blah.

It's actually kinda' sad that OSU isn't undefeated in the Big 10 this season. They have so much more talent than the rest of the league it's ridiculous. Their coach (his name escapes me, the former Vandy coach) should not get coach of the year simply because there's not a single team in the Big 10 that should even come close to beating them, yet they've lost a couple.
 

didnt joel maturi go on a trip with the team to Europe last year and then extend her contract? Does anyone know? Again, another point to say that this whole athletic department is in shambles and tanking under Joels Watch and guidance.
 

I like Pam Borton and think she's done an ok job but last year it became evident that they were sorely lacking in talent. The big prob is the offense where 3 of the starters have hardly any offensive game at all. Brittney McCoy is athletic and probably could score more but she takes few shots. Jackie Voight is just a soph and had some decent games last year but has not improved a lick. Finally Katie Ohm , who has been a backup her entire career, is very inconsistant and can't guard anyone because she's so unathletic. Buford is good but is forced to shoot too many bad shots to compensate for McCoy, Voight and Ohm. Ellis-Milan should easily have been their best player but she regressed so much this year it's stunning. It is disturbing that last year Emily Fox went in the toilet as a senior and now Ellis-Milan has done the same thing. This should not happen and I do wonder about coaching here. It looks like the team will be even worse next year. Besides Buford there's very little noticeable talent. If this team is ever hoping to get out of this deep hole they need to stop recruiting so many Minnesota players and go elsewhere - just not enough basketball talent here to make a top notch team on a regular basis.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom