(I don't want to overwhelm another thread with this long post, so I'm just starting a separate thread.)
I compiled a potential candidates list back in 2011 when we needed to replace Joanne Boyle, so here's a new list as we search for a replacement for Lindsay Gottlieb.
You'll notice that this year's list is much shorter. Part of that is due to the extremely inconvenient timing of Gottlieb's departure. The main season for firing and hiring has already passed and we missed out on some prime candidates who have been hired elsewhere (most notably former Cal assistant Kim McNeill who was hired by East Carolina, but also the tantalizing possibility that we could have been the program to have finally tempted Courtney Banghart away from Princeton). And to a lesser degree, there were some longshots among those who have since latched on as assistants at other programs.
But another reason the list is shorter is that the Cal position simply isn't as desirable as it was in 2011. Back then the program still seemed to have genuine prospects for improvement, and a new hire would have inherited an excellent roster without the need for immediate recruitment. But in 2019 we now look like a program that is firmly entrenched in the middle of the Power 5 pack, and if coaches from afar give any credence to recruiting rankings, we seem more poised to decline than improve. But it's still an opening for a non-bottom-dweller Power 5 team, and we still have intangibles like location and academic reputation, so we can still hire a very good coach.
Here are a few ground rules that will eliminate many good prospects. We shouldn't assume that we can steal a good lateral hire from a Power 5 at this point (though if such a coach loves the Bay Area or Cal enough to take a chance on us, then bless her heart). And realistically Knowlton would rather not have to explain why he hired a coach who left her previous position under a cloud (such as otherwise intriguing prospects like MaChelle Joseph or Connie Yori), nor would he want to explain that the new hire is really and truly a good coach even though her past season's record was in the toilet (so no to former Cal assistant Jennifer Hoover or San Diego's Cindy Fisher).
Furthermore, I eliminated even more prospects based on longtime institutional or geographical loyalty - I can't see someone finally leaving the Midwest or wherever at the later stage of a career for a job that suddenly opens up in June (unless they've previously been rumored as applying for jobs elsewhere). At my discretion I also eliminated those who might clash with our current lineup. I'm mostly talking about a coaching style that would require a total remaking of our current players and/or a remake of our future roster requiring extensive recruitment of a different type of player - I just can't see a coach leaving a happy midmajor position for that type of undertaking. (Yes, I know, good coaches should be able to coach any type of player, but I would rather see evidence that they've worked with Cal-type players before.) And finally I have to assume that hiring a male would still be viewed as a no-no. But to each of these points I've made a few exceptions as noted.
Here's the list. Unfortunately, most have no West Coast experience, so you should assume a bad geographical fit unless I state otherwise. Also, all are currently head coaches unless noted.
THE SAFE CHOICES (IF WE CAN STEAL THEM): These are all excellent midmajor coaches with definite potential to be successful at the Power 5 level. They would give us a very good chance of at least continuing to tread water in the 1st or 2nd round of the NCAA's (and who knows, maybe more). Knowlton can easily present any of these as a no-brainer choice.
Katie Abrahamson-Henderson (UCF): She has had a very good midmajor coaching career and based on what I've seen of her teams at Albany and UCF, her coaching style would be extremely well suited to the players that she would inherit at Cal. A very likable person (her last and only experience on the West Coast was as an assistant at Washington in 2007-08).
Michelle Clark-Heard (Cincinnati): The biggest obstacle is the fact that she just completed her first season with the Bearcats after a very successful run at Western Kentucky - I don't know if she would feel comfortable bailing so quickly and in June. Her coaching style fits well enough with our lineup, but she can be intense and given our loose play there could be a lot of yelling and glaring from the sidelines in the first season.
Karl Smesko (Florida Gulf Coast): Have to include him despite the gender thing and a coaching style (emphasizing the 3FG) that might not immediately suit our team. Every offseason his name gets thrown into the mix at some Power 5 opening (including at Oregon State before Scott Rueck was hired) and with good reason given his undeniable success. But to date he has always ended up staying and pledging allegiance to FGCU.
REASONABLY SAFE CHOICES: I would be delighted with any of the following but I could envision a scenario where the hire might not work as well as hoped.
Jennie Baranczyk (Drake): Another whose coaching style would not immediately suit our lineup, but you simply have to reach out to one of the very best young coaches in the game. She has very close ties to Iowa so she would be hard to steal but she's been as far west as Colorado (assistant from 2010 to 2012 before leaving for Drake).
Katrina Merriweather (Wright State): Another outstanding young coach but with only 3 years head coaching experience and from a weaker conference (Horizon), so I don't feel as confident that her early success would translate. But the Wright State style would really suit our lineup. EDIT: Eliminated due to serious NCAA academic violation (see post below).
Felisha Legette-Jack (Buffalo): Some (including her friend Gottlieb) might insist that she should be listed with the safe choices based on her success with the Bulls, and she is undoubtably the most unrelentingly positive person on this list. (If we chose her it would probably be the giddiest hiring announcement ever.) But I have a very clear memory of her failed tenure at Indiana and there's the gnawing suspicion that she's already at her pinnacle right now in the Mid-American.
THESE WILL TAKE A BIT OF EXPLAINING:
Kirsten Moore (Westmont): A former Cal assistant (under her maiden name Kirsten McKnight) and my sentimental favorite, but also a coach with an outstanding record at the NAIA level. This is an amazing woman who has persevered through tragedy and would be as good a role model as you could ever hope for. My personal opinion is that it might take 2 or 3 years for her to become an established success at Cal, but in the meantime you will see a team whose effort will do us proud. (I do not have time to research other non-Division I coaches, though I'm sure you can find a couple of dozen other fine prospects in that category.)
Raegan Pebley (TCU): This would be one of those unlikely lateral moves but maybe she would be tempted to return to California (previously head coach at Fresno State from 2012 to 2014). I know that some doubt her coaching despite a good record, and I could definitely imagine something going haywire with the coach and players not meshing. But as a last-minute replacement for Gottlieb, she could actually be a very decent choice.
Jennifer Gross (UC Davis): She's had a very successful tenure with the Aggies though with some spotty postseason results. I'm not sure her coaching style would translate well with the current Cal lineup but if Knowlton said here's our coach, I don't see how anyone could complain about hiring a successful coach from another UC campus.
Jason Flowers (CS Northridge): Definitely not the most impressive of records and there's the gender thing, but he always seems to make the best of the rosters that he's had. It would be very interesting to see what he could do with the talent that he would inherit and then recruit at Cal.
Melanie Balcomb (associate at Purdue): She's been a finalist for the Cal job twice, first when we hired Caren and again when we hired Joanne. She resigned from the Vanderbilt head coaching job in 2016, and has since shuffled around as an assistant at Texas Tech, South Carolina and was just hired as associate head coach at Purdue. It would be easy to say that her time has passed but if she showed interest again at Cal, I would absolutely say that she deserves a hearing given her long success with many different types of lineups.
THE ASSISTANTS WITHOUT HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE: You could list a hundred but here are three who are bound to get a mention. I would probably wince at a selection from this category but then say, OK, whatever, that's great.
Kai Felton (of course our assistant at Cal): I don't see this at all, but if she was the choice I think there would be a comfort level for both the fans and players.
Niele Ivey (associate at Notre Dame): Constantly pushed by the media as someone who can leapfrog everyone and become a surefire successful head coach at a Power 5. I have no idea why the media is so sure.
Stephanie Norman (associate at Louisville): Longtime Louisville assistant who some thought was open to applying for the Oregon job before Kelly Graves was hired. West Coast connections are from long ago (last as an assistant at Oregon State from 2000 to 2002). I have no idea whether she would be a good head coach but I am as sure of her contributions to Louisville's success as I am of Ivey's to Notre Dame's.
I compiled a potential candidates list back in 2011 when we needed to replace Joanne Boyle, so here's a new list as we search for a replacement for Lindsay Gottlieb.
You'll notice that this year's list is much shorter. Part of that is due to the extremely inconvenient timing of Gottlieb's departure. The main season for firing and hiring has already passed and we missed out on some prime candidates who have been hired elsewhere (most notably former Cal assistant Kim McNeill who was hired by East Carolina, but also the tantalizing possibility that we could have been the program to have finally tempted Courtney Banghart away from Princeton). And to a lesser degree, there were some longshots among those who have since latched on as assistants at other programs.
But another reason the list is shorter is that the Cal position simply isn't as desirable as it was in 2011. Back then the program still seemed to have genuine prospects for improvement, and a new hire would have inherited an excellent roster without the need for immediate recruitment. But in 2019 we now look like a program that is firmly entrenched in the middle of the Power 5 pack, and if coaches from afar give any credence to recruiting rankings, we seem more poised to decline than improve. But it's still an opening for a non-bottom-dweller Power 5 team, and we still have intangibles like location and academic reputation, so we can still hire a very good coach.
Here are a few ground rules that will eliminate many good prospects. We shouldn't assume that we can steal a good lateral hire from a Power 5 at this point (though if such a coach loves the Bay Area or Cal enough to take a chance on us, then bless her heart). And realistically Knowlton would rather not have to explain why he hired a coach who left her previous position under a cloud (such as otherwise intriguing prospects like MaChelle Joseph or Connie Yori), nor would he want to explain that the new hire is really and truly a good coach even though her past season's record was in the toilet (so no to former Cal assistant Jennifer Hoover or San Diego's Cindy Fisher).
Furthermore, I eliminated even more prospects based on longtime institutional or geographical loyalty - I can't see someone finally leaving the Midwest or wherever at the later stage of a career for a job that suddenly opens up in June (unless they've previously been rumored as applying for jobs elsewhere). At my discretion I also eliminated those who might clash with our current lineup. I'm mostly talking about a coaching style that would require a total remaking of our current players and/or a remake of our future roster requiring extensive recruitment of a different type of player - I just can't see a coach leaving a happy midmajor position for that type of undertaking. (Yes, I know, good coaches should be able to coach any type of player, but I would rather see evidence that they've worked with Cal-type players before.) And finally I have to assume that hiring a male would still be viewed as a no-no. But to each of these points I've made a few exceptions as noted.
Here's the list. Unfortunately, most have no West Coast experience, so you should assume a bad geographical fit unless I state otherwise. Also, all are currently head coaches unless noted.
THE SAFE CHOICES (IF WE CAN STEAL THEM): These are all excellent midmajor coaches with definite potential to be successful at the Power 5 level. They would give us a very good chance of at least continuing to tread water in the 1st or 2nd round of the NCAA's (and who knows, maybe more). Knowlton can easily present any of these as a no-brainer choice.
Katie Abrahamson-Henderson (UCF): She has had a very good midmajor coaching career and based on what I've seen of her teams at Albany and UCF, her coaching style would be extremely well suited to the players that she would inherit at Cal. A very likable person (her last and only experience on the West Coast was as an assistant at Washington in 2007-08).
Michelle Clark-Heard (Cincinnati): The biggest obstacle is the fact that she just completed her first season with the Bearcats after a very successful run at Western Kentucky - I don't know if she would feel comfortable bailing so quickly and in June. Her coaching style fits well enough with our lineup, but she can be intense and given our loose play there could be a lot of yelling and glaring from the sidelines in the first season.
Karl Smesko (Florida Gulf Coast): Have to include him despite the gender thing and a coaching style (emphasizing the 3FG) that might not immediately suit our team. Every offseason his name gets thrown into the mix at some Power 5 opening (including at Oregon State before Scott Rueck was hired) and with good reason given his undeniable success. But to date he has always ended up staying and pledging allegiance to FGCU.
REASONABLY SAFE CHOICES: I would be delighted with any of the following but I could envision a scenario where the hire might not work as well as hoped.
Jennie Baranczyk (Drake): Another whose coaching style would not immediately suit our lineup, but you simply have to reach out to one of the very best young coaches in the game. She has very close ties to Iowa so she would be hard to steal but she's been as far west as Colorado (assistant from 2010 to 2012 before leaving for Drake).
Katrina Merriweather (Wright State): Another outstanding young coach but with only 3 years head coaching experience and from a weaker conference (Horizon), so I don't feel as confident that her early success would translate. But the Wright State style would really suit our lineup. EDIT: Eliminated due to serious NCAA academic violation (see post below).
Felisha Legette-Jack (Buffalo): Some (including her friend Gottlieb) might insist that she should be listed with the safe choices based on her success with the Bulls, and she is undoubtably the most unrelentingly positive person on this list. (If we chose her it would probably be the giddiest hiring announcement ever.) But I have a very clear memory of her failed tenure at Indiana and there's the gnawing suspicion that she's already at her pinnacle right now in the Mid-American.
THESE WILL TAKE A BIT OF EXPLAINING:
Kirsten Moore (Westmont): A former Cal assistant (under her maiden name Kirsten McKnight) and my sentimental favorite, but also a coach with an outstanding record at the NAIA level. This is an amazing woman who has persevered through tragedy and would be as good a role model as you could ever hope for. My personal opinion is that it might take 2 or 3 years for her to become an established success at Cal, but in the meantime you will see a team whose effort will do us proud. (I do not have time to research other non-Division I coaches, though I'm sure you can find a couple of dozen other fine prospects in that category.)
Raegan Pebley (TCU): This would be one of those unlikely lateral moves but maybe she would be tempted to return to California (previously head coach at Fresno State from 2012 to 2014). I know that some doubt her coaching despite a good record, and I could definitely imagine something going haywire with the coach and players not meshing. But as a last-minute replacement for Gottlieb, she could actually be a very decent choice.
Jennifer Gross (UC Davis): She's had a very successful tenure with the Aggies though with some spotty postseason results. I'm not sure her coaching style would translate well with the current Cal lineup but if Knowlton said here's our coach, I don't see how anyone could complain about hiring a successful coach from another UC campus.
Jason Flowers (CS Northridge): Definitely not the most impressive of records and there's the gender thing, but he always seems to make the best of the rosters that he's had. It would be very interesting to see what he could do with the talent that he would inherit and then recruit at Cal.
Melanie Balcomb (associate at Purdue): She's been a finalist for the Cal job twice, first when we hired Caren and again when we hired Joanne. She resigned from the Vanderbilt head coaching job in 2016, and has since shuffled around as an assistant at Texas Tech, South Carolina and was just hired as associate head coach at Purdue. It would be easy to say that her time has passed but if she showed interest again at Cal, I would absolutely say that she deserves a hearing given her long success with many different types of lineups.
THE ASSISTANTS WITHOUT HEAD COACHING EXPERIENCE: You could list a hundred but here are three who are bound to get a mention. I would probably wince at a selection from this category but then say, OK, whatever, that's great.
Kai Felton (of course our assistant at Cal): I don't see this at all, but if she was the choice I think there would be a comfort level for both the fans and players.
Niele Ivey (associate at Notre Dame): Constantly pushed by the media as someone who can leapfrog everyone and become a surefire successful head coach at a Power 5. I have no idea why the media is so sure.
Stephanie Norman (associate at Louisville): Longtime Louisville assistant who some thought was open to applying for the Oregon job before Kelly Graves was hired. West Coast connections are from long ago (last as an assistant at Oregon State from 2000 to 2002). I have no idea whether she would be a good head coach but I am as sure of her contributions to Louisville's success as I am of Ivey's to Notre Dame's.
