Welcome to the Archive

This site contains articles I’ve written on women’s basketball.

Also included are some entries from the Women’s Hoops Blog and a link to my 45+page Timeline of Women’s Basketball History, 1892-Present, a beast Kim Callahan has generously hosted, maintained and PDF’d.

I’ve “archived” the articles (also hosted by Kim) in the hope that fans, writers and anyone else interested in women’s basketball and sports will find them informative.

‘Sides, I’ve had a hoot talking to a lot of really cool, smart, committed people about this game I’ve fallen in love with. It seemed a shame to let their words “expire” after publication.

The cool thing about the blog format is you can use the SEARCH feature to find specific people or references (e.g. officiating, Jody Conradt, high school, homophobia, Division III, etc.). I’ve tried to organize the articles in various useful “clumpings” and will also need to review all the pieces for typos, etc. since they’re all in pre-editor version (sorry Sharon, Lois, Tilea and Summer).

The original publishers (each who will be credited in each article) are:

thehoopslink.com gave me my start back in 2000.

Then came Women’s Basketball Magazine, where I learned to write player profiles, Q&A’s and features. In 2004, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association invited me to be a contributing writer to their magazine “Coaching Women’s Basketball,” where I’ve focused on issues surrounding the game.

I’ve also written for the Women’s Sports Foundation and New York SportsScene and produced some “miscellaneous” pieces that appeared on various message boards. Which is what happens when you’re a mouthy fan of the game — and may explain why Ted asked me to join the Women’s Hoops Blog’s ensemble of writers in 2005.

If you feel the need to know more about me, click here.

The Official Mumbo Jumbo (adapted from Kim Callahan’s mumbo jumbo)

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In a bit I’ll be figuring out how to make a “Contact Me” email thingy — until then, you can reach me via: helen [at] womensbasketballonline.com

NCAA TOURNAMENT HOSTING: Hidden Hurdles and Helpful Hints (WBCA April, 2009)

As college basketball moves into its season of review and reflection, doubtless there will be many discussions about the 2009  Division I tournament and the logistics of seeding, the needs of hosting, the restrictions of television and the current economic reality.

But as the women’s game seeks to strike the balance between a competitively balanced tournament and a well-attended one, we would be remiss to not examine the successes and challenges faced by the host institutions themselves. What lessons were learned and how might they be applied to games and tournaments across the Divisions?

THE DEVIL IS IN THE (NCAA MANUAL) DETAILS

While it’s all well and good to have hosting guidelines and requirements laid out in a manual, it’s important to take steps to ensure it’ll be as a road map, not a doorstop. “We actually had a meeting in Indianapolis in August, where everyone was given the manual and they literally walked you through it over about a day and a half of meetings,” recalled Todd Stewart, Associate Athletic Director-Communications at Western Kentucky. From that point on there were periodic conference calls, emails and site visits by NCAA personnel. “There is a lot of communication and they do a tremendous job of making it very clear what you need to do, so nobody could really say, ‘Oh I really didn’t know we needed to do that,’ or, ‘I hadn’t heard that before.’”

It’s not just about “rules and specs,” but intent and purpose, commented Brandon Yopp, Assistant Media Relations Director at North Carolina State. “The big difference in an NCAA championship, from a hosting standpoint, is you have to understand how strongly the NCAA places the focus on the student athlete’s arrival at the arena. From the second they step on the property everything has to be to the letter of the way the NCAA would like it. And they want it equitable.”

“When you first host and you read through the manual you might say, ‘Well we don’t really need four locker room attendants, we can probably get away with two.’ Or, ‘We don’t need a greeter to escort them from the loading dock to the locker room, it’s 100 feet, what do they need that for?’ When you have it in place and you see how smoothly it works, you really find the value in that when you see the reaction of the student athletes.”

THIS IS NOT A SOLO ACT

The reality of hosting a tournament game is that the rest of the athletic programs don’t shut down nor does one’s staff suddenly increase exponentially. “It’s very challenging because again, to the NCAA’s credit, they run it as though you have the top two ranked men’s teams in the country at your place,” said Stewart. “It’s not based on who you have, or who you might have. We could have had North Carolina’s men playing the Connecticut men, and we could have done that here. That’s how sophisticated of a set up they require.”

For that reason, explained Stewart, “you really have to have a huge buy in of volunteers. You don’t have the money to pay 100 people to work for you. It’s just people who either take pride in the University or your community or both. They want to be involved, help out, and have it be a good impression for everybody.”

In Raleigh, said Yopp, “we’ve been fortunate in that we have a really active Convention and Visitors Bureau and they have been absolutely unbelievable. Their management has helped us form a Local Organizing Committee (LOC) that is actually separate of the Tournament Management Committee.” Members of the LOC include people with the Raleigh-Durham airport, Downtown Raleigh Alliance, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, N.C. State, as well as representatives from the Centennial Authority (which runs the RBC Center.) “It makes sense for all of these collective groups to commit resources to try make the championships a success. So, when sales don’t dictate that our budget will allow us to buy street banners downtown, the LOC finds a way to buy the banners. When we may not necessarily have the money to do a face painter or the exterior things — those outreach events in between sessions — the LOC will cover the band and the face painting and the things that we do to try and make it a more appealing event. That has just been a huge, huge factor in our success.”

He points to the Saturday games as an example. The Baylor-Louisville game was first, followed by Maryland-Vanderbilt. “We had a pretty good crowd considering it was all out of market teams. Baylor had a good contingent there and then for the second game a lot of those fans stayed. It ended up being one of the best games that I’ve seen all year (Maryland’s furious comeback). The crowd obviously benefited from doing the things outside that kept them on site — the things that the LOC helped us to do helped to make that second crowd even better than the first.”

WHO’S COVERING THIS?

In the past, the number of credentialed media attending an event has often been used as a measure of its success. These days, slashed travel budgets that limit even those willing to travel cross-country have made that an invalid measurement. It’s also posed challenged for host-site media directors looking to encourage local coverage, especially if the host team hasn’t made the tournament. Yopp noted that one of the directors of the large local paper — the News and Observer – served on the local organizing committee. “We had no one local [playing, yet] we had two News and Observer writers cover the entire championship. While it is local news, there were a lot of other things going on in town, too. I have to believe that their involvement on the front end had something to do with that.”

“It’s always interesting to see, especially in these economic times, what we have to do to be able to take care of the folks that can’t make it,” said Judy Willson, Assistant Director of Media Relations at the University of New Mexico. Hosting Kansas State, Drexel (PA), Vanderbilt and Western Carolina meant that most team’s media outlets hired local writers to string for them. The time difference, combined with being scheduled as the late game by ESPN, meant a high-pressure push to meet deadlines. “We just roll and we do the best we can to accommodate no matter where the teams are from, whether its Eastern Time zone or Central Time zone.”

While Willson also had to deal with both Lobo teams being in the NIT, not to mention spring baseball and a ski team that had finished third in the Nationals, she took a pro-active approach to supporting coverage and attendance by identifying engaging NCAA storylines and getting that information out to local outlets. “When I saw we were getting Drexel I thought, ‘How cool is that — to get a team that has never been before. I don’t think it would have mattered where they got sent, it would be a great story. That was something that we could push. [With] Western Carolina coming in, having Kellie Jolly Harper as their coach was a storyline that people could get into and understand: here’s a three-time All-American under Pat Summitt and now she’s continuing the legacy bringing her team to the NCAA tournament.”

“I did two quick paragraphs on each of the four schools coming saying here is how they got here, here is who their coach is, here’s who their top players are and if you want more, here’s the link their website. I sent that out to our media and I put it on our website.”

California took it a step further. Though they served as a host, the Bears ended up traveling to play in Los Angeles and Trenton. So, they decided to create some self-generated coverage: “We did a blog,” said Herb Benenson, Assistant Athletic Director/Media Relations. “We weren’t blogging during the game, but it was about everything else that you couldn’t read in the newspaper — putting up pictures of the team on the bus, pictures from practice, or talking about where the team went for a team meal. In less than two weeks it had over 4500 hits. Obviously there were people that were following it, and it was a great way to get some news out.”

BALANCING RISK AND REWARD

The reality for any hosting institution is that there is an inherent financial risk. “We knew that,” said Jay Blackman, Director of Communications and Media Relations at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, “but because of two years of actually making a small profit on each [previous hosting], I guess we really didn’t fully understand the risk. We really thought we’d get Tennessee or the Lady Mocs (who didn’t make the tournament) or at least Vanderbilt. When we didn’t, it kind of set in that ‘Oh, oh, we could be in trouble here.’” That being said, he feels Chattanooga is definitely interested in putting in future hosting bids. “The experience was good. It’s a fun event. It’s an exciting event to see what teams you are getting. Those are the positives–just the excitement around it.”

The feelings are similar at Texas Tech, one of several sites whose host team wasn’t in the tournament. “I think we enjoyed it,” said Chris Cook, Assistant Athletic Director/Media Relations. “When I say, ‘I think’ I know I enjoyed it. And Texas Tech gets a lot of benefit out of it. We’re showcasing our arena and parts of the campus and our name is out there every time a game is shown.”

Also, noted Willson, hosting next year can be used as a source motivation: “It gives our fans and our team one more opportunity to battle and fight. I’m sure Coach Flannigan is putting that up on the board saying, ‘We’re not doing the N IT thing again!’”

AT THE HEART OF HOSTING

Come tournament time, there is much talk of the “championship atmosphere” as a direct correlation to attendance, but Texas Tech’s Cook is convinced there’s more to it than sold out arenas. “Your crowd can dictate that,” he acknowledged, “but I think when those kids are out on the court they hear their fans and they block out that there are empty sections in the stands. They get that there is that championship atmosphere, that they are in the NCAA tournament. Just the fact that they sit in front of a banner at a press conference or they step out onto a court that has the NCAA logos, they know what they are in a ‘championship atmosphere,’ regardless of or how many people may or may not be there. If you asked them today, ‘Are you disappointed?’ I don’t think you’d find one that said they were. I think they’re all very excited to be in the tournament and each round and each step you take I imagine it’s better and better.”

“The people that we have here that put this together,” he added, “I think they make that atmosphere. They give you that feeling by the way they treat [the student-athletes]. We didn’t take the attitude, ‘Well we’re not in it so were going to just go through the motions.’ We did it as if we had four Texas Tech’s in the event. We treated Baylor, a nemesis in the Big 12, like rock stars. And we did the same with South Dakota State, the ‘newbies.’”

“When a student-athlete can say, ‘Hey this season has culminated with this. These people are treating us great. They respect us,’ I think that’s where that feeling comes from — more than looking in the stands and seeing a lot of people. That’s where your championship atmosphere, your sense of belonging and your sense of accomplishment comes from.”

More Audio: Talking the WNBA on NPR’s The Takeaway

After dropping a “why don’t you cover the W we’re in playoff time” email to WNYC/NPR’s show The Takeaway, they actually responded and asked for input. So,  Mechelle Voepel and I woke up early to talk Championships and the W.

SHIFTS IN THE WNBA: Look who’s coaching now – WBCA July, 2009

As the WNBA moves into its thirteenth year, the growth and evolution of the league is reflected as much in the coaches patrolling the sideline as it is in the players playing the games. When the league started in 1997, there were seven female coaches and one male. Almost five years later, the numbers had all but flipped. Now, in 2009, the pendulum seems to be swinging back.

“You are seeing a shift,” agreed Patty Coyle, now in her fifth full year as head coach of the New York Liberty. “When Richie (Adubato) came into the league (1999), Ronnie Rothstein (2000), and Bill Laimbeer (2002), I thought they were great for our game. Here were guys who — with the exception of Laimbeer – had coached in the NBA for a long time. That helped shape this league, in the sense that they had coached at the pro level and there weren’t any women, at the time this league started, who had.”

“Now you see the people who were their longtime assistants — me, Julie Plank (Washington Mystics), Jenny Boucek (Sacramento Monarchs), and Jennifer Gillom (Minnesota Lynx), who was an assistant just recently — that have put in their time and now are getting a chance.  I think it’s great and well deserved.”

Add Lin Dunn (Indiana Fever) and Marynell Meadors (Atlanta Dream) to names mentioned, and now women lead six of the league’s 13 teams.

THE RISE OF THE “NEW” GUARD

Boucek started in the WNBA as an unpaid assistant for Nancy Darsch and the Washington Mystics in 1999. She’s spent her career coaching in the WNBA because, she said,  “It captured my heart.” After four years starting for Debbie Ryan’s Virginia Cavaliers, graduation in 1997 found her back on the court, this time wearing a Cleveland Rockers WNBA uniform.

“Just being part of the inaugural season and seeing the potential of this league to impact the country culturally really hit home with me as a young lady. Grown women were crying at our games,” remembered Boucek. “Little girls, who were wide-eyed, now have a different perception of themselves and their potential, their dreams and their opportunities, not just in sports. They see women getting opportunities that they only knew men to have.”

“And now we have a whole generation of guys who grew up with the WNBA that now have a completely different view of women, too,” she continued. “They grew up looking up to women, respecting women, coming to the games, putting on the jerseys, painting their faces. Now they have a different respect for women that, I pray, will affect their relationships as husbands as fathers. It’s a different generation coming up now with a different view of women.”

Gillom was also a member of the WNBA’s inaugural season, but the journey to top position in Minnesota was not as direct.  The two-time All-Star ended her career in 2003 at the age of 39, then coached the girls high school team at Xavier College Preparatory (Phoenix, AZ) for four years. She joined the Lynx staff as an assistant last year, but after Don Zierden unexpectedly resigned, she was elevated to the head position days before the 2009 season opened.

“When I was playing in the WNBA I used to think that I would coach someday. I always had that thought, even as young as sixth grade,” said Gillom, “But man, I did not in my wildest dreams expect to be a head coach this fast,” she laughed. “Seriously, I thought I still had more to learn before I got to this level. I even thought that I had to put in my time at the college level in order to get to the WNBA as a head coach.” Fortunately she discovered that, when thrust into the role, “I actually I knew more than I thought I did. But, had I not been one of the elite players in the league, I don’t know, would it have happened? It’s hard to say. It makes you wonder. It makes you wonder a lot.”

In contrast to Gillom’s experience, Plank’s move into the ranks of professional basketball and up to the head coach position in Washington seemed to have been a smooth series of steps. “I had been in the college game for a long time (1984) and I was interested in having a different challenge,” explained the first-year head coach. “I’ve always been intrigued by working with the very best players and coaching at the highest level and I had great opportunities in college both at Stanford and Vanderbilt.” Then, in 1999, Plank had the chance to serve as assistant coach with Nell Fortner and go to the 2000 Olympics. “With her going to the WNBA with the Fever [in 2001], I just thought it was a natural progression to continue to coach those players who were going from the Olympics to the WNBA. I have been here ever since.”

THE “CHANGING” OF THE “OLD” GUARD

Currently head coach of the Dream, Meadors established the basketball program at Tennessee Tech, and has helped start three WNBA franchises – Charlotte (’97), Miami (’99) and Atlanta (’08). “I think that that has been my call of duty,” she quipped, “to be a starter person.”

That, as well as being an assistant with several of the league’s teams, has given Meadors plenty of opportunity to see how coaching has changed at the professional level. “When we first started this league, we were all college coaches and we ran the college plays,” she explained. “None of us do that anymore. We’re all running sets. We’re always trying to get the ball to the people that we know that can hit the shot.”

“It’s more sophisticated,” added Dunn who, after a long career in the college ranks, has been coaching professionals since 1997. “In college you’re going to defend the two-man game maybe two ways. We’re going to defend it six ways. We’re going to have a counter to every play that we have. We don’t have two offenses, we have 15. It’s like the difference between Basketball 101 and Basketball 505. These players are sophisticated, smart and intelligent, so they grow their knowledge of the game. It’s just more. Much more.”

The WNBA’s compact schedule is also incredibly demanding on coaches. “Where the college games are played over a six-month period, we are putting them in a four-month period,” explained Plank. “In college you have a six-week training camp and here it’s a three-week period. In terms of the scouting of teams, you play two games a week in college. In the pros, we may play 3 or 4. It’s that same pressure to prepare, only speeded up. You need to be very organized. You have to be able to go from one thing to another quickly. You have to be very concise and precise in your planning. And I don’t want to say it isn’t teaching, because it’s very much teaching. But it’s also more strategy and tweaking. What you do game to game, how you’re going to adjust and how you are going to change things.”

“With Richie, when I first came into this league I thought, as a college coach, I had a pretty good grasp of the game,” said Coyle. “With his knowledge and just his whole way of doing things, what I learned was I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew. That really opened my eyes. I think when I was back in college, not that I was ‘stagnant,’ but I was stagnant. Or maybe I’ve matured and opened my eyes to the fact that there’s a lot of different ways to do things. I look back to a year ago and I’m a different coach. Five years ago? Forget about it. Coming into this league? It’s like night and day. My coaching style, being around people that I’ve been around, it’s just constantly evolving and for the better, in my opinion. For the better.”

“I know that there are college coaches that would love the challenge of coaching in the WNBA,” noted Dunn. “Who would love the challenge of coaching the very best players.  You know, those plays that you run? They work a lot better when talented players execute them. Trust me,” she laughed. “But, not only are you leaving one style of the game to move up to another one, but taking the risk of doing it with limited security. In the WNBA, you win or you leave. You win or you get fired. You get better or you get fired. That’s just the way it is. In college, you play hard, you go to class, you go 0-and-3, you’re not going to be fired. In the pros you might. Men or women, that just the way it is.”

PLAYER TO PLAYER DISCONNECT

Something that has surprised Boucek is how unfamiliar many of the newly drafted college players are with the league’s players. “I have a few that were fans growing up and they love talking about old players that played in college or the WNBA,” said Boucek. “But most of them have never even heard of stars that have been through this league. They don’t know them. And it never even occurred to them that they should know them.”

Her solution? “We have named our post moves after older [female] post players. One of our moves is Katrina [McClain] and one of them is Lucy Harris. I make them Google the names of the players and learn their women’s basketball history.”

“They have great players to look up to,” she added. “You don’t make it to the top 11 players on 13 teams and not be elite in every way. Not just talent. You have got to have great character, great perseverance, great work ethic. These are incredible women. They are great role models for college kids, for high school kids. They play hard, they play the right way. There’s no margin of error. If they don’t, they are not going to stay in the league.”

“I don’t know where the disconnect is, but it could only help the college game if college players were watching these players.”

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

“I think initially people wondered if a women’s professional league would last,” said Dunn. “Now everyone at all levels — family friends, college coaches, high school coaches, everybody that has any interest in women’s basketball — has seen the positive impact that the women’s professional game has had on our sport.” That, of course, won’t guarantee the continued existence of the league – a league that has lost it marquee franchise in the Houston Comets and reduced rosters to 11 to address the current economic challenges.

“I think everybody that is in there now, we all have passion for the game and we have passion for the WNBA,” said Meadors. “That’s why we’re trying to make sure that it’s still around 20 years from now. I know the WNBA is going through some growing pains just like the NBA did when they first started. I think it’s just a matter of staying after it, staying the course and keep trying to make a better.”

But, added Dunn, “I sometimes don’t think that the college coaches realize how fortunate they are to have a women’s professional league and how that motivates young girls, motivates high school players, motivates their players to continue to continue to get better, to continue to strive for the next level.” Those same coaches, she’s noticed, are recognizing the cachet of having a player enter the WNBA. “Let’s take a Kristi Cirone at Illinois State,” she posited. “How did that impact that team and that league, that she was striving for the next level? Megan Frazee at Liberty. How did it affect her team, her conference?”

“That brings you additional media attention, gives value to your program, and you use it in your recruiting,” noted Dunn. “I walk into your locker room and there’s a huge photo of the player that got drafted. Now my question to you is, ‘What are you doing to make sure we’re around 10 years from now?’ We are helping you. You must help us. You must support us. You must invest in our future.”

“I want them to come to the games,” said Dunn. “I want them to buy season tickets. I want them to talk about the women’s professional game anytime they can. Talk about the positive impact it’s having on our game.  Share that with corporate sponsors. The last thing we need is a college coach saying, ‘Well I can’t stand the WNBA. I don’t go to the games.’ How does that help? I would never say that about a college game because I love women’s basketball.”

“They stand to lose enormously if this league doesn’t make it. If I were them, I would be doing everything within my power to make sure we make it. And you can quote me on that.”

AN UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE: Making Choices for Fiscal Fitness – WBCA September, 2009

Reflecting on the economic upheavals of this past year Jim Isch, Chief Financial Officer of the NCAA, said, “I think a lot of us thought and were told the sports industry was recession proof. We’re finding out that it isn’t. It’s going to suffer the same impact as many other areas.”

This “re-visioning” has demanded painful budget decisions on national and local institutional levels – from reduced tournament fields, readjusted schedules and travel plans, to furloughs and the elimination of programs. “You hear athletic directors and coaches say it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do,” reflected Dr. Robert Corran, Athletic Director at Vermont where, in the face of a $1.1 million shortfall, the University discontinued their baseball and softball program. “Until you’ve done it, you don’t really appreciate that it really is. This is the exact opposite of what you do. What you do is provide opportunity and increase student-athletes’ opportunities. To be in the position where you’ve got to take opportunity away is almost the antithesis of who you are professionally.”

Though institutions may have different financial resources, all are being tested. Said Nancy Fahey, coach of Washington University (MO), of her colleagues and students: “They are not immune to what’s going on in the country. They understand it and know that we are making adjustments.”

Fortunately, there’s been an open line of communication between the coaches and administration. “What I like about it is that it’s a team effect,” she said. “It’s not like, as coaches, we’re feeling, ‘this is out of our control.’ I know that when somebody asks me about my budget, it’s very reasonable to say, ‘we are not going to take that extra trip,’ or ‘we’ll have to look at our travel size squad.” And, she added “to me, in the big scheme of what’s going on, I’m looking at this like we’re very fortunate. We have to remember that.”

Many athletic programs have used budget discussions to clarify and strengthen their goals and priorities. Faced with an attention grabbing 10% reduction ($338,000), Minnesota State-Mankato’s Athletic Director Kevin Buisman started with a survey. “We asked [coaches] to carefully evaluate everything they did from recruiting to travel to staffing to marketing to support services,” said Buisman. “They were always good stewards of the resources, but I think it’s the first time that they had to be really thoughtful about the budget. ‘Do I value scholarship support or staffing support more?’ That’s a hard question. I told them, ‘these aren’t easy times and there are going to be some difficult decisions. It should be challenging for you to sort that out.’”

“You can attack [deficits] either from the revenue or the expense side,” he explained. “Just cutting expenses is a lot less work. And it was going to be much more difficult to maintain the level of success we’ve enjoyed. So, we brainstormed on revenue generating possibilities: Were there some opportunities where we could invest — not cut, not maintain, but actually taking resources from one program, reinvest them in the others and create new revenues to support other programs? It was a little more balanced approach than to say, ‘let’s just cut these expenses and be done with it.’”

Anticipating cuts, Mark Massari, AD the University of California-Santa Barbara, said, “This is my philosophy: the entire department will have to tighten up. Women’s basketball, men’s basketball, swimming, marketing. Everything. There is a resolve that we have to have,” he explained, “that we are going to keep advancing our programs. Recession or not, there’s a cost to success. We’re going to be one of those schools that resolve to get past this year or two with that ‘let’s all pitch in together, take a piece off our budget and not cut anybody,’ attitude. At the end of the day, that will make us a better and stronger program.”

One of the conundrums facing schools is professional development. “It’s one of the easiest things to cut, yet it may be one of the most advantageous investments for a program,” acknowledged Corran. So, when Vermont was forced to eliminate funding, they created an in-house program. “We are asking each of our coaches, ‘what areas do you feel you have the most expertise in and will you share that with your colleagues?’ In some ways,” he reflected, “those kinds of professional development opportunities can be much more rewarding. You not only have people receiving good information, you’re doing a lot for the person presenting as well.”

Schools may have to rework their relationship with corporate sponsors. “In some areas, particularly at the Division II level and some of these smaller markets,” explained Buisman, “there was a blurring of the distinction between what was a marketing investment versus philanthropy — where they were just doing it to be a good community citizen. Were they getting a great value or return on their investment by having signage in our arena? The next time those [contracts] are up for renewal, you’re going to have to demonstrate that.”

Corran hopes future budgets avoid the “keeping up with the Joneses” syndrome. “It’s much more about understanding who your institution is, what is important to you and what is important to your student-athlete. It’s about becoming unique,” he explained. “If you really think that through, you’ve got a much better chance of not getting caught up in thinking, ‘they’re spending $5 million so we’ve got to spend $5 million.’ If you’ve got the right idea that costs $500, you’ll be a lot further ahead.”

Recognizing the challenges faced by its membership, the NCAA has taken several steps in order to provide relief. The most obvious action was the dues holiday for all three Divisions. Additionally, the Finance Committee set a target of $4 million budget reduction with a goal to distribute that savings to their institutions. After cuts in print jobs, overnight shipping, staff travel and the more instinctive use of video-conferencing, “I can tell you that we will not only meet our target,” said Isch, ”we’ll most likely exceed it.”

The NCAA has also asked all the Division I cabinets and committees to look at ways the Association’s rules and practices can be changed to save money on campus. “In September we’ll have a series of meetings in Indianapolis where we will gain greater clarity as to what they might be recommending. In October, the Division I board will take action on those recommendations.”

Equal care is being paid to the cost of running championships for all Divisions, said Joni Comstock, Senior Vice-President of Championships. But, as discussions target charter and domestic flights, luggage limits and driving distances, the guiding principals remain unchanged: “We cannot compromise the experience of the student-athlete and we cannot compromise their health or safety,” said Comstock.

Whatever the pressures, “we can’t forget about the 400,000 student-athletes who are living out a dream in our arenas and in the classroom. Ultimately, I have confidence in our membership – in coaches and administrators, that we’ll make changes and cuts that are fair. There will be reductions, but we will be able to preserve opportunities for all deserving men and women.”

Audio: David Zirin of Edge of Sports Interviews Yours Truly

After getting cranky with Dave Zirin because of an article he wrote about Geno Auriemma after the 2009 championship, we engaged in an interesting (and civil) email dialogue and I was impressed that he displayed none of the defensiveness I would probably have demonstrated had the situation been reversed.

Of course, he later got his revenge on me by inviting me on his “Edge of Sports” show to talk a little Candace Parker/ESPN, the future of the WNBA, the W’s hit and miss advertising, some basketball history and other stuff.

Here’s the July 3, 2009 audio link

THE SCHEDULING PUZZLE: Juggling Square Pegs, Round Holes and Dollars Signs

During a recent Debbie Antonelli and Beth Mowins “Shootaround” podcast, Oklahoma’s coach Sherri Coale described the gap between desire and reality within the scheduling process:

You can ask a coach and [they] would not like to be on the road three times in a row. And a coach would like to have at least two games televised on their home court on Saturdays, etc. etc. You come up with 15 criteria [and] at the end of those criteria you can’t build a schedule. It is physically and humanly impossible to satisfy all of those criteria and come up with a schedule.

Or, to put it more simply, coaches dream, and their assistants and basketball operations managers laugh – sometimes hysterically.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
It’s no surprise that location and conference has an enormous impact not just on scheduling economics and opportunities, but also on the wear and tear on staff and student athletes. “I remember when I worked for coach Yow at NC State,” recalled Beth Burns, now head coach at San Diego State University. “I got home from a road game at nine o’clock and I’m like, ‘what do you all do around here? This is crazy!’” “It was a bus league,” she explained. “It was the easiest thing I’d ever done, because I’d been to Colorado with Ceal Berry and been in Oklahoma and Missouri. Once you get west of the Mississippi it’s a whole different animal with how you have to travel and do things.”

When she returned to SDSU and the Mountain West in 2005, “I could have filled my schedule in 15 minutes because we stunk,” said Burns with a laugh. “And we’re in the most beautiful city in America. And we have a major airport.” Of course, that blessing can be a curse when it comes to away games. “Three quarters of my league gets to be on a bus against each other. They get to have fun trips. We’re on a plane everywhere we go.” Recently, for instance, the Aztecs played at Texas Christian University. “It’s two time zones over and we had to get up at two in the morning to get back to go to class on Thursday.”

Another wrench in her scheduling is that, unlike many schools with a Wednesday-to-Wednesday exam schedule, SDSU runs Saturday to a Saturday, encompassing two weekends in December. “That’s why we went to Hawaii [this year],” she explained. “We did not choose to go from UConn to Hawaii. We did not want to take the worst travel trip in America. But, it was three games and I had to get three games. I really didn’t like our schedule at all, but we lived through it and we’ve done okay.”

SCHEDULING THAT POT OF GOLD
An accepted fact of Division I scheduling is that teams will pay another team come play them at home. The fee can encourage teams to travel to hard-to-get arenas, allow the host to reap the benefit of a strong fan base and can underwrite other programs. “We see on the men’s side hundreds of thousands of dollars guarantee games,” said Joe Logan of Loyola University (MD). “On our side I don’t think were looking for the ‘big’ money as much as we might just be looking for it to cover the cost of the trip and to supplement our budget. And that is different at every mid-major. Sometimes [the fee] goes into the women’s basketball budget, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Locking in those games is not without its challenges. “The problem arises when the guarantee is suddenly not enough,” said Nels Hawkinson, Executive Director of Basketball Travelers, which has organized tours and tournaments for over 20 years. “You settle on a figure – say $12,000 – and you say that’s the best you can do (even though it may not be). You send out a contract and then the contract never shows. It might be a legitimate reason – maybe the coach might not be back next year so the contract is being held. But there are also other reasons they’re not getting it back. They think, ‘Great, I have $12,000 for sure,’ and they’re going to tell the next person that calls, ‘Listen, I’ve got $12,000 from somebody, if you give me $16,000 then we’ve got a deal.’”

Burns has no issue with programs asking for money. What she expects in return is a measure of honesty and directness. “Some people are straight up right from the beginning. They’ll say, ‘Listen we’re going to play three road games and we’re trying to get this much.’ And I’ll say, ‘you can negotiate all you want, but I’m not holding out on you. This is what I’ve got. So if this isn’t going to make it, well then let’s let it go.’”

“I don’t want to sound old school but if I shake your hand I’m coming or you’re coming,” she continued. ‘That’s just the way it goes. Now, I’m not that naïve — sometimes things have to change. I’ve had to call people and say, ‘Listen, we just got this great opportunity to take this trip – can we move it around? I’ll help you replace the game if necessary. I just would hope that most of us won’t straight up stiff people. But there are people who will do that,” acknowledged Burns. “You just have to have a long memory and remember.”

“It is like everything else in this world,” she continued. “90% of the people do it exactly the way you’d hope they do it and 10% don’t and they’re not going to. And that’s why we have an NCAA rulebook that’s thicker than the Manhattan phone book. People are ethical some people aren’t — and more are ethical than not.”

I HAVE TO SCHEDULE HOW MANY GAMES?
In 2006, the NCAA increased the permissible number of contests in basketball. Some programs have welcomed the extra games – others have not. “We have trouble finding games a lot of years,” admitted Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw. “There is this crazy ‘trying to get a game, trying to buy a game, trying to get people to come’ time. Or, we want to go to a certain area and there are some schools that just they say, ‘No way, we don’t play you guys. We’re looking for win.’ So it is it’s a challenge. Every year I feel like we’re always looking for that last game or two.”

This year, Burns simply chose to under schedule “not because I don’t competitively wish we could have another win on the board,” she explained, “but I can’t play during exams and that’s a fact. It’s better to have rest in our case. That’s our challenge. Because we’ve got to play the games. The fact that we played ranked teams and were able to beat a couple of them — well that makes all the difference in the world. And I can’t play eight ranked teams if I only have eight non-league games. My conference is too good. We have to be able to have a balance.”

Discussions will be held at this year’s Final Four about possibly reducing the number of games and, said McGraw, “it’s going to be interesting to see how that goes. I’m in favor of it because we’ve had a couple years where we didn’t even play all the games.” Of course, McGraw recognizes that there are many who want to maintain the total number. “I think probably the mid-majors are going, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. You’re taking away some money [because] if you drop a game, it’s not going to be a conference game, so it’s going to affect us.”

“I can totally understand where Muffet and Beth are coming from,” said Logan. “One creative option is just give people a choice. Every conference plays a different number of conference games, so every team within an individual conference has a different number of non-conference games that they can schedule. And, obviously, exams across the country are at different times. So, if they want to play 30 games, if they want to play 31 games, or play in an exempt tournament, give them the choice. Say look, if you only want to play eight non-conference games because of your economics and that’s what your administration agrees to, then that’s what you do.”

“Now the question there becomes what will the NCAA committee do? How does that affect your RPI would be the very first and very next question. For instance, say I played 34 games and won 28, while you only played 27 games and won 19. Our percentage might be the same, but are you penalizing me because I can’t afford to play non-conference games?”

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: THE ECONOMY
As the reality of programs undergoing 10% cuts and required furloughs, it’s not much of a reach to anticipate shifts in the fee system. “If that guarantee money doesn’t increase or doesn’t cover the cost of the trip,” said Logan, “now it becomes, ‘am I going to go play those games? The idea of flying out to Stanford to play a top 10 program, a Hall of Fame coach and to get a great experience for kids to go to a school like Stanford and see what it’s like, those days I think are to go by the wayside.”

“If we are going to go and play in San Diego, Beth is going to have to say, ‘We’re going to cover your costs.’ Because I don’t think I’d be able to say to my administration, ‘look it’s only going to be $7000 instead of $14,000.’ They are going to say, ‘that $7000 is five local trips.” Whatever amount of guarantee money may be available in the future, other questions loom. “Do we want to spend that extra money on non-conference travel or do we want to spend that money on recruiting?” asked Logan. “And the next piece is we are able to go overseas once every four years. Some of our guaranteed money helps us with our overseas trip. So, do we see the value in the overseas trip or do we see the value in our non-conference scheduling? And that will become another debate, institution by institution.”

FUTURE VISIONS
“I think you will see is the increase in exempt tournaments,” posited Logan. “There is a value in those where you can say, “look we are going to spend $5000 for weekend, and we’re to play three games but it’s only going to count as one.” He also wonders if some of the top conferences may start playing more games at a non-conference site. “If we can’t afford to go to an Oklahoma or Texas Tech or somewhere like that,” said Logan, “I think that they’re are going to have to travel to place the mid-majors on the road — which hasn’t happened either in recent years. I can see that that would grow the sport if some of those bigger schools would come play in some mid-major gyms so that it would get exposed to the local community. If you can get a Stanford, a Georgia, a Connecticut, a Notre Dame to come they would garner interest just by their name alone.”

There may be more opportunities to start tournaments similar to those on the men’s side. The question will be getting sponsorship and teams to play in them. Burns has already set up a double-header to support her conference-mates. The first “JHG Jam” – in honor her collaborator Jane Hancock, of a local businesswoman – will feature SDSU playing Arizona. Utah will play against UCLA because, as Burns noted, “Utah can’t get people to come to Salt Lake. So what I’ve tried to do is invite a different league team every year and UCLA is going to have a neutral court game. It’s only a two-hour bus ride and that allows their fans to be able to see it. I hope it’s going to be a win-win situation.”

“But you know,” she said, “the economy is just frightening. “You just have to use your head. It’s a lot easier for me, being in the city that I am. I try to use trade a lot. We can get hotels. We can get a Sea World to pass. But cash is cash. It’s an issue,” concluded Burns. “It’s a fact.”

ANNE DONOVAN: Reaching New Heights

“Basketball,” said Anne Donovan, quoting the classic Saturday Night Live skit, “has been very, very good to me.

 And she has been very good to basketball.

 As a freshman at Old Dominion University, the 6’8” Donovan won the 1980 AIAW national championship. A three-time All-American, in 1983 she was named first women’s winner of the Naismith Award for player of the year. Donovan’s tenure with USA Basketball began in 1977 as a 15-year-old on the inaugural Jones Cup team. Named to the 1980 Olympic team that didn’t play because of the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games, she won Olympic gold in 1984 and in 1988.

 Inducted as a player into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, Donovan has found coaching from the sidelines equally successful. An assistant for the 1998 and 2002 World Championship gold medal winning squads, she also served as an assistant coach to Van Chancellor in 2004 as the United States claimed the gold medal in Athens. After the Olympics, she returned to coach the Seattle Storm and made history as the first female coach to win a WNBA championship.

This past August, she achieved another milestone as she guided the USA National team to its fourth consecutive gold medal during the Beijing Olympics.

THEY JUST DON’T HAND THESE THINGS OUT

While many may take US gold as a fait accompli, Donovan knows better. Hers was the team that won bronze in the 2006 World Championships, forcing the US to have to qualify for Beijing. It was a shock to many both in and out of the US. But perhaps not to those who’d been paying close attention.

“I remember with being with Van in 2004 and in 2002,” recalled Donovan, “and I don’t know those scores off the top of my head, but if you look back we barely won the World Championships in 2002 and the Olympics games in 2004. We were close to being exposed, but we weren’t completely exposed until ‘06. On my watch. I knew it was coming. I mean, it was clear it was coming because our training time was going down bit by bit every year.”

Reflecting on that semi-final loss Donovan noted, “I’m not one that believes that you got to lose to get the lesson, to get your players to the ‘next level.’ I don’t like those lessons,” she added dryly. I try to avoid them at all costs. But, when we went to the 2006 [Championships], we lost key players from that team — Yolanda [Griffith] and Lisa [Leslie] — at the last minute. Now, looking back at 2006, Candace Parker being thrown into a major role before she should’ve been that helped her development for us as a national team. But, said Donovan, “We were completely exposed.”

“After giving myself a box of Kleenex to get over the world championship loss,” it was, “All right, let’s figure out we can do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

PATCHWORK QUILT COACHING

Most coaches would agree that the first step in assuring there was no repeat of the World Championship performance during the Olympics would be to pull the team together and practice for an extended period of time. But the summer season of the WNBA, the “off-season” of more playing overseas, and the need to actually rest one’s body, all pull players away from the long-term commitment USA Basketball demands.

“Everybody wants to go to the Olympics,” said Donovan. “But, once the Olympics are over, it’s really difficult to get players to commit to that next three-year period in the quadrenium.” As a consequence, every time Donovan and her coaching staff would think they would have a full unit to train together, something –- professional commitments, injuries, personal commitments — would get in the way.

“You couldn’t think about what you didn’t have,” she explained. “You had to really focus on who was there. You had to keep in mind that, ‘Of this group of eight players or nine players who’s really going to be with us in Beijing and let’s really concentrate on how we can make them better.’ There was a resilience there that I had to have, and we had to have as a staff.” And, added Donovan, “It was a matter really of keeping our thinking looking forward thinking and not being so concerned with the loss we were facing or the lack of players.”

THE WHOLE GREATER THAN THE PARTS

 What’s is intriguing about being a USA Basketball is that the players are chosen by the Selection Committee, not the coach. “It can be frustrating to not have complete control, but having 30 years of being associated with USA basketball, I know why those rules are place,” said Donovan. “But, this is the first time that I’ve been confronted with, you know, just wanting more control. Every coach wants control right?” she laughed.

 “But I have to say, the mentoring that went on. I talked with Tara [VanDerveer] about it. And Pat [Summitt] and Van. Just good conversations about what to think about and what to look for and how to approach a delicate situation with the committee. About having conversations with committee members outside of committee meetings just to make sure they understood why my needs were what they were. And then feeling like I had to let it go.”

 In the end, Donavan credits the committee for making sure that the right pieces were on her team. “To me that doesn’t mean the best 12 players in the USA.  It means complementary players that understand their roles.  And they are hugely important — that role player, number 11 and 12, is probably more important than 2,3, and 4. Kara Lawson (Sacramento/TN) is a great example,” continued Donovan. “So many people questioned her value to our team. We understood that Kara had so many intangible qualities — besides the fact that she is a fantastic ballplayer — but her intangible qualities were something we had to have on the team. She was just one of many quality women on the team. That selection process is more important than anything you do as a coach on the floor.  Because you’ve got to have the right pieces that buy in to it the right way.”

 The “right way” means they had to buy in to the concept of “team ball.” “It’s hokey. ’Team ball.’ It’s all coach-speak,” admitted Donovan with a grin. But, “in a nutshell, it means the team goals are more important than any individual goals.” No mean feat when you’re working with elite athletes drawn from a pool of players who have healthy egos. “They don’t rise to the top of their profession if they don’t have healthy egos,” said Donovan. “But, you have to devise a team that brings out the best in each other and covers up the weaknesses.”

PICKING FAVORITES

Asked which is more satisfying, the gold medal earned as a player or as a coach, Donovan was hard-pressed to make a choice. “I was so proud as a player because I had to work hard at my craft,” she explained. “I just wasn’t an Olympian or repeat Olympian. I had to really work to be named in ‘80 and then to maintain that level and be selected for ‘84 and ’88. There was a great amount of satisfaction and pride that went with being on those teams and being part of gold medals.”

“As a coach it’s the same thing,” she continued. “I work hard at my craft and so there is a great amount of satisfaction in achieving the gold medal. I think when push comes to shove, if I had to choose, this experience in 2008 is so satisfying because of what we’ve been through in the last three years. The nature of women’s basketball right now has changed so much. The landscape is night and day from any other period in our history, with players having less time to dedicate to their national teams across the world, and less time to dedicate to building their system and building a real unit.”

Ironically, not having the entire unit together until just before the Games, made the experience even more satisfying. “I think in a lot of subtle ways we were able to develop our team through these three years in very painful ways. And yet, as hard as it was over these last couple of years and losing more games than I’m sure the women’s program has lost a long time, there still was learning going on and we were still adding to the process of putting together the team that showed up in Beijing.”

“I get long-winded about this because for me the most impactful thing about Beijing was the semi-final game against Russia. Here we are in exactly same position that we were in 2006. We had played really well. We had had no problems scoring. We were blowing people out. And here we are playing Russia in the semi-finals for the right to go to the gold-medal game and we can’t throw the ball in the ocean. It’s exactly the same game as 2006. Exactly.”

“Except for we could defend. Those players got down, locked down, and defended.”

“And that was to me even more significant than the gold medal win. We had come 360. All we’d talked about nonstop from before the world championships was basically, ‘What happens when we can’t score? What happens? You got to be able to get the stops.’ It sounds very elementary, but never before had we seen it and done it. So for me, those were the lessons: Your core beliefs of what your philosophy is as a coach, you stick with them. Even in the hard times, you’re going to get reinforced if you truly stick to what you believe in.”

QUIETING THE NAYSAYERS

Anyone following USA Basketball knows that those “hard times” were not just about the losses or missing players. Donovan was well aware that there was steady commentary of naysayers and doubters who questioned coaching abilities and questioned the ability of the team to succeed under her leadership. “I learned a long time ago to stop worrying about ‘them,’” she said. “They do hurt though. Their criticism and their judgment — most times completely unfounded judgment — is difficult. Anybody that lives in any semblance of a spotlight, as all of us coaches understand, we have to learn early to deal with criticism.”

“But there is a sense of relief that it went…not only went beautifully, but that it went as well as it did. There is tremendous satisfaction in what we were able to do. And again, it’s just the way it happened. To play Russia in the semi-finals, that was almost a gold medal experience just there — just seeing how we’d grown in two years. And then getting the opportunity to really beat Australia in a big way…. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.

“So for me there’s tremendous satisfaction, for my own self, for my own self worth and belief in myself. It’s another reinforcement that I’m on the right track.”

OFFICIATING UNDER REVIEW: Coaches, Conferences and the NCAA Working to Collaborate

It goes without saying that any coach interested in how officials are evaluated by the NCAA regional advisors or during the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship should read the very clear “2008-09 NCAA Women’s Basketball “Officials’ Performance Evaluation Form.”

While doing so, though, they should also pay particular attention to following section of the introduction:

 Please note that this performance instrument was not created with the intent of replacing those used by individual conferences; rather, the NCAA women’s officiating program is interested in creating a systematic approach to selecting and advancing the best officials for its tournament. [Italics added]

Why the caveat?

“This is often an area that is misunderstood by coaches as well as the general public” said Mary Struckhoff, the NCAA’s coordinator of women’s basketball officiating, “I think it is natural for people to assume that because the NCAA writes and establishes the playing rules, that it also oversees regular season officiating.

Wrong.

“It is important for people to understand that each conference oversees its respective officiating program, while the NCAA championship falls under the purview of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee,” explained Struckhoff.

How a conference evaluates and trains officials during the regular season, what technology they require their institutions to use, how they decide to nominate officials for the NCAA Tournament, and how they communicate that information to their coaches, can be as unique as the individual conference coordinators themselves. It is also incredibly dependent on what resources conferences are willing and able to spend on their officiating program.

SO YOU WANT TO WORK THE TOURNAMENT?
The pool of referees considered for Division I tournament assignments is made up of nominees from the 31 conference’s 18 coordinators. It is then the responsibility of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee to choose the 96 officials who will actually work the tournament.

In hopes of making the overall process of selecting those 96 officials more transparent to all parties involved, Struckhoff is putting together a document for all the conferences outlining the nomination process, the selection process, and the advancement process. “The advancement and selection are very different,” she noted, because “once you’re in, now you have to perform to be able to advance.”

Additionally, while balancing questions of jurisdiction, officials’ Independent Contractor status and the possibility of a National Certification process, the NCAA has instituted some requirements specific to the Tournament. “Three years ago we put in place a required exam for Division I officials interested in being ‘tournament eligible,’” said Struckhoff. “They have to score an 80%, and they get two takes.”

To support coordinators and officials, the NCAA has made just about everything needed to prepare – including quizzes, you-make-the-call videos, and on-going season notes and concerns from conference supervisors – available on its officiating website, www.eofficials.com.

“Now, because not everybody works the tournament,” she added, “we’ve repeatedly said to conference coordinators, ‘Look, we can’t tell you to do this, but it’s in your best interest to tell your conference roster of officials, “You will take this test and we will get the scores.’”

While the test is aimed primarily at Division I referees, the content is applicable to all levels of officiating. Which explains why Struckhoff has noticed an unexpected ripple effect: a large number of Division II and III officials have been going online to take the test. “They’re doing it not because it’s a requirement, but simply for their own professional development.”

THE KEEPER OF THE RULES…
Speaking of professional development, most coaches willingly admit they don’t know the rules. Most likely that’s because they expect the referees will know them. But who, at whatever level of play, ever wants to be caught wondering, “Is it the clock or is it the horn that ends the game?” “What’s the difference between a Referee and an Umpire?” or “Under what circumstances can I ask a crew to stay on the court, even after they’ve confirmed the final score?”

With all the pressure on coaches to produce winning records, if they have an assistant track the timeouts, wouldn’t it behoove them to nominate an assistant as the designated “rule maven?” It would be their responsibility to conquer the rulebook and concentrate on the points of emphasis and officiating procedures outlined in pre-season NCAA officiating DVD. They could also engage in a season-long dialogue with their conference coordinator about the officiating program and the challenges around the development and evaluation of officials.

COACHES, CAN YOU SPARE THE TIME?
Now in his seventh years as the coordinator of officials for Division II’s Sunshine State (FL) conference, Pete Jenkinson would welcome time and input from his coaches — if they were willing.

Currently, his coaches use Assignor’s Assistant software to evaluate their referees. “They fill out this form,” said Jenkinson,” and they’ve always said that it’s too generic. And I’ve told the [basketball] committee for the last two or three years, ‘Listen, if you want me to put together a new evaluation form, it’s not happening. If I put it together, you’re not going to like it, so let’s work together. I want to know what you want to look for in a referee, and I’ll tell you what I’m looking for. Then let’s combine those things so that we know what were evaluating so that everybody is happy.”

A similar conundrum faces Andrea Osborne, coordinator for California’s Division I Big West Conference. She has spent the last 17 years building a community of officials that goes out its way to serve as mentors across the Divisions and age groups. Over the recent holidays, for example, of the five gyms she visited, every one had outside officials from lower levels there to support her officials.

“I look at this group of people,” reflected Osborne, “and they are so dedicated, they are so enthusiastic, and I think about all the extra time that they put in that the coaches don’t see or hear about…. Quite frankly, it’s a little disappointing. They perceive us to be the enemy. And yet they won’t put any quality time into looking at what we do, how we do it, or the amount of time that goes into it.”

IF ASKED, WILL THEY COME?

Considering how many questions coaches have about college officiating, and how much impact they believe officiating has on the outcome of their games, it’s good to know there are coaches willing to take the time to seek out answers.

This past fall, for example, when Georgia Tech coach MaChelle Joseph was on her “just before practice starts” vacation, she got an invitation from Struckhoff to participate in a coaches/officials discussion panel during the NCAA’s Division I Regional Officiating Clinic. She immediately cut her vacation short and flew back to attend.

“For me it was a no-brainer because I felt like it’s our responsibility to give back,” said Joseph. “Officials have done so much for our game. [It] couldn’t continue to keep growing at the pace that is if the officiating hadn’t improved as much as it has over the years. [Coaches] want the officiating to continue to grow and improve and get better. Well, the only way we can do that is for us to exchange ideas and thoughts and address issues.”

During the afternoon session, coaches and officials discussed and debated questions across a wide range of topics: travel fatigue, assessment and evaluation, recruitment, attitude and communication.

“Having that experience has really changed my approach this year with how I deal with the officials,” noted Joseph. She cited an instance when she asked how refs wanted to be approached during games. “A veteran official, someone I’d known for a while, said, ‘We just want to be respected. We want to be treated like you could talk to anybody else.’”

“And you don’t think about that,” admitted Joseph. “Sometimes I think with coaches we’re in that mode we use with players: ‘Take what we are saying, not how we are saying it.’ That kind of thing. And you have to shift gears right in the middle of the game — you got the intensity level of the coaches and the competition that’s going on — and then you have to shift gears how you’re approaching the official. I think that’s a pretty good point.”

The result? “I’ve noticed that I’m not always talking to the officials during the game, where in the past I always have something to say about practically every call.” In particular, she’s familiar with one ref she knows never appreciated her running commentary. “I’ve had him a couple of times since and I don’t think I’ve even said one word to him,” she laughed. “I’m sure he’s thinking, ‘What happened to her?’”

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN REF?
Having been both a player and a coach, broadcaster Debbie Antonelli decided she needed to get a more complete feel for the game she was covering. So, donning the regulation shoes, striped shirt and whistle, last fall she stepped onto the court with a group of officials participating in Bill Stokes’ (coordinator for the Division I SEC) basketball camp.

Since most of her fellow attendees were looking to move up to the Division I level, it was a high-pressure environment with many of the nation’s top evaluators and supervisors observing. “The officials treated me great,” said Antonelli, “but they also critiqued me like I was one of their own. They loved picking at me about calls and stuff. I thought my judgment was good – but my mechanics were terrible,” she admitted.

“They’re very straightforward about, ‘Well, you know you missed that,’ or ‘I would have had a more patient whistle on that one,’ or ‘you didn’t get into the right position at the right time.’ It’s all good critique, but hard, because it’s from your peers,” explained Antonelli. “Some of the officials doing the evaluations, they’re not supervisors, they are other officials. So they’re holding each other to a higher standard, which I thought was fantastic.”

Antonelli walked away from the experience with a much clearer sense of the passion these officials have for the game. “They understand that they have a very important role in the growth of the game. They are trying to do everything they can to call the game the way the rules committee wants the game called.” And, she noted, “They understand that judgment is the most important thing, more important than how you look in your mechanics. Because that’s what coaches want: the calls to be right. And they want the calls to be right.”

“I had the best time and I would do it again in a minute,” reflected Antonelli. “I would recommend that the coaches go through it. How about me, Gary Blair (Texas A&M) and Agnus Berenato (Pittsburgh) work a three-person crew?” she proposed. “I think it would be a totally different perspective for them.”

And, she added, with perhaps only the slightest hint of irony, “I think they would enjoy it.”

Athens 2004: Me! At the Olympics!

An Epistle Home: Getting to and living through the first days in Athens.

Ah, the miserable, long dark and fallow time between end of the WNBA season and the return of women’s college basketball. Can there be a better time to pause and reflect on the glories of the summer gone by? Or, in my case, to get off my lazy butt and write a bit about my time in Athens covering the Olympics. For those who aren’t up to date on my schedule and miscellaneous adventures, I found myself as a last second journalist in the land of Greece. While I did manage a quick check in, I was woefully remiss with any updates. A quick recap of me, the early days, in Greece:

A 6:30pm flight (with an hour delay out of JFK) got me to Vienna at 10am…their time. You need to do the math, if I do it my head hurts. I like the concept of flying into the future a heck of a lot more than the reality. Of course, if you ARE going to spend extended time on an airplane, it might as well be Austrian Air. First, they don’t seemed to have gotten the TSA memo, ‘cause dinner still served with metal utensils. AND, it was downright tasty. And did I mention the free cocktails? I mean, free is FREE, right? The plane was “of an age” and I had some weird flashbacks as I flipped the little seat ashtrays tops back and forth. Who out there remembers “smoking sections” on planes. Yikes, suddenly I want my lungs x-rayed.

I will, though, play the cranky old flier and recommend that we create “children sections” — or at least the option to jettison children who violate the unwritten Long Flight Plane Rules. As in silence is golden. The plane, being “of an age,” had those “stewardess call buttons” (yes, of THAT age) that rang throughout the entire plane. How do I know this? Because a little “angel” of about 10yrs had joyously discovered the fact and was determined to see just how long he could make the cadmium-red clad Austrian Air attendants scurry up and down the aisle and severely whisper to his mom, “He can’t do that!” His mom, of course, had thrown up her hands saying, “I’m not in charge!”

A couple of hours to wait before a 2 hr. trip to Athens prompted a quick geographic reality check.. *insert American Capitalist Observation here* So really, I ask you, does Vienna with its coffee history REALLY need to import a Starbucks? Apparently they do, because as I waited for my flight out, I observed travelers put green aproned barristas through their paces. Sigh. *end A.C.O. comment*

After successfully negotiating the brand spankin’ new Athens airport, I had my first encounter with the soon to be legendary Greek phrase not found in tourist guide books, “Ten Minutes.” During the my time in Athens, I discovered that when an official or volunteer ever said, “10 minutes” they weren’t actually lying, it’s just that’s what the schedule said. The reality was that “10 minutes” can mean anything between 2 minutes to an hour AND 10 minutes. I arrived at my little media bus stop at 3:50 and was ecstatic to hear the words “10 minutes.” Unfortunately, it was one of the longer 10 minutes I was to encounter. Fortunately, the bevy of volunteers that were there provided lots of good company. That would be a constant throughout my stay. It was there I discovered that, in Greece, English IS the second language.

And hour or so later, when my bus did finally arrive – and it was MY bus, since I was the only one on the Greyhound-esque beast – we zipped out and up to where my media housing was located. Agios (Ay-ee-os) Andreas – St. Andrews to us tourists – a former military housing site. Imagine, if you will, the old tv show “The Prisoner” but without the bouncing ball chasing down escapees. Tiny little two-person houses with twisty curvy roads that humble my frail sense of direction. Scattered throughout are almost grown-up houses where – I was told – military folk have made permament residence.

There was a big commisary where breakfast was served daily. It took me three days to figure out how the get from my house-room in Green Area K House A (GK1, for those interested in housing shorthand.) by foot, while avoiding the walls. Because walking was much faster than the “Prisoner-esque” little choo-choo train that takes us round and round and round the various compounds.

The most attractive part of the compound was the onsite taverna, a great place to grab some real food late at night. And I mean, late at night, many of which I had, and no, it’s NOT what you’re thinking. Though my specialty is women’s basketball, I was also covering volleyball and beach volleyball – both men’s and women’s. So, figure that’s 5 events to get to. And, of course, they’re on the OTHER side of Athens. To get there you use the official transport system of the Athens Olympics, “Lego Travel.” I call it Lego Travel – you can only go so far before you need another piece to connect to. Micro-managed doesn’t even BEGIN to cover the travel scheme. Consider a trip down to Faliro to catch the Volleyball.

20 minute mini-train to the shuttle into Athens. Wait “10 Minutes”

40 minute shuttle bus to the MPC (Main Press Center) and IBC (International Broadcasting Center). Wait “10 Minutes”

25 minute shuttle to the Faliro Shuttle Hub. Wait “10 Minutes”

10 minute shuttle to the venues at Faliro Costal Zone Olympic Complex which features Handball, Volleyball and Beach Volleyball. There’s the additional taunting factor to be added. Let’s say you’re going to Handball….On the way to the Failro HUB you actually pass all three venues. Then, when you get on the shuttle, you actually PASS the Handball venue,  then Volleyball and hit Beach Volleyball first drop off. By the end of the 16 days, photographers, who were lugging more equipment than any three teamsters would be allowed to carry unsupervised, were all but weeping in frustration.

If I want to get down to Helliniko, where the BBall is (and where, oh Greek Gods of the Olympics willing) I’ll be tomorrow), I take the 10 minute shuttle back to the outer hub. The 15 minute shuttle to the OTHER outer hub… then the 5 minute shuttle to the arena.

Haven’t seen much of the Greek world yet… spent yesterday acclimating myself to everything….including jet lag… and figuring out how to get a day pass (since my credential is only good for vball). Thank goodness most of the Greeks speak English, ’cause, frankly, it’s all Greek to me. My Spanish and bad French is absolutely of no use to me…. The Greeks have been infallibly kind and patient… My main complaint is about signage… Bigger and better color coordination…. and information on BOTH SIDES of the sign….

Caught some beach volleyball – dang, it is hot in the afternoon – and wondered if when the women play, a team of men in skimpy speedos runs out and does and dance routine full of hip gyrations. I’m guessin’ not.

Indoor volleyball, where the Brazilian fans (of the women’s team) were loud and raucous. And seemingly equally split along gender lines.. interesting thought…. went away and came back to catch the US women’s match against the Chinese… had to leave before the end, because of the 2hr journey home…. No idea how it turned out – since there’s no “daily news” and email/internet hadn’t been set up yet. Being AT the Olympics means keeping track of everything is tough…. Little tv in my room runs commentator-less Olympic feeds all day… multiple channels so i caught some badminton and ping pong and sabre (YEOW!).

Busy recovering now – and planning my day for tomorrow. THINK BASKETBALL!!!!

Hope all and any who are in Florida are safe….. I miss having instant access to everyone.

Oh, and the US women’s BBall team won their first game, I hear. Ain’t we lucky to have them?

OPA!

Why so few women coaches in WNBA?

A response to Christian Science Monitor’s Ross Atkin

Readers hardly accept every word inscribed in this space as the sports gospel, so their comments are always welcome, especially ones as insightful as those from Helen Wheelock of N.Y. Helen wrote in about a “We’re Just Fans” blog that carried the headline “WNBA reaches double digits, but where are the women coaches?“

Ms. Wheelock calls herself a fan of and writer about women’s basketball. As such, she applauded the coverage of the women’s game, which she contributes greatly to by maintaining Women’s Basketball Online (“the most comprehensive women’s basketball site on the net”).

Still, she wished I’d dug deeper into why only three of this season’s 14 WNBA head coaches are women. She said that I’d touched on a “very complicated and rich issue.” I invited her to elaborate, and here’s her response:

In 1997, seven of the eight teams participating in the WNBA’s inaugural season had women head coaches, and all of the coaches were drawn from the women’s college basketball coaching ranks. But you didn’t have the elite of the elite – the Pat Summitts, Marsha Sharps, or Jody Conradts – applying for jobs. No surprise, really. Why on earth would they leave the security and stability of their successful fiefdoms for the uncertainty of a pro league?

Even a decade later that question lingers. And as the merry-go-round that is the WNBA head coach position (for both men and women) continues, it is a reflection of the new frontier that is coaching women’s professional basketball.

Elite college coaches can get a hefty, long-term contract with snazzy perks (Kristy Curry, formerly of Purdue, will earn a base salary of $425,000 as Sharp’s successor at Texas Tech). The budget-conscious WNBA can’t come close to matching that. While winning is important to a school, the concept of “building a program for the future” is understood. Like its brother organization, the NBA, there’s little patience for that in the WNBA.

College teams travel across the country in first-class seats, while coaches have all but year-round access to their athletes. In the WNBA, it’s economy class all the way, and a coach is lucky to see all his or her players for the entire two-week preseason camps. The WNBA squeezes 34 games into three months, while the college coach guides teams though a 30-game regular seaon spread over five months. Conference championships and the NCAA provide opportunities for success, as opposed to the WNBA, where the 14-team league can make every game a “must win” situtation.

A college team might survive a player’s injury, but at the pro level, an injury can have seismic implications. Equally unsettling, a pro coach can find her once-promising lineup decimated because a player decides to stay in Europe to earn more money.

Add in all the differences between coaching the college athlete vs. the pro athlete and it becomes clearer why, even though opportunities exist for female coaches in the WNBA, those most suited to the job might be reluctant to step forward.

That being said, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport did give the WNBA top marks in its annual racial and gender diversity report card. Equally significant? The 14 female WNBA assistant coaches who are displaying a commitment to working at the pro level.

The pool of professional female coaches is expanding – too slowly for many tastes – but, as they say, good things come to those who wait. The WNBA doesn’t yet have the money or status of the NBA. But, to be fair, the NBA has a 40-year head start.

– Helen Wheelock

Helen Wheelock’s website can be found athttp://womensbasketballonline.com.