Boston College- ACC
Departed coach/record: Erik Johnson, 6 seasons (68-115 overall, 19-77 in the ACC)
Season-by-season record:
2012-13: 12-19 (5-13)
2013-14: 12-19 (3-13)
2014-15: 13-17 (5-11)
2015-16: 15-16 (2-14)
2016-17: 9-21 (2-14)
2017-18: 7-23 (2-14)
Reason for departure: When Erik Johnson stepped onto Boston College’s campus as the Eagles head coach, he was stepping on familiar ground. Although he had spent the previous four seasons as the head coach at Denver University, where he compiled a 72-52 record, Johnson was an assistant in Chestnut Hill prior to that. Johnson was never able to reach success in the ACC, a league that the school joined in 2005. Since moving from the Big East, the best finish in conference Boston College has had was in 2007-08 when they tied for 5th place under Cathy Inglese. The team’s best finish under Johnson was 12th in 2015-16.
Potential replacements:
Tricia Fabbri, head coach, Quinnipiac: Fabbri and her Quinnipiac squad captured the nation’s heart last season as the Cinderella of the NCAA tournament. After a thrilling first round win over 5-seed Marquette, QU then took down 4-seed and home favorite Miami to bust everyone’s bracket. The success was no flash-in-the-pan though; Fabbri has been winning for a long time. The school’s all-time winningest coach, Fabbri picked up her 400th career last month and has the Bobcats back in the NCAA tournament again. She has been at the school for 23 years, but maybe now is the time to make the move. Her daughter Carly is a senior on the team so that won’t be an issue and QU has easily been the best team in the Northeast in recent history. She has shown the ability to get recruits from both in the region and out, and with new BC athletic director Martin Jarmond wanting to win right away, Fabbri might be the first person he should call.
Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, head coach, Albany: If BC wants someone with head coaching experience and some BCS level experience, Bernabei-McNamee checks off those boxes. In her second season at Albany, Bernabei-McNamee led the Great Danes to the NCAA tournament last season and just missed out on an America East regular season title this season. Before Albany she led NAIA member Pikeville to 63 wins in three seasons, including an appearance in the NAIA Final Four. Prior to that, Bernabei-McNamee served as an assistant at both West Virginia and Maryland, helping Maryland win a national championship in 2006. She has proven herself at every level and, at just 43-years-old, could be someone who is at BC for a long time.
Shea Ralph, assistant coach, UConn: Talk about a splash hire. Ralph’s name is understandably tossed out in job rumors every season, but Boston College might be the right fit. Obviously she knows the region well and her name would surely help in recruiting right away. Before her current 11-year stay at UConn as an assistant, Ralph spent five seasons at the University of Pittsburgh and helped transform a bottom feeder program into an NCAA tournament team. It wouldn’t be inconceivable that Ralph wouldn’t want to take over a bottom tier school and try to build it up, but it would be worth kicking the tires.
Kathy Delaney-Smith, head coach, Harvard: 36 years at one place is nearly an eternity in any business but in coaching it is unheard of. That’s how long Delaney-Smith has been at the helm of Harvard though and she has been spectacular. Winner of 11 Ivy League titles and nearing 600 career wins, Delaney-Smith and the Crimson also hold the distinction of being the only 16-seed to ever upset a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament when they took down Stanford in 1998. One of the issues often mentioned with BC is their academic standards, something that shouldn’t be much of an issue for Delaney-Smith. It could be argued that she is towards the end of her career and maybe someone younger would be a better fit, but Delaney-Smith has earned at least an interview, should she want it.
Megan Gebbia, head coach, American: Fresh off their second even NCAA tournament birth, American head coach Megan Gebbia has done great work at AU. After taking the team to the WNIT in her first season, Gebbia led the Eagles to their first tournament birth in year two. The team spend the next two seasons rebuilding a bit but it all came together again this season with 27 wins and a Patriot League championship. American actually has a tough admissions process than BC as far as acceptance rate goes (25% compared to 29%) and Gebbia has shown that she can recruit players from all over the country. The only knock is that she doesn’t have any BCS experience but over her career as a head coach, and as the associate head coach at Marist, she has won a lot of games.