Your Day in Women’s Basketball, October 27: New coaches all across college basketball
By James Hyman
You never know when the next great coach will begin their tenure
While a coach may not make a buzzer-beating three or sprint for a chase-down block, their contributions to a team often go beyond the output that is seen on the court.
Many notable women’s basketball programs added coaches this weekend. Maryland brought in a new Director of Scouting and Player Development in Jessica Imhof. The College of New Jersey alum and former UNC and Princeton staff member will add valuable experience to the Big 10 squad.
The Terps were on a 17-game winning streak before the season ended unexpectedly, and will hope to continue their dominance in the upcoming season.
On the other side of the country, Gonzaga is similarly looking to ride a fantastic 2019-20 into this winter. The Bulldogs were ranked 13th in the nation and sat a top the West Coast Conference with the intention of a deep tourney run.
They recently bolstered their coaching staff as well, with former star Kiara Kudron signing on as a video coordinator and former San Diego Torero Alexandria Young as the director of basketball operations.
The duo will help to get Gonzaga over the postseason hump, with their most recent blunder being losing to Portland in the WCC semifinal last season.
In more college news, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference announced their 16-game schedule. The conference itself has been split into two separate sub-divisions, which will limit the amount of travel for each team.
Bethune-Cookman is the favorite to win the conference after their strong performance last season, despite coming up short in the conference tournament.
Both Florida A&M and Coppin State had abysmal season’s last year, warranting head coaching changes for the programs. Shalon Pillow is at the helm for the Rattlers in her first head coaching role. For the Eagles, it’s Laura Harper, the former Maryland national champ who has been an assistant at multiple D1 schools.
In a season full of questions, any team has a chance to breakout, and these new head coaches will be pounding this message into the heads of their players.
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