Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Saturday, August 29, 2009

From Jayda's always entertaining game blog:
Chancellor isn't the only D-I coach in the KeyArena house. Washington coach Tia Jackson also is here with players Sami Whitcomb, Kristi Kingma, and Regina Rogers. They spoke to season-ticket holders prior to the game. Jackson has been out on the recruiting trail, but is only bringing on walk-on Amanda Johnson, a PG from Los Angeles. Jackson also said returning PG Christina Rozier is good after offseason leg surgery. Storm up 21-19 with 7:16 remaining in the second quarter.

Asked both about the visible lack of support between college and WNBA and Chancellor said it's because the college coaches are always out recruiting in non-WNBA areas. "If I wasn't going on this cruise, I'd be out recruiting now," he said.
The challenges of bridging the gap between the W and the college game hasn't gone unnoticed:
There are growing opportunities for coaches at both levels to meet, exchange ideas about the game and develop a mutual respect for each other’s professions. “I go out and see college games all the time,” said Thibault. “Last year just during our training camp, we had somewhere between 10 and 15 college programs come in to watch our practices and to dialogue back and forth about [different tactics]. You’re seeing more of that, and I think that the perception that the pros just roll out the ball has gone away.”

In the past, several factors have contributed to a lack of collegiality between the two coaching communities. Schedules that were out of sync, disparate backgrounds seemed to discourage connection, and the ever-growing pressure of growing a college program made huge demands on an individual coach’s time. In spite of those realities, Seattle’s Donovan can’t help but feel disappointed in what she sees as a lack of support from the college ranks. “I don’t know how much they watch the game, how much they really play close attention to it. I can speculate about why that is, but I’ll leave that alone and just say it’s frustrating. Because this is a great game. Pity the person that’s still looking at this league ten years ago when it started out. They just gave up on it back then? Where would we be in women’s basketball if we had all done that back then? The game has grown, the talent has grown, the coaching has grown. And it’s a game that needs to be promoted within our own ranks.”