What is it going to take to get Women over the hump?

[enviroGator]

Ok, I've been a big Amanda supporter since she got here. But I have to admit, this season is making me scratch my head.

It seemed she had put a decent team together, but the W's are just not coming.

I admit, I don't get to watch the W play because of where I live, so I'd appreciate it if those who do could give some perspective on why we are where we are this year, and an outlook going forward.

I don't intend this to be a "Amanda sucks" thread, but if she deserves criticism, I'd like to hear that too.

And as always, Go Gators!!!

[Jupgator]

Most women don't get over a good hump.

[ArtVandelay]

She needs to win a Championship of some kind (SEC regular season, SEC Tourney). At the very least, she needs to be in the hunt year after year. I don't follow it enough to know, but it seems like they are still far enough behind the SEC, which isn't as strong as it used to be, and not close to the UCONNs and Baylors.

#1 Women's sport
#2 not winning enough

that is a recipe for disaster.

We haven't really sniffed success since I was in school and DeLisha Milton was on the team.

[missourigator]

I said in another thread that EVERY sport the Gators play both men and women are ranked in the top 25 except one -Women's basketball. She has coached 5 yrs. here and she is just snake bit. Every year we have transfers, injuries, etc. Every year the supporters talk about who we have coming back next year but when that season starts that team is never on the court. We are in the bottom of the SEC, we are 4th & 5th in this state, this should not happen. Is it a hard job yes, but other schools have turned it around. FSU was nobody but now they are in the top 20. Why? Because they have a better coach.

[Jaggator]

Originally Posted by Jupgator

Most women don't get over a good hump.

+ 1 This thread by the title has potential.

[tilly]

Originally Posted by Jaggator

+ 1 This thread by the title has potential.

Yep...this thread has no chance to stay on track

[Bullis33]

Butler has never been the answer....love that she is a former Gator, but if we want to move forward we need a better coach...the issue is whether we can actaully attract one....

[jjenkins5]

Bullis, I'm curious about why you think it would be hard for us to get the right hire for women's b-ball given all the success we've had across all sports - men's & women's. I know the women's b-ball program's history is terrible, but I thought attracting a strong coach to build our program in the context of our very strong athletic department would not be so hard. You seem to think otherwise. I'd love your insight if you'll share it.

[g8rboy]

some cuddling?

[Bradass]

Originally Posted by g8rboy

some cuddling?

and a

[your_perfect_enemy]

Originally Posted by Bullis33

Butler has never been the answer....love that she is a former Gator, but if we want to move forward we need a better coach...the issue is whether we can actaully attract one....

I hardly follow women's bball at all but wasn't Peck a pretty good get?

[Swampmaster]

there are not as many top women's BB players in the US---of the limited #, they tend to go to schools with a strong track record (tennessee, UConn, ND, etc.) -- coaching can't make up for the extreme differences in talent.

[tegator80]

I think that the Butler watch is on (this year or next). If she makes it over the hump I think she needs a dynamic point guard and then recruit and retain better players than what she has. For some reason Florida coaches haven't been able to sign the elite players.

[Bear1974]

Unless the current coaches or any new coach could convince a very elite class of 5 freshman to come in then there will be no quick turn around.

It would be the equivalent of Billy bringing the Mike Miller, Udon, Dupay etc class on campus back in the early Billy years.

Unless somehow you convince some major recruiting class to come in on the concept you have the chance to build something from bottom or the lay the foundation so to speak then this particular program will basically be the only program at UF that will never do anything.

Coaching is certainly important because I have no clue if Butler can do it or not but assuming this continues the next 3-4 fours in terms of results then you better make sure you have somebody in mind you know for a fact that would have a significant on the coaching front because the danger of firing Butler is that you would replace her with somebody who would produce even worse results right now. And the reason I say that is a danger is because whenever this job has popped up for hire - Foley seems to have a difficult time of finding interest from very high quality coaches which is odd considering the success of the other men's/women's programs.

[EastTNG8TR]

Butler has greatly improved the recruiting at UF, but her effort there really has not shown until this year in terms of overall talent. The problem this year is extreme youth. This was always going to be an up.and.down yeat. With that said, injuries and all, this team should not have lost to.Ole Miss and Missouri and that concerns me. It doesn't seem the girls are getting better. My one peeve is that I wish Butler put a little more emphasis on offense. Defense can only go.so far if you can't score. Amanda should have next year to prove what she can do with elite players. There is only one way I would support a change this year, and that is if Foley could hire a big name, make a media splash, and generate some offense (more fun style to watch). There is one person IMO available that fits that bill...
Gail Goestenkors.

[G2MGA]

Bottom line - there is not a *female* WCBB coach out there that is going to turn us into a top 10 team overnight. Amanda has the program going in the right direction and has finally mostly rebuilt the recruiting pipelines that effectively collapsed during the Peck tenure. Her game coaching and player development are at times spotty, but both have improved noticeably since she got here and I assume she will continue to get better in these areas. It comes with the territory when you hire someone with limited experience as HC. I support her and believe she will build this program back up to the levels we saw during the Carol Ross era - consistent top 25, with an occasional foray into the top 10.

If Foley wanted to reverse course and consider male candidates, the program could improve more rapidly, but clearly winning is a secondary priority to having female leadership for this particular program. One of the top 5 WCBB coaches in the country IMHO is languishing down the road at FGCU - his stats are ridiculous and they pack the arena with their offense that leads the country in 3's almost every year. I expect him to someday win a national championship for whatever BCS school reels him in, but I do not expect that to be us.

[gatorbogey]

Originally Posted by Jupgator

Most women don't get over a good hump.

they do like to come back for more, though

[gatorbogey]

my more serious answer to the question....as posted on another thread w/ some edits:

womens' BB at UF has always been mediocre to bad. w/ a couple of reasonably good years from time to time sprinkled in the mix...

so, it would be doubtful if we were to instantly turn it around. doubt we could get the best coach (like lacrosse did, who was looking to expand the sport to a new region), nor would it be cost effective to do so, since i doubt we'll get over 4k [ever] in the stands for a game <--- maybe i'm wrong about that, but throwing $$$'s at a coach now wouldn't make business sense, just to get a few more wins. [we did try the route of getting a nat'l title winning coach here and that failed]. then there's the question of attracting the recruits. i think you get a great name coach here, recruits will come, but, again, is it a sound plan from a business standpoint? will you honestly follow the women's game if that was the case? would you go to the games?? i think if you're on this thread, you probably will. can we get another 3k to 4k of our buddies to attend too?

so, the new tack foley is trying is the BD model: get the tireless up-and-comer, ex-gym rat type, that is in it for the long haul - to build the program incrementally. and i think Amanda's doing that. might be a case of the stock market - going up and then down and up and down...but the trending is up...or atleast forecasted to go up!

she showed she could win w/ peck's players reasonably well. but recruiting lagged. now recruiting seems to be going well, so now we just need to get the young players/team 'seasoned' w/ game experience.

watching them play, i like the style and the hustle. they do seem to get down on themselves a bit for a missed shot. need to overcome that. and they just need to improve in all aspects of their play. all aspects need alot of improvement. i think next year they will be drastically improved and the year after that, they should seriously contend for a conference title at the very least.

[jagervol01]

Originally Posted by EastTNG8TR

Butler has greatly improved the recruiting at UF, but her effort there really has not shown until this year in terms of overall talent. The problem this year is extreme youth. This was always going to be an up.and.down yeat. With that said, injuries and all, this team should not have lost to.Ole Miss and Missouri and that concerns me. It doesn't seem the girls are getting better. My one peeve is that I wish Butler put a little more emphasis on offense. Defense can only go.so far if you can't score. Amanda should have next year to prove what she can do with elite players. There is only one way I would support a change this year, and that is if Foley could hire a big name, make a media splash, and generate some offense (more fun style to watch). There is one person IMO available that fits that bill...
Gail Goestenkors.

She is unemployed (as a coach anyway) and would jump at the Florida job I'm sure. That is what you should do.

[gatorbogey]

i will add - i think Amanda is still learning to be a head coach too. probably never stop learning in many ways, but she needed some experience too. might be that all the ingredients will begin to gel soon - next year: where you have some top (for UF) recruits come into the mix, another group of good recruits w/ a year's worth of game experience combine w/ amanda hitting her stride as a coach, and gator nation enthusiasm for gator hoops reaching a fever pitch (thanks to 2 elite eights by BD's teams and then this year's men's squad). the ingredients might be there to take gator women's hoops to a new level.