The time will come when a woman coaches a team comprised of males. It is bound to happen. The NBA has employed two full-time female assistant coaches. The NFL also made news last season when the Arizona Cardinals brought on board a woman as the training camp/preseason intern who coached linebackers.
We live in an age when for the first time a woman, Hillary Clinton, is a serious U.S. presidential candidate. Times are changing. Times will change.
Jen Welter opened doors for other women in the football coaching, not only the NFL, when she earned her position with the Cardinals. Becky Hammon became the first full-time female assistant coach in the NBA last season when Gregg Popovich hired her to be part of his staff. Women’s hoops legend Nancy Lieberman, who has coached the NBA D-League’s Texas Legends, the Dallas Mavericks’ affiliate, was hired before this season as a full-time assistant with the Sacramento Kings.
The move for women taking high-ranking positions on a team made up of men did not gather steam after Bernadette Locke-Mattox was part of Rick Pitino staff at Kentucky from 1990 to 1994. This is a different era, a changing society, one of more acceptance, obviously. The change is validated by how women have become successful joining men’s teams in a leadership role through their due diligence and qualifications, not because of a token hire to draw headlines and media fanfare.
“When it comes to things of the mind, things like coaching, game-planning, coming up with offensive and defensive schemes, there’s no reason why a woman couldn’t be in the mix and shouldn’t be in the mix,” said Hammon, who played in the WNBA for 16 years and is revered by Popovich for her scouting and game planning.
According to new research by the Korn Ferry Hay Group, women scored higher than men on nearly all emotional intelligence competencies, except emotional self-control, where no gender differences are observed. Data from 55,000 professionals across 90 different countries indicated that women more effectively employ the emotional and social competencies correlated with effective leadership and management than men. The research found that competencies in which women outperform men are coaching & mentoring, influence, inspirational leadership, conflict management, organizational awareness, adaptability, teamwork and achievement orientation. All of those elements are what athletic directors look for when hiring a new coach.
With postseason tournaments beginning, the coaching carousel is already underway in men’s college basketball. Chances are not one woman’s name will be mentioned as a possible candidate for a vacancy. That will change in the future based on the advancement of credible coaches such as Hammons and Lieberman in a men’s sport. The doors are opening.
Pat Summitt could have coached a men’s team without question based on her hoops knowledge, stern character and aura. Men would have looked up to her like they respect any successful male coach, including John Wooden.
Who are the women who will – or at least should — make history by becoming a head coach on a men’s college basketball team? Here’s my top 5:
5. Cheryl Reeve. She is only 49 and has already won three WNBA titles, including last season, after coaching the Lynx to a 13-21 record in her first season of 2009-10. She is known in coaching circles as one of the best in terms of development. Geno Auriemma relies heavily on her as one of his lead assistants for the U.S. women’s national team while he is in season after the Lynx conclude theirs. During Team USA’s recent three-day mini-camp, Reeve led the workouts. Her success in the WNBA in such a brief time as a coach indicates her future has no bounds in the sport.
4. Nancy Lieberman. The only thing that prevents Lieberman from ranking higher on this list is her age, 57. Otherwise, she has the proven name value to lead a men’s program without question, in the same way men would have respected Summitt as their head coach. She is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. That alone puts her in a class above most of her male counterparts. Lieberman is also well-versed on the NBA game and the scouting involved in that league with her time spent as a coach and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks’ affiliate in the D-League.
3. Brenda Frese. The Maryland coach is an undeniable winner who knows how to organize and coach a highly successful program. She knows how to effectively communicate with her team with a stern, yet encouraging, voice. The 45-year-old coach made herself into one of women’s college basketball’s top coaches after brief stints at Ball State and Minnesota. She overcame a 40-41 record in her first three seasons at Maryland to winning a title in her fourth season (2005-06) with a 34-4 record. In the two seasons before Frese arrived in College Park, Maryland won a combined 30 games. Five times since winning the title in 2006, her Terps have hit that mark in a single season. “You kind of somewhat become a household name across the country,” Frese told the Washington Post recently. “When you can consistently, year in and year out, be a top-5, top-10 program, you’re able to recruit at a whole other level.”
2. Becky Hammon. She made news last summer coaching the Spurs’ NBA Summer League team to a title in Las Vegas. The fact that Popovich, widely respected in the sport, hired her speaks volumes of her ability. In terms of recruiting, Hammon, 39, crosses the hurdle of convincing highly touted prospects that she knows NBA personnel and what it would take for them to get to that level. Hammon would have a distinct advantage over most male counterparts in college basketball in that regard if she lands a job. She has no head coaching experience but she is learning from the best in Popovich at the highest level. She also knows how to build herself from the ground up as an undrafted point guard out of Colorado State in 1999 who became a WNBA star in her 16 seasons in the league.
1. Dawn Staley. In eight seasons at South Carolina, the three-time Olympian and former Virginia standout, has taken the Gamecocks from the depths of women’s basketball to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament this year with a 31-1 record. USA Today recently dubbed the 45-year-old Staley as “the emerging face of women’s college basketball.” Why not men’s basketball? Staley certainly has name value on an international level built by how hard she has worked for her success. Male players can definitely identify with her. She would certainly have their respect. She knows how to build a winning basketball program. Her record in the last three seasons at South Carolina is 94-9 after going 42-48 in her first three seasons. She has a bold, determined and forthright character that wins over parents during the recruiting process. That would happen with five-star male athletes as well.
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