A day after firing two coaches, UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford met with the media via teleconference to lay out his plans for the coaching searches and what he hopes for the women’s basketball and hockey programs going forward. Some of his key points:
■ There will be no search firm used this time. UMass used outside agencies to help aid the hiring process that led to football coach Mark Whipple and Bamford being selected. There also won’t be traditional search committees either. Bamford will lead the hockey search and associate athletic director Darrice Griffin, a former women’s basketball player at Texas Tech, will captain the basketball search. Both will have people inside and outside UMass who will help with the process, but Bamford didn’t want to name them in hopes of keeping the process private.
■ Without prompting, Bamford went out of his way to assure people that money being used to buy out hockey coach John Micheletto ($259,715) and women’s basketball coach Sharon Dawley ($226,415) was coming neither from taxpayer money or university assistance. He said UMass’ revenue from the Atlantic 10, Mid-American Conference and Hockey East came about $500,000 more than expected, which covered the $486,130 to pay out the two head coaches.
Matt Vautour, Gazettenet, Read More
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