MU Women's Basketball Thread

[Marquette Fan]

Anyone know anything about King and having a torn ACL?  I’d never heard anything about that but saw this tweet today - https://x.com/gunvillejohn/status/1777387386332209366?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

[Dr. Blackheart]

Anyone know anything about King and having a torn ACL?  I’d never heard anything about that but saw this tweet today - https://x.com/gunvillejohn/status/1777387386332209366?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

She had it wrapped all season.  Trooper and all time great.

[Marquette Fan]

She had it wrapped all season.  Trooper and all time great.

Yeah I knew she had something up with her knee but never heard anything about a torn ACL.  A response to the tweet now says torn meniscus which makes more sense.

[MUfan12]

Anyone else hearing Harper is the frontrunner?

[Tarragona]

For what it’s worth, nothing has changed for me regarding my previous posts. That’s always subject to change. I have Ginny Boggess as the favorite, Kristen Gillespie, and possibly Maureen Magarity as the top 3 at this time in that order. I do know someone new was also contacted in the process.

[Bears26]

Underwhelming group of candidates.  Two middling MVC coaches in Harper and Gillespie, a coach would had one good year at NH in 14 years as a head coach, and coach with minimal success in Colonial (albeit, only a couple years on the job). 

I would much rather them take a gamble and go after someone like young that can invigorate the program.  How about Lindy La Rocque who turned around UNLV in short order, Molly Miller from GCU who had incredible success on the D2 level or even Carly Thibault-DuDonis, who has some ties to the area and is known as a great recruiter?  Here is a longshot candidate (for no other reason as they want a woman), but what about Matthew Mitchell, the retired UK coach.  He is only 53 and its rumored that he wants to get back into coaching.  He left coaching for health reasons (head trauma on vacation that required emergency surgery), but he was outstanding at UK.  Heck, I think Meg Barber at NYU would more interesting.  She has over 10 years of D1 assistant experience and has built a d3 power in the past 6 years, and she is only in her early 40s.

I get the MU women's job isn't the best one out there.  But, they should be able to attract a better pool of candidates than what we are seeing.

[Tarragona]

Underwhelming group of candidates.  Two middling MVC coaches in Harper and Gillespie, a coach would had one good year at NH in 14 years as a head coach, and coach with minimal success in Colonial (albeit, only a couple years on the job). 

I would much rather them take a gamble and go after someone like young that can invigorate the program.  How about Lindy La Rocque who turned around UNLV in short order, Molly Miller from GCU who had incredible success on the D2 level or even Carly Thibault-DuDonis, who has some ties to the area and is known as a great recruiter?  Here is a longshot candidate (for no other reason as they want a woman), but what about Matthew Mitchell, the retired UK coach.  He is only 53 and its rumored that he wants to get back into coaching.  He left coaching for health reasons (head trauma on vacation that required emergency surgery), but he was outstanding at UK.  Heck, I think Meg Barber at NYU would more interesting.  She has over 10 years of D1 assistant experience and has built a d3 power in the past 6 years, and she is only in her early 40s.

I get the MU women's job isn't the best one out there.  But, they should be able to attract a better pool of candidates than what we are seeing.

Some of these coaches were contacted about the position.

[MUfan12]

Boggess hired at Toledo, so she is off the board.

[Marquette Fan]

I wonder what this is about at UWGB - https://x.com/gbphoenixwbb/status/1777790038199148557?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

[Dr. Blackheart]

Boggess hired at Toledo, so she is off the board.

So MU swinging big then?

[MUfan12]

I wonder what this is about at UWGB - https://x.com/gbphoenixwbb/status/1777790038199148557?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

Guessing he's calling it quits, or plans to after this coming season.

[Bears26]

I wonder what this is about at UWGB - https://x.com/gbphoenixwbb/status/1777790038199148557?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

Retirement?  He is a great Xs and Os coach.

[Marquette Fan]

Guessing he's calling it quits, or plans to after this coming season.

Yeah - guessing it’s that borseth is retiring.

[Tarragona]

Unless someone new is added to the mix, MUWBB is close to naming a coach, and unless something changes, or someone new is added to the mix, I believe it will be Kristen Gillespie. Officially, the response when asked was Barnes, Harper, Gillespie, unless someone else is added. (I do know of an additional name but at this time I don’t believe it will get to that.)

If it is Gillespie, her dad played college basketball with Doug Bruno at DePaul. Their families are long time friends. She has the same agent as a long list of familiar names of recent and not so recent, past MUWBB coaches.

When I previously posted that I knew of 2 people with mutual MU interest, those two people were Boggess and Gillespie. So, when Trilly/Skim tweeted the first 3 names, they weren’t names I had at that point. The next day, when he tweeted the next two names, those two looked more familiar to me.

A person advising MU with the search, does like to initially swing for the fences with bigger names and more established coaches. If unsuccessful, they then pivot to try to hire the best coach they can regardless of background, even if that coach is more obscure or less of a name.

Other than Barnes, Harper, Gillespie, and others I mentioned, I know of one other name not mentioned, but at this time I don’t believe it is going to get to that.

I would be surprised if there wasn’t an announcement soon.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Thank you for sharing this information.

[Bears26]

From a fan perspective, it’s a disappointing hire.  She has had minimal success as a head coach.  It may simply be that MU is happy with the state of the program and simply doesn’t want to spend the resources to upgrade.  It’s understandable given the current financial situation of private universities.  Given the prior info, I wonder if Boggess chose Toledo over MU.  Toledo’s program has more fan and community support than MU and is probably a better job, even if MU is in a better conference.

I wish Gillespie the best.  But, this feels like another mistake, just like Duffy.

[Marquette Fan]

Yes I’m very curious if Boggess turned down Marquette to take the Toledo job. 

[BHawk309]

Interesting take by Bears26- If it is Gillespie, it appears she took over ILL State 7 years ago.  She sounds like a winner to me. They were worst team in conf and won 10 total games the two years before she arrived in Bloomington. In her 7 years at ILL State, 132-82, 84-46 in MVC, 2 championships, 1 NCAA and 3 WNIT.  Had a player drafted in last years WNBA draft. 51-12 record at Lewis U before that. Coached with and played for Kay Yow at NC St. Looks like her staff recruits Wisconsin and midwest hard. Asso Head Coach is cousin Scott... son of Ripon Hall of Fame coach Bob Gillespie.

That being said... I think they hire a bigger name than her. Longer it goes is a good sign we are fishing for a whale.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Yes I’m very curious if Boggess turned down Marquette to take the Toledo job.

https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/ut/2024/04/10/toledo-women-s-basketball-coach-boggess-receives-5-year-deal-worth-450-000-annua/stories/20240410146

[MUfan12]

That being said... I think they hire a bigger name than her. Longer it goes is a good sign we are fishing for a whale.

Oregon State's coach?

[Mu8891]

So … does Toledo pay more than MU ?

If so … that’s embarrassing

[MUfan12]

So … does Toledo pay more than MU ?

No.

[Bears26]

Oregon State's coach?

Can't see it.  He is an alum.  Spent his whole coaching career in Oregon, I believe.  Why would he leave home for Milwaukee?  Doesn't make a lot of sense.

[MUfan12]

Can't see it.  He is an alum.  Spent his whole coaching career in Oregon, I believe.  Why would he leave home for Milwaukee?  Doesn't make a lot of sense.

They're also taking a major step down in conferences.

[Tarragona]

Some of the schools that have reached out to Kenzie Hare include:

Drake
Iowa State
Kanas
Kansas State
Nebraska
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Virginia Tech