Are there any expectations for the Women's Hoops program

[Blackhat]

or does no one care?

[jficke13]

no one cares; they are title IX filler.

[6746jonesr]

Continued mediocrity.  Mitchell's players just do not improve over the course of their careers.  It is either a recruiting problem or a coaching problem, or both.  a number of her players have very good freshman years, but never get any better.  Either the players do not have the drive to get better, or the coaches have not figured out how to motivate them.  Regardless, evidently Cottingham doesn't care.

[jaybilaswho?]

If you are talking about fans. I would say that the general sentiment is apthetic. There are a good share of die-hard fans that go to the games, but no one, that I ever knew in school, went to the ladies games just because they had nothing else to do. I wanted to go to some of them because they were playing a ranked opponent, but never did.

Are women's games still a part of the Fanatics package?

[Ari Gold]

I wanted to bring this up some point after MU's season ended. I was going to ask if Teri Mitchell's time at MU is coming to a close or is Marquette happy with a middle of the pack women's team that is a WNIT constant.

I'd love to see MU become a Baylor, Stanford or UConn level team but that's a LONG shot. I'd settle for some improvement. What would it take to improve the team?

[Canadian Dimes]

Mitchell should be fired for a young energetic coach that could possibly bring some energy to the program.  Not that i would expect the community to embrace a new coach  that is not how womens BBall is.  but a new coach might be able to energize the program thru recruitng and game performance that over time could creat  a following.

bottom line is Mitchelss recruiting is terrible and Mu basically has a .500 program 10 or so years in.  We are not talking major salaries or buy outs here.  time for some fresh blood to see if someone else can do a better job.  

[GGGG]

Wisconsin is a Garden of Eden for men's recruits when compared to women's recruits.  With some exceptions, the best players are lower level D1 talent at best.

[Badgerhater]

The women's hoops team at my first alma mater, South Dakota State, in the past two years has gone to the NCAA twice (first two years eligible), won an NCAA tourney game (two losses were to final four teams), won two conference championships, has been ranked in the Top 25 and has a winning record against BCS conference teams.  They do this with talent from the Dakotas, NE, IA and MN.

No reason why MU can't have similar results -- minus the conference championships (let's be realistic -- UCONN, Rutgers, etc).

Time to not renew Mitchell's contract.

[mug644]

My recollection is that the women's team was pretty good a few years ago. Didn't they make the tournament for something like 3 out of 5 years? If so, what's the difference between then and now?

[GGGG]

Interesting article on Jim Jabir, Mitchell's predecessor, who clearly regretted leaving MU.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=4888741

"I work really, really hard at this, and I love my job and I love Dayton," Jabir said. "I love that they gave me a chance. I was kind of a down-and-out coach. I left Marquette when it was great and stupidly left like a top-15 recruiting class, top-12 recruiting class, went to Providence, worked my butt off for six years and couldn't get it turned around. And then I'm kind of like, 'OK, I'm a used car salesman.'


BTW, he's now head coach at Dayton.  They won 3 his first year, but finished 25-8 last year.  Maybe he'd come back???

[jficke13]

Mitchell will stick around for two reasons. 1. Everyone at the University loves her. 2. The University simply does not prioritize women's basketball. She isn't an 0-the season type of embarassment; she's merely mediocre. That's sufficient for the University. Because there is no priority on the women's bball team's success, the devil you know (who happens to be a saint in person) is way better than the devil you don't.

[bma725]

Interesting article on Jim Jabir, Mitchell's predecessor, who clearly regretted leaving MU.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/columns/story?columnist=hays_graham&id=4888741

"I work really, really hard at this, and I love my job and I love Dayton," Jabir said. "I love that they gave me a chance. I was kind of a down-and-out coach. I left Marquette when it was great and stupidly left like a top-15 recruiting class, top-12 recruiting class, went to Providence, worked my butt off for six years and couldn't get it turned around. And then I'm kind of like, 'OK, I'm a used car salesman.'

Left Marquette when it was great?  Did he forget that he went 8-20 here his last year?

[GGGG]

Left Marquette when it was great?  Did he forget that he went 8-20 here his last year?

By "it was great" I think he meant the situation he was in with some recent success and the recruiting classes that were coming in.

[SaintPaulWarrior]

I don't follow Women's B-ball at all but I do recall that they did get the best player in MN from St. Paul Central a couple of years ago....and as I recall a pretty high national recruit.  How has she been doing and has she improved at all?

[77ncaachamps]

Wasn't that Angel Robinson? I think she's gone now.

I do think it's time for one of the assistants to step-up into the slot. Move Mitchell to the front office or out and give it to someone who won't take their job or the program for granted.

The NIT championship was great...but being in the NCAAs is what attracts the best talent to MU WBB and that adds to our reputation as a University.

I think.

[SaintPaulWarrior]

Wasn't that Angel Robinson? I think she's gone now.

Now that I know her name I looked it up and she was a junior this year and ranked 28th in the country coming out of high school.

[Canadian Dimes]

jabir was dipping his wick and had to get out of town.

[PaintTouches]

There was a strange dip in play after the WNIT championship two years ago. They were ranked in the top 25 to start the next season, had Krystal Ellis, an All-Big East First Teamer and leading scorer in school history, and had a great recruiting class with Angel Robinson and Jessica Pachko coming in.

Something happened between Ellis and Terri Mitchell and the season fell apart. Ellis ended up riding the bench for the majority of the last part of last year.

This year, they had only one recruit, one good player, and one rebounder. The recruit, Sarina Simmons, traveled every other possession but played fairly well because of her great athleticism. The good player, Robinson, was a pre season all big east selection, but sucked this year. She led the Big East in turnovers and couldn't hit a shot to save her life. The rebounder, Georgie Jones, quit the team three games in (some rumored she was pregnant but no one ever said anything other than she left the team [and the school]). Georgie was also Angel's best friend from high school so who knows what impact that had on Angel.

With all that said, the team was decent defensively and pitiful on offense this year. They have decent recruits and aren't losing much, but next year should be more of the same. Low scoring, boring loss after loss. WNIT invite and first or second round defeat. Terri has lost her team in back to back years, nothing says she will do any better this year.   

[Brewtown Andy]

Are women's games still a part of the Fanatics package?

Yes they are, but based on the attendance I've seen, no one is aware of this.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

They're getting a couple of good recruits from the Chicago area so I think there's hope.

[Marquette Fan]

Left Marquette when it was great?  Did he forget that he went 8-20 here his last year?

They lost three 1,000+ players to graduation the season prior to that - 1994-95.  Yes you can blame some of that on Jabir though as he was the one responsible for recruiting.  It was expected that 1995-96 would be a rough season and things were looking great for 1996-97.  He had a great recruiting class with Abbie Willenborg, Lisa Oldenburg, Kiesha Oliver and Ayesha Rembert coming in (local product Vanessa Rieder was also part of that class also and left after 2 seasons).  Willenborg, Oldenburg and Oliver were all 1,000+ point scorers and Rembert was a great player who left (or was kicked off the team -  not sure which) after her frosh year.  Jabir really got things rolling here at MU and then stumbled at Providence.