It's OFFICIAL - Paula Buscher is announced as NEW head coach at SIUE

[ColBill60]

Candidates for BU Head Coaching Position

IF BU is looking for a prime candidate for the job, look no further than Mickie DeMoss. Coach DeMoss was an assistant for Pat Summit at Tennessee for about 20 years, also an assistant to Gale Gostenkors at Texas, and was head coach at Kentucky. She chose to leave Tenn when Pat Summit retired and is currently as assistant with the Indiana WNBA team. She's a winner and her credientals are the highest in the profession. If BU wants to elevate its program, she can do it.

[Da Coach]

IF BU is looking for a prime candidate for the job, look no further than Mickie DeMoss. Coach DeMoss was an assistant for Pat Summit at Tennessee for about 20 years, also an assistant to Gale Gostenkors at Texas, and was head coach at Kentucky. She chose to leave Tenn when Pat Summit retired and is currently as assistant with the Indiana WNBA team. She's a winner and her credientals are the highest in the profession. If BU wants to elevate its program, she can do it.

I have heard her name already from someone who is very involved with the women's college basketball scene. I was not too familiar with her, but after looking her up, she is highly qualified and would be a great candidate for BU to take a look at. I hope she has applied.

[tornado]

A couple articles mentioning Paula Buscher...

-First this was a banner year in firings and hirings in women's D-I basketball...
73 Division I schools changed head coaches, with four of them still looking and their spot still open....Bradley being one of them. Just about half were filled with male hires....

http://womhoops.blogspot.com/2012/06/guru-college-report-updating-coaching.html

The oddest hire was at Northwestern State, where the hire was NOT one person, but TWO -- "co-head coaches" ...a married couple, Scott & Brooke Stoehr.
Part of the reasoning of "Co-Head Coaches" is that Brooke is expecting their 2nd child and may be unavailable during some of the crucial recruiting period and preseason.......

http://www.nsudemons.com/news/2012/4/4/WBB_0404123434.aspx

http://www.nsudemons.com/news/2012/4/18/WBB_0418123340.aspx

-Also in this article Paula lays out some of her philosophies and reasons for wanting the SIUE job

http://www.theintelligencer.com/local_sports/article_63c4ca9a-baed-11e1-b6ac-001a4bcf887a.html

[Old Coach]

It's awfully tough to get a sitting head coach to leave his/her program this time of year.

[patrick_o'brian]

How about Rhett Wierzba? Former DBO at Evansville and an assistant at Maryland and currently at Mercer. He also has local ties being a graduate of Farmington high School. His brother Ben is Head Men's Coach at UIS and his father was long time coaching legend and memeber of the GPSHF. Probably not in the running but he meets alot of requirements. Just a pipe dream.

[Old Coach]

How about Rhett Wierzba? Former DBO at Evansville and an assistant at Maryland and currently at Mercer. He also has local ties being a graduate of Farmington high School. His brother Ben is Head Men's Coach at UIS and his father was long time coaching legend and memeber of the GPSHF. Probably not in the running but he meets alot of requirements. Just a pipe dream.

It seems like it would be a tough transition considering that he's never recruited female athletes, and likely wouldn't be very dialed in.

[Braveman]

Who is Ashley Kelly? Is it this coach- Ashlee Kelly?

I believe all those names are assistant coaches elsewhere.
I think these are correct-
Michelle Nason- Marquette
Alex Ivansheck- Ithaca College (D3)
Carol Owens- Notre Dame
Stephanie Norman- Louisville
Kia Damon- Penn State
Jenni Fitzgerald- Iowa
Ashley Kelly- Iona
Kara Cassidy- Penn
Amy Cherubini- Butler

Those all look like respectable assistants, but none have any successful head coaching experience at a D1 school, do they? Note: Carol Owens did coach Northern Illinois for 5 losing years before returning to Notre Dame as an assistant. What distinguishes them from the other thousand D1 assistants? Does Bradley want to hire another school's assistant, especially assistants from a low D1, or a D3 school like Ithaca, losing programs like Iona and Penn?
What do you think makes them qualified candidates to be Bradley's head coach? Shouldn't we have the same minimum criteria we had for choosing a men's head coach last year, such as successful head coaching experience?

Yes, I meant Ashlee- sorry for the misspelling. And I did not suggest them as actual candidates, just the "type" you may look at. I do not know what the criteria that BU AD will use, and my post was made prior to me looking at the job posting.

WHile D-1 head coaching experience would be nice, a job like BU's usually comes from a head coach from a lower Division or a recruiter type assistant.

This is why the names I threw out there do not have head coach attached to them... SInce this is a message board, and filled with opinions, that is mine...

[Old Coach]

Yes, I meant Ashlee- sorry for the misspelling. And I did not suggest them as actual candidates, just the "type" you may look at. I do not know what the criteria that BU AD will use, and my post was made prior to me looking at the job posting.

WHile D-1 head coaching experience would be nice, a job like BU's usually comes from a head coach from a lower Division or a recruiter type assistant.

This is why the names I threw out there do not have head coach attached to them... SInce this is a message board, and filled with opinions, that is mine...

Based on what I've been told, your opinion is pretty good.

[Da Coach]

I agree, Braveman knows more basketball than most of us. He'd probably make a pretty good coach himself.

Can anyone recall recent examples of a men's coach or assistant that took a head coaching job in women's basketball? I am sure it's happened before, but it isn't common.

And of course there is one somewhat similar example in Bradley's past. Coach Stowell, after he had retired from coaching for a while came back to Bradley as the women's coach. Wasn't it when the program was first established?

[tornado]

Can anyone recall recent examples of a men's coach or assistant that took a head coaching job in women's basketball? I am sure it's happened before, but it isn't common....

When former NBA, George Mason & Loyola Marymount University Head Coach Paul Westhead's days of coaching D-I men's basketball were over - he started coaching the women - and is the current head coach of women's basketball at Oregon where Dana Altman coaches the men.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2009/03/oregon_to_name_new_womens_bask.html

[Braveman]

Coach Stowell had two years at the helm and was the third ever women's coach... He had 1 winning season at 19-8 and of course had Judy Burns to run his offense...

Overall, BU Women have struggled since playing first season in 1975-76..

Annelle Griffin was 5-24 in her two years
Jan Winkler was 77-80 in 4 years, with all four winning seasons and a best of 20-9
Joe Stowell was 33-22 in two years, with one winning season

Angela Beck took over in 1983 as the ladies joined the Gateway Conference and she went 38-44 from 83-86 with a best effort of 16-12 in her only winning season

Lisa Boyer was here for 10 years and went 123-150 with 3 winning seasons and a best of 17-11...

Donna Freitag went 37-69 from 1996-1999 with one winning season (her first) at 16-12

Paula Buscher went 167-188 in 12 years, with 5 winning seasons and a school best 21 wins one year...

Best conference finishes- 3rd under Boyer in Gateway in 91/92
3rd under Buscher in MVC in 2009/2010

Career BU women's basketball record- 466-528

[Future Walk-On]

EDIT:

I mean I believe it would be nice to have a solid women's program...

And does anyone think she was quietly pushed out?