I had not looked at the roster for awhile, but two prominent names have disappeared. Both have started a lot of games and one averaged double digits her freshman year, the other one last year. Neither Edyn Battle or Katie Davidson are listed on the roster. Earlier we had two girls transfer out in Jada Duckett ( who is now at Old Dominion) and Tajah Foster Walker ( don’t know where she went). Tihanna Fulton also graduated and moved on with a year of eligibility remaining.
We did pick up two transfers, one, Sierra Morrow, was the starting center for Bradley, the other a Chinese power forward, Jessie Dai, who played at a small school ( Odessa college) last season.
I think we are down to 11 scholarship players plus one recruited walk on.
If this team has only 11 healthy players, they are going to get hammered this year if any injuries happen. Shocking there aren’t any more walk on’s (sounds like only 1) or more transfer in’s
Occasionally, as in Megan Duffy’s case, the coach’s competency, organizational skills, recruiting abilities…and winning is so obvious, that the money just has to be found (as, say for instance, via a loan from university reserves) to match an offer from another school. If the evaluation is done correctly, the ROI should easily offset the loan and the move becomes a win-win.
Another way to accomplish this is to build a fan base such that one or more wealthy donors can be tapped to donate the funds needed to pay the salary increase used to match a poaching offer.
Of course, Miami doesn’t probably use these techniques to lock in a winner. I doubt they’ve ever even thought of stuff like this…and so, winners leave for greener pastures and Miami is left to try their luck in the marketplace where the odds of success are considerable longer.
My memory of that situation is that Duffy visited Marquette, was over whelmed by the offer, and signed a contract, so that our AD had no opportunity to match or better the offer.
I think she went from around $250 thousand to $600 thousand.
Women’s basketball was drawing fewer fans than men’s basketball even when the women’s team was at large tournament contenders and the men’s team was struggling to win 13 games. I’m not sure where you think this money was going to come from.
The problem wasnt that Duffy left cause that was eventually going to happen
The problem was being completely unprepared for that possibility. If I recall correctly the hiring was way late- we lost all of our recruits but one and we didnt ever fill out the staff
You always need a list of 3-4 names just in case your coach gets hired somewhere else or gets hit by a bus
@DICK and I have been going to women’s games since 1980 and the fan base is what it is, a few die hards and the player’s families. That’s not going to change and there is no point at throwing marketing money at the program. Also, Duffy was always headed for bigger things, I don’t think she would have stayed even if we matched the money.
Yep, we should always try. Toledo and Bee Gee each had periods of years when they had huge crowds for women’s basketball. Toledo still has big crowds compared to us and the Duke game will bring a big crowd for them. Money used to promote a program if it’s football,women’s basketball or e-sports is not wasted.