About Dr. Day… If we go strictly by Quinoaberger’s criteria for hiring a Miami grad, a perfect hire would have been Don Treadwell, probably the single worst football hire. There is no formula for finding the next great coach. Jack Owens had long tenure at a very successful Big Ten program as the top assistant. Cleve Wright and Deunna Hendrix both had coached winning programs at division I or II. Being able to judge the coaches plan and drive and knowledge and character are really the keys.
Colleen Day Henderson is a Miami Hall of Fame basketball player, 5th in career rebounds 10th in steals, 11th in points. Watching her play she always had a high basketball IQ, was a very hard worker, and was a real leader on the court. She is also someone who loved Miami and took great pride in Miami. She has a bachelors degree, a master’s degree, and a doctorate ( Educational Leadership) all from Miami. She is a very impressive and accomplished person.
Colleen coached for many years on Maria Fantanarosa’s staff. Miami had a winning record during those years and won a MAC tournament championship. When Fantanarosa was let go, Coach Wright kept her on and made her his top assistant. When he was let go, she got a job at IUPUI for one year ( 22-10 WNIT). Then when Akron’s program fell to the bottom of the MAC, new coach Melissa Jackson hired her as the top assistant. This is her third year at Akron and the team has a winning record this year. The two previous years they had a .500 record and a losing season.
One thing that has completely tripped up our 3 previous women’s basketball coaches is that they had no MAC experience, and they all seemed to come in thinking that MAC basketball was just some ordinary mid major basketball conference. Power rankings and post season success would show that MAC women’s basketball is arguably the best mid major basketball in the country. Duffy, Wright, and Hendrix all had very poor first recruiting classes. Then after they had been in the MAC a year, their recruiting improved a great deal when they saw the level of player needed to compete against upper level MAC teams. So I think one of the things missing for all 3 of these coaches was knowledge of the MAC and what it takes to win at this level. It should be pointed out that ALL of Duffy’s success came with Wright’s recruits. Colleen Day has long term knowledge of the MAC and this recruiting footprint.
I will go back to my points about what a coach needs to succeed. The coach needs a plan and the drive and the character and the knowledge. They need to be able to sell their program and Miami to recruits and their family. Dr. Day has all these qualities. I think she would be great and would succeed.
This all probably sounds like I am a close personal friend of Colleen Day. I first watched her play in the state tournament when she was a SR. and watched her career at Miami. She has always been friendly and personable when I have talked to her, but we are not close friends at all. Now I was a friend of Jermaine Henderson when he was at Miami, but Colleen is just someone I have always been highly impressed by.
Having said all that, one of Quinoaberger’s comments that I do think makes sense is that although Coach Hendrix completely mishandled the transition period and her first year’s coaching strategies ( going to a completely different style than the roster she inherited was recruited to play doomed that season, letting anyone on the squad fire up 3’s regardless of shooting ability as well) since then she has started a rebuild process that might still eventually succeed. She should get at least another year and if there is solid improvement there then she should get year 5 of her contract. If there is not a jump in performance next year, then I would pull the plug.