Miami women at Kent tonight at 7:00 on ESPN3

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.

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Appreciate the insight.

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Who is Bryant? Do you mean Cleve Wright?
By the way, Cleve has gone 31-5, 25-6 and is 13-1 this year since he returned to Gannon.

I believe Cleve Bryant was a failed Ohio U football coach from the early 90s

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He was a pretty good QB for the Bobcats. Led them to their last two MAC championships in ‘67 and ‘68. Was actually Miami’s QB/WR coach in ‘77 and followed Dick Crum to UNC.

UT game is going just about as expected. 34-18 Rocketttes with 3:42 in the second quarter.

45-24 at the half.I thought the COVID year was the “winter of our discontent” but this year is the Black Plague of Miami athletics.

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Well written, Dick.

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Just one time instead of feeling “disgruntled” as a Miami fan, I’d like to feel “gruntled”. Is that too much to ask?

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86-63 final. UT is in a different class from us right now.

I watched some of it tonight because the Shakos had the game

My god are we terrible

I am 52 and I think I could beat half our team in a race from one end of the court to the other

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I just choked on red wine as I read this laughing. Well done.

Cleve Bryant was a QB on an undefeated OU team over 50 years ago. Later a Bobcat head coach ( not such a good record as a coach). My mind is full of useless facts like that. I corrected it above.

This was our 3rd game in 5 days and the first two were on the road. I had low expectations coming in and we lived up to them. Two things ticked me off. Twice, at the end of a quarter, with Toledo in the bonus, we pressured and fouled a dribbler with 2 seconds to go, once 25 feet from the basket, the other time 60 feet from the basket. I saw no recognition of the stupidity of that, no corrections, no coach yelling about it, or calling the player over and correcting them. That is ridiculous.

Second, Toledo is really good this year because they had a gaping hole at center last year and they recruited a 6-5 transfer from Indiana and a 6-3 freshman from Michigan, both are good and not only tall, but also big all over. Anyway, our post player played behind them all night long, giving them a free entry pass into the post at any time. Plus half the time the Toledo post player caught the ball inside the little arc in front of the basket with our player behind them. All they had to do was turn and shoot a 2 footer. I thought that was also ridiculously poor post defense. Have any of the coaches or post players ever watch Precious and how hard he works to front bigger post players and deny them the free entry into the low post???

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As I mentioned earlier, he was also Miami’s QB/WR coach under Dick Crum in ‘77.

Preaching to the choir here,Dick. When I was coaching high school bb I told my (often undersized) post players “it would be better that you were never born than you allow the player you are defending to touch the ball in the post”. We worked constantly on defending the post and also “bumping “ any players passing through the area. “We own the key’ enter at your own risk” was our mantra. I had one small college coach watch a practice and say “damn, we should use that drill”.

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I see I got my Toledo comments in the wrong thread.