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hmmm....

It will be interesting to see who they bring in to replace these coaches

you think so?

he really hit the nail on the head with that one didnt he

Head coach needs to go.

You can not be serious!! That could possibly be the dumbest thing I have ever heard.

Well we are all entitled to our own opinion and my opinion is that she can not coach a lick.

but she did take them to the elite 8 two years ago..right? Or was that someone else

Checola takes them to the Final Four two years ago, and then posts 17 wins a year ago, but she can't coach? You had to expect a drop off last year. Anytime you lose a player as good as Carrone Harris, you can't stay on that level.

What makes you think she can't coach?

Team plays with no discipline. Yes, they went to the final four two years ago with excellent players. And I will give you that, from what I understand, she had a lot to do with the recruiting of those players.

However, we have lost several games over the last two years in which we had the superior talent (Tech last year at home for example). These games were lost due to our lack of discipline and her poor game management skills.

Two years ago we not only had a very talented team but they basically coached themselves (or Carone Harris did) during the winning streak.

It is my opinion that while she may be a good recruiter and a good asst. coach, she is in over her head and we will never have the kind of success we are used to again. This is a shame because women's basketball is a sport in which we should compete very well in the SLC because it is, overall, a very weak D-I conference.

Get used to it. Short of throwing Rush Harding's entire fortune at Pat Summitt or Geno Auriemma, UCA's not going to have the success it once did. There won't be NCAA tournaments most years, conference titles within reach most years, and so forth. That's just not going to happen at Div. 1 like it did at D-II.

Even if the Southland is weak, it's certainly no given that you'll just shred that conference year-in, year-out. After that, you still have to play an OOC schedule and – as a Southland member – most of those will be road games at larger opponents. Wins in those will be hard to come by. A shoddy OOC record, even with a good SLC record, will still make for a subpar overall RPI. So even in the event you do make the NCAAs, it'll likely be as a low seed, meaning you'll be first-round fodder for the Tennessees, Connecticuts, and Dukes of the world.


As for her being in over her head – yeah she's not perfect by any means. She's got some things to work on (like getting some assistants). But you know what she is? A third-year head coach. In two years she's got 45 wins and that's going through her learning phase. What you're seeing is not a completed product. Coaches, like players, learn and grow as their careers go on. Wanting to axe a coach with just two years as a head coach anywhere is like wanting to rip the scholarship of a freshman because he didn't drop 20 ppg and committed too many TOs.

You fire her, who are you going to get right now? Who wants to come work for a paltry wage at a provisional D-I institution that can't compete for jack squat for the next few years? Especially when said institution has fans with inflated expectations. That doesn't look just too terribly appealing to me.

At this level you have to build a program slowly, and there's no quick fix that will make it a contender immediately. You give the current coach time to grow and mature into the role and then, if after five years or so you don't see continued improvement then maybe you start to look around. But not before. Not unless there are some improprieties or something. But for on-court deals? No sir.

That she's a good recruiter and an engaging speaker makes her pretty appealing in my eyes. Things like that are harder to teach/learn and have to come naturally. It's a lot easier to learn intricacies of Xs and Os and other coaching duties (which comes with time) than it is to learn how to win people over.

Ron Marvel, a man I figure has forgotten more about basketball than you'll ever know, thought it was a good idea to hand her the job. He obviously saw something. So, given that and from what I've seen the past two years myself, I'm more inclined to give her a fair amount of time to prove herself (particularly at the Div. 1 level) than to make a brash, snap decision of firing her.

While you do make some valid points, I would like to address a couple that are not so valid:

(1) Paltry salary? There are lots, I repeat lots, of coaches out there who are more qualified and more experienced than she is who are making much less money and would jump at the chance to come to UCA (some are at the D-II level, some are D-I assts., and some are even at the H.S. level); and

(2) Engaging speaker, LOL!

1. I had no idea you'd sat down with a number of highly-qualified, low-paid coaches and gauged their interest in the position. Who are these coaches?

And do you really think it'd be a move up to bring in a high school coach?

2. I enjoy listening to her speak and I know several others who would confer. She'll crack jokes and straight up tell it how it is sometimes. I guess some might not like it, but others do. There's nobody though that will please everybody. So to each his own on that.

So nice job of the "LOL", as that is a great way to invalidate an opinion. You got me.

Coaches are, for the most part, quite mercenary. For that matter, most or us are as we would go where the money is to better our quality of life and that of our families. Checola makes more money than most, if not all, women's coaches in the GSC and several of them are better coaches and would welcome the opportunity to coach at UCA where they would have more resources to work with. And no, I am not going to mention names.

I think Checola is a fine person. She is not a gifted speaker and, to make matters worse, she shuns opportunities to speak out in the community and spread the word about UCA and the Sugar Bears.

I agree, everyone is entitled to their opinion...well here is mine, I think that she is a new coach learning the ropes. I think that the trip to the Final Four a couple of years ago was due to two things, her abilities and the leadership within the team. I think that given a few more years as a head coach she will become a much better coach and promoter (sp?) for the program than she is at this time. She does need to get out a little more and support the program..does she have a coach's show on T.V., or did she ever?
Anyway, that is my opinion but I think we need to give a several more years in D-I before we pass any kind of adjustment on her coaching abilities.