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New Women's Basketball Coach JR Payne

When Arkansas hired Jimmy Dykes, a former player whose coaching experience was exclusively on the men's side and took a 20-year hiatus to be a broadcaster, to be their women's coach, I had a problem with it. The guy he replaced was fired after a 19-win season and Dykes followed that act by delivering 18 wins his first year and 12 wins the next. That looks like a Lynn Swann hire.

Paul Westhead at Oregon seemed outside the box and could have been different enough to work. It didn't. He at least had WNBA experience, but prior to that job he hadn't ventured into coaching a women's team. These retread hires are seemingly to get a name that will sell tickets initially but if I was a coach, male or female, who was building my career on women's basketball experience and the athletic director went with one of those choices I'd be incredibly pissed. Someone who doesn't have the resume for the job but still gets it because of the name is already starting with a huge disadvantage.
 
aik said:
When Arkansas hired Jimmy Dykes, a former player whose coaching experience was exclusively on the men's side and took a 20-year hiatus to be a broadcaster, to be their women's coach, I had a problem with it. The guy he replaced was fired after a 19-win season and Dykes followed that act by delivering 18 wins his first year and 12 wins the next. That looks like a Lynn Swann hire.

Paul Westhead at Oregon seemed outside the box and could have been different enough to work. It didn't. He at least had WNBA experience, but prior to that job he hadn't ventured into coaching a women's team. These retread hires are seemingly to get a name that will sell tickets initially but if I was a coach, male or female, who was building my career on women's basketball experience and the athletic director went with one of those choices I'd be incredibly pissed. Someone who doesn't have the resume for the job but still gets it because of the name is already starting with a huge disadvantage.
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That happens on the men's side too. I don't think I've ever seen it work out when they hire the big name who hasn't coached. Works ok in the NBA, but college is different. Compound that with crossing over into a very different game with WBB and it makes no sense to me. I'd hire the gym rat who has paid her dues in the women's game every time over a "name". Take CU, for example. Jay Humphries is a legend in CU MBB and has a good resume as an NBA assistant. I think he would have been a bad hire for WBB Coach.
 
BehindEnemyLines said:
@buffgal - living down here I've heard the story of the near demise of the ou program. It's a pretty incredible story.

I hope JR is the next Sherri Coale. And if she isn't, I hope CU keeps searching until they find that level of coach.

The program deserves it.
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Yes, the program and the players deserve the best coach that the AD can bring to Boulder.

Buffnik said:
Basically, there's equal opportunity for male coaches in WBB but zero opportunity for female coaches in MBB.

While we can debate the reasons why that is the case, I hope we all at least agree that this is out of whack.
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Totally out of whack and the NCAA needs to figure out the reasons and end it.
 
While I loved Jay Humphries as a player, I would have been very unhappy had he been named the women's coach.
 
buffgal said:
Yes, the program and the players deserve the best coach that the AD can bring to Boulder.



Totally out of whack and the NCAA needs to figure out the reasons and end it.
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When a women coach starts winning big, other programs will emulate their success. The NCAA can't mandate success. There are great female coaches and as they continue to rise, this will be self correcting. Calling for NCAA envolvement scares me.
 
jsmilkst said:
Not very useful personal note: had dinner tonight with a former Santa Clara and now Stanford trainer. Says JR is the truth, loves her style, re emphasized her ability to connect and recruit.
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Great to hear. It's hard to know from limited early impressions, but she does come off as high energy and very positive/personable. I can definitely see players wanting to play for her.
 
buffgal said:
Just wish we were hearing of another assistant coach and some commitments.
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Absolutely agree. Article in Daily Camera over a week ago said they were looking to fill the unused scholarships; looking at high school, JUCO, and transfer to find players who could be the most help. It made it sound like they were close but there has been nary a peep. I did read that the English frontcourt player they were pursuing has made her decision but is not making anything public yet. So I keep hoping to read some good news on that front. But again... crickets.
 
jsmilkst said:
Not very useful personal note: had dinner tonight with a former Santa Clara and now Stanford trainer. Says JR is the truth, loves her style, re emphasized her ability to connect and recruit.
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I talked to someone last week who said that the early reviews are that everyone loves her. Like Nik said - high energy and personable.
 
Obviously not anything official or definitive yet, but I wonder if the below instagram (based on her shirt and hashtag) indicates the/ a new Asst. WBB Coach is Alexandria (Alex) Earl.
(Seems at minimum very reasonable given that Coach Payne had just hired her last summer to coach at Santa Clara (per http://santaclarabroncos.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20150728xj2uyr) .

Ms. Earl was at ASU for 4 seasons during her playing career, so does have some relatively recent Pac experience. (looks like her senior playing year was 2012 per her player bio- http://www.thesundevils.com/ViewArt...29&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=30300&ATCLID=207923629 .) Hopefully, at minimum, she can coach up our shooters so a few of them can get close to the 44% 3 point shooting % she recorded her senior year!

 
Virginia Beach, recruit together(J Nared Washington AC ), wearing a Buff shirt, #GoBuffs.....well Boo Williams tourney was this weekend in Hampton, VA, so I guess we may be welcoming Alex to Boulder. No surprise here, I fully expected her to be hired and I think she will be just great here with this staff. She impressed me when she took that job at Lamar CC right out of college. The girls just loved her there and almost went into mourning when she left after a year to go to EW. Every staff needs a young coach who can get down to the players level when it's needed and I think she will fill that need.
 
Last season, that coach was Jamie Carey and the new staff needs somebody to fill the role.
 
I took a look at Alex's twitter account (yeah, I know, "stalker"). Interesting thing I saw was a bunch of former players, from Lamar, from Eastern Washington, and from schools where she has not coached (like Talia Walton of the Huskies) all wishing her a happy birthday. That, to me, supports that at least some of her players really liked her and have stayed in touch with her.
 
What is the difference between the director of player development and an assistant coach? Can the director of player development recruit?
 
From the Camera on Jones! A center, a true center!

In addition, Payne said that 6-foot-2 center Eleanor Jones, from the United Kingdom, has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Buffs this next season.

"She's coming and she's going to be a huge help," Payne said of Jones, who has been playing for the Leicester Riders in England.

Jones, 18, didn't start playing basketball until four years ago but has been a quick study. Playing for Scotland's under-16 national team in 2013, she was named to the all-tournament team at the European Championships after averaging 9.8 points, 13.5 rebounds and two blocks.

Born in Salisbury, England, Jones played for England's under-18 national team at the 2014 and 2015 European Championships.
 
jsmilkst said:
Not very useful personal note: had dinner tonight with a former Santa Clara and now Stanford trainer. Says JR is the truth, loves her style, re emphasized her ability to connect and recruit.
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The Santa Clara/Stanford trainer is correct. Was a helluva a 6' PG as a player, great recruiter along with her husband and will coach the daylights out of Colorado. Straight shooter and genuine as the day is long!
 
buffgal said:
It bothers me that with each passing year there are fewer and fewer female head coaches in women's basketball. Yes, there are many talented coaches in the US. It also bothers me that women don't seem to get second chances at being a head coach if they fail at a school, but men do.

It bothers me greatly that Santa Clara replaced Coach Payne with Bill Carr, who has never coached women's basketball. From the Santa Clara press release: "While this will be Bill's first time coaching on the women's side, I have been fortunate to know him for more than 10 years and tracked his accomplishments," Baumgartner said. "He is a great teacher of the game and proven winner who values the balance between academics, athletics and the student-athlete experience."

So tell me again why a woman can't coach men's basketball if it's so easy to jump from the men's game to the women's game?
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You're not the only one it bothers, Buffgal. The new Santa Clara AD came from Oregon where she worked for the previous OR AD who has a friendship with Carr and on & on it goes.....
 
JackVcr said:
You may not know that the day JR had her introductory press conference with your AD, her husband was in England meeting with Eleanor & her family.
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It was reported in local press. And of course it paid off :)

BTW, if you read posts on all-Buffs questioning JR's hire keep in mind that we haven't seen a lot of success on the court with the previous two head coaches, so there has been a bit of skepticism expressed in earlier posts - me included. At the same time, I think most people who post here regularly can keep an open mind.

I do hope that I will have the opportunity to meet and chat with JR and Toriano sometime before the season starts.
 
JackVcr said:
You may not know that the day JR had her introductory press conference with your AD, her husband was in England meeting with Eleanor & her family.
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Yes, I knew that. I was at the "meet & greet" that our AD had for WBB season ticket holders that day. But meeting with a player & her family does not guarantee the player will sign. It was on twitter over a week ago that Eleanor had made up her mind where she was going to go but was not ready to make it known publically so I've been anxiously waiting to hear, with my fingers crossed, hoping that her decision was to come to Colorado.
 
MarkW said:
It was reported in local press. And of course it paid off :)

BTW, if you read posts on all-Buffs questioning JR's hire keep in mind that we haven't seen a lot of success on the court with the previous two head coaches, so there has been a bit of skepticism expressed in earlier posts - me included. At the same time, I think most people who post here regularly can keep an open mind.

I do hope that I will have the opportunity to meet and chat with JR and Toriano sometime before the season starts.
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I hope you get the time to go meet them, too, Mark. They are delightful young people and have quite the "turn around" record. Thanks for your kind comment & really all I've seen are optimistic comments about JR. She's a good one, her success in turning around two awful programs in SUU & SCU and being the first hire by Kelly Graves at Gonzaga to turn that awful program around hopefully bodes well for the Buffs! By all means go meet J and Toriano when you can and tell J you've been chatting with her Dad in Peru. That will tickle her. We are retired in Lima but will be in Boulder in November.
 
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