History in the making

[PonyTales]

Historical move
Tenn. State AD will be first woman to coach D-I men's team


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee State athletic director Teresa Phillips will make history Thursday night when she becomes the first woman to coach a men's Division I basketball game.

Phillips suspended interim coach Hosea Lewis for one game Tuesday and decided that she will coach Tigers against Austin Peay. Lewis was suspended following Monday night's game with Eastern Kentucky in which 19 players were ejected after a bench-clearing brawl.

Only two women have ever coached Division I men's teams before, Mary Fenlon at Georgetown and Bernadette Locke at Kentucky, and both were assistants.

Phillips was not immediately available to comment Tuesday on becoming the first woman to coach a Division I men's team. A Vanderbilt graduate, she coached the Tennessee State women from 1989-2000 and was 212-189. She took a program that had been 2-25 and went 12-14 in her first season.

The Ohio Valley Conference is investigating the brawl and had not issued any punishments as of Tuesday night. But Phillips didn't wait to take action after speaking with the OVC's interim commissioner.

"Monday night's altercation is certainly not indicative of the outstanding athletic spirit of the OVC or Tennessee State University," Phillips said in a statement.

Phillips will be the third person to coach the Tigers (2-20, 0-11) this season.

Nolan Richardson III resigned Jan. 8, two weeks after Phillips suspended him indefinitely for bringing a gun into the school's gym. Richardson admitted he got the gun out of his car during an argument with Lewis, then his assistant, when only four players showed up for a Christmas night practice.

Phillips named Lewis interim coach upon Richardson's resignation.

"We look forward to completing our season on a positive note," Phillips said.

[Nacho]

Well I may as well be the first to print it. How about Rompola as a d-1 men's coach at SMU?

[PonyGirl]

You may be the first to print it, but there are a lot of us who have thought it. She might actually do well and gain acceptance faster than some women's coaches because she can actually outplay some men's players.

But she and Pat Summitt should get a shot, among others. They would do fine, I would think.

[Nacho]

I've been thinking about this for a long time. I wouldn't mind it. I don't know how recruits would take it.

[StangEsq]

I think there are a lot of women's coaches that could coach a men's team, but i agree that they'd have a really tough time recruiting top HS players.

[couch 'em]

What about hiring the cheapest coach we can find to be the "official" coach, but letting Rhonda be an assistant and do all the actual coaching? It would solve both problems.

[ponyte]

If I were a Bball player, I would not want to be coached by a women. Especially in college. This is my perspective, but I wanted something different from women in college other than Bball knowledge.

[PX]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by couch 'em:
<B>What about hiring the cheapest coach we can find to be the "official" coach, but letting Rhonda be an assistant and do all the actual coaching? It would solve both problems.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Interesting, because thats almos the opposite of what happened at La. Tech 20 years ago. When the Tech women were rising to become a national power
their head coach was Sonja Hogg, and the assistants were Gary Blair and Leon Barmore. Everyone knew that Hogg was coach in name only, she recruited, did public appearances, etc. etc., and as far as the public were concerned she was the head coach, but Blair and Barmore actually ran the practices and did the actual basketball coaching. Hogg left Tech and became head coach at Baylor, where she recruited well but never made the NCAA tournament (and i believe was 0-7 vs. Rhompola), Barmore stayed at Tech and maintained their status as a national power, and Blair built a top-10 program at Univ. of Arkansas.
I doubt you would ever get a male head coach to accept that type of situation, and I doubt you would be able to get Rhonda to switch to mens basketball. Recruiting contacts take years to establish, and she is pretty happy with where she is, switching would mean having to start scouting and recruiting players she's never heard of before.

[SMUguy]

couch'em's got a pretty interesting idea there. How would you like to be the puppet head coach who has Rhonda breathing down your neck every second? I imagine I'd do exactly what she told me to.