...back to what you guys were saying about the ladies...

[SMUFan]

So what kind of players are signed for next year? I'd heard Coach Rompola had landed some real talent. True/false?

[Prof X]

I agree that the team has gone through a lot this year. But it seems that every year is full of excuses as to why they haven't reached post season play. Basically, I'm tired of hearing "just wait till next season."

I'm ready for the NCAA's again! It's been 4 years! Has Rompola lost her touch?

I agree with you smumustang61....Rhonda has lost her touch.....I mean four years since a NCAA appearance...where's the consistency?? Most NCAA worthy teams only barely miss the tournament. SMU hasn't even post a .500 season since they went in 2000. You know, Dement, was cut loose after a couple of bad seasons. When is Copeland gonna tell Rhonda to "hit the road"?

I have to comment here, because a great deal of what you’re saying isn’t very factual, starting with this statement. This season was the first time Rhonda has ever been under .500, so to say they haven’t been over.500 since 2000 is a falsehood. If you really want to compare Rompola to Dement, go back and look through the 2 teams history and you will find that with very few exceptions the womens team has had a better overall record, a higher RPI and SOS, and a higher finish in the conference standings, almost every year, including this season. In her first 10 seasons, Rompola had as many NCAA tournament appearances and 20+ win seasons as any coach in SMU basketball history, including Doc Hayes, and even after her worst season this year, she still has the same overall winning percentage as Hayes.
Secondly, the Lady Mustangs won the WAC title and had one of their best seasons the year AFTER Jon Newlee left. As much as I like Jon, and I’m glad he’s having some success up in Idaho, its not accurate to try to claim he was the actual head coach, and the team somehow fell apart as soon as he left. If you want to look at the real underlying causes, start with the injuries and the young players that were lost in 2000. The entire 1999 recruiting class was gone by the end of the 2000 season, which meant that in 2001 the team had just 2 seniors and no juniors, and they were relying heavily on underclassmen. Rhonda also lost her most important disciplinary tool, she couldn’t yank someone out of the game or take away their playing time, because there was no one on the bench to replace them with. That’s where the slide really began, and the young players who came in that year never really learned to be disciplined leaders, and what you’re seeing on the court is the result of players who didn’t have their bad habits broken when they were young.
Thirdly, the womens team doesn’t have any “mediocre inner city” players. Not unless Mansfield, Desoto, Flower Mound, Richardson, and Prescott Arkansas have all been relocated to downtown Dallas. If you think that Greenland and Searcy Ark., or Jackson Missouri, are inner cities, you need to get out and travel more. Next years recruits are from Rio Vista, Greenville, and Mansfield, so hopefully those towns are small enough to make you happy. If you don’t like Sharee Shepherd just because she’s from Houston ISD, I’m afraid that’s your problem.

When/If Rhonda gets fired, the decision wont be based on the teams performance, it’ll be economics. Its too expensive to buy out her contract, and the teams performance, good or bad, hasn’t had a real impact on ticket sales, so firing the coach would cost a lot more than keeping her. Womens basketball gets most of its financial support from a small, but diehard group, most of whom still support Rhonda. The only way she is going to leave is if she takes a job at another school (she’s turned down several offers) or the AD decides that it would be cheaper to not renew her contract, because he could hire a less experienced coach and pay them less.

In conclusion, for OnceandAlwaysaFightingStang21, I feel I should tell you that creating 3-4 different names just so that you can make posts agreeing with yourself on a message board is a potential warnin

[Always a Mustang]

Fire Rhonda as head coach? You have got to be kidding. When I mentioned Jon Newlee it was not as a substitue head coach, but as an assistant who was just that....a real assist to her. Jon did an excellent job of analyzing talent and of assisting in the development of a winnng game plan. Rhonda has not lost her touch or her fire..what she has lost are some real key players to injuries. Call me a Pollyana, but my bet is on her to turn this around next year with some excellent recruits coming in and Juli and Janelle on the court.

[fighting_stangs]

Prof X (BC),

I wish to inform you that I am only one post on here. So please take your "warnings' elsewhere. Also, I'm not saying that Rompola needs to be fired and forgotten. I'm simply saying that the program has very much so slipped these past few years. And as much as you watch smu women's bball, although you didn't come much this year, you know as good as anyone else that Rhonda's team lacks discipline. And you also know that with the leaving of Newlee went our Canadian players. True or false? And the year after Newlee left, the ladies did go to the NCAA's but he still had a huge impact on those girls that were left. They embraced his level of work ethic. And true, this was not carried on through the program because lack of leadership. As for recruiting, okay maybe you are right...maybe they aren't ALL inner-city kids, but they are kids that lack that heart and work ethic it takes to reach that next level.

[FloridaMustang]

refer to Prof X's excellent post on the subject. he's dead on.

[Peruna88]

And you also know that with the leaving of Newlee went our Canadian players.

Tami Asquith, Jennifer Rigg, Megan Woods - are these the Canadian players you're building up as the saviors of Mustang women's basketball? I'm underwhelmed.

[fighting_stangs]

What's wrong? Didn't want to mention Claudia Brassard, one of SMU's best players to go through the system, who plays for the Canadian National Olympic team? And the 3 you mentioned, all great players. But oddly enough they all disappeared as soon as Newlee did. Hmmm.

[Peruna88]

The point was to say that just because they are Canadian doesn't make them great players.* I wouldn't even think of putting the greatness of Claudia in a list with those spares. I left her off that list intentionally. There's a reason she stayed 4 years and the others didn't, for whatever reason.

Asquith, along with LaTonya Morris (may not have her name right), had a little problem with "sticky fingers," if memory serves me correct.

Jen Rigg didn't get into Rice and came here as a backup plan, again, if my memory serves me right. She was a nice player, but I don't think she was run off or left because Newlee left. I think she finally was able to transfer to Rice.

Prof X is right. This team may be a little undisciplined, but with only 10 players on the bench this year, and 9 last year - it was [deleted] Rhonda to pull someone when she simply didn't have someone else to put in.

*perhaps the sarcastic emotion would have helped you understand this point, but some here say they're annoying, so I refrained from using it.

[Prof X]

Apparently the website now has a size limit on posts, because it cut off the last paragraph of my previous one. The “warning” was the beginning of a joke about the dangers of multiple personality disorders. My final comment was that I agreed with some of what had been said. I have been very disappointed in the teams lack of focus and consistency for the last 3 seasons. I don’t include the 2001 team in that list because I thought they played well most of the season, and with an RPI of 70 they were shafted by politics and finances when they were left out of the NIT. I understand some of the reasons why things have transpired the way they have, every time it seems like Rhonda has the team at least headed back the right way, they have another serious injury. But, injuries or not, next year she needs to really take a firmer hand with the players.
In answer to your question about Newlee and the Canadian players, I’m going to have to answer False. Rhonda recruited Kerri Delaney, they first met at a summer tournament in Iowa, and Rhonda recruited her to SMU. Kerri then told Rhonda she had a friend (Claudia Brassard) who also wanted to play in the US. Newlee was involved in scouting and recruiting the Canadian players after that, but it wasn’t solely his responsibility. He didn’t open the pipeline, and it didn’t close once he left. He was from California, he didn’t have any contacts in Canada before Delaney came to SMU. If he did have a strong connection there, I would have expected to see him recruit at least one or two Canadian players to Hawaii, or his current job at Idaho State, but so far I don’t see any. He did sign a girl from Texas, though. Blair Massey was a teammate of our own Katie Gross, at Austin Westlake. Does that make her an “inner city” player?
Jennifer Riggs announced she was transferring to Rice 5 months before Newlee left to take the job at Hawaii. Megan Woods left because she had grade problems. She transferred to Sam Houston, or Southwest Texas State, but I don’t believe she ever played there, because she still had eligibility problems. Tammy Asquith dropped out of school and returned to Canada, she said she was tired of living so far from home. I saw her one time after she left, and she told me she had given up basketball, at least on the competitive level. There was a 4th recruit the same age as Asquith, but I cant remember her name because she never showed up. At the last moment she also changed her mind about going so far for school, and backed out of her commitment and went to school in Canada. So those three players left around the time that Newlee did, and if you want to interpret that as a cause and effect you are entitled to your opinion, but there is nothing to support your claims. I spoke to all of them before and after they left, and none of them ever mentioned Newlee. If you really want to find out if there was a connection, I know several people who still stay in touch with Claudia, Kerry and Jen, and I could probably arrange for you to ask the players directly, and hear their actual thoughts. Just get in touch with me, in person or by email, it shouldn’t be too hard since you obviously already know who I am. But, that’s only if you actually want to find out if you are right or wrong, and I wont be too surprised if it turns out that you don’t actually want to know. The person who posts here as 50’s Pony stayed very close with Kerri and Claudia after they graduated, so perhaps he might also be able to help.
I like Jon Newlee a lot, he is a good coach and for the most part a good guy. I’m not at all surprised to see him succeeding as a head coach, and he may wind up in a higher profile job someday. But most of what you are insinuating simply isn’t true. When he left several of the players felt betrayed by his departure, not just because of the timing, but also because he left to go to Hawaii, our primary challenger for the WAC title that year. I know that when Hawaii came to Moody that year Karlin Kennedy went out of her way to avoid him. Since taking the job at Idaho State he’s asked 3 former SMU players to work as his assistants, and all 3 turned him down. So, perhaps they weren’t as attached to him as you think. If you want to find out I’ll be happy to help you get in touch with the players, and ask them directly. Or to speak to Karen Blair, if you want a real answer to your question. I wont hold my breath, though.

Why did you refer to me as (BC) in the post above?

[Prof X]

(For the web guys, this new forum is now officially a piece of [deleted] if it wont even let me write a complete post with cutting half of it out))

I like Jon Newlee a lot, he is a good coach and for the most part a good guy. I’m not at all surprised to see him succeeding as a head coach, and he may wind up in a higher profile job someday. But most of what you are insinuating simply isn’t true. When he left several of the players felt betrayed by his departure, not just because of the timing, but also because he left to go to Hawaii, our primary challenger for the WAC title that year. I know that when Hawaii came to Moody that year Karlin Kennedy went out of her way to avoid him. Since taking the job at Idaho State he’s asked 3 former SMU players to work as his assistants, and all 3 turned him down. So, perhaps they weren’t as attached to him as you think. If you want to find out I’ll be happy to help you get in touch with the players, and ask them directly. Or to speak to Karen Blair, if you want a real answer to your question. I wont hold my breath, though.

Why did you refer to me as (BC) in the post above?