XtC - Have you seen this?

[Peruna88]

Clemson, McKinney close to reaching deal

4/17/05
By JON SOLOMON

Staff Writer


CLEMSON — Clemson is finalizing contractual terms with Rice coach Cristy McKinney to make her the Tigers' next women's basketball coach.

"We're working on it," McKinney said by phone Saturday afternoon. "I can't say much more."

Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips did not return a phone message seeking comment.

McKinney was 216-139 in 12 seasons at Rice, helping the school make its only two NCAA Tournament appearances. She was named Western Athletic Conference coach of the year last season as the Owls went 24-9 and lost by 26 points in the NCAA Tournament's first round to Georgia.

McKinney won at least 20 games six times at Rice. She inherited a 13-14 team in 1992-93 and went 37-44 in her first three seasons before posting nine consecutive winning years.

At Clemson, she takes over a team that finished 8-20 in Jim Davis' last season as coach.

Terms of the contract were not known. McKinney made $195,000 in base salary at Rice, where she was also an associate athletics director. Her base salary exceeded what Davis received in his final season at Clemson ($136,578).

"I think she's paid her dues and will be successful," said Sam Houston State coach James Hatchell, a Rice assistant under McKinney for 10 seasons.

"She teaches people how to play basketball and not how to run plays, which is to say what she teaches can be applied anywhere. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty and do it herself."

Clemson and Rice are similar in that they have struggled to gain a large fan base.

Rice averaged a WAC-low 516 fans per game in 2004-05. The Tigers averaged 1,010, ranking them 10th of 11 ACC teams and 61st among the 68 women's teams in Bowl Championship Series conferences.

McKinney said she believes Clemson is committed to winning.

"It's a beautiful campus, a really, really nice place," McKinney said. "I played there when I was at N.C. State, but I hadn't been there in a long time. I grew up in North Carolina and try to keep up with the ACC."

A North Carolina native, McKinney was an All-American forward at N.C. State in 1979. She served two stints as a Western Kentucky assistant over nine seasons and was the head coach at NAIA Montevallo for two years.

"Cristy is as fine a quality human being as you can hope to get in this profession," said Hatchell, who did not confirm McKinney has been hired.

"Her standards and morals and ethics are beyond approach. Quite frankly, if you can win at Rice, you can win anywhere."

McKinney was hardly Clemson's first choice. The four-week search saw Middle Tennessee coach Stephany Smith, Charlotte coach Katie Meier, Tennessee assistants Holly Warlick and Nikki Caldwell and Liberty coach Carey Green speak with Clemson about the job.

[Peruna88]

It's official now, she's going to Clemson.

[PonySnob]

When was the last time a program from a major conference wanted one of our coaches?

[Ikus]

Notre Dame (which, granted, wasn't in a conference -- but the unlimited cash up there qualifies for this discussion) offered Schellas Hyndman everything shy of the option of painting a soccer ball at the feet of Touchdown Jesus. Thankfully, he stayed where he belongs: at SMU.

[Dooby]

FC Dallas (the Burn) offered Hyndman the job, too.

[Water Pony]

Excellent example.

Proud of the Coach, the team and all non-revenue student-athletes

[The XtC]

I saw a week or so ago that Christy was interviewing at Clemson, but I didnt realize she was the top candidate until they hired her. It will be interesting to see how this affects the Rice women.

I cant count how many jobs Schellas Hyndman has turned down to stay here. I do know, though, that 3 ofour womens soccer coaches have been hired away by other schools, most recently Baylor. I know that Carl Neufeld, our mens tennis coach, turned down a chance to be the head coach at UCLA. I know that Rhonda Rhompola turned down job offers from Texas A&M, Tulane, and Rutgers, and many other schools have contacted her about applying for their openings. I know any other school in the country would like to have our track coaches. Maybe, if PonySnob paid attention to the school that he heckles he might have noticed. People that have to act like jerks on the internet to feed their own ego's are pretty sad. But its downright pitiful when they cant even get their story straight.

[DallasDiehard]

Not to defend PonySnob, but (former women's soccer coach) Greg Ryan was, in fact, hired away by another school (I think). But that was after he was urged to solicit offers elsewhere. The program got continually worse during his tenure.