What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, let’s talk about the coaching carousel. While the Utah men got a head start, the women’s side now has three openings, and the Big 12 Tournament is even done yet.
THE EXPECTED OPENING
I fully expected Ronald Hughey to move on from the women’s job with the Houston Cougars. He resigned, but the fact is had he stayed the Cougars would have let him go. He even told Paper City Magazine’s Chris Baldwin that “I didn’t expect to have to resign from the job.”
He finished 140-195 for his 11 seasons at Houston, including a 5-25 record this season, his worst with Houston. A bad season with a new athletic director, in this case Eddie Nunez, is always a bad recipe.
Hughey had two winning seasons, never took the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament and got them into the WNIT three times. He’s had his chances to move the needle. Unlike the men’s program, the women’s program just doesn’t have that sort of history or prestige. The Cougars have only been to the NCAA Tournament five times, the last being in 2011.
So, this is a blank slate for whoever takes the job. This is a rebuild from the studs. Hughey had never been a head coach before he took the job. Finding an experienced head coach, likely from a mid-major, is the way to go.
You’ll hear this name a lot this offseason — Carly Thibault-DuDonis. She’s the head coach at Fairfield and she’s done incredible work with the Stags in just three seasons. She’s one of coaching’s rising stars. She would be a terrific get for Houston. But it’s probably unlikely.
Here are two logical names to watch. Nunez was the AD at New Mexico, and he could try to hire away Lobos women’s coach Mike Bradbury. The Lobos have been to the WNIT five times in his eight years, and he is 162-89. The Mountain West is in essence a one-bid (plus) league on the women’s side. He’s won at least 20 games each of the last three years.
The second is Karen Aston, the former Texas coach who was just named American Athletic Conference coach of the year after leading UTSA to a first-place finish and 26 wins. She knows the Big 12 well and took the Longhorns to the NCAA Tournament six times.
Related: Heartland College Sports 2024-25 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Awards
THE UNEXPECTED OPENING
When I talked to BYU coach Amber Whiting at Big 12 media days, she felt confident she could position the Cougars to contend this year. It didn’t work out that way.
BYU made the move official on Saturday, cutting ties with Whiting after three seasons. A former BYU player who had no college coaching experience when she took the job, went 45-51 in three seasons, including a 19-35 record in league action (WCC and Big 12).
She got BYU to the postseason twice (WNIT and WBIT), but this season the Cougars fell to 13-17. She had the misfortune of following Jeff Judkins, who led the Cougars to 26 wins in his final season. Against that standard, Whiting didn’t measure up.
If BYU plays in any postseason, Lee Cummard will be the interim coach. He’s been a women’s assistant since 2019, so he could be a candidate for the head-coaching job.
This is an intriguing situation. BYU is looking for a replacement for athletic director Tom Holmoe, who is set to retire. It’ll be up to him to make the hire, as the Cougars can’t afford to wait to hire a new coach. Because it’s BYU, that new coach will likely need to me a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That narrows the search.
I honestly don’t know who BYU will go after. My bet is that Holmoe already has a short list and that as soon as he makes his hire official, his first job will be to give that new coach Delaney Gibb’s phone number to make sure the Big 12 Freshman of the Year doesn’t transfer.
And in the least surprising thing you’ll read all day, Amber’s daughter, Amari, is headed for the transfer portal, per On3.
ARIZONA STATE’S BIG MOVE
I was torn about whether Arizona State would make a move on Natasha Adair or not. She was only in Year 3, but like Hughey, just hasn’t moved the needle.
ASU athletic director Graham Rossini made the announcement on Saturday. Adair was done after going 29-62 with the Sun Devils. They never won more than three conference games under her leadership. She had back-to-back 20 wins seasons at Delaware before she arrived.
Now, Rossini could be conducting simultaneous searches, depending on what he does with men’s coach Bobby Hurley. But, like Houston, I suspect ASU will take its time.
The candidates I outlined for Houston could work for ASU. Keep an eye on Molly Miller, the women’s coach at Grand Canyon, who may be ready for a high-major promotion. She’s local and she’s won nearly 100 games with the Lopes in four seasons. She has the program poised to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Before that she was highly successful in five seasons at her alma mater, Division II Drury.
Two other out-of-the-box names. Program legend Briann January started her post-WNBA career as an assistant at Arizona State under Charli Thorne Turner and has been an assistant in the WNBA and the NBA G League. But her combined assistant coach experience is three seasons. That may not be enough. Second, the recently retired Dianna Taurasi, who played her entire WNBA career in Phoenix. Certainly buzz-worthy, but who knows if she wants to coach?
UTAH’S NEW MAN IN CHARGE
Well, that didn’t take long. Utah announced the hiring of Alex Jensen to replace Craig Smith roughly two weeks after they fired Smith.
Jensen is well-known to Utes fans. He was a starter on their 1998 Final Four team and is a member of the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame.
As coach, he’s mostly been in the NBA with the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks. He worked for his former coach, Rick Majerus, at St. Louis. His only head-coaching experience was with the Canton Charge in the G League.
Now, if you’re thinking this all sounds familiar, well you’re right. It’s almost the same profile as BYU coach Kevin Young. A long-time NBA assistant with a smattering of head-coaching experience in the G League.
The Utes can only hope Jensen works out as well as Young has in his first year. Immediately, this is a hire that gets Utah’s fan base and NIL efforts engaged because of his connection as a player. Plus, it gets him out of Dallas, where the Mavericks are now a complete mess.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
