Ladies’s teaching carousel: Candidates for Miami, Kentucky, extra

It is that point of yr: Sports activities followers aren’t simply watching the lads’s and ladies’s NCAA tournaments, but additionally the job markets for each sports activities. The teaching carousel, because it has turn out to be nicknamed, is already spinning.

On the ladies’s facet, Kentucky (Kyra Elzy was fired March 11) and Miami (Katie Meier retired Thursday after 19 seasons) are the 2 greatest openings to this point. One other ACC job can be open in Clemson, as Amanda Butler was fired March 12.

Extra positions will turn out to be open because the carousel turns, however these are the vacant Energy 5 jobs. Miami made it to the Elite Eight final season as a No. 9 seed, upsetting No. 1 Indiana alongside the way in which. Kentucky is 2 years faraway from upsetting South Carolina for the SEC match title, however has struggled the previous two seasons (24-39). And Clemson’s solely NCAA match look previously 21 years was in 2019.

Let us take a look at the place the carousel is correct now, simply earlier than the primary spherical of the NCAA match begins.

Is Miami’s head-coaching place a vacation spot job, and what are the Hurricanes in search of in filling this place?

One factor Miami has had is stability for the previous 36 years. Ferne Labati coached the Hurricanes from 1988 to 2005 — all however her final season within the Massive East — with six NCAA match appearances. Meier, a former star participant at Duke, returned to the ACC as a coach and took over Miami in 2005-06, making 10 NCAA match appearances. Final yr’s run to the regional last, which Miami misplaced to eventual nationwide champion LSU, was the postseason spotlight for this system.

Below Meier, Miami was typically within the combine for the NCAA match and sometimes pulled an thrilling upset or two in the course of the ACC common season. She was often known as a powerful X’s and O’s coach whose groups had been at all times effectively ready. Nonetheless, Miami has by no means gained an ACC match title; a runner-up end to NC State in 2022 is the closest the Hurricanes have come.

Additional, no Florida college has ever superior to the ladies’s Ultimate 4. The addition of Stanford (together with Cal) into the ACC subsequent season solely makes issues tougher competition-wise. That mentioned, Miami could be poised to benefit from its fascinating location in recruiting, and town itself might have enchantment to some athletes concerning NIL alternatives. That is an enormous a part of the sport now.

What it takes to assemble and preserve expertise has modified dramatically in faculty basketball due to NIL, the one-time switch waiver and the switch portal. There are coaches who will see Miami as a vacation spot job and search to benefit from that potential.

And there are additionally longtime coaches able to step away from the never-ending grind of the job, particularly recruiting. Two examples are Meier and UC Santa Barbara coach Bonnie Henrickson, who beforehand had success at Virginia Tech and Kansas. Meier, 56, and Henrickson, who turns 61 subsequent month, each retired this week.

How interesting is the Kentucky job?

It is within the omnipotent SEC, which is an enormous deal — but it surely’s additionally a program that has by no means been to the Ultimate 4. The closest the Wildcats have come is the Elite Eight, twice. Kentucky has gained the SEC match title twice, 40 years aside: in 1982 and 2022.

By far probably the most constantly profitable interval in program historical past was beneath Matthew Mitchell, who from 2007 to 2020 had a 303-133 document and made 9 NCAA match appearances. Mitchell retired simply earlier than the 2020-21 season. On the time, he indicated that well being causes — he had surgical procedure that summer time after struggling a concussion within the spring — had been the first motivation for his retirement. He has since mentioned it was additionally about spending time along with his household and his perception that Elzy, then a Kentucky assistant, was able to take over.

Mitchell reportedly is concerned about returning to his former job. Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks can be one of many names within the rumor mill. The SEC is not getting any simpler, particularly as South Carolina and LSU — which have gained the previous two NCAA titles — are forward of the pack, and Texas and Oklahoma are becoming a member of subsequent season.

Massive Blue Nation will assist a profitable ladies’s workforce. The bar for hoops success, after all, may be very excessive in Kentucky. So whether or not the college returns to its former chief in Mitchell or seems elsewhere, what occurred to Elzy is a reminder that the expectations there are a lot greater than earlier than the Mitchell period.

Which coaches could be on the transfer?

It is at all times laborious to foretell, however listed here are among the names that might come up this spring in relation to the teaching carousel.

• Final Might, Washington State prolonged coach Kamie Ethridge’s contract by means of 2028-29 after the Cougars had gained the 2023 Pac-12 match title. At that time, it was recognized that UCLA and USC had been leaving the Pac-12, however not that the convention would implode. That unhealthy information got here later in 2023. Washington State and Oregon State face an unsure future in regard to “energy” convention membership, which they may now not have after this college yr ends. Might Ethridge, whose Cougars are 18-14 this season after dropping star Charlisse Leger-Walker to harm in January, be lured by a significant convention college keen to purchase out her contract?

• Scott Rueck’s contract at Oregon State runs by means of 2031, and contemplating his ties to the group — Oregon State is his alma mater — he appears unlikely to go away. Nonetheless, his success with Oregon State — the Beavers are No. 3 seed within the NCAA match — would make him a viable candidate anyplace.

• Florida Gulf Coast as soon as once more gained the ASUN regular-season and match titles. Might this lastly be the yr longtime Eagles coach Karl Smesko strikes on, particularly with the opening in Miami? Smesko, in his twenty second season at FGCU, has been linked to numerous Energy 5 jobs over time, together with Pittsburgh final spring earlier than opting to return to FGCU, which is 29-4 and a No. 12 seed on this NCAA match.

• Carla Berube is 25-4 with Princeton this season, and Carly Thibault-DuDonis is 31-1 with Fairfield. Each have groups within the NCAA match, and might be wanted by greater packages.

• The identical goes for Lindy La Rocque, who’s 102-21 in 4 seasons at UNLV, together with 61-5 the previous two years, and has the Woman Rebels within the NCAA match.

• Tomekia Reed, in her sixth season at Jackson State, is making her third look within the NCAA match. The Woman Tigers, 26-6 general and 18-0 within the SWAC, face UConn in Saturday’s NCAA match opener.