Next Texas Women's Coach Faces Daunting Task
AUSTIN (AP) - Wanted: A Texas women's basketball coach with the resume, vigor and skill to return a proud program to national title contender.
In other words, everything the Longhorns thought they were getting five years ago in Gail Goestenkors, who resigned Monday citing fatigue and a desire to get away from basketball.
Texas women's athletic director Chris Plonsky said she's got a short list of potential candidates -- she won't say who, but promises "We are going to find a leader for our players. We love them and they are the heart of the future of our program."
Plonsky tried to persuade Goestenkors to stay, but the coach walked away from the $2.5 million left in her seven-year contract after five years of winning seasons but only one victory in the NCAA tournament.
"There's no qualifiers," Plonsky said of the search for a new coach before listing a few broad requirements for the Texas job.
"You have to be accomplished, you have to be a good person, you've got to have integrity, we're not going to get anybody in here that's cut corners or has a reputation of cutting corners, (and) you've got to be able to recruit and relate to this generation of athletes, Plonsky said. "And you have to be somebody who has the fire in the belly."
If a potential candidate is still playing in the NCAA tournament, Plonsky said she'll wait until they lose before contacting them about the job.
Texas still has to be considered one of the top jobs in the country. The school was among the pioneers of top-flight women's college athletics and the basketball program has been the beacon of that legacy. The 1985-86 Longhorns were the first undefeated women's national champion.
Texas pays well, sits in the middle of some of the most fertile high school recruiting grounds in the country, and has passionate fans and an administration that supports women's sports.
But the new coach will also find a program that hasn't won a Big 12 title or contended for a national championship since 2004. That's the last time Texas advanced to the NCAA tournament round of 16. The only time Goestenkors got past the first round was in 2008, her first season.
Since then, the Longhorns have seemingly been boxed in by dominant programs at Oklahoma, Baylor and Texas A&M, and watched elite recruits flock to the far-away programs such as Stanford, Tennessee and Louisiana State.
Returning the program to championship contender will mean slugging it out in the rough-and-tumble Big 12, arguably the toughest conference in women's basketball.
"This place," Plonsky said, "is not for the faint of heart."
Plonsky joked that it was Texas' success 30 years ago that helped build the same women's programs around the country that are now beating the Longhorns.
"What we were trying to achieve in women's athletics here was going to catch on. Everyone was going to be good at some point and commit (to success). We are living that, especially in the Big 12," Plonsky said.
Texas must decide if it wants to chase a proven coach at a big-time program or risk the future on an up-and-comer. Five years ago, Texas zeroed in on Goestenkors immediately after Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt retired and snatched her away from Duke after she took the Blue Devils to four Final Fours and 10 years in a row of reaching the NCAA tournament round of 16.
The search this time "will be more broad," Plonsky said. "We can get a great coach."
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