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It happens everywhere

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Thursday, May 8, 2008 2:43 PM

If there is any lingering angst over the departures of Danyel Crutcher, Lori Bjork and Chelsea Buher from the Illinois women's basketball team, it might help to be reminded of situations at other campuses.

Transfers are common in college basketball these days, especially when a new coach arrives. The latest episode at Washington is further proof. Four of the team's six freshmen from last season have decided to transfer, having had enough of coach Tia Jackson, who took over for the 2007-08 season. Their reasons, according to media reports, generally go like this: Jackson was too demanding, a "tyrant." Her style is far different from former coach June Daugherty, whom Jackson replaced. Daugherty recruited each of the freshmen.

A Monday column by Steve Kelley in the Seattle Times painted the picture, and from this perspective, you could just change the names and you'd have a situation much like Illinois' and Jolette Law's.

Similarities? Law and Jackson are young, African-American head coaches for the first time. Law was an assistant at Rutgers for 12 years, while Jackson was an assistant for 11 at four different schools, including Duke. Law and Jackson both played for Vivian Stringer, who is no shrinking violet.

A few snippets from Kelley's column:

--"As a new head coach, Tia should have come in there humble," said Vicky Murray, (the mother of a transferring freshman). "Instead she came in with a God-like attitude."

Some critics have accused Law of a similar stance.

--"I think a lot of it has to do with style," said junior guard Sami Whitcomb (who is one of the returning players). "Coach J is very intense, very demanding, and I think some players thrive under that environment and I think over players don't. Nothing against June, I think they (the coaching staff) were great. We did conditioning and it was hard, but it was definitely a level harder when Coach J came. It was a new kind of pain. It took a lot of mental toughness just learning to push through it."

That exact situation played itself out this year at Illinois.

--"I think Tia's expectation of what it takes to be competitive at a really high level is different than with June," said Marie Tuite, senior associate athletic director. "Tia, she's fiery. She's competitive. She's going to push you."

Those same qualities are very evident in Law, who has acknowledged that on many occasions.

--There was this quote from Jackson, referring to her time playing for Stringer: "There were some tough days where the players would look at each other and we'd go, 'I don't know if I'm going to make it through.' I mean it was brutal. And on those tough days we hung together as a team. And it wasn't in spite of Coach Stringer. It was in conjunction with her. We all came together and said, 'We're going to do this for her.'"

--At the end of his column, Kelley offered a final summation. I think it applies well to the UI's situation:

Wrote Kelley: There are no villians in this story. Nobody is wrong. No one is malicious. Everybody has their own version of the truth.
But changing the culture of a major-college basketball program takes patience and time and a heightened level of intensity. Inevitably there will be collateral damage.

If you'd like to read the entire story, it's here:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/stevekelley/2004391034_kelley04.html

A few other notes from the women's basketball world:

--If you missed it, former Illini Beth Combs has resigned at Northwestern. Combs, also a former St. Joseph-Ogden assistant, stepped down a few months after NU hired former Northern Illinois AD Jim Phillips as its athletic director. Coincidence? Probably not. Combs got four years at Northwestern, where she was hired by former AD Mark Murphy. Murphy also hired Combs at Colgate.

--Former Illini Angelina Williams remains in training camp with the Indiana Fever, although her play in preseason games seems spotty, just judging from the numbers. Williams played more than nine minutes in Wednesday's loss but did not score, shooting 0 for 3.

Former Urbana standout Latoya Bond also is in the Fever's camp, and she started Wednesday's game. Bond shot well, scoring eight points, but had six turnovers. Both players are longshots to make the team.