Since Washington hired the former Long Beach State Coach as their new women’s coach to replace Neighbors, shouldn’t we be hearing who his assistants are going to be soon? By the way thanks for WHogs, trying to find out information at Washington is sometimes very challenging!
I think he will have at least one of his Washington assistants here with him next year. I’m not comfortable saying who it is just yet. Might know soon.
Todd Schaefer is expected to join Neighbors at Arkansas: http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2017 … assistant/
I don’t anticipate any holdovers from the previous staff, in terms of full-time assistant coaches. I’m told Amber Shirey will continue in her role as director of operations, which Neighbors hinted at during his first meeting with us earlier this month.
I was in the basketball offices yesterday and observed two of the three women’s assistant offices were empty with their names taken off the doors. Tari Cummings was the only one whose office was still in tact.
I’m told Neighbors wants to have two men and two women on the staff.
Lacey Goldwire is the second assistant: http://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2017 … assistant/
I was told earlier this week that Goldwire was a candidate for the job, so I’m assuming she was at the top of the list. Another candidate I’ve heard is Laura Harper at George Washington.
Matt,
Having read Neighbors’ statement about her, he seemed to emphasize her ability to relate to the players as being a big reason he hired her. 1) Do you think that was the biggest issue with Jimmy and his staff last year? And 2) What can you tell us about her X’s and O’s ability and recruiting ability?
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I think that was a problem with Jimmy, but not necessarily for his staff.
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She was the recruiting coordinator at Iowa, so my guess is her hire is more about that side. I see Todd Schaefer being the X’s and O’s assistant.
Thanks, Matt.
Very interesting.
I had hoped and stated that we hired a woman head coach and some challenged that and said gender shouldn’t matter as long as we get the best available coach. Fair enough. Using the same argument, shouldn’t Neighbors hire the best available assistant, regardless of gender? Why two men and two women?
I was one who pushed back on that idea. I just felt if we could get a Neighbors or a Schaefer that it would be great for the program. But how he fills out his staff is his business. If he wants three women, fine, or no women, fine. Nobody said there shouldn’t be women on the staff. In my thinking, that was a given. It just didn’t mean the head coach had to be female.
Two more names to keep an eye on for the final spot on Neighbors’ staff: Pauline Love and Jennifer Sullivan.
Love is an assistant coach at Southern Miss and is originally from Rivercrest. Sullivan is an assistant at Missouri State and is from Jonesboro.
There is a report out now that says Pauline Love will be the third assistant coach.
https://twitter.com/wbballhoopscoop/status/869231976133255168