No. TT Has 3 Years as Ass't.; Whalen No Coaching Experience

...Tina Thompson was tutoring club post prospects in and around Houston before she accepted an offer from Karen Aston at Texas to be post coach. She was promoted to assc. head coach.

...Whalen has no (zip, nada) experience as a coach at any level.

This is not to say that neither of them has the knowledge to succeed. And they probably bring great brand value (themselves) to a recruit. But as far as game decisions and the CEO-part of the job, sure seems like a crap shoot to me.

We've spent a lot of time on various boards discussing the relative merits of being a Head Coach before taking over a big program (say, Megan Duffy) vs. being a long-time assistant coach (say Niele Ivey, Shea Ralph at UConn). Now we seem to have the college/pro star. we've seen it in the NBA and now it seems to be popping up here.

I'll be very interested in how this plays out with these two players. Even Stephanie White, who had a year or two as assistant, then had HC experience withe Indiana in the WNBA, has not had a good two years at Vandy.

Remember, the other finalist for that job were Niele and Courtney Banghart of Princeton...back to long-term assistant vs. work-your-way up argument again.

(BTW, I thought Banghard would've been a natural for Virginia..wonder if she was considered)