...for the group.
By and large, most of the material was well covered during the time leading up to and including the press conference in Tampa.
Nonetheless, the contrasts/comparisons/similiarities that the SI author makes (which makes sense given the MM - Gina point/counterpoint), have a thread in a tizzy over at the Boneyard. Honestly, if anything makes a BYer think they're not the center of the universe, hyperbole results. Geesh. It's a beautiful day...take a walk.
HERE IS THE POINT/QUESTION for the board and it revolves around MM's former male assistants. It stems from this paragraph.
“Well, I expected some sort of comment would come out of Connecticut [when I said that]. For the record, they didn’t,” McGraw says. “Carol Owens and Niele Ivey got all those good players. You can have a staff with one man on it, and people assume, oh, he must be doing the recruiting, or he must be doing Xs-and-Os.” McGraw used to employ a male assistant because she thought it was valuable for her players to see a woman supervise a man. These days, though? “We’ve been to five Final Fours with our all-female staffs.”
My memory of the role McGuff played isn't that good, but I believe his tenure was while Niele was playing. Didn't realized Carol was a recruiting heaad back then.
But the fuzzy point is later on; specifically Jonathan Tsipis' last few years with the team. Wasn't he the recruiting coordinator? And if not the formal one, he was involved in scouting recruits. I know I've read articles on Maddie Cable specifying that Tsip was the main guy in her recruitment (one reason why she ended up in Wisconsin as a grad assistant). And I think he was involved with Kayla McBride, as well.
Does anyone else have similar/contrasting points of view?
MM seems to be on very solid relationships with former staffers who are now coaches, both female and male, and I'd hate to see a somewhat hazy point get in the way of it.
Thanks to any with institutional memories for getting back to us on this.
I happened to save this (the last one before the NCAA regulations limiting the size of the media guides).
For Owens, it doesn't mention recruiting. Washington and Tsipis, however, do:
Coquese Washington: She is responsible for supporting Notre Dame’s recruiting and scouting efforts,development of the Irish guards, scheduling
and practice planning.
Jonathan Tsipis: Tsipis (pronounced SIP-iss) works mainly with the Irish wings, while also aiding with Notre Dame’s recruiting efforts, scouting and practice planning.
I have older media guides, but I think they're packed away in storage (I'm in the process of moving).
Jonathan Tsipis is listed as the associate head coach who has "worked primarily with the wings while coordinating Notre Dame's nationally ranked recruiting efforts." Muffet is quoted as saying, "He has done a tremendous job as our recruiting coordinator and his track record in terms of player development and game scouting is among the best in the country."
My recollection is that he became the top assistant when Coquese Washington left to coach PSU. He was Muffet's top assistant until he left ND to coach at George Washington. Niele Ivey, an assistant coach at that time, moved up when Jonathan left. Niele was the primary recruiter in 2008 for Skylar Diggins, but the quotes listed above show that Tsipis was the recruiting coordinator as the program began to return to top five status.
I don't recall the specific roles for Kevin McGuff, but I believe that he became the top assistant when Carol Owens left.
..I had this knawing memory that JT was heavily involved in our recruiting efforts and that's right.
So, I'm a bit perplexed that some of these quotes seem to dismiss any involvement. Maybe they're aimed at the source in Storrs, but Tspis always seemed to be top=shelf for the Irish and still on good terms. Head scratcher.