Johnnie Harris was the right choice.

[Forrest4Moore]

But Cohen overthought it trying to be the smartest guy in the room.

She’s tough. Defensive minded. Would have kept the same, proven system. Would have been more mature with her handling of the players. Proven player developer considering what she did with Teiara.

Hate we screwed that up. This team is a joke.

 

[FlotownDawg]

Where is Johnnie? Did she follow Vic to Texas?

 

[Forrest4Moore]

She did. And wasn’t pleased we didn’t hire her. What a royal 17 up.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I have tried to support Cohen but that if that is true it was a terrible idea. If you have created something that works well in college ball you try to stick with.'

Does he know that is the reason why Saban has to hire new assistants every year?

I just turned our girls game off for the first time since we hired Vic.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Absolutely. When you’re having success you hire from within. And you don’t change ‘systems’.

Same thing with football and that abomination of a hire he made there when Danny Shorts left. Grantham, Collins, Diaz....any would have been worlds better.

If those hires from within fail, by all means, go different at that point.

ETA: these next two years were set up to be great, similar to football in 2018. At MSU, you don’t give up those type years to change your overall approach. It’s just idiocy. You don’t get this collection of talent that often.

 

[the dog is on the loose]

I’m under the mindset that Johnnie Harris was a HUGE reason Vic had the success he had here. I wholeheartedly believe she would have done tremendously here and we would still have continued success under her leadership. But noooo, same crap different day for us. Thanks Cohen.

 

[maroonmania]

She had my support to get the job. There are times when you need an outside hire but when things are rolling and a culture is set and working its usually best to roll with it. JH was the one that could have likely done that. Guess we will never know now but it would have had to have worked better than what we are currently seeing. Really shocking what is going on with this team given NMP was supposedly Dawn Staley's top assistant for a while.

 

[MSUDC11]

I will admit to having reservations about Johnnie given her lack of head coaching experience. But I am second guessing all of that now.

This is the second time Cohen has tried to reinvent the wheel with a hire for a program that was already established, and the early returns of this hire look a lot like the Moorhead era of football did.

 

[maroonmania]

I will admit to having reservations about Johnnie given her lack of head coaching experience. But I am second guessing all of that now.

This is the second time Cohen has tried to reinvent the wheel with a hire for a program that was already established, and the early returns of this hire look a lot like the Moorhead era of football did.

Johnnie was the obvious choice to at least try and keep the culture Vic had set in place. I'm not sure there was really an equivalent to her on Mullen's staff that could have taken over after he left. Unless you wanted to give Grantham a shot, who had only been here a year, you pretty much had to make an outside hire. I sure would not have wanted to given the job to any of Mullen's offensive country club staff.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

I will admit to having reservations about Johnnie given her lack of head coaching experience. But I am second guessing all of that now.

This is the second time Cohen has tried to reinvent the wheel with a hire for a program that was already established, and the early returns of this hire look a lot like the Moorhead era of football did.

Vic didn’t have experience either did he? And guess who did? NMP.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Johnnie was the obvious choice to at least try and keep the culture Vic had set in place. I'm not sure there was really an equivalent to her on Mullen's staff that could have taken over after he left. Unless you wanted to give Grantham a shot, who had only been here a year, you pretty much had to make an outside hire. I sure would not have wanted to given the job to any of Mullen's offensive country club staff.

Yeah but we could have gone defense, and any of those guys I listed would have had the good sense to continue the offense that Mullen had run successfully here, that had produced Dak and had Fitzgerald and Thompson lined up, with Keys in the pipeline.

 

[ezsoil]

Vic didn’t have experience either did he? And guess who did? NMP.

Vic did have experience he was 80-110 with one winning season out of seven at Sam Houston...so you just never know

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Vic did have experience he was 80-110 with one winning season out of seven at Sam Houston...so you just never know

Gotcha. Guess I thought bc he came straight from aTm he hadn’t been a head guy before.

 

[natchezdawg]

Don’t worry guys...

Cohen is at his best when he’s charged with fixing what he ****** up a few years ago. I look for whoever we land next Spring to be a home run hire.

 

[Dawgbite]

I seem to remember most of you saying that our program was at the point we didn’t have to settlor an assistant coach. We could pull an experienced head coach from somewhere. Just sayin.

 

[She Mate Me]

Johnnie and Vic are now 9-3 at Texas after two losses to unranked teams this this week. I promise if you compare Texas talent wih ours based on HS ratings, they are similar.

I don't know how this ends and this was a rough week, but all the losses are to clear or near Top 25 teams. I'll give her and the team some time before jumping to rash conclusions. I think they easily make the NCAAT. The SEC has more depth than it has had in many years.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

She did not exactly take over a bottom feeder team.

 

[Len2003]

She did not exactly take over a bottom feeder team.

She didn't. Neither did Vic. Texas was always a solid NCAA Tournament team under Aston, and she recruited really well. The cupboard was not bare at Texas, but it just goes to show his bumpy coaching changes can be. Especially with Covid. None of that excuses the lack of effort and bad body language exhibited today, but this was always going to be bumpy.

 

[dawgphd]

Texas was always a solid NCAA Tournament team under Aston, and she recruited really well. The cupboard was not bare at Texas, but it just goes to show his bumpy coaching changes can be. Especially with Covid.

Karen Aston is a heck of an X&O coach and recruiter. Just didn't jive with Del Conte.

If the rumor mill has any validity, she was let go when Vic's agent let Del Conte know Vic would come. (Aston was dismissed on Friday afternoon. Vic was announced Sunday morning.)

All that being said, she'd be on my very short list when this circus packs it's tent.

 

[Irondawg]

There is no telling how it would have worked out but as someone said on a thread yesterday Nikki inherited the roster they left and ajohnnie was responsible for the bigs.

So she had something to do with Bibby leaving and us having no good rebounders on the team. We missed on our targets for inside players two years in a row and it’s killing us now. Johnnie is somewhat responsible for that.

I think our roster for vastly overrated so I think even Vic would Have struggled more than usual with this group. Maybe Johnnie would have been a better hire but I’m not as confident in that as some of you are

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Vic struck while the iron was hot and got a big job back home. He could see the writing on the wall with what he had.

 

[Len2003]

Karen Aston is a heck of an X&O coach and recruiter. Just didn't jive with Del Conte.

If the rumor mill has any validity, she was let go when Vic's agent let Del Conte know Vic would come. (Aston was dismissed on Friday afternoon. Vic was announced Sunday morning.)

All that being said, she'd be on my very short list when this circus packs it's tent.

It seemed like there was a deal in place beforehand because fans were not expecting Aston to be let go. She did a solid job for Texas. Got them to an Elite 8 one year. Just never could beat Baylor. Aston is a solid coach and a good recruiter, and you would only let her go if you had someone like Vic lined up and ready to take the job.

 

[Len2003]

Supposedly, Johnnie was the good cop to Vic's bad cop. Being the good cop sometimes doesn't translate to being the head coach, but we will never know.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The SEC has more depth than it has had in many years.​

This is a great point. The last 4 or 5 years, the SEC has been very top heavy but a lot of teams have been building talent over the last couple of years and now it’s showing. States run in women’s basketball in the SEC was in a down time talent wise.

 

[8dog]

And I dont think people realize how valuable Tierra Mcowan was

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

A once in a generation player.

 

[Dawgg]

Blahblahblah ... and if we struggled this year, ya'll would be out here saying "we shoulda nevuh hahrd a 'ssistant coach".

 

[MSUDC11]

And I dont think people realize how valuable Tierra Mcowan was

Yes, she was a program changing player... But we did go 27-6 without her last year. And now a team that is largely the same group may not make the tournament this year. Can’t say Big T had anything to do with this unfortunately, I wish it were that simple.

 

[Dawgg]

Supposedly, Johnnie was the good cop to Vic's bad cop. Being the good cop sometimes doesn't translate to being the head coach, but we will never know.

Didn't Stansbury make the same type of declaration after being promoted to HC? Something about having to shift to being the bad cop after years of being Mr. Brightside?

 

[maroonmania]

Didn't Stansbury make the same type of declaration after being promoted to HC? Something about having to shift to being the bad cop after years of being Mr. Brightside?

Yes, and that was one of Stansbury's problems. He never really became a bad cop. Closest thing he had to a bad cop on his staff was Robert Kirby (1998-2010), and when Kirby left things went to hell in a handbasket.

 

[Ranchdawg]

We should have hired Kirby after Stansbury.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Not having Danberry’s production, defense, and experience is killing this years team. If she didn’t get that extra year of eligibility last season it would have looked like what we are seeing this year. Losing experience with Bibby didn’t help things either.

 

[PirateDawg]

Good point, other than Carter this is an inexperienced team

And they are learning a new system. I'm just wondering if the players are discontent for whatever reason. I can understand losing but what we saw in the A&M game goes beyond that. 3 points in one quarter????

Not having Danberry’s production, defense, and experience is killing this years team. If she didn’t get that extra year of eligibility last season it would have looked like what we are seeing this year. Losing experience with Bibby didn’t help things either.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Truth.

 

[8dog]

Without Bibby we have no 4. Its killing us. Also go look at Rickeas shooting percentages- pretty significant dropoff. The league is a lot better than it was last year too.

This could all be NMPs doing and Im not here to defend her. I just like to look at whats actually happening regardless of why. I am really confused as to what the plan is on offense when we dont run the weave. We seem to all stand around like something is supposed to happen but no one knows who is supposed to start it. Then someone makes a half *** cut.

Defensively we lack effort at times but even when there is effort Im just not sure this team can guard yet. Experience wise this is more like 2016.

 

[tbaydog]

Vic struck while the iron was hot and got a big job back home. He could see the writing on the wall with what he had.

He read Urban Meyer's playbook.

 

[Russ Wheeler]

Supposedly, Johnnie was the good cop to Vic's bad cop. Being the good cop sometimes doesn't translate to being the head coach, but we will never know.

You can be a good cop as long as you hire a bad cop and let them actually be the bad cop.

If the bad cop is the head guy, well, that usually works out because they tend to command respect by fear. But when the good cop takes over and they hire a bad cop, the good cop has to have the balls to let the bad cop do the job, and they need to be in lock step. It worked with Stans and Kirby for a long time.

 

[maroonmania]

Blahblahblah ... and if we struggled this year, ya'll would be out here saying "we shoulda nevuh hahrd a 'ssistant coach".

And if we were getting the same results we are getting now we would have every right. Any coach is going to get criticized when their team is playing nowhere close to their potential or talent level and rightfully should get criticized. If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchen and NMP inherited a pretty nice kitchen.