Baylor’s Mulkey Hall of Fame Bound As Texas Triggers Coaching Change

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA - The court success of Baylor women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, a former Louisiana Tech star, is finally bringing the announcement Saturday at noon on ESPN of her acceptance into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

 

But as word of Mulkey’s impending induction along with former WNBA Indiana Fever/University of Tennessee standout Tamika Catchings and Bentley coach Barbara Stevens as the women’s representatives to the Class of 2020 highlighted by the late NBA great Kobe Bryant of Lower Merion was leaking out on Friday, that same success likely had a hand in Big 12 rival Texas announcing  several hours earlier that Karen Aston’s contract was not being renewed.

 

The defending NCAA champions have beaten the Longhorns 20 out of the last 21 meetings – the one Texas win in February 2017 that was followed by the Bears going on a 58-game Big 12 win streak that ended last month when Iowa State nipped Baylor in the final game of the regular season.

 

Added to the Waco-Austin rivalry is that Texas has not been able to consistently sustain its upper echelon status following the retirement of Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt despite the ‘Horns then reaching for high profile Duke coach Gail Goestenkors and after she suddenly resigned bringing back the popular Aston who had been an aide in the Conradt glory days.

 

Although the skillful Chris Plonsky is still on board the Texas administration, the shots are being called in this transition straight from the top by UT Vice President and athletics director Chris Del Conte, whose name was alone on the release making the announcement.

 

“It’s a difficult job to be the Texas coach here,” said a longtime observer of the program not wishing to be identified. “The fanbase demands are no different than what Geno has dealt up there at Connecticut.”

 

As for gender in the equation of the search for  Aston’s successor, “this is no longer your Donna Lopiano-run women’s side of athletics,” the observer said, noting that for the moment that Aston’s removal makes the coaching count in that hallway even more male dominated.

 

However, “there’s nothing wrong with best candidate,” another noted, saying the highest profile female candidates aren’t movable, alluding to South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, Stanford’s Tara Van DerVeer, Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw, and Maryland’s Brenda Freese.

 

Several suggested money wouldn’t be the component preventing Del Conte from prying Oregon’s Kelly Graves to the Southwest. 

 

Vic Schaefer is content at Mississippi State.

 

“Put your AD hat on and understand that your job and what you want done depends on this hire,” a longtime Guru acquaintance from Austin said of the search. “What are you going to do.”

 

Replied your Guru, “I’d open the vault and get the fastest pony and go galloping up to Louisville to appeal to Jeff Walz.”

 

“You should print that.”

 

A source familiar with Walz’s situation said that unlike his name in the Tennessee search a year ago, Del Conte could strike gold should he inquire at Louisville.

 

But the Texas AD may already be panning in a different direction.

 

The fact that Aston wasn’t given a one-year extension given the looming financial climate on campuses caused by the PVID-19 virus pandemic suggests Del Conte likely has a target and is well along with Arizona’s Adia Barnes who has returned to her alma mater, built a fanbase on a scale of Dawn Staley’s creation at South Carolina and made the Wildcats into their best national relevancy in several decades. 

 

Barnes couldn’t be reached Friday night.

 

If Del Conte knew early on he was going to replace Aston, he night have witnessed Barnes in action on Nov. 17 when Arizona visited Austin and plundered Texas 84-53.

 

The Longhorns, then ranked 22, eventually fell out of the poll and the Wildcats got ranked and a month later the Associated Press had the women rated higher than the Arizona men for the first time ever.

 

The 12^th place finish in the AP Poll was Arizona’s best in several decades.

 

“I hadn’t heard anything here on Adia,” said local beat writer Jeff Metcalf. “Of course she had already been known by everyone when she came back.

 

“But if Texas wants her and gets her, with her demeanor, I can see the Austin folk warm up to her very quickly.”

 

Stay tuned.