“Reinvent the Wheel Not Needed” for Promoted Drexel Coach Amy Mallon

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

PHILADELPHIA – Once again in the delicate Villanova-Drexel two-step involved with announcing their respective women’s basketball coaching hires last Friday as the dominoes dropped in the wake of longtime Villanova legend Harry Perretta’s retirement, there was no need to be playing “Getting to Know You” in the background Wednesday afternoon when newly-promoted Drexel’s Amy Mallon took her introductory turn with the media.

 

Like the manner her predecessor and former boss Denise Dillon engaged Friday for her homecoming appointment over the Wildcats, the launch of the Mallon era at Drexel was conducted from participants’ homes over Zoom social media software due to the ongoing international coronavirus.

 

“For some people and some groups, they don’t know what they have because that person is so close,” said athletic director Eric Zillmer. “That is not the case with Amy Mallon. We know she is very special."

 

Those feelings were made known long ago by Zillmer, who noted, “We feel like she has been applying for the job for 16 years.”

 

That onset was one year after Dillon, a 1996 ‘Nova grad, took charge of the Dragons and by then Mallon, a star at Richmond, had become as well known in her own right on the hardwood here, transferring to follow coach Stephanie V. Gaitley from the Spiders to Saint Joseph’s where she became Big Five player of the year. 

 

Like Dillon, she is also Big Five Hall of Famer.

Mallon went on to play for the Philadelphia Rage in the defunct ABL as a teammate of Dawn Staley, who was one of the first to send congratulations to her last week, communicating from South Carolina where Staley has built the Gamecocks into a national power as the 2017 NCAA champs and the No. 1 team in the final polls this season that was cut short by the CVID-19 pandemic. 

 

Mallon, who has built the Dragons defense into one of the nation’s best, has coached locally at Episcopal 

Academy as a head coach and also as an aide with the Hawks and Wildcats, where she actually coached Dillon for a season besides playing against her as a senior when the Cardinal O’Hara star was a freshman.

 

As for those long ago sentiments by Zillmer, when Mallon, who had risen to associate head coach,  became involved with the then-Penn vacancy, the Dragons administrator had no interest in seeing her zip down 33^rd street to The Palestra at a time the Drexel coaching duo was turning the program into a renaissance operation.

 

Mallon withdrew before the Quakers search barely got under way though Penn did well ultimately landing Mike McLaughlin.

 

Several years later Dillon and Mallon produced a Colonial Athletic Association title and NCAA berth, ending Old Dominion’s longtime conference tournament domination in the CAA semifinals.

 

They later guided Drexel to the postseason WNIT crown.

 

In recent years Mallon was a strong candidate sought by  Stony Brook and Davidson to fill vacancies but “I wanted to make sure that my first job was the right job,” she said Wednesday.

 

And just as Temple was always aware that Staley was a threat to be taken if her alma mater at Virginia might open,  so, too, did Drexel live in dread of a Perretta retirement announcement with Dillon long considered the heir apparent.

 

Ultimately, Perretta made his announcement, but in doing so at the start of this past season, Drexel was already set for continuity, though the Dragons could also look around if they were to lose both coaches.

 

Several sources said Mallon’s existing Drexel deal called for strong consideration to potentially fill a head coaching vacancy.

 

“I felt really good about where I was and I felt valued at Drexel throughout my time in the last 16 years,” Mallon said Wednesday. “That was one of the things that knowing if an opportunity did arise where the job opened up, and it just seemed like it fell in place.”

 

Once it became apparent that Dillon was Main Line bound and Mallon was ready to to become the sixth coach in program history, it took just nine hours to hammer out what Zillmer called a “smooth and seamless transition.

 

“I think she is clearly the perfect candidate for the job,” Zillmer said.

 

“When I was a little younger, I would have many lunch ball games in the DAC (Daskalakis Athletic Center) with her. So I’ve seen firsthand that she’s very difficult to defend,” he said. “She’s been with us for 16 years, and we’re beyond excited to have her remain a Dragon in the role of head women’s basketball coach.”

 

Recruiting all season was not as daunting as it might seem on local levels to an outsider given the Dillon speculation.

“When you’re out there, you are selling the school and fit without regard what change might happen,” Mallon said.

 Despite the distraction, as Dillon alluded Friday, Drexel soared to a 23-7 record and to a 16-2 tie for first in the CAA, gaining a No. 1 seed in the cancelled tourney that allows for a banner to be hung in the DAC for what was accomplished.

 

The transition involving the Dragons with all the familiarity makes it easier than what Princeton had to undergo at the end of last season with the unforeseen opening in Chapel Hill that resulted in North Carolina landing Courtney Banghart.

 It then took several weeks before signing former UConn star Carla Berube from Division III powerhouse Tufts to coach the Tigers.

 

Princeton went on to lose just one game, a two-point overtime setback at Iowa in December before finishing with another unbeaten Ivy title and No. 22 in the Associated Press women’s poll.

 

“For me, I’m not looking to reinvent the wheel,” Mallon said. “I think we’ve established something that’s pretty strong. 

“I think it’s about changing and changing with the type of players, but also our main thing is competing,” she continued. 

“We think we’re good enough to compete, can continue to do that, and be recognized at a national level for what we’re able to do.”

 

Furthermore, the continuity extends to both coaching staffs.

Though official announcements haven’t been made, sources familiar with moves at both places indicate the bulk of both staffs will remain with a likely switch of two individuals and one outside hire at each school.

 

Mallon will have one perk past assistants at other programs have noted upon becoming head coaches — no one will be in front blocking her view when calling a play.