Linda Lappe has resigned as WBB Head Coach

[Buffballer]

H

 

[Buffballer]

The CSU HC is a "win now" guy who's proven adept at recruiting in Europe and in JCs. This is why I mentioned him earlier.

Need a HC that can consistently recruit domestically and regionally/nationally. A BCS school in Boulder should have 2-3 juco and international players max.

 

[boulder77]

Glad that Linda was afforded the opportunity to "step down". Handled with class all the way around. I wish her the best as she is a good person, and was a great Buff. For whatever reason(s), her tenure here was unsuccessful.

Will be interesting to see how RG handles this hire. I really think we need to be looking at coaches with P5 experience who are known for their recruiting. Hopefully, RG comes up with some quality candidates and can reach an agreement with one to come to Boulder.

 

[89BUFF89]

Not getting top talent out of Colorado has been a bummer.

 

[buffgal]

Washington State has gone the international route in recruiting and only won 5 Pac 12 games this season. It can work with the right players. Even Ceal brought in some good international players.

I do home Jamie Carey is retained. She has an excellent resume playing wise, but not enough coaching experience to be a head coach at this level just yet. She is probably key in keeping Leonard and Robinson on board. Smart move on RG's part.

 

[goldfan]

I'm a WBB season ticket holder and attend all the games. It has been disappointing to see the decline for the last 3+ years. Leonard and Robinson are bright spots. I hope they will stay. I am hopeful Jamie Carey will stay too. She is the assistant coach I like most. I was very excited when Lappe was hired and had great hopes, but I agree a change needs to happen. We need better recruiting and a more dynamic coach. I wish Linda the best and am excited to see what the new coach, whoever it is, can do to bring CU WBB back!

 

[Jens1893]

I think the new coach will make his or her decision on who he or she wants to retain

 

[MObuff]

Here is the list I would start with...



My pick would be a Niele Ivey type...good pedigree, has learned how to win big games at Notre Dame, everyone in WBB knows her name. Only worry would be what happens when Muffet McGraw steps down, Coach Ivey would be one of the names brought up to coach Notre Dame.

 

[Buffnik]

Here is the list I would start with...



My pick would be a Niele Ivey type...good pedigree, has learned how to win big games at Notre Dame, everyone in WBB knows her name. Only worry would be what happens when Muffet McGraw steps down, Coach Ivey would be one of the names brought up to coach Notre Dame.

I brought up Keitha Adams in another thread. I like that your quoted list starts there.

 

[MarkW]

I could go lots of directions here, so let me start by stating it's sad that it had to come to this. I really wanted Lappe to be successful both because I am a fan of the program and she is one of the all-time favorite Buffs. Her senior year in HS I was in Des Moines when her team (Winfield - Mt. Union HS, Mt. Pleasant) was playing in the state tourney. When she suffered the broken knee cap v Michigan he sophomore year I was in the stands. It's really tough to see that she didn't make it on court as a coach.

So now the athletic admin has a huge hire to make. It's one that should be done with a lot of deliberation. There's no reason to have the position filled quickly. Many if not all of the candidates should be involved in the NCAA tourney.

There's no doubt that CU can be an "elite" program. To me this means making it to the NCAA tourney every season and regularly finishing in the top 15. The facilities are top notch. There's a solid history of success with the women's basketball program. The academic reputation of the school is solid at the least.

What has to happen now is getting the right coach. Find someone who has proven they can consistently get their team to the NCAA tourney. This doesn't have to be someone from P5 conference. Make sure there is a track record of consistently good recruiting and coaching. Get a person that will love CU and Boulder like Darrin Chiaverini and Jim Leavitt.

And the first recruiting job of the new hire? Retain the talent that is already on this team. Lose the likes of Kennedy Leonard and the rebuilding is just going to take a lot longer.

 

[RalphieWasAGurl]

I don't think anyone should count Linda out as a head coach. I like to compare Linda Lappe to Ryun Williams up at CSU. What Linda was working on with the Roadrunners kind of matches what Williams was doing with Sheridan College. Ryun Williams wasn't ready to jump to the ACC, SEC, Pac-12, Big-10, or the Big-12 after Sheridan College. Ryun had to spend eleven seasons at Div-II Wayne State, finally getting to the Div-II NCAA tournament in two of the last three years, including a Sweet-Sixteen run to finish his career there.

Linda Lappe jumped from Metropolitan State to Pac-12, CU. Ryun Williams spent eleven seasons at Div-II Wayne State just getting ready to move to a mid-major Div-I. At South Dakota he took over a Div-II program & moved to Div-I. Tough task to compete in same conference w/in-state rival and mid-major superpower SDSU Jackrabbits. Buffs fans saw SDSU in the 2012-13 NCAA Tournament Norfolk Regional games played in Boulder, at the Coors Events Center. Most of us just remember the Buffs losing at home to Kansas, we also got to see the Summit League power SDSU play the SEC conference South Carolina Gamecocks, SDSU lost.SDSU gave Notre Dame all they could handle in a non-conference road game earlier this season. Muffet said it was the loudest opponent fieldhouse they'd ever played in. Ryan got South Dakota built up as a program, even with the in-state rival and mid-major power basically owning recruiting in the Dakotas. North Dakota State also competes in the same conference. That is exactly the kind of step Linda was ready for after Metropolitan State. Ryun built South Dakota into a legitimate program. WBI invite year three, and WNIT the following year. The program is still going strong on the foundation he built, even after he left for CSU. Last season South Dakota lost in the WNIT to Northern Colorado, when they went on that epic run knocking of CSU first, before losing to eventual WNIT champion UCLA. This South Dakota won the Summit Conference regular season, and play tomorrow against SDSU for the right to go the NCAA Tournament, if they lose the Summit Conference Tournament Championship and miss out on the NCAA tourney, the Summit Conference Regular Season Championship and a WNIT bid is still nothing to sneeze at.

When Ryun left South Dakota to take the CSU job in the Mountain West, it was after four years at South Dakota building that program up from scratch. He learned to recruit in bitterly contested South & North Dakota with three conference rivals working the same ground. That will teach a coach to recruit to survive. Lappe had no recruiting experience when she was thrown to the wolves in the Pac-12. Once in the Mountain West at CSU, it took Ryun a rebuilding year to get his type of players. He's won the Mountain West regular season championship three years in a row, and he's 72-17 (44-6 in conference) the past three seasons. The Mountain West Tournament opens for CSU tomorrow. CSU lost only one game all season, were undefeated in MW play, and are not close to the same team they were when they narrowly beat CU up in Fort Collins. In some respects that game against CU changed the fortunes of both programs, completely.

Only now is Ryun Williams a legitimate candidate for a Pac-12 position:

http://tucson.com/sports/basketball...cle_a053f040-dffa-11e5-a8d7-afdaff3c962c.html

So before all of us write Linda Lappe off as not being an effective Head Basketball coach we need to remember that she was asked to take over the reigns of a non-competitive Pac-12 program when really she needed another decade of seasoning as a coach at the Div-II level before being ready to transition to a mid-major Div-I program, and then four to six years of Div-I mid-major experience before being ready for Big Girl basketball in the Pac-12. CU was always Linda's dream job. At her introductory press conference she made the point that CU was her dream job, but this wasn't the timeline she expected. Linda wasn't ready to coach a Div-I program, wasn't ready to recruit or coach at the Pac-12 level. Someday, with a different path Linda might have come to CU and been the best Women's basketball coach in the history of the program. Who knows, that may still happen fifteen years from now, she's young. Hopefully for Linda she takes a long hard look at what didn't go right in Boulder, how she handled herself when she was in over her head, and she can decide to be the coach she wants to be. I still believe Linda can lead a team without resorting to the negative stuff that plagued this program. I wish she had taken the high road in stepping down and had thanked Rick George and Ceal Barry for the opportunity.

I think RG should consider hiring Ryun Williams away from CSU. He's one of the top coaching candidates in the country. Sure he has a $1.2 Million dollar buyout, which is unheard of in Women's basketball, but some program that wants legitimacy and a winner will pay that off. Heck, RG will almost have to pay Linda almost that much, roughly $780-820k depending on who you believe.

If Ryun Williams can take a Div-II school like Wayne State and get them relevant in the Div-II NCAA tourney, if he can transition South Dakota from Div-II into a Div-I Mid-Major powerhouse in the same conference as another mid-Major powerhouse and actually overtake that program, if Ryun can take CSU from irrelevance to begin a top-25 program Nationally while being limited to MW level recruits, imagine what a coach that resourceful, and that capable of recruiting internationally could do when Top-35 players opened up to him. Let alone the type of top-10, top-15, and top-20 players that Oregon State is bringing in after moderate success.

If RG doesn't hire Ryun Williams, I think Arizona will. Ten years from now Ryun Williams will be on the same level that Tara VanDerveer, Muffet McGraw, Jeff Walz, Kim Mulkey are at now. I think anyone betting against Ryun is a fool. He's got a proven process, has built programs from absolute scratch, and into competitive programs, and powers in their respective competitive space. Given the resources of a Pac-12 program to recuit, I think the fallback position for Ryun with International players he can always get is a Top-25 program. With the top-35 recruits a Pac-12 school has access to, the Buffs under Ryun could be a perennial top-10 program.

This going to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but a competitive Pac-12 program doesn't emerge from the top-35 recruits Linda was championing as deserving of more time. The celebrated recruiting class Linda brought in for 2015 pales in comparison to what Oregon/Oregon State has brought in for '15/'16. KL is a fantastically talented player & deserving of Pac-12 Player of the Year honors, however, Oregon State brought in a top-7 PG Freshman that barely played. Believe it or not considering the FR Guards CU brought in, CU actually fell behind other programs with the 2015 class. Hopefully KL and AR prove the recruiting grades wrong and along with Burich lead CU to Pac-12 prominence three years from now. However, Oregon/Oregon State based on their 2015 & 2016 recruiting classes left CU behind at the G position. A program getting top-35 players can't compete with a program getting players ranked 7th, 15th, 20th every season. Believe it or not the 2015 class for CU in was a great recruiting class for a mid-major powerhouse. For a Pac-12 program it just wasn't, and the Gs that CU recruited weren't even close to the best guards that came into the conference in 2015. Remember, Oregon State's talented young FR PG Katie McWilliams wasn't even a significant player, let alone a starter. She averaged I think 20 min. Maite Cazorla was the only PG in the Pac-12 to avg an Assist/TO ratio over 2.00 & she is a Freshman. Linda was trying to use this class to buy more time, but it was an example of a middle of pack Pac-12 class, nothing more. It wasn't a FR class that could make CU competitive, as CU didn't have a Pac-12 roster other than Swan. Three years from now the conference honors will be going to Maite Cazorla, Katie McWilliams & Mikayla Pivec not Kennedy Leonard, Alexis Robinson & Bria Rice.

RG needs to ask himself if he wants CU to reach for Championships or to devalue the women's program. The Buffs have no choice but to pay the three years remaining on Linda's contract. It would cost another $1.2 million more to buy out Ryun from CSU, however, RG could actually negotiate that down. CSU wants more from CU than money. CSU wants to play CU in an alternating home/home series in football, and RG doesn't want that. CU has too much to lose in the CU/CSU game. There are non-dollar factors CU could negotiate w/CSU in lieu of cash for the $1.2 million buyout. RG could concede to play CSU football every yr in that alternating home/home format. That costs the AD nothing. RG could agree to make Tad play CSU home/away every season. Tad wouldn't like that, let's be honest he's not Krzyzewski, he's never finished better than 3rd in Pac-12, reg season. Raising the Women's program to National prominence back into top-25 narrative helps Tad as well. Remember, CU got Arielle Roberson because of her brother as much as anything. If Tad doesn't like it, well...

Buffs fans aren't going to like the points I make, but if RG makes a "safe" move, the Women's program is going to get a coach like Tad Boyle. A coach whose upside can get the team to a marginally competitive level, but who can't get the program to a perennial conference power level. RG has the opportunity to get the Buffs to the position of being a nationally relevant team and contending for national championships with a single move: Ryun Williams. The buyout of Williams is roughly just the value of a single year of Tad Boyle's salary. Who would you rather have at CU: Ryun Williams or Tad Boyle?

 

[FLounder]

The buyout of Williams is roughly just the value of a single year of Tad Boyle's salary. Who would you rather have at CU: Ryun Williams or Tad Boyle?

 

[PAHIBuff]

Good post RWAG, and not just because we agree on Ryun Williams. I though your analysis of LL's career trajectory was dead on. She will definitely coach again.

 

[Duff Man]

I think you are stretching some arguments for Williams in that post, particularly in regards to recruiting and the financial implications.

 

[buffgal]

I agree that Lappe was in the CU job before she was ready.

However, I do not think CU can afford to hire Williams because of the buyout it would take. $1.2 million. Where does RG get that kind of money in the athletic department?

I don't know how to embed tweets but Lin Dunn added Stanford assistant Kate Paye to her list yesterday. I would be happy with any of Lin Dunn's suggestions. Lin Dunn knows what she is talking about.

 

[Buffballer]

RWAG, While i agree with many of your observations on Lappe and that the CU position was "too much too soon" think several of your other opinions are more then a little off. The 2015 class was ranked 25th Nationally and top 4 in the Pac 12, it exceeded those expectations with one Freshman First Teamer and one honorable mention. And this class will be even better in the future, assuming none of them transfer, with the addition of Freeman and Burich. The talent miss is the lack of a quality post in the prior 2 classes or in the '16 class coupled with the key transfer of Robinson. Why would the 2015 class digress in talent over the next three years, particularly with 2 additions. Your opinion of the '15 class sounds oddly similar to the Twitter rants of cohoopzfan .With regard to Williams being at the same level as Tara in 10 years, thats quite a stretch. The concern is the ability to recruit at a Pac 12 level consistently, CU needs a PROVEN national level recruiter. There are some strong options out there, time will tell.

 

[Buffballer]

I think you are stretching some arguments for Williams in that post, particularly in regards to recruiting and the financial implications.

Agreed

 

[slider]

Any word on the buyout?

Seems like a lot of $$$. Thanks Bohn

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

Any word on the buyout?

Seems like a lot of $$$. Thanks Bohn

THe school will fulfill the financial obligation of her contract. $800k+

 

[slider]

THe school will fulfill the financial obligation of her contract. $800k+

Yikes

 

[Shldr2Shldr]

Meh. Paid out over 3 years, is not much.

 

[BeBe]

.........

This going to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but a competitive Pac-12 program doesn't emerge from the top-35 recruits Linda was championing as deserving of more time. The celebrated recruiting class Linda brought in for 2015 pales in comparison to what Oregon/Oregon State has brought in for '15/'16. KL is a fantastically talented player & deserving of Pac-12 Player of the Year honors, however, Oregon State brought in a top-7 PG Freshman that barely played. Believe it or not considering the FR Guards CU brought in, CU actually fell behind other programs with the 2015 class. Hopefully KL and AR prove the recruiting grades wrong and along with Burich lead CU to Pac-12 prominence three years from now. However, Oregon/Oregon State based on their 2015 & 2016 recruiting classes left CU behind at the G position. A program getting top-35 players can't compete with a program getting players ranked 7th, 15th, 20th every season. Believe it or not the 2015 class for CU in was a great recruiting class for a mid-major powerhouse. For a Pac-12 program it just wasn't, and the Gs that CU recruited weren't even close to the best guards that came into the conference in 2015. Remember, Oregon State's talented young FR PG Katie McWilliams wasn't even a significant player, let alone a starter. She averaged I think 20 min. Maite Cazorla was the only PG in the Pac-12 to avg an Assist/TO ratio over 2.00 & she is a Freshman. Linda was trying to use this class to buy more time, but it was an example of a middle of pack Pac-12 class, nothing more. It wasn't a FR class that could make CU competitive, as CU didn't have a Pac-12 roster other than Swan. Three years from now the conference honors will be going to Maite Cazorla, Katie McWilliams & Mikayla Pivec not Kennedy Leonard, Alexis Robinson & Bria Rice.

whose ......

Quite the post, RWAG. I completely agree with your analysis of Linda's coaching career. She was brought in to CU too soon and it had the expected results. The PAC-12 is not the place to be learning on the fly, as you clearly point out. I do not have an opinion on Ryun Williams as a possible replacement and a potential super-star but he has clearly had a more step-by-step growth to his coaching career and it has led to his being much more successful.

But I cannot let your analysis of the 2015 recruiting classes stand unchallenged. You have, IMO, miss-stated the Oregon/Oregon State classes that you are comparing CU's recruiting to. You do not say where your numbers are from. Mine are from ProspectsNation.

The Colorado 2015 recruiting class was ranked #25 by ProspectsNation. This was behind Cal at #13, UCLA #17, and Stanford #20. And ahead of Oregon State at #28 and Oregon at #49. The remaining PAC-12 schools were not in the top 50 rankings. Such a class (the fourth ranked class in the PAC-12), sustained on a regular basis, would allow Colorado to be a competitive team in the PAC-12. The problem is that this level of recruiting was not being sustained. The 2013 and 2014 Colorado recruiting classes were poor and the 2016 class was not in the preliminary top 50 either.

Looking into the 2015 classes: according to ProspectsNation,
Oregon State's three member 2015 freshman class players were ranked
#70(4* McWilliams), #119(4* Kalmer), and #137(4* Green). I do not see any PG ranked in the top 7 in the Oregon State class.
Colorado's four member freshman class players were ranked
#42 (4* Leonard), #117(4* Burich), #118(4* Robinson), and NR 4*(Ellis, who was injured her senior year).That seems quite comparable to OSU's class to me.
Oregon's 3 player class for 2015 were one player NR(3* Gildon), International #7 ( 4* Cazorla), and International #20 (3* Yearwood).

The USA players and the International players are ranked separately. So you cannot just drop that distinction. Maite Cazorla, clearly a very good player, is that #7 International player. She was given a 4 star ranking. In the list of USA players, 4 star players were numbers 9 thru 150 plus an additional 42 more that were not ranked, for a total of 184 four star players. So where would Cazorla have been ranked if she were a USA player? It could be anywhere from 9 thru 192. It would not be #7. The #20 ranked International player in their 2015 class was a 3 star player. So she would have been, at best, #193 if she had been a USA player.

You also highlight Oregon State's Katie McWilliams. She was the player ranked #70 in the 2015 OSU class. She may well be a talented young guard as you say. Time will tell. The difference in her 2015 playing experiences and #42 ranked Kennedy Leonard's 2015 playing experience are because Oregon States freshmen came into a program with a roster full of mostly PAC-12 level players ahead of them and Colorado's freshmen did not. This is because Colorado's 2013 and 2014 recruiting classes were sorely lacking in PAC-12 level players.

The success of any college team is based on both recruiting success and day-to-day and in-game coaching success. I think we all hope that Colorado's next WBB coach will have all of these bases covered.

 

[Buffballer]

next post

 

[Buffballer]

BeBe, Great recap and comparison of the 2015 class. ProspectNation is the top ranking service in the country, its run by the guys that started and used to run HoopGurlz for ESPN. No doubt if LL had more classes like the 2015 we would not be having this discussion.

 

[Creebuzz]

To answer a question posed by Ralphie was a girl, I'd rather have Tad Boyle than Ryun Williams.

 

[Denver_sc]

Buffs fans aren't going to like the points I make, but if RG makes a "safe" move, the Women's program is going to get a coach like Tad Boyle. A coach whose upside can get the team to a marginally competitive level, but who can't get the program to a perennial conference power level. RG has the opportunity to get the Buffs to the position of being a nationally relevant team and contending for national championships with a single move: Ryun Williams. The buyout of Williams is roughly just the value of a single year of Tad Boyle's salary. Who would you rather have at CU: Ryun Williams or Tad Boyle?

I "liked" this post, not so much for the content (quite a bit of which I disagree with) but because you had the fortitude to keep typing out "Metropolitan State".

Mtn better get in here and hand over his title belt. The first time I tried to post a reply, the quoted post plus my meager addition was over 10K characters

 

[RalphieWasAGurl]

Bebe can you post the ranking #s and scout grades for the 2015 & 2016 classes for Colorado, Oregon State & Oregon. Then display cleanly?

I don't have access to Prospect nation, it's a paid site. If you are willing you could compare/contrast with the ESPN/HoopGurlz grades, or if not I can do that later.

Anyone that doesn't think Ryun Williams is worth a $1.2 Million Buyout, better realize Ohio State paid $1.75 Million buyout to steal a coach from Washington away from the Pac-12 (he recruited Kelsey Plum). Either you are willing to go get a coach that will lead you to where you want to go, or you are devaluing your Women's Basketball program. Also, RG didn't do Linda any favors. Colorado has zero leverage to actually not pay Linda the full contract through 2019. In fact, consider ourselves lucky if Linda walks away without the ugliness that KMM dragged the program through. Accusing Ceal of running a program biased against women. It was absurd. Google the allegations and the resulting Title IX settlement. So before anyone is too harsh on Linda, remember KMM not only got paid what was owed to her, but a lot more on top of that by casting all the spurious allegations. Women's Baskeball drama. Got to love it.

 

[BeBe]

Bebe can you post the ranking #s and scout grades for the 2015 & 2016 classes for Colorado, Oregon State & Oregon. Then display cleanly? ......

Since the ranking numbers for the players in the three 2015 classes were in my previous post, I edited it, adding the * rating and name for each of them and spacing things more clearly

No debate about 2016 classes..... Colorado's again is shaping up weak compared to all the others in the conference, as I said in my initial post. If the 2016 class Lappe signed last November had been ranked #25 nationally again, like the 2015 class was, we might not be having this discussion since she might well still have her job as CU WBB HC..

 

[BlackNGold]

CU needs a coach that can recruit consistently. I hope Lappe is successful in the future but it won't be at CU.

 

[Buffballer]

Bebe can you post the ranking #s and scout grades for the 2015 & 2016 classes for Colorado, Oregon State & Oregon. Then display cleanly?

I don't have access to Prospect nation, it's a paid site. If you are willing you could compare/contrast with the ESPN/HoopGurlz grades, or if not I can do that later.

Anyone that doesn't think Ryun Williams is worth a $1.2 Million Buyout, better realize Ohio State paid $1.75 Million buyout to steal a coach from Washington away from the Pac-12 (he recruited Kelsey Plum). Either you are willing to go get a coach that will lead you to where you want to go, or you are devaluing your Women's Basketball program. Also, RG didn't do Linda any favors. Colorado has zero leverage to actually not pay Linda the full contract through 2019. In fact, consider ourselves lucky if Linda walks away without the ugliness that KMM dragged the program through. Accusing Ceal of running a program biased against women. It was absurd. Google the allegations and the resulting Title IX settlement. So before anyone is too harsh on Linda, remember KMM not only got paid what was owed to her, but a lot more on top of that by casting all the spurious allegations. Women's Baskeball drama. Got to love it.

RWAG, You can access rankings on Prospect Nation without paying, just can't read the evaluations. Go to prospectnation.com, you'll have access. I wouldn't bother with ESPN it's no longer a premium service.