College basketball is ripe for a program to exploit a hole in the coaching market

The University of Georgia men’s basketball team is a chronic underachiever, producing one Final Four (1983), one other Sweet Sixteen (1996) and pretty much nothing else (just two additional NCAA tournament victories scattered across the decades).

It has money, SEC membership and talent-rich Atlanta nearby, yet essentially never wins.

It’s not for lack of trying when it comes to hiring coaches. It’s turned to big names such as former national champion Jim Harrick and Final Four coach Tom Crean, who won’t return next year after a 6-25 campaign. It hired top mid-major coaches (Mark Fox, Dennis Felton) and promoted promising assistants (Ron Jirsa). Other than Hugh Durham and Tubby Smith, who left for Kentucky after just two seasons, no one has done much.

So why not depart from old-school industry thinking, exploit a massive market weakness, seize an incredible Name, Image and Likeness recruiting opportunity and do something big. Like … hire a woman?

Why not offer a huge contract to Dawn Staley in the hopes she leaves her juggernaut South Carolina women’s program to try to turn a forever anonymous men’s team into something impossible to ignore?

This is one of the topics on the latest edition of the College Basketball Enquirer (34:40). Let’s go through it here as well.

1. Start with this: Staley doesn’t need men’s basketball to justify her greatness. She's said in the past she has no interest in coaching men and given her success, why would she? That's fine. Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt and many others have been able to win titles, earn Hall of Fame enshrinement, make massive amounts of money and impact lives in the women’s game. One isn’t better than the other.

This isn’t about Staley (or any other woman coach) needing a men’s program. It’s about a men’s program needing the best coach available.

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2. Getting Staley wouldn’t be about achieving an equity milestone or achieving a progressive ideal. Those are byproducts. This is about a school being smart enough to not eliminate half of the candidate pool — especially when the right candidate might bring advantages that the other half can’t — just because, well, that’s what the industry has always done.

“It can’t be about hiring a woman, it has to be about hiring the best coach, otherwise, it’s not fair to either side,” said Debbie Yow, who coached women’s basketball at Kentucky and Florida and in 1994 was hired at Maryland as the ACC’s first female athletic director. From 2010-19, she held the same job at North Carolina State.

3. This also isn’t about Staley specifically. This is an example (Georgia; Staley) of a broader point. It could be Joni Taylor, Georgia’s excellent women’s coach. Or Adia Barnes, who has impressed at Arizona. Or Becky Hammon from the pro ranks. Or any capable woman.

It isn't even about Georgia. It could be any other program needing a coach — from low major to the SEC. There are 358 Division I programs ... yet it's believed there isn't even a single current female assistant coach worthy, let alone head coach.

4. Can a woman coach men? Enough. Can a woman be a CEO? A business owner? A mid-level manager? A doctor? Military officer? An executive chef? Lawyer? Judge? Senator? Chief of Police?

It’s 2022. Are we to believe there is something unique or sacred about bad college basketball programs that only men can lead them? Besides, if you don’t think Staley can be the boss of men then you know nothing about this 51-year-old force of nature from North Philadelphia.

She grew up in a blighted neighborhood where she muscled her way into male-dominated playground games. She went on to become a two-time national player of the year at Virginia, a three-time gold medalist with USA Basketball and a six-time All-WNBA selection. She was voted by her fellow Olympians to be the Team USA flag bearer at the 2004 Athens Games.

As a coach at Temple and now South Carolina she is 532-185, has reached three Final Fours and won the 2017 national championship. Last summer she led the United States women’s national team to a gold medal in Tokyo. Her current team is 29-2.

Is that a good resume? What’s a resume in this sport anyway?

Scott Drew never played college basketball. He coached Baylor to the national title last year. Jon Scheyer has never been a full-time head coach at any level. Duke believes he’s perfect to take over Mike Krzyzewski’s program. Tom Izzo was a D-II player with no head coaching experience when Michigan State promoted him. He’s seeking his ninth Final Four.

5. Now, would some male recruits not want to play for a woman? Of course. There is no denying that. But so what? No coach appeals to all recruits. Most top players don’t want to play ball for a small, Jesuit school in Spokane, Washington. Enough of them do, however, that Gonzaga is No. 1 again.

6. Some players might actually seek out a female coach, especially Staley. Most people in this country don’t care what their boss looks like, just that their boss believes in them and puts them in positions to succeed. In this case, win games and get to the NBA.

Or put it this way, if you were facing a life-threatening medical emergency would you turn down the best female surgeon in America because you’d rather have a male doctor of lesser accomplishment?

7. On the flip side, would Staley — or maybe any female coach — be able to bring in a level of recruit that a male counterpart can’t? Absolutely, and this may be the key.

Previously, the one fair concern about hiring any women’s basketball coach — male or female — was the lack of experience and contacts in men’s recruiting. The game is mostly the same but the way to sign players is different.

Men’s basketball has been an outlaw operation for decades and the ability to bend rules, hide violations and know which middleman to trust is a massive part of the job. It just is. It’s why even NBA coaches with no college experience generally struggle.

That’s changing though. Name, Image and Likeness has moved the once underground economy into the open. Do you think there might be some corporate and business interest in supporting the first men’s team with a women’s coach?

If the charismatic, trailblazing Staley took over at Georgia, the program would immediately become one of the most prominent in the country (ticket sales, television appearances, fans far and wide).

Nike, which already has a deal with the school and is the single most powerful force in where top recruits go play basketball, would likely leap at the chance to drive this train. The Bulldogs would instantly ascend to the top of the Nike food chain with Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky.

If Nike wants the roster stacked, the roster will be stacked. That’s how it works. Money and connections talk. And that’s before other companies jump in, everything from other national brands to local small or mid-sized businesses to Atlanta-based giants such as Coca-Cola or Delta.

You don’t hire a woman because she is a woman, but if being a woman brings added advantages, you sure do accept it. This is just an untapped revenue stream. Staley coaching a men’s team? Recruiting will surge.

Will this happen this year for Staley or any other woman? Doubt it. Schools big and small will stick with what they’ve always done.

Someday, however, someone smart is going to decide to exploit the market, see the hidden NIL benefits and do what seems obvious: hire the best candidate who can bring the most resources to the job.