Simply spectacular stuff from Ticha

Miss the good ole days of Ticha? Check out this sweet pass to Candace Parker. Look carefully. It's tough to spot the ball!

George Mason brings back old coach as new assistant

Remember Jim Lewis, the winningest coach in George Mason history? The ex-Patriot is a Patriot once again, this time as an assistant to Jeri Porter.

Lewis was the inaugural coach of the Washington Mystics, where he spent two seasons. Last year he was an assistant at Georgia Tech. Prior to that he spent two years as director of scouting for the Indiana Fever. Before coming to George Mason, he spent six seasons as head coach at Fordham.

Lewis was 201-177 at GMU over 14 seasons (1984-1997).

ODU's Barefoot names first assistant

New ODU coach Karen Barefoot has her first assistant, and the name is familiar to CAA fans.

Hofstra graduate and Nigerian-born Amaka  Agugua will be the Lady Monarchs new recruiting coordinator. Agugua spent the last two seasons at Indiana (where former Pride coach Felisha Legette-Jack is head coach. The Hoosiers have advanced to the WNIT for the last two years.)

Previously Agugua was an assistant at VCU, she was responsible for working with the Rams' post players, as well as assisting with VCU's recruiting efforts. (Barefoot was an ODU assistant during the same period.) Agugua was instrumental in guiding VCU to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2008-09, and develop two WNBA draft picks in Krystal Vaughn (2008) and Quanitra Hollingsworth (2009).

If you're looking for another Virginia connection, Agugua starred at Oakton (Herndon) High School for coach Fred Priester. Her senior season she was an All-Met and All-Virginia selection, as well as a Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year finalist. She was also MVP of the Northern Region and took her team to the state championship game her senior year season. Additionally, Agugua participated in the Northern Region and Virginia State All-Star games.

Buchan vs. Delle Donne at World University Games?

Now that Old Dominion's Mairi Buchan and Becca Allison have been named to the Great Britain team for the 2011 World University Games Aug. 13-22 in Shenzhen, perhaps those Lady Monarchs can help their team figure out some way to slow a loaded United States entry. Great Britain and the U.S. have both been assigned to Pool B of the 16-team tournament (along with Slovakia and Brazil), guaranteeing the two will meet somewhere within the teams' first three games.

Although the U.S. team hasn't been officially set, the 14 finalists for the squad include Stanford's Nnemkadi and Chiney Ogwumike, Notre Dame star/Twitter darling Skylar Diggins (100,295 followers?) and Delaware's Elena Delle Donne. The team will be trimmed to 12 during a final training session beginning July 31 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Not sure how Buchan, Allison and Co. can match up with those guys. But if the Brits need any help in dealing with Delle Donne, the Lady Monarchs have some fond memories of how that can successfully play out.

The tournament will also allow Buchan a crucial audition for a spot on Great Britain's 2012 Olympic team. Last summer, Buchan starred on Great Britain's gold medal-winning U-20 squad at the European Division B Championships and appeared poised to move up to the senior team. But she missed her entire college season with a foot injury and also had to withdraw from this summer's Eurobasket finals.

“I will continue to work hard,” Buchan said. “And have decided to treat the World University Games this August as my chance to prove myself to the senior coaching staff so that I can still have a chance at making the team next year for the Olympic Games in London.”

Buchan was at Old Dominion Wednesday for new Lady Monarchs coach Karen Barefoot's introductory press conference. Allison is in training with the Great Britian U-20 team which will play in the A Division European tournament July 7-17 in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Longwood fills out coaching staff

Jenny Poff

Wanisha Smith

Lindsay Schrader (left)

Our first thought upon learning that Longwood coach Bill Reinson has tabbed Lindsay Schrader and Jenny Poff as his new assistant coaches was that it's too bad those guys are out of eligibility. Schrader, after all, is the fiery, do-whatever-it-takes former first-team All-Big East pick out of Notre Dame. Poff is an ex-Miss Michigan Basketball runner-up who led Ohio University in scoring and assists as a senior and was one of the best shooters in Bobcats history. And it's not as though you have to go deep into the archives to find this stuff out. Both ended their careers in 2009-10. At 24 years old, no doubt they can both still lace 'em up and do all that stuff today (OK, at least most of that stuff).

Schrader and Poff will join yet another star of recent vintage, Wanisha Smith, on the Longwood staff. The 25-year-old Smith, the lone holdover from the 2009-10 cadre of assistants, was a four-year standout at Duke and a second-round pick in the WNBA draft.

Of course, for all their success on the court, how well they do collectively from the bench remains to be seen. Given that Schrader and Poff are just one year removed from their playing days and Smith only three, this might be the least experienced staff in Division I. This doesn't mean it can't work, though. And this much is certain - they won't have any trouble relating to today's young women. At 24, 24 and 25 years old, Schrader, Poff and Smith still are today's young women.

Introducing ODU coach Karen Barefoot

Snippets from Wednesday's press conference introducing new coach Karen Barefoot at Old Dominion.

Old Dominion athletic director Wood Selig on what the search committee was seeking in making the first coaching hire for the program since 1987.

We wanted an established head coach. We felt that with the strength of our program, the fact that we are the third most successful program in the history of women's basketball, this program certainly deserves a head coach.


We wanted an individual with local ties and recruiting contacts. 


The ability to turn around a program. All you have to do is look at where Karen has been and the success Karen has enjoyed


A shared vision for national prominence.


We needed somebody with energy, drive, passion and enthusiasm to help us accomplish these goals


The ability to reignite the Lady Monarch fan base.

Words from Karen Barefoot, the sixth coach in program history:

I want to give glory to God for giving the opportunity to coach the best game ever and coach life lessons.


I am ecstatic and I am excited. I have to thank all the players I ever coached. They're the reason I do it.


I also want to thank Coach Larry for giving me an opportunity to come back to ODU and in 2008 to experience a Sweet 16.


I was 6 years old. I played on a guys team at the YMCA at Huntington Park. There was no girls team until I was in high school, so I always had to play with the boys. My brother would always tell me and his friends, 'She's not good. She's not good. She's not good.' I had to earn it when I was in high school and he finally said, 'She's good.'  " .... I'm on the guys team and I'm so excited when I scored my first basket. Unfortunately it was at the wrong end. Well let me just tell you, I'm not going to be perfect but I'll never give you less than my best.

On her four years as a player at Christopher Newport where Barefoot is the all-time assists and steals leader and second in scoring:

It was the best part of my life. I learned so much. ..Most importantly, it was the people, the fans. If you didn't get there an hour before game time, you were not getting the seat. And I'm going to tell you this at ODU: If you don't get your season ticket, you're not going to get a seat because we're going to get it done and get after it.

On Lenoir-Rhyne, where Barefoot coached from 2001-05:
It was great to build a program from the bottom to the top, and to leave that program at NCAA status was great.

On her favorite memory as an ODU assistant: ODU vs. Virginia at the Constant Center in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, 2008:

I remember telling Coach Larry, because it was my scout, 'We've got to get Jazz the ball.' It was Jazz Walters. Everybody knows Jazz Walters. Well Jazz made an unbelievable shot. When I looked around and saw the crowd and the faces, that's why I coach the game, to see the joy from this area -- to me Old Dominion has the best fans in the country, the most committed fans.

Listing her five championship rings:

Every challenge I've succeeded because you have to get the right people around you.
Our team will have fun, but they will earn fun. We will be champions on the court, off the court and in the community. We will work hard to make you proud.


The second thing that is the most important thing, We will be relentless in recruiting. That's where it starts. ... We're going after All-Americans. I believe in this region we have top-notch coaches and players.


Third, I will hire a championship staff. That is important to me. I will not rush the process. We are going to work. This is not a 9-5 job.


Number 4. The style of play. I am a player-development coach. I love to teach. I am very passionate. Our team will not take off on any possession. I am a defensive coach. We will have an uptempo system, uptempo style that our fans will love. We will have more possessions than our opponents. We will have players that will play hard and tough until the end.  .... We will have open practices a couple times of week. There are no secrets.


You are the most important part of the fifth championship ring. You are our sixth man. You are the glue; you are the reason. Old Dominion basketball will get back to the Top 25, but we need your support.

On hiring of assistant coaches:

By this weekend I will have two committed.....It's my second day on the job. I've already talked to over 300 people.

In conclusion:

I am 1,000 percent committed to you. I'm up for new ideas. We are a family and I want you to understand that my door is always open. I represent you and I promise you I'll give you all I've got.

A Sweet 16 of burning questions for the new Old Dominion administration

1. Will Karen Barefoot's new contract include a shoe deal? If so, why?

2. Current ODU players, are you really committing to your offseason workout programs? With this coach, come fall, we have a feeling you'll really wish you had.

3. Can any Lady Monarchs fan  forget Barefoot's last game at the Constant Center, the thrilling overtime victory over Virginia in 2008 that propelled ODU into the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16?

4. How come Wood Selig gave several interviews about the process and actually put out a release a full week ahead of the press conference? Aren't schools supposed to stonewall, deny and no-comment the media to death during coaching searches until they're good and ready for the formal presentation? (Bet some of his fellow ADs are giving him grief for his relative transparency.)

5. Hey, Tia Lewis, you OK with this hire?

6. Hey, Pat Summitt, you OK with this hire?

7. Is the new coach prepared to emphasize work in the classroom just as much as work on the court? Given that the ODU women's basketball team's Academic Progress Rate is in the bottom 10 percent of all Division I teams, that's a message that needs to be sent. NCAA tournament appearances are great, but in the big picture, this is the No. 1 issue surrounding present-day Lady Monarchs hoops.

8. Oh, and can we do something about all those turnovers?

9. The week before Wendy Larry stepped down, Selig was at the Villa 7 Consortium where he had a chance to meet and assess 60 of the nation's top assistant coaches. How come none of these up-and-comers even made his list of finalists?

10. If Barefoot works out, won't it provide another reason to give thanks to Larry, the woman who gave Barefoot her Division I break a few years ago?

11. If Barefoot brings current Elon and ex-ODU assistant Marie Christian with her, and keeps Nikita Lowery Dawkins on hand, wouldn't the only difference between ODU's 2007-08 staff and the 2011-12 version be that Larry's no longer in charge of it?

12. Is this now the official song of Lady Monarchs hoops?

13. Did ODU turn down Nancy Lieberman, or did Lieberman, after thinking it over, turn down ODU?

14. If recruiting has been such an issue with ODU, isn't it a bit surprising they just hired someone whose previous work with the Lady Monarchs is part of the reason people think recruiting was such an issue with ODU? (Just asking the question, folks.)

15. How many ways can you have fun with Barefoot in a headline?

16. Given the Howard coach was on the list of finalists, we ask this. Was David Six even considered?

ODU has its coach and it's Barefoot

Looks like Old Dominion has found its coach and it's Elon's Karen Barefoot, a former assistant to Wendy Larry.

We're thrilled for Barefoot because we know how much this job means to her. We followed her career at The Apprentice School and at ODU and this much we know: Barefoot will work her tail off for the Lady Monarchs. We know some ODU fans were salivating at the prospect of Nancy Lieberman, but we agree with Wood Selig's choice.

Mel muses about Nancy at ODU; Virginia receives high marks

Mel speculates about Nancy returning to Old Dominion as coach, and Virginia gets high marks from the Black Coaches and Administrators group for its hiring process, which concludes the number of nonwhite coaches in women's basketball has declined.

Virginia was one of the 11 schools among 18 to receive an A for its efforts; grades are calculated by adding points from four categories, including communication, the hiring/search committee, candidates interviewed and time frame of the search.

Virginia Tech was the only school receiving an F for failure to participate.

Old Dominion's Maiga-Ba has baby boy

LadySwish extends congratulations to former Old Dominion great Hamchetou Maiga-Ba, who gave birth to an 8-pound, 11-ounce baby boy named Mamadou on May 19. Mother and baby, who live in Sacramento, were visited by former teammates Lucienne Berthieu and Myriah Spence as well as former manager Felecia Allen last weekend.

The nine-year veteran of the WNBA was waived last month by the Minnesota Lynx (makes us pause and wonder about the league's maternity policy). No word yet on whether she will continue to play for Mali in the 2012 Olympics.