May 9, 2023: 5 new head coaches in D3 women's hoops
16 head coaching positions are still open
It’s been over a week since I last wrote, so I thought I’d check back in. The offseason continues to roll along, and so does the coaching carousel. We have already seen five new head coaches hired in the month of May! Hope everyone is doing well.
Here are a few thoughts from me…
Starting with the coaching news, two hirings were announced yesterday, and interestingly, both are alums of their respective institutions. Blackburn brought Allen Dehority on board, and Lancaster Bible went out to Minnesota and got Ryan Carpenter.
Dehority’s name is likely more familiar to men’s hoops fans in D3 than women’s, considering he was most recently the head MBB coach at Finlandia. There, he helped the program snap a 49-game losing skid and spent two years at the helm of that program. They went 4-21 this past season, the last season that will exist in Finlandia’s history.
The closure of the university forced all of its coaches to scramble for other positions, and Dehority seems to be a good fit at Blackburn. He is both an alum of the school, but also has women’s basketball head coaching experience, having led the program at D3 Notre Dame of Maryland from 2012-2016. He also began serving as an assistant WBB coach at Finlandia in 2018.
In somewhat related news to that, Blackburn announced last week that it would be embarking on a 7.7 million dollar campaign to build a new practice facility for baseball, softball, and golf, while also putting in a new court at the historic Dawes-Woodward Complex. So that may make things more attractive for recruiting and helped Dehority build that program back up.
Carpenter is an alum of Lancaster Bible, but most recently was an assistant on the staff at Minnesota-Duluth, who advanced to the D-II women’s national title game. I got to see a small portion of that contest when I was in Dallas covering the D-III title game, in fact. Coaching at Duluth was actually Carpenter’s first collegiate position after several years at the high school level. This will be his first college head coaching job, as he returns to the school where he played from 2005-08.
Our second D1-to-D3 hire of this offseason was made by Eastern, who tabbed Robert Morris’ Sarah Fowler to lead the program after Eric Houston’s departure. This will be Fowler’s first D3 job, as she coached previously at a trio of D1s in addition to her career playing overseas.
"The committee was impressed," Eastern AD Eric McNelley said in a press release. "With her focus on player development, character building, and spiritual formation as part of an integral plan for program development. She will hold our program to high standards of excellence that will translate to success on and off the court."
Fowler was a pretty accomplished player herself, etching her name into the St. Joseph’s record books as the second player in program history to score 1,000+ points, pull down 600+ rebounds, and block 100+ shots. After that stellar career in the Philly area, she played in Greece before moving back to the U.S. and joining the staff at Colgate. She then went to St. Joe’s before spending two years at Robert Morris. I’d have to guess her background coaching (and playing) at higher-academic institutions played a role in the hiring.
The MAC-Commonwealth is a wide-open league, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Eastern is in the title conversations within a few years.
Another interesting hire is Mike Ricks, who is moving from Birmingham-Southern to Goucher. Pretty different situation in terms of region, considering BSC is somewhat on an island down in Alabama, while Goucher is in the heart of D3 country in the Mid-Atlantic. Personally, I’m looking forward to watching him develop that high-octane, fast-paced system he used for several years at BSC. “The System” as its known, can be effective, but is a double-edged sword at times, considering the fact that you score a ton of points but give up plenty too. But a new kind of thinking might be what is needed to turn the Goucher program around. It makes sense for Ricks to take this position too, with BSC still on uneven ground. Recruiting will continue to be tough as long as BSC is on financial life support, only guaranteed to be open a year at a time.
Wilkes also hired Al Berger to lead its program, as he comes from Keystone, where he spent two years as head coach. He was 29-23 there, and has been around D3 hoops since joining the staff at Wellesley in 2012. Within the last 10 years, he’s coached for six different programs; Wellesley (‘12-’16), Wheelock College (‘16-’17), Salem State (HC, ‘17-’18), Brandeis (‘18-’19), Pine Manor College (‘19-’20), Keystone (HC, ‘20-’22).
All that to say, he has experience coming in to a new program and working to find a way to win in a relatively short period of time. Wilkes already posted the 2023-24 roster on the website, and while I’m guessing that is subject to change, there are currently four seniors and three juniors listed. Certainly an opportunity for Berger to achieve some strong results in year one.
I also saw that the NCAA rules committee made some recommendations for the upcoming season. Nothing too crazy, but a few notable points of interest…
Flopping: On first offense when charged with a flop, a player will be given a warning. Any additional flopping calls past that against that player will result in a technical foul. However, while it would go against the team foul county, it would not go towards a player’s five fouls “leading to disqualification”. Makes sense, and in my opinion, would be good for the sport. However, seeing it done on the men’s side, it is a very subjective call, and is one of those things that will depend more on how strict the group of officials is. Some tend to be more lenient with flopping calls.
Lower defensive box/restricted area arc: They recommended moving the restricted area arc from 4 feet to the area directly below the basket, and as noted in the article on NCAA.com, “defenders cannot establish a legal guarding position under the basket.” The defensive box rule would also go away. In essence, this change would allow the defense to guard more of the lane, and simultaneously, not allow charges to be taken under the basket. Originally, it was created “to reduce crashes at the basket” but this hasn’t happened, according to the committee. To read a full explanation, head to the link here: https://www.ncaa.org/news/2023/5/5/media-center-womens-basketball-rules-committee-recommends-flopping-penalty.aspx
Players would be allowed to wear numbers 0-99
No longer would a waiver be required for players to wear religious headwear as long as it is “safe for competition”
Live video could be transmitted to the bench (this has been an experimental rule for the last 2 yrs)
Officials would be able to use replay for the entire game for off-ball foul scoring plays
This is a very brief version of a few notables, but the NCAA did a good job of laying everything out and explaining it all. So head to the NCAA media center for a full rundown. June 8 is when the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel will meet to discuss whether these recommendations should take effect.
Also, quick shout-out to D3hoops.com All-Decade member Abby Owings, who just joined the staff at Cincinnati. She played at Thomas More, and left as the most accomplished player in program history in 2018, with 1,789 points scored. During he four years there, Thomas More won two national titles, and went to the Final Four three times. Awesome to see her continuing to move up the coaching ranks at the D1 level.
That’s all for now. Hearing we might get a couple more head coach hirings before the end of the week, so stay tuned. Have a great rest of your Tuesday!