The University of Virginia named Tina Thompson its new women’s basketball coach on Monday and in doing so cast the program’s future with a first-time head coach. While that moderate risk factor received the requisite questions during Thompson’s introductory press conference Wednesday, neither she nor the person who hired her seemed concerned with inexperience.
Thompson clearly embraces the old ‘first time for everything’ adage and believes that some experiences from her playing days will help with the transition to the head coach’s chair. The way she sees it, she was the first overall college pick in the WNBA’s inaugural 1997 draft and while she eventually earned eight-time All-WNBA status, she had to make that team a first time too. She also was once a first-time Olympian with Team USA in Athens, Greece.
“Everything that I’ve done, I’ve done it for the first time,” Thompson said. “I was the first ever pick – I didn’t know that was going to happen and then the pressures that come with that. I think I handled it well. The first time I was an All-Star, All-WNBA player, it was the first time. It’s not something that I think people completely prepare for, but your approach to it, being open to learning and being a student [is important]. … I’m not afraid to ask questions. That’s why I have no fear about this because you put yourself in a comfortable place when you can admit there are things you’re just not going to know and you’re not going to have an understanding of it until you go through the process.”
Virginia Director of Athletics Carla Williams acknowledged “inherent risks” in any hiring process so while this represented her first coaching search at UVA, she leaned on her experience at Georgia and a small group of advisors in making the selection. The experience factor did not weigh heavily in her mind. Williams, after all, made the transition from a deputy AD spot to the head of a department just last year so she is familiar with what it takes to make that sort of big step.
Plus, in doing research for the position she quickly grew comfortable with Thompson as a candidate. When her name continued to come up and the interview process began, Williams was willing to trust that the inexperience factor would not be a huge barrier to eventual success. The combination of Thompson’s background as a legendary women’s basketball player and a potential rising star as the associate head coach at Texas proved too much to pass up.
“The very first phone conversation we had, Jane [Miller] and I were together and we were just looking at each other – we were just blown away,” Williams said. “Just super impressive, very knowledgeable, mature beyond her years as a coach. You wouldn’t know that she only had three years of coaching experience, and I don’t really see it as her having only three years of coaching experience. When you’ve played professionally at the highest levels all around the world with the Olympics, the WNBA, and won championships, you’re a player-coach. You’re a coach. She’s been coaching for many, many years and so this is just another opportunity to do it in a different way.”
On the other end of the search, Thompson’s interest accelerated just as rapidly. Virginia’s history in the ACC and as an academic institution with similar goals to Southern California, her alma mater, and Texas, her previous employer, looked intriguing almost immediately. The fact that the program itself has had recent success by making the NCAA Tournament field this season and just missing out from the bubble last season also meant that she would not be inheriting a full rebuilding job.
By the time her son Dyllan reassured her that the program is in a good place via some YouTube viewing, the wheels were in motion to land her in Charlottesville. Williams called Thompson on Friday and wanted to bring her in for further interviews so Thompson started to look at her schedule for this week when Williams interjected with “No, I mean tomorrow, like as in Saturday morning,” Thompson recounted. At the end of the weekend, an offer came and there was no hesitation.
Seconds later, Thompson said yes. The good job opportunity that first crossed her radar upon Joanne Boyle’s retirement to deal with family matters was now hers. Thompson’s contract runs for five years with an annual base salary of $325,000 per year, though that number can reach $650,000 with incentives.
“I think my first reaction was that of probably everybody in the country – that that is a good job. It’s a good job and that was the sentiment to everyone that I had spoken to,” Thompson said of her thoughts when the job first opened. “Then a little apprehension in the sense that I kind of played devil’s advocate with myself in that I was probably wondering what everybody else was thinking about that job and seeing me in that position. The choice of putting me in this chair to lead this team and this program is probably not the easy choice. It’s a choice of courage to take a chance on someone like me that is not as experienced as maybe a sitting head coach who has a lot of experience.”
That’s certainly the thought process that many observers, including current UVA players, had in watching the coaching search from a distance. Head coaching jobs in the ACC and other Power Five conferences often get offered to head coaches from other schools. Boston College hired Albany coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee and Clemson selected former Florida head coach Amanda Butler for their vacancies for example. So while Pittsburgh opted for long-time Florida State assistant Lance White and Minnesota chose current WNBA player Lindsay Whalen to take over at her alma mater without any head coaching experience, the prevailing theory still centered around previous head coaches.
When Virginia junior Jocelyn Willoughby first met Thompson, she didn’t need to make too big a leap of faith though.
“I tried not to be too engaged in the search process of figuring out who the prospects are or who is applying and just see what happens when it happens,” Willoughby said. “I will say from what I did kind of project, I expected another head coach or a sitting head coach to take this position and I guess that’s kind of a normal expectation, but I will say when I found out she was named the coach, it was excitement. Knowing she’s had success at every level she’s been at as a player and as a coach, I don’t think there’s too much to doubt in how she will be as a head coach here.”
Thompson wasted little time in diving into the head coaching role either. As soon as she had the go-ahead, she extended her first recruiting offers, including one to 2019 point guard Shemera Williams per a Tweet by the recruit. Another Tweet indicates that 2019 point guard Corina Carter received an offer as well. She also met with the team and current assistant coaches to evaluate the program’s current status. The coaching staff held a meeting into the late-night hours Tuesday night to begin the transition stage and identify what the program’s path might be.
That extended session could be considered a get-to-know-you process as well as sort of a preliminary interview for Boyle assistants Tim Taylor, Katherine Graham, and La’Keshia Frett Meredith. Thompson has not officially settled on what she wants to do with the make-up of her coaching staff, including whether to retain any or all of the aforementioned assistants. She’ll get her first on-court workouts with the coaches and players Thursday.
The immediate goal is to make the overall transition as smooth as possible.
“What I want to do is create the most stable environment for the kids and try to not make very many changes,” Thompson said. “They love Coach Boyle and her leaving was not easy for them. So me being here is a transition enough. So I’m going to try as much as I possibly can to create a stable place, and who knows, they might not want to be here with me (laughs) so it’s a mutual decision between our staff and myself.”
Once Thompson fully settles in and makes decisions about the look of the program, the long-term task will be to turn UVA back into a consistent ACC contender and NCAA Tournament regular. Under former coach Debbie Ryan, Virginia produced 739 wins and earned 24 NCAA Tournament bids, including 20 straight trips from 1983-1984 through 2002-2003. Ryan’s tenure featured 11 ACC Regular Season Championships, three ACC Tournament Championships, and three Final Four appearances.
Boyle followed with 129 wins over seven seasons, including five postseason berths in seven seasons. She guide the team back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009-2010 this season. Her tenure ended with four straight years of postseason play and a final season that saw the team post a 10-6 ACC record and an NCAA Tournament win.
Both former coaches attended Wednesday’s introductory press conference along with many other UVA coaches. Thompson knows that inheriting a program with rich history and some sustained postseason appearances is not always where first-time head coaches start their career so she’s grateful for the path that came before her chance at the job. The challenge with Notre Dame, Louisville, Duke, and others in the ACC is climbing back to the mountaintop is full of tough obstacles. Not that someone as competitive as Thompson minds.
“I would be remiss to say that this is not going to be a process. It is. And building something great and worth having is absolutely a process,” Thompson said. “But we’re in a good place. Coach Boyle left this program in a good place. Winning is always good, and when you start from a place of winning, it does make the process a little easier. But even the easy is hard. To be consistent, to continue to win, especially in the ACC … and games are competitive nightly, it’s going to be tough. But I like tough. I wouldn’t be sitting in this position if I shied away from the hard or tough parts of this profession.”
