The other side
This is from Daily News staffer Ramona Shelburne:
UCLA women's coach Kathy Olivier met with her team and pressed
forward with plans for next season on Monday, one day after the
Bruins were pummeled 78-45 by Stanford in the semifinals of the
Pac-10 tournament, despite the resumption of annual whispers about
her job status.
``As far as worry goes, if I'm not in the Final Four I'm worried,''
Olivier said. "I'm competitive. I want to win every game. This is
UCLA. I want to win and everyone around me wants to win.''
The Bruins went 16-15 this year, with six freshmen playing prominent
roles, but aren't in line for an NCAA tournament bid. Olivier is
117-123 in the last eight seasons. Since going 26-8 in 1998-99, UCLA
has just one 20-win season. That year, 2005-06, UCLA won the Pac-10
tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. Three
players from that team, Nikki Blue, Lisa Willis and Noelle Quinn, are
playing in the WNBA.
Olivier brought in a top-5 recruiting class after Quinn graduated
last season, and while the freshmen played well in UCLA's win over
then-No. 2 Stanford and other close games against then No. 1
Tennessee and then-No. 4 Maryland, there were also some questionable
losses to Pepperdine, Idaho State and the seven-straight losses to
USC, which UCLA finally snapped Saturday in the quarterfinals of the
Pac-10 tournament.
``I really think we're right there,'' Olivier told Shelburne. "I've
gotten calls from people all over the country asking how our main
people can be freshman. But we're right there. We competed with
Maryland, we competed with Tennessee. We beat Stanford. But the
reality is, we just need to be more consistent.''
Shelburne reports Olivier's contract runs through 2011.
shoulda been fired years ago.
Is there anyone who defends her? How she has kept her job is utterly beyond me.
Kathy Olivier is a nice lady and great person....having said that...How has she managed to keep her job at UCLA is beyond me?!!
I know coaches in the secondary athletic programs at UCLA usually don't get fired. Most of them leave for greener pasture because they have an offer to coach a newly formed professional league or to coach the USA national team. Most of these coaches are consistent top 10 finishers in the country in their respective sports. Why? Because we are UCLA. The Name and the University draws great athletes. They want to come to school here to get a top notch education and be part of a great tradition.
Having a mediocre women's program is not acceptable. UCLA does not expect a Championship every year. But after awhile...one is expected. Winning a championship is never easy. As Bruins...we have been spoiled by our past success. But I feel that the Women's Basketball program should be a consistent contender in the Pac-10, if not on the national stage.
Women's Basketball is the only UCLA sports program that is consistently inconsistent. If I were running this program like a business....I would have been out of business.
If something is not working...hard decisions must be made. Perhaps a change is necessary. After all we got rid of Steve Lavin and Karl Dorrell when their program was NOT working (consistently).
It is what it is.
I wonder when was the last time any person who frequent's this blog went to a UCLA sporting event outside of men's hoops or football. The answer as to why Olivier is still coaching at UCLA probably lies there.
I live in San Jose and my wife and I (both UCLA alums) like to attend the Pac-10 Women's tourney (nice beatdown of USC, by the way). To echo the sentiments of those above, outside of about a dozen die hard fans, I think all the UCLA rooters every year are relatives of the players.
We've had some talent at UCLA but it hasn't translated to success. I'd love to see someone like Caroline Peck come back into the coaching ranks with UCLA, but it will be hard to find a women's coach who is interested in coaching in the Pac-10 (considered second tier) in front of 1,000 or so fans at home in a good year! We might have to take a chance on an up and coming coach to break this cycle. There's talent there right now - just have to get them to play to potential.
What, no shelveshelbourne.com? =)
I demand equality!
Helps to not kill your own jokes by getting the name wrong...
oustiolivier.com
she is still here because we really don't want to become a woman's basketball power.
The top women's programs play their coaches 400k-600k.
Ucla might fire Kathy Olaviner, as they should, but I wouldn't look for us to hire a cream of the crop coach.
how many commenters on here have actually attended games?
i'm in the band and went to... 12 women's basketball games, including the last two in san jose. the impression i got? olivier is a high-energy, passionate coach who clearly gets effort out of her players. she is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet. she's not afraid to get in players' or refs' faces, and she is just fine when it comes to timeouts, rotations, etc.
however, the women's team is pretty inconsistent. we can play great teams close, but we play the bad teams close too. there are games when we have a solid gameplan and solid execution (see the quarterfinals) and games when we have a terrible gameplan and terrible execution (see the semifinals).
so, i think you have to give her a shot with this recruiting class (which is excellent), but she clearly needs to step it up. this team needs to give a good showing game in and game out, because that's what UCLA is about. to her credit, she has the potential to do so, but it has to happen every game. that said, i really hope things work out... she is an extremely classy and driven coach who represents UCLA the right way.
inconsistent play and terrible game plans are the sign of bad coaching.
she has been underachieving at Ucla before you were in kindergarten.
she has had enough opportunities and shots.
cya kathy!
"Dohn Eats Nachos" LOL, nice screen name!
In the same way the incompetent Gary Adams wasn't fired for 3 decades, I don't think KO will be fired as long as she represents the university with class and dignity.
Unfortunate...especially when you consider how well our new baseball coach is doing.