Nikki Caldwell official statement
From UCLA:
"UCLA is a special place in so many ways," Nikki Caldwell said. "I will forever be indebted for the opportunities that UCLA has afforded me. Dan Guerrero is one of the elite athletic directors and it has been a privilege and an honor to work with this administration. They did all they could to keep me at UCLA and I appreciate those efforts.
"This team has been an example of what hard work and perseverance represent. Although I was brought in here to teach them, I have been able to learn so much from them. I only wish for the best for this program and this institution and I am truly grateful to have been given the opportunity to coach here."
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An outstanding attorney wrote that statement for her. Anyhow, good luck Coach Caldwell.
I guess she got a salary bump?
Okay, but why is she leaving??
In the end it is always about the Money...UCLA can not match the salary that other schools can match! Simple as that! The east coast and southern schools always have an advantage to the western schools....they care more about sports in general than we do!
DISLIKE! This a huge loss for UCLA unless Dan Guerrero can bring in someone of the same caliber and personality. I just hope we don't lose the top-3 recruiting class and they end up at LSU. That would be REALLY bad. It probably would help if we could manage some support for our Women's Basketball team, along with all the other "non-major" sports (football and men's basketball being the "major" sports) such as women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's gymnastics, softball, baseball and men's and women's track and field. These kids are athletes,too, and they also deserve our support.
SO dd Nueheisel cancel football practice yesterday to mourn the loss of our WOMENS basbetball coach?
It's simple: UCLA is cheap and always has been. You cant expect to have elite coaches without elite level pay. UCLA doesnt have a Phil Knight, Jerry Buss/Wayne Hughes, or a T.Boone Pickins in their booster section.
It's a great career move for her. Long term, she probably has her eye on the Tennessee position once Pat Summitt retires. Nikki Caldwell turns around a dead UCLA program, and then if she can get LSU back to being a national title contender (especially if she can beat Tennessee during conference play), she should be a leading candidate for the Tennessee job once that opens up.
What do the pros say when they are on the trading block-- it is a business, man, I get it.
Well, coaches even at the college level look at it as a "business," and if they are offered bigger money elsewhere, then, well, it's the "American way."
Yup you get what you pay for and UCLA either doesn't have the $ or just doesn't know how to manage it. This is why UCLA will never be what UCLA once was ( or at least not anytime soon)! It gets harder and harder to be a Bruin Fan but I guess that's why they call me a die hard!
She signed a seven figure contract with UCLA despite having no head coaching experience elsewhere. And was offered a new, bigger deal even though that one hadn't expired. This is hardly a suffering woman.
If I were "forever indebted" to a place, as a general rule I wouldn't be leaving after three years. Thank God she was so appreciative and loyal to UCLA or she probably would have left after a year and a half.
"Dan Guerrero is one of the elite athletic directors and it has been a privilege and an honor to work with this administration."
So, is it safe to assume the AD's office wrote this?
If the AD's office had written it, they would have reminded us about how many championships we have, etc., etc...
Coach Nikki has taken the ENTIRE coaching staff with her, as well as a few towels, some strapping tape, and a tear-stained 'thank you' card from the players she's left behind. Baton Rouge, here she comes!!!
Do you report on ucla football practices anymore Jon?
@Todd, she was making six figures at UCLA, and a low six figures at that (about $300K), and she will make a higher six figure number at LSU ($900K).
What if she stuck around at UCLA for a couple more years? What are the chances of a position like that coming along when she's ready to move on? It was a good opportunity in 1) a strong conference 2) with a traditional women's basketball power, and 3) that pays good money. Those kind of openings don't come around all the time, so she had to take it while she had the chance. If I were her agent planning out her career, I'd tell her to take it.
Besides, if she did stay at UCLA for two more years and then left for another position, folks would be complaining about how she was leaving after putting in so many years and building up such a long tradition, yada yada yada. You just can't make everyone happy.
Yes. As I wrote on Thursday, I was out of town on Saturday and today. I will be at practice tomorrow.
Tomorrow? REALLY, John?
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion...
Please don't tell me I've lost you too, Droog. I couldn't handle that. Just know that.
A peace offering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFnQTq6gNQ
I'm only here to make you smile, Jon!
Hope you had a good break.
"What if she stuck around at UCLA for a couple more years? What are the chances of a position like that coming along when she's ready to move on?"
Exceptionally strong. She's young and very highly regarded. More excellent opportunities are pretty much certain, which is central to my diminished opinion of her following her rapid exodus.
Tired of seeing this article leading off. Two words, Jon: laptop and wireless.
I have laptop and I have wireless, Michael. I'm on vacation for two days. What would you like me to do?
Jon,
Hope you had a nice break.The answer to the question is how do you satisfy an idiot.I think she went for the money and a chance to position herself for a higher
profile position - a bad choice.She would have achieved
her goals at UCLA.
MRyer: OK, please get Benny to post on something fun from our 1980 finals team ... I was a kid when it was Kiki-Foster-Day-Sanders-Holton. I thought Sanders was Jesus the way he rose at 6-4 to thwart 7-footers.
Caldwell is the Lane Kiffen of college hoops.
Nikki Caldwell made a comment in the least few days in reaction to news about her salary at LSU--and I am paraphrasing--that coaching for her isn't about the money, that she started out as a $650/month graduate assistant.
Technically, she's right, she did start out as a low-paid graduate assistant for Pat Summitt--but only after she had made some very good money in the television world, and could afford to do it.
So, Coach Caldwell, thank you for your brief stay here, and good luck to you, but spare us from the faux indignation.
As I mentioned elsewhere, Nikki Caldwell is a perfect example of the "me" generation: talented, yes, but her positive qualities are far overshadowed by avarice and greed. In one shining moment, she bit the hand that provided her first head coaching opportunity by gutting the UCLA women's BB program. She not only walked out in the third year of a five year contract that Guerrero was willing to renegotiate, she abruptly took the entire Bruin women's basketball staff with her, leaving players, recruits and their parents to pick up the pieces of their lives and basketball careers. It remains to be seen how many of "her" recruits will become Tigers.
Ethical and honorable educational institutions would not allow themselves to become party to such an outcome at another school's expense. The NCAA should investigate LSU's AD, Joe Alleva, for his part in this unseemly affair. Yet another controversy for LSU women's basketball to try to overcome. I shudder to think of what her legacy will be there. Can't they ever do it right?