Trend favors men coaching more women’s teams, not vice versa

Diana Taurasi gets the irony. The more popular women’s basketball becomes, the harder it is for women to get jobs coaching women’s basketball.

“Women are getting pigeonholed that they can’t get the job done in women’s basketball, which is kind of strange,” said Taurasi, a basketball icon who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.

A scan of women’s basketball at the highest levels in this country is pretty indicative of that trend. Of the 12 coaches in the WNBA, more than half (seven) are men.

In the most recent NCAA study of coaching demographics (2014-15), an all-time high of 41.4 percent of Division I coaches for women’s programs were male. (Overall, men coach about 60 percent of women’s college sports.)

For the first time in the history of the Women’s Final Four this past March, there wasn’t a female head coach in the bunch.

But is that a bad thing? Are men coaching women necessarily detrimental to the sport?

“It’s a really good thing to have breakthrough for both genders,” said Ruth Hamblin, a WNBA rookie with the Dallas Wings.

Hamblin, the sixth pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft, played for one of those Final Four coaches, Oregon State’s Scott Rueck.

“Obviously it’s a cool thing seeing [San Antonio Spurs assistant] Becky Hammond coaching the men, kind of the opposite effect,” Hamblin said. “Women, I feel like, generally used to be like a steppingstone. I’m going to start in the women’s game and work my way to the men’s game, but it’s cool seeing the women’s game be the end product.”

Hammond and Sacramento Kings assistant Nancy Lieberman are a start. Still, there isn’t a female head coach in the NBA or at a men’s D-I program.

Title IX, the landmark 1972 educational legislation that opened the doors for women in high school and college athletics, didn’t solely impact women.

“I’m a product of Title IX myself back when I got into coaching at Dallas South Oak Cliff in 1972,” Texas A&M women’s basketball coach Gary Blair said. “I was waiting around for a baseball or boys basketball job when I first got there, but they didn’t have anything open so I coached the golf team.

“The next year the girls came over and asked me to coach them because the two female P.E. had cheerleading and drill team. That’s how I got started because of Title IX, and I was the only man coaching girls that first year in Dallas. I made the decision after we won our first state title in ’77 that I was going to stick with it.”

The immediate challenge for organizations such as the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association is to increase the female coaching pipeline. Taurasi believes it starts with her fellow players.

“There are a lot of young coaches that have played for a long time in college and the WNBA that can bring new life, new energy to women’s coaching,” she said. “I hope it goes that way.”

Wings coach Fred Williams has built his career in the women’s game, starting as an assistant to legendary coach Linda Sharp at Southern Cal in 1983. He had the opportunity in the years to come to coach men. He didn’t take it.

“My coaches in college told me I could be a great coach, and at that time it was with the men,” Williams said. “I found my calling was with the women. Their respect for the game … kept me in it.”

Money is a definite lure for men who take the women’s coaching route. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma, whom Taurasi starred for, pulled in more than $2 million last season as the Huskies stampeded their way to their 11th national championship.

ESPN analyst and former UConn standout Rebecca Lobo coined the oft-repeated hashtag #YouveGotMale during the recent Final Four.

“Those guys coaching in the Final Four last year are all friends of mine,” Williams said. “They grind it out and love the game. Programs are looking at both sides of it. They’re looking at females and males, and who’s the best fit.”

Gender can be used as a recruiting tool. Blair, 70, isn’t shy about selling himself as a father/grandfather figure to many of his players.

“It’s just an extended family for me,” said Blair, one of three male coaches all time to win a women’s D-I national title. “I still keep up with my South Oak Cliff girls.”

Taurasi, for one, doesn’t see the tide of men coaching women’s basketball reversing any time soon. The guys are here to stay.

“It’s like males don’t feel inferior coaching women now,” she said. “It’s kind of a role reversal for us. Now they think men can coach better than women. It’s kind of a cyclical thing about our society and it’ll continue.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Trend favors men coaching more women’s teams, not vice versa."