(Guru's note: This is an enhanced version on a print story in Sunday editions.)
By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA _ Temple women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley is high on the search list for the vacancy at South Carolina, and school officials plan to talk to her next week, The State in Columbia, S.C., reported in Saturday's editions.
Susan Walvius resigned earlier this month after 11 seasons. The Gamecocks finished 15-15 overall and 4-10, in 11th place, in the Southeastern Conference.
North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, who has roots in South Carolina, was interviewed last week, the paper reported. Tennessee assistant Holly Warlick is also on the list.
Hatchell's talks come at a time that the Carmichael Auditorium, the home of the Tar Heel women, is in the early stages of an extensive renovation that will continue through next season.
Staley, who signed a six-year contract extension with Temple a year ago, was in Beijing Saturday as an assistant coach with the U.S. national team, which lost to host China, 84-81, in the championship of the Good Luck Beijing Tournament. She could not be reached for comment
South Carolina officials are not commenting during the search.
Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw did not say whether South Carolina had called for permission to talk to Staley, who has led the Owls to six NCAA tournament appearances in her eight seasons guiding the team.
“Dawn and I have an agreement not to talk about those situations when they come up,” Bradshaw said.
“There’s no NCAA rule; it’s a matter of ethics. Some schools never call,” he continued. “It’s different than in the NBA.”
Former Tennessee star Michelle Marciniak of Allentown, an assistant at South Carolina, is not a candidate.
“We’re not in the mix, and the names I hear are the names everyone else has heard,” she said Saturday.
“We don’t know who will be retained, but I was already looking at moving up to an associate or head coaching position.”
taley is the winningiest women’s coach in Temple’s history at 172-80.
She quickly appears on wish lists when vacancies occur because of her success that includes four Atlantic Ten titles.
But schools would have to pay substantial money to extract her from Temple, especially when it comes to also providing salaries for a staff.
Details about either Walvius' salary at South Carolina or Staley's at Temple are not available but ooff of Staley's last contract and projected increases for this year, it appears that the Gamecocks would have to make a major commitment to lure the native Philadelphian from comfortable surroundings.
"Plus most of these deals involve a lot of money if someone leaves early in the deal," Bradshaw said speaking in general of contract arrangements with high profile coaches.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma recently spoke of the situation involving staffs of new hires in terms of his own assistants, who often get mentioned when head coaching jobs become vacant.
If any of them such as Jamelle Elliott or Tonya Cardoza got a head coaching job, Auriemma said, they couldn’t hire assistants at many schools because “they can’t afford to live here on what they’re going to get paid.”
]The one place believed that would have a good shot at attracting Staley is Virginia, her alma mater.
But longtime coach Debbie Ryan, who will be inducted to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in June, is not expected to be leaving anytime in the near future.
The challenge of coaching in the SEC would be inriguing, but frontrunners Tennessee and LSU remain formidable opponents even as teams in re-tooling positions next season.
At Temple, it did not take long for Staley, who previously never coached, to quickly establish the Owls as a power in the Atlantic Ten and locally in the Big Five.
Temple has won a record 18-straight Big Five games and a record four straight 4-0 titles. Staley produced successive WNBA first-round picks in 2006 and 2007 with Candice Dupree becoming an All-Star with the Chicago Sky and Kamesha Hairston landing with the Connecticut Sun.
Warlick, if offered and accepted the job, would be the second loss for Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. Nikki Caldwell was recently named head coach of UCLA.
-- Mel
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