Is there a better Womens Basketball coach in Arkansas

[grayhawg]

Than Rickey Smith of Fort Smith Northside? He has been to 11 or 12 championships and won 5 or 6.

[HF#1]

Joe Foley is good, I think

[grayhawg]

Joe Foley is good, I think

Agree, and both are probably better than what the UofA has now.

[bellavistamike]

Joe Foley is good, I think

The best I know of.

[redleg]

Joe Foley needs to be the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball team!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I get an AMEN!

[bellavistamike]

Joe Foley needs to be the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball team!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I get an AMEN!

Amen. I do wonder if he'd take the gig.

[mbgrulz]

Than Rickey Smith of Fort Smith Northside? He has been to 11 or 12 championships and won 5 or 6.

He is an excellent coach by any stretch, but when you talk about high school coaches, you have to understand that some jobs are SO much better than others. Northside has given him A LOT to work with. I believe there are coaches doing just as impressive of a job at other schools where they don't always have multiple D1 players making them look good.

Not trying to slight him at all, b/c his achievements speak for themselves, but I think he has quite a few equals out there.

[Wild Bill Hog]

Joe Foley needs to be the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball team!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I get an AMEN!

Amen and amen.

[Wild Bill Hog]

Joe Foley needs to be the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball team!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I get an AMEN!

AMEN

[Wild Bill Hog]

Joe Foley needs to be the next head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks women's basketball team!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I get an AMEN!

AMEN!

[hoglady]

Can't see Fayetteville raiding UALR of their coach.
They are part of the same University system.
Foley is a great coach and would most likely be very successful at Fayetteville.

[Porked Tongue]

I bet the heat gets turned up on this.

[(notOM)Rebel123]

1) Joe Foley
2) Matt Daniel (former UCA Sugar Bear coach, now at Marshall)

[Hogtied85]

I bet the heat gets turned up on this.

email Jeff Long and express your dissatisfaction with the program tell him its time for a change in personnel. It should never take a coach 6-7 years to build a program. Apparently there is a disconnect with the U of A Women's Basketball program. In my opinion Men's program was worse but you go out there and hire a coach like Mike Anderson a coach who can recruit and sell this program and get players to come and play here. What is the problem with the Women's Basketball Program? You lose Shekinna to Tennessee, Whitney Zacharison, Meghan Herbert, Imani Wright, Jordan Madden, Tyler Scaife, Roshonda Johnson. Tom Collen can't recruit Texas or other bordering states but other states can come steal our players. WTH

[mbgrulz]

He also lost Morgan Hook, who was all Big 12 and has lead her team to the dance this year.

[Hogtied85]

He also lost Morgan Hook, who was all Big 12 and has lead her team to the dance this year.

Thank you I did forget about her.

[T-Wacker]

Chelsea Jones, 2008 grad from Fort Smith SS that started for Purdue, was another he lost.

[psycHOGlogist]

You lose Shekinna to Tennessee, Whitney Zacharison, Meghan Herbert, Imani Wright, Jordan Madden, Tyler Scaife, Roshonda Johnson. Tom Collen can't recruit Texas or other bordering states but other states can come steal our players. WTH

While I don't disagree with the overall point -- that he's done a bad job recruiting in-state talent -- some of your points are a bit unfair. Due to his time of hiring, he had a relatively small window to try to recruit Stricklen and Jones - hard to play catch up against years worth of groundwork against top programs. As for Zachariason, she actually came to Arkansas and left (she didn't like Collen, obviously), but then proceeded to play scrub minutes at Baylor (1.5 pts/2 reb per game). Hard to say that that's a huge miss for a program. Also, Meghan Herbert?!?! No offense intended to the young lady; she was a great player ... for UCA. Honestly, you're mad because he didn't offer a 5'11" post player in the SEC?!?!

Again, I don't disagree with the overall point, but some of your examples are not particularly convincing. The bottom line is that he needs to do better with the instate blue-chippers, like Scaife, Johnson, Wright, etc. It's puzzling to me why he doesn't do better with them, and it needs to change. Maybe Jackson is the start.

[Flatline]

He is an excellent coach by any stretch, but when you talk about high school coaches, you have to understand that some jobs are SO much better than others. Northside has given him A LOT to work with. I believe there are coaches doing just as impressive of a job at other schools where they don't always have multiple D1 players making them look good.

Not trying to slight him at all, b/c his achievements speak for themselves, but I think he has quite a few equals out there.

Rickey Smith created this monster.   He starts these kids in AAU basketball at very young ages.   He has been recruiting my daughter since the 6th grade.   He is a great coach and has turned down numerous college coaching jobs.   I would love to see him on the hill as the #2 coach on staff.   The man is a scary judge of talent.

[psycHOGlogist]

That's an interesting idea, Flatline.

Speaking of coaches, Alabama just fired/reassigned their coach today. It will be interesting to see who they go after. Their last hire -- the recycling of an administrator -- really suggested that they were not interested in improving their program, which back in the Dominique Canty days was pretty good.

[BigChief14]

Rickey Smith created this monster.   He starts these kids in AAU basketball at very young ages.   He has been recruiting my daughter since the 6th grade.   He is a great coach and has turned down numerous college coaching jobs.   I would love to see him on the hill as the #2 coach on staff.   The man is a scary judge of talent.

Please elaborate on how your daughter has been recruited to come to Northside High School.  I agree with every bit of your post but, IMO, when you make a statement like "RS has been recruiting my daughter since the 6th grade" you lose credibility with me.

[mbgrulz]

Rickey Smith created this monster.   He starts these kids in AAU basketball at very young ages.   He has been recruiting my daughter since the 6th grade.   He is a great coach and has turned down numerous college coaching jobs.   I would love to see him on the hill as the #2 coach on staff.   The man is a scary judge of talent.

No doubt that he built it into what it is, and has done a hell of a job at NS, but just go look at his teams compared to some of his competition (esp when he was in the 7A-West)...Other coaches could do the EXACT same thing and not get the results he gets...I can tell you one thing that is the ABSOLUTE truth...He is not the hardest working coach out there. He is not lazy like some coaches, but there are a few out there who grind harder than him, but they don't have the same type kids in their town as RS does.


He would do great as a #2 on this staff, but he could work less hours, be home A LOT more, and run his program his way at a proven state championship school in Northside...Everybody always assumes that coaching college is better than coaching high school, and that is a very uninformed idea.