Coach Binford Signs 4 Year Contract Extension

[Bobcat4Ever]

Jaime White, from memory so I hope it’s right, got the job at Northern Colorado. She had success there. I don’t remember if she went directly to Fresno State from there — but that’s not the important part of this story. While at N. Colorado she was diagnosed with cancer. I think she even had to take some time off for treatments — it was pretty serious stuff. I hope she had it beaten for good, or maybe it’s still a problem for her. As an interviewee she was a totally delightful (and big) personality, and mic-drop funny. Must have 8-9” in height on Trish. Somewhat older, but not a lot. I remember being very relieved after her interview, that at least we had one candidate who would most likely treat her team better and who certainly knew basketball. After two interviews I told my office mate that I’d be surprised if Jaime didn’t get the job.

And then came Trish. She looked so comparatively young! Introduced herself as 5-foot-nothing. Looked like a grad student who just stopped in for a practice interview. But once she told her background, Boise State, two WNBA teams, several years in Australia with 70 points in a game! Then working to revive a program at Utah State that had been abolished — I think they were starting from scratch. That was all very attention-getting. Then someone asked what she would do if she was chosen to take over a very troubled team at MSU. She opened her notebook. In addition to practice plans and all the practicalities, she had written up a step by step plan for MSU. She wouldn’t run off all the players. She’d accept them as her first team, try to gain their confidence. Communicate. Open door. Etc. it was masterful and from the heart. I went back to the office and said, well I have a new number 1 by a mile.

She seemed awfully young and inexperienced to take over a D-I team. But Jaime had come from D-III I think. Tricia Bader-Binford’s connections were all above the Big Sky level. Boise State, Utah State, WNBA, Australia. Sure enough she did soon get a few Australian players who were very good. The Stubbs sisters. Rebecca Mercer. She never did recruit any WNBA players, though.

I don’t know what Peter Fields saw, or the committee saw. Seemed pretty risky with such limited experience, but she stepped up and has had an amazing career arc here. I won’t be surprised to see her reach a couple more of the big goals.

[MSU01]

She seemed awfully young and inexperienced to take over a D-I team. But Jaime had come from D-III I think. Tricia Bader-Binford’s connections were all above the Big Sky level. Boise State, Utah State, WNBA, Australia. Sure enough she did soon get a few Australian players who were very good. The Stubbs sisters. Rebecca Mercer. She never did recruit any WNBA players, though.

I don’t know what Peter Fields saw, or the committee saw. Seemed pretty risky with such limited experience, but she stepped up and has had an amazing career arc here. I won’t be surprised to see her reach a couple more of the big goals.

The Stubbs sisters definitely predated Binford, I recall taking a summer class with Isabel Stubbs and a couple other WBB players but that would have been several years before she was hired (after a little Google searching, Isabel played for MSU between 1998 and 2003). Binford has definitely hit her stride with recruiting and is consistently bringing in some amazing players at the Big Sky level. The Boise connections have certainly helped as she has found some really good talent from that area.

[Bobcat4Ever]

She seemed awfully young and inexperienced to take over a D-I team. But Jaime had come from D-III I think. Tricia Bader-Binford’s connections were all above the Big Sky level. Boise State, Utah State, WNBA, Australia. Sure enough she did soon get a few Australian players who were very good. The Stubbs sisters. Rebecca Mercer. She never did recruit any WNBA players, though.

I don’t know what Peter Fields saw, or the committee saw. Seemed pretty risky with such limited experience, but she stepped up and has had an amazing career arc here. I won’t be surprised to see her reach a couple more of the big goals.

The Stubbs sisters definitely predated Binford, I recall taking a summer class with Isabel Stubbs and a couple other WBB players but that would have been several years before she was hired. Binford has definitely hit her stride with recruiting and is consistently bringing in some amazing players at the Big Sky level. The Boise connections have certainly helped as she has found some really good talent from that area.

Totally correct about Isabel and Belinda Stubbs. Memory slippage. Even forgot to order groceries yesterday.

[imacat]

Congratulations, Coach Bin! I was at your public interview session at the Stadium. You were three out of three, and you sold me on the spot. You knew your basketball. You had a plan, and you’ve been true to your word. You were kind to the team you inherited, even at the expense of a game or two on your win-loss record. And when you were asked your best moments of the WNBA you said just hanging with your teammates — shopping may have been involved! I knew then the players would be in much better hands than they had been. I was pleased when I heard you had been hired. Thank you for your excellent program stocked with excellent student / people / players. I’m proud to be a fan.

This is interesting. Peter Fields would conduct public interviews for the coaching vacancy finalists.
I did not attend Binford’s but I did stream it. Like you, I thought Binford was head and shoulders above the other candidates. She has delivered big time. We are blessed to have her.

Who were the other candidates?

It was the campus policy to have a public interview session for most positions that were supervisory or professional in nature. So nothing unusual about this for Basketball.

(I might have the order of 1 and 2 reversed.)

Candidate 1 — Sunny Smallwood. Her typical very quiet, very precise self — but I thought a very good assistant coach but without the fire and the public salesmanship that a head coach needs. Ironic that she came back here, but she was also part of the Jane Daugherty coaching tree with Trish Binford. My response form said do not hire for head coach.

Candidate 2 — Jaime White. If I remember correctly coming off a couple of 30-win seasons at Snow Canyon in Utah. Excellent public persona behind the mic. I remember thinking how entertaining a comedy duo that she and Mike Kramer would make. Super energetic, positive, successful. I gave her some mighty good reviews and a do hire recommendation.

Candidate 3 — Tricia Bader-Binford assistant coach under Regan Pebly at Utah State. Tasked with reviving the program. Trish got off to a bit of a slow start, but when she pulled out her “plan” — a notebook on her plans to be a head coach — the passion started to flow and she was off and running. She also convinced me that she was a player oriented coach with an open door who would make sure her “kids” studied, learned basketball, played hard, were treated fairly, and had fun. Our team needed that. Tracy Sheehan. Maybe the worst hire ever. Abused her players. Robin Potera. Enough said. Trish inherited Scotta Morton who was so shell-shocked that she made it her life work to make things better for people in sports.

I wrote on my form, forget Coach White, hire Coach Bader-Binford if possible. Sometimes you just know it when you see it.

I believe the interim head coach was also a finalist. I cannot recall his name.
The program Binford inherited was pretty much in free fall.

[rfischer94]

Congratulations, Coach Bin! I was at your public interview session at the Stadium. You were three out of three, and you sold me on the spot. You knew your basketball. You had a plan, and you’ve been true to your word. You were kind to the team you inherited, even at the expense of a game or two on your win-loss record. And when you were asked your best moments of the WNBA you said just hanging with your teammates — shopping may have been involved! I knew then the players would be in much better hands than they had been. I was pleased when I heard you had been hired. Thank you for your excellent program stocked with excellent student / people / players. I’m proud to be a fan.

This is interesting. Peter Fields would conduct public interviews for the coaching vacancy finalists.
I did not attend Binford’s but I did stream it. Like you, I thought Binford was head and shoulders above the other candidates. She has delivered big time. We are blessed to have her.

Who were the other candidates?

It was the campus policy to have a public interview session for most positions that were supervisory or professional in nature. So nothing unusual about this for Basketball.

(I might have the order of 1 and 2 reversed.)

Candidate 1 — Sunny Smallwood. Her typical very quiet, very precise self — but I thought a very good assistant coach but without the fire and the public salesmanship that a head coach needs. Ironic that she came back here, but she was also part of the Jane Daugherty coaching tree with Trish Binford. My response form said do not hire for head coach.

Candidate 2 — Jaime White. If I remember correctly coming off a couple of 30-win seasons at Snow Canyon in Utah. Excellent public persona behind the mic. I remember thinking how entertaining a comedy duo that she and Mike Kramer would make. Super energetic, positive, successful. I gave her some mighty good reviews and a do hire recommendation.

Candidate 3 — Tricia Bader-Binford assistant coach under Regan Pebly at Utah State. Tasked with reviving the program. Trish got off to a bit of a slow start, but when she pulled out her “plan” — a notebook on her plans to be a head coach — the passion started to flow and she was off and running. She also convinced me that she was a player oriented coach with an open door who would make sure her “kids” studied, learned basketball, played hard, were treated fairly, and had fun. Our team needed that. Tracy Sheehan. Maybe the worst hire ever. Abused her players. Robin Potera. Enough said. Trish inherited Scotta Morton who was so shell-shocked that she made it her life work to make things better for people in sports.

I wrote on my form, forget Coach White, hire Coach Bader-Binford if possible. Sometimes you just know it when you see it.

I believe the interim head coach was also a finalist. I cannot recall his name.
The program Binford inherited was pretty much in free fall.

What were the issues when Coach Bin took over?

[MSU01]

Congratulations, Coach Bin! I was at your public interview session at the Stadium. You were three out of three, and you sold me on the spot. You knew your basketball. You had a plan, and you’ve been true to your word. You were kind to the team you inherited, even at the expense of a game or two on your win-loss record. And when you were asked your best moments of the WNBA you said just hanging with your teammates — shopping may have been involved! I knew then the players would be in much better hands than they had been. I was pleased when I heard you had been hired. Thank you for your excellent program stocked with excellent student / people / players. I’m proud to be a fan.

This is interesting. Peter Fields would conduct public interviews for the coaching vacancy finalists.
I did not attend Binford’s but I did stream it. Like you, I thought Binford was head and shoulders above the other candidates. She has delivered big time. We are blessed to have her.

Who were the other candidates?

It was the campus policy to have a public interview session for most positions that were supervisory or professional in nature. So nothing unusual about this for Basketball.

(I might have the order of 1 and 2 reversed.)

Candidate 1 — Sunny Smallwood. Her typical very quiet, very precise self — but I thought a very good assistant coach but without the fire and the public salesmanship that a head coach needs. Ironic that she came back here, but she was also part of the Jane Daugherty coaching tree with Trish Binford. My response form said do not hire for head coach.

Candidate 2 — Jaime White. If I remember correctly coming off a couple of 30-win seasons at Snow Canyon in Utah. Excellent public persona behind the mic. I remember thinking how entertaining a comedy duo that she and Mike Kramer would make. Super energetic, positive, successful. I gave her some mighty good reviews and a do hire recommendation.

Candidate 3 — Tricia Bader-Binford assistant coach under Regan Pebly at Utah State. Tasked with reviving the program. Trish got off to a bit of a slow start, but when she pulled out her “plan” — a notebook on her plans to be a head coach — the passion started to flow and she was off and running. She also convinced me that she was a player oriented coach with an open door who would make sure her “kids” studied, learned basketball, played hard, were treated fairly, and had fun. Our team needed that. Tracy Sheehan. Maybe the worst hire ever. Abused her players. Robin Potera. Enough said. Trish inherited Scotta Morton who was so shell-shocked that she made it her life work to make things better for people in sports.

I wrote on my form, forget Coach White, hire Coach Bader-Binford if possible. Sometimes you just know it when you see it.

I believe the interim head coach was also a finalist. I cannot recall his name.
The program Binford inherited was pretty much in free fall.

What were the issues when Coach Bin took over?

The coach before Binford was Robin Potera-Haskins, who had good success on the court winning a share of the regular season Big Sky Championship in both 2002 and 2003. But after the '03-'04 season she was fired amidst allegations of mistreating her players. This led to a very ugly gender discrimination lawsuit, news articles about it still exist out there to be found if you care to read them! Potera's lead assistant Greg Kudrna was named as the interim head coach for the '04-'05 season and then Binford was hired after that. I believe Binford only won 3 or 4 games in her first season so there wasn't much to work with when she arrived, and of course also no transfer portal to quickly rebuild a roster that needed a lot of help.

[lutecat]

Is RPH the one that was making her players play injured?

[MSU01]

Is RPH the one that was making her players play injured?

I believe that was (allegedly) Tracey Sheehan, the head coach fired before RPH was hired. MSU didn't have a great run of luck with its WBB coaches between Judy Spoelstra leaving for Oregon State and Binford being hired a decade later.

[lutecat]

Is RPH the one that was making her players play injured?

I believe that was (allegedly) Tracey Sheehan, the head coach fired before RPH was hired. MSU didn't have a great run of luck with its WBB coaches between Judy Spoelstra leaving for Oregon State and Binford being hired a decade later.

Was Spoelstra related to Eric?

[MSU01]

Is RPH the one that was making her players play injured?

I believe that was (allegedly) Tracey Sheehan, the head coach fired before RPH was hired. MSU didn't have a great run of luck with its WBB coaches between Judy Spoelstra leaving for Oregon State and Binford being hired a decade later.

Was Spoelstra related to Eric?

I don't believe so.

[Bobcat4Ever]

Don’t forget about the rise and fall of Frank McCarthy in the Spoelstra-Binford gap as well. That story had it all.

[rfischer94]

Congratulations, Coach Bin! I was at your public interview session at the Stadium. You were three out of three, and you sold me on the spot. You knew your basketball. You had a plan, and you’ve been true to your word. You were kind to the team you inherited, even at the expense of a game or two on your win-loss record. And when you were asked your best moments of the WNBA you said just hanging with your teammates — shopping may have been involved! I knew then the players would be in much better hands than they had been. I was pleased when I heard you had been hired. Thank you for your excellent program stocked with excellent student / people / players. I’m proud to be a fan.

This is interesting. Peter Fields would conduct public interviews for the coaching vacancy finalists.
I did not attend Binford’s but I did stream it. Like you, I thought Binford was head and shoulders above the other candidates. She has delivered big time. We are blessed to have her.

Who were the other candidates?

It was the campus policy to have a public interview session for most positions that were supervisory or professional in nature. So nothing unusual about this for Basketball.

(I might have the order of 1 and 2 reversed.)

Candidate 1 — Sunny Smallwood. Her typical very quiet, very precise self — but I thought a very good assistant coach but without the fire and the public salesmanship that a head coach needs. Ironic that she came back here, but she was also part of the Jane Daugherty coaching tree with Trish Binford. My response form said do not hire for head coach.

Candidate 2 — Jaime White. If I remember correctly coming off a couple of 30-win seasons at Snow Canyon in Utah. Excellent public persona behind the mic. I remember thinking how entertaining a comedy duo that she and Mike Kramer would make. Super energetic, positive, successful. I gave her some mighty good reviews and a do hire recommendation.

Candidate 3 — Tricia Bader-Binford assistant coach under Regan Pebly at Utah State. Tasked with reviving the program. Trish got off to a bit of a slow start, but when she pulled out her “plan” — a notebook on her plans to be a head coach — the passion started to flow and she was off and running. She also convinced me that she was a player oriented coach with an open door who would make sure her “kids” studied, learned basketball, played hard, were treated fairly, and had fun. Our team needed that. Tracy Sheehan. Maybe the worst hire ever. Abused her players. Robin Potera. Enough said. Trish inherited Scotta Morton who was so shell-shocked that she made it her life work to make things better for people in sports.

I wrote on my form, forget Coach White, hire Coach Bader-Binford if possible. Sometimes you just know it when you see it.

I believe the interim head coach was also a finalist. I cannot recall his name.
The program Binford inherited was pretty much in free fall.

What were the issues when Coach Bin took over?

The coach before Binford was Robin Potera-Haskins, who had good success on the court winning a share of the regular season Big Sky Championship in both 2002 and 2003. But after the '03-'04 season she was fired amidst allegations of mistreating her players. This led to a very ugly gender discrimination lawsuit, news articles about it still exist out there to be found if you care to read them! Potera's lead assistant Greg Kudrna was named as the interim head coach for the '04-'05 season and then Binford was hired after that. I believe Binford only won 3 or 4 games in her first season so there wasn't much to work with when she arrived, and of course also no transfer portal to quickly rebuild a roster that needed a lot of help.

Thanks for the background info.