New Coach Actually Makes a Better Team

I’m now seeing my fourth women’s basketball coach here at Indiana University in the ten years I’ve lived in Bloomington, and the third in the past three years. After the 2004-2005 season coach Kathi Bennett resigned from the position after five years as head coach. She was replaced by Sharon Versyp, who left after only one season to take a job at IU’s biggest rival Purdue. Now the coach is Felisha Legette-Jack, and she is seeing some immediate success. This is one of the best starts that I’ve seen the women’s team have in many years.

The team is currently 7-1, and for the first time in years they are getting votes in the AP and USA Today polls. These polls only rank the top 25 vote getters, but if they went to 30 Indiana would have been 30th on the AP poll and 27th on the USA Today poll. This is amazing for a team who, over the past few seasons, haven’t always looked their best.

I’ve been fortunate to have one of the women’s basketball players in my class this semester and I had the opportunity to ask her what the difference is between this season and seasons past, and she seemed to attribute it a lot to Coach Legette-Jack. The attitude that she brings to the sport and to the team definitely seems to be rubbing off on her players.

The women’s basketball team plays 22nd ranked Bowling Green tonight at Bowling Green. If they can win, and I have all the confidence that they can, I’ll see the IU women’s basketball team ranked for the first time that I can remember.