Wake Forest's Charlene Curtis, one of my favorite people in basketball,
was fired on Tuesday. (Or, euphemistically speaking, her
"contract was not renewed.") In terms of wins and losses, it's hard to
argue with this decision, and there are many who said it should have
happened a while ago. It's still a shame in my eyes, because Charlene is
someone who did things right. She's a good tactician and wonderful
teacher who earned the respect and love of her players, and as a result
that program had nary a peep of controversy. I really wanted that team to
succeed, because I enjoyed interacting with both her and her players so
much--they really are a fun group. The bottom line is that she simply
couldn't recruit well enough to compete with the conference's big powers.
Hopefully she'll be back soon, either at a smaller school or as an
assistant at a big school (she got her start with Geno Auriemma). I also
wouldn't mind see her do some television work, because she's sharp and
knows the conference well. It didn't help that Wake invests a lot less
money in their women's program than the major powers in the league.
Hopefully they'll show a serious this time about building a winning
program in terms of the resources needed to be successful. If they could
do it in men's basketball and football (not to mention field hockey), they
can do it in women's hoops.
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