(01-20-2016 12:36 PM)rocketinchitown Wrote: I remember the Lady Rockets over a decade ago. They were always competitive and in contention. I feel the Lady Rockets program has been definitely consistent for 2 decades. Hasn't produced much hardware but been nice none the less.
Didnt know their coach left for Indiana. That would make sense. Tough to get someone great right away to produce.
(01-20-2016 09:17 AM)MotoRocket Wrote: Same could be said of UT from 20 years ago. We have had some recent success (the NIT) but no titles. Not much in MBB in over 30 years and now in football for 11 years as far as titles go.
The first real dynasty in MAC WBB that I remember was Fran Voll's Lady Falcons who totally dominated the league during most of Voll's tenure at BG. During this time the Lady Rockets were coached by Ethel Allman and then Steve Mix (for one disastrous year) followed by Tim Selgo for three years who started to build the program up, leaving it in relatively good shape when he passed the baton to Bill Fennelly, an assistant at Notre Dame. In his 7 years here Fennelly's teams posted 20 (or more) win seasons for all but one of his years and made the NCAA Tournament 3 of his 7 years at UT.
Voll stepped down at BG about the time Fennelly arrived and the WBB dynasty immediately passed from BG to Toledo. Also during this period Kent State hired Bob Lindsay as head coach and he began building a solid program at Kent State. When Fennelly left for Iowa State, he was replaced by Mark Ehlen who was the head WBB coach at Xavier at the time. Fennelly left the cupboard well stocked with talent for Ehlen including Kim Knuth an incoming freshman who was named Miss Michigan basketball about the time Fennelly was packing for Iowa State.
During Kim Knuth's 4 years the Lady Rocket went to 3 NCAA Tournaments although Bob Lindsay and Kent were starting to catch up and for the next decade UT and Kent were the class of the league and more often than not faced each other in the MAC Conference Tournament finals. Ehlen made one more post-Knuth trip to the NCAA led by Kahli Carter (as a result of Carter super human second half in the famous UT come back game against Kent) but after that Lindsay tended to have the upper hand....and then the Lady Rocket program began to fade under Ehlen.
After a few years Bob Lindsay also had a few down years and was summarily fired at Kent State and their program has been in the doldrums ever since...for more than a decade now. Lindsay's last year at Kent coincided with Curt Miller's hire at BG and Miller immediately elevated that program to the top of the MAC and kept there for over a decade. Its only a guess but I think Miller would still be at BG if he had not had a "health scare" which I suspect woke him up to his own sense of mortality and pushed him to make some money while he could in order to take care for those he might be leaving behind.
Since Miller's departure there have been several strong programs to emerge but so far none have had the staying power necessary or the dominance to claim the "dynasty" title. Although Tricia Cullop has not yet won a MAC Tourney, she was one of the few MAC coaches who held her own against BG even when Miller was still their coach.