Quote:Suitors lining up to guide Lady Owls
Six interviewed so far in search to replace McKinney as women's coach
By MOISEKAPENDA BOWER
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Just when it looked as though Rice had whittled its list for replacing women's basketball coach Cristy McKinney to six candidates, a seventh — and perhaps eighth — have emerged.

After completing an initial round of interviews last weekend, Rice will interview a seventh candidate — Dayton assistant and former University of Houston coach Greg Williams — this weekend.

Rice senior associate athletic director Steve Moniaci indicated that an eighth candidate may be also interviewed as a six-person committee seeks to replace McKinney, who took over at Clemson on April 18 after 12 seasons with the Lady Owls.

Williams posted a 93-51 record at UH, leading the Lady Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1988. He has had numerous professional coaching jobs, including with the Detroit Shock of the WNBA in 2001-02 and the Dallas Diamonds of the WABA and WBL in the 1980s.

Williams coached the Houston Angles (1979-80) and was an assistant with the Utah Starzz before joining the staff in Detroit.

Williams, a 1970 Rice graduate with a 259-182 career record, also coached at Colorado State.

As for the six who have been interviewed, Moniaci came away impressed with each.

"Any one of the six we've interviewed would be a great candidate to be a head coach here," Moniaci said. "And I think the seventh (candidate) will be exactly the same."

Williams, SWC Player of the Year in 1969, is one of four candidates with ties to Rice. The others have qualities that led Rice brass to believe they could win on South Main.

"You always look for some reason to make you think that the person could be successful at Rice," Moniaci said. "And generally that means either they've got some affiliation or some former affiliation with the university, or they've got some affiliation or have had some affiliation to another university with at least a similar type of academic setting."

Monday's announcement of women's soccer coach Chris Huston as the school's senior women's administrator may affect the hiring of the next basketball coach.

There was speculation that a female candidate could have a leg up on the male candidates if the school was looking for someone to serve dual roles, as McKinney did for more than half of her career with the Lady Owls.

Huston built the Rice program from scratch in 2001.

mk.bower@chron.com