We just named Karen Aston as our new women's basketball coach, and I'm frankly shocked we were able to get someone of her caliber...

- Took the Longhorns to 4 consecutive Sweet-16 appearances
- Career coaching record of 285-146 (.661)
- 2nd winningest coach in Texas history
- One of 4 finalists for Naismith Women's Coach of the Year in 2017, and one of ten semifinalists for the same award in 2018.

By the looks of things I doubt we'll be able to keep her long, and speculation among our fans about why she fell out of favor at UT is that it might be that her teams were 1-18 vs. Baylor and only 32-47 against the AP Top 20, which doesn't suit Texas Longhorn fans well.

Btw, she was getting paid $775K per year at Texas, which I believe is more than we're actually paying Coach Traylor...LOL! She may have taken the job because San Antonio is close to where she was before (about an hour away) and perhaps even as a middle-finger-salute sort of thing to our mother school where she apparently wasn't good enough for them and now may have a chip on her shoulders. Who knows.

At any rate, if anyone can inject life into our pathetic women's basketball program, it's her. In terms of her credentials, she's right alongside Coach Coker as the biggest hire we've had in our young athletics program. She previously coached at Charlotte and UNT as well btw.

https://goutsa.com/news/2021/3/29/womens...coach.aspx

Aston did a good job at Charlotte, and I would expect her to at UTSA also.
Congratulations and good luck.

After taking us to the WNIT Final Four her agent reached out and said Aston was really exited about what the next year held, and since she had gotten a raise the previous year, she would be happy just to lower her buyout clause. They said she was going nowhere, and it was nothing to worry about, but just a way to give her something after a good season that would not cost the University anything. We agreed, and about a week after she signed the contract she resigned and went to North Texas. I will always believe that she had this in the works, and NT was balking at the cost of getting her, so she suckered us into making it palatable. It was a smart, but somewhat slimy move on her part. It is a business and she played it that way, so just keep in mind that is how she operates and UTSA will be fine.

(03-31-2021 12:38 PM)Nugget49er Wrote:  Aston did a good job at Charlotte, and I would expect her to at UTSA also.
Congratulations and good luck.

After taking us to the WNIT Final Four her agent reached out and said Aston was really exited about what the next year held, and since she had gotten a raise the previous year, she would be happy just to lower her buyout clause. They said she was going nowhere, and it was nothing to worry about, but just a way to give her something after a good season that would not cost the University anything. We agreed, and about a week after she signed the contract she resigned and went to North Texas. I will always believe that she had this in the works, and NT was balking at the cost of getting her, so she suckered us into making it palatable. It was a smart, but somewhat slimy move on her part. It is a business and she played it that way, so just keep in mind that is how she operates and UTSA will be fine.

She also jumped ship after 1 season at North Texas. She is a great coach, no doubt. But she always seems to have her gaze on the next job.

(03-31-2021 12:40 PM)Magic95Fan Wrote:  

(03-31-2021 12:38 PM)Nugget49er Wrote:  Aston did a good job at Charlotte, and I would expect her to at UTSA also.
Congratulations and good luck.

After taking us to the WNIT Final Four her agent reached out and said Aston was really exited about what the next year held, and since she had gotten a raise the previous year, she would be happy just to lower her buyout clause. They said she was going nowhere, and it was nothing to worry about, but just a way to give her something after a good season that would not cost the University anything. We agreed, and about a week after she signed the contract she resigned and went to North Texas. I will always believe that she had this in the works, and NT was balking at the cost of getting her, so she suckered us into making it palatable. It was a smart, but somewhat slimy move on her part. It is a business and she played it that way, so just keep in mind that is how she operates and UTSA will be fine.

She also jumped ship after 1 season at North Texas. She is a great coach, no doubt. But she always seems to have her gaze on the next job.

Honestly in our conference that’s what we should want. If she moves to another job it’s because of the job she did at UTSA. Win win IMO.

Karen broke my heart when she left UNT after one year. I personally liked the previous coaching staff but they just didn't win enough. I'd expect Karen to get them competitive very quickly.

Better to step up from your school, than step down. Looks like a good hire. Funny how Womens basketball coaches are moving more than ever. They use to never move like this. We had Coach Wendy who won 17 straight conference championships, 20 trips to the NCAAs, made the NCAA championship game and stay for 24 years. That wouldn't happen now.