Snap judgments: Paul Westhead to Oregon
The Oregon athletic department is contrarian. It forges its own path. It marches to the beat of its own drummer. Pick a euphemism, and it follows. But in hiring Paul Westhead to be just the sixth women’s basketball coach in school history, somehow, one gets the feeling that this couldn’t go any further against the grain.
Westhead is the only coach with both an NBA championship and a WNBA championship. He coached some of the greatest players the NBA or the college game has ever seen. And his up-tempo style seems ahead of its time in retrospect. An analogy: this hire is akin to a middle-of-the-pack BCS school hiring Mouse Davis as its football coach in an effort to shake things up. Whether or not it works, the microscope is always on.
This hire will not be universally loved. Westhead is a 70-year-old male with no experience coaching women’s college basketball. Never mind his previous success as a men’s coach; the women’s game is just different. But that WNBA championship is a positive indicator. Recruiting success, however, is a whole new animal.
(Being a personal friend of Kilkenny, as media reports have indicated, is also a major strike against him in the eyes of some. Wins will help alleviate that concern.)
Some immediate questions have already been raised:
1. How long will he remain as coach? Would he have a hand in choosing a coach-in-waiting once he feels ready to step down?
2. What will the makeup of his coaching staff look like? Will he retain any of the three Oregon assistants on Smith’s staff? How will recruiting duties be split up?
3. Is he comfortable with the personnel (relatively unchanged from last season) that he has in running the offense he wants to?
As far as a more general, immediate impact, allow for an example: My dad immediately recognized Westhead as the former Los Angeles Lakers coach who has a championship ring. He worked in the Great Western Forum during the Lakers’ heyday and has fond memories of the arena and the basketball he saw. My parents are now that much more likely to take in a women’s game than they ever were.
Consider that a victory for the athletic department. Above it all, they care about attendance, ticket sales and the bottom line. This hire will certainly help in that aspect.
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