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Date Posted: 12:18:22 03/20/02 Wed
Author: Jon Ralston
Subject: Re: Murrell to WSU
In reply to: TitanCzar 's message, "Re: Murrell to WSU" on 12:02:08 03/20/02 Wed

I tend to agree with your analogy of WSU and Siberia. I don't have any problems with Coach Murrell furthering her career, it just seems there might have been better jobs out there this year or next than WSU. On the other hand WSU's AD is apparently the AD she worked under while she was an assistant at Portland St. So I guess that, plus proximity to family, plus the opportunity to compete in the Pac-10 were too good to turn down. Below are two articles from today's Record about Murrell's decision. There are some quotes from Dennis Farrell about making Men's and Women's Basketball a priority at their conference meetings in May. We'll see what comes of those discussions. At least Coach Jackson will be staying to help the program during it's transition, if we had lost the entire staff we'd really be hurting. At least now Lynn King can take his time and hire a quality candidate, although I'm concerned that the overall quality of the conference might prevent some candidates from applying. Again, the next coach shouldn't have to complain too much about returning personel. Let's hope for the conference's sake Pacific can continue it's upward progress towards being a good program.

Originally Published Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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Murrell gone in a flash

Calling of Pacific Northwest, Pac-10 too great to turn down

By Bob Highfill

Record Staff Writer

You can't catch lightning in a bottle, and University of the Pacific couldn't hold on to a shooting star.

Women's head basketball coach Sherri Murrell, 34, announced on Tuesday that she has accepted the same position at Washington State.

''In a professional sense, there were an amazing amount of positives,'' Murrell said. ''At this point, when you're striving for excellence, you want to know if you can compete at the highest level.''

The terms and the length of Murrell's contract were not disclosed.

Murrell replaces Jenny Przekwas, who was fired along with her staff on March 5 after going 17-68 in three seasons. Przekwas had two years remaining on a five-year contract believed to be worth approximately $125,000 per year.

Pacific assistants Lisa Fisher and Chris Holland will stay with Murrell, and assistant coach Craig Jackson will remain at Pacific.

Murrell went 68-46 in four seasons and accumulated the best winning percentage of any coach in the program's history (.596). The Tigers won at least 17 games the past three seasons and had 19 this season, the most since 1994-95. The Tigers went 12-4 in Big West play and reached the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament for the first time in six seasons.

Murrell was contacted by Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk immediately after the Big West Tournament. She toured the campus March 9-10, met with Pacific athletic director Lynn King on Monday and made her decision later that night.

Murrell has a massive rebuilding job awaiting her in the Palouse.

The Cougars lost their last 24 games and went 2-27 overall and 0-18 in the Pac-10. It was the first time a women's basketball team went winless in Pac-10 play since the conference adopted the sport in 1986-87.

Murrell will reunite with Sterk, the athletic director at Portland State when she was an assistant coach there from 1996-98.

In a statement released by Washington State's media relations office, Sterk said, ''I am extremely pleased to have a person with Coach Murrell's background, experience and reputation, heading up Washington State's women's basketball program.''

When Przekwas was fired, an article on Washington State's Web site said Sterk hoped to hire ''a coach with West Coast ties,'' and that he preferred ''a coach with some Pacific Northwest connections.''

Another quote attributed to Sterk said, ''Unfortunately, (Przekwas) and her staff have not been able to recruit and retain enough Pac-10 quality athletes to make WSU competitive within the conference.''

Murrell is an Oregon native and most of her immediate family resides in the Pacific Northwest. Murrell has had success recruiting in that region. Sophomore center Gillian d'Hondt, the only underclassman named first-team All-Big West, is from Seattle, junior guard Alissa Tarsiuk resides in Kent, Wash., sophomore guard Corinne Wong is from Clackamas, Ore., and sophomore center Alicia Smith is from Beaverton, Ore.

Murrell, King and the coaching staff met with the team at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. The news came as quite a shock to d'Hondt and sophomore guard Nancy Dinges, two of Pacific's top players of the future.

''It was not something we expected,'' d'Hondt said. ''I understand where she's coming from, but it's hard to accept. She told us it wasn't personal and that she loves us, but she felt it was the right decision to make.''

Said Dinges: ''It kind of goes with the territory. A lot of people might have seen this coming, but it's a shock to everyone right now. Words are hard to come by when you're in shock. I think right now, we are very focused as a

team. It's huge losing a head coach and two assistants, but we can't lose focus of what we want to accomplish.''

Dinges and d'Hondt each said they are committed to Pacific and anxious to challenge UC Santa Barbara for the Big West title, something the Tigers couldn't do under Murrell, despite coming closer than ever this season.

''I love each one of those 15 kids,'' Murrell said. ''I'm leaving behind a great group of people. (Tuesday) is the toughest part ... to look them in the eye and say goodbye, We're so good and whoever is coming in here will have an incredible team to work with.''

Jackson will work with the players this spring and has thrown his name in the hat as a candidate to succeed Murrell.

''Right now, the kids are the top priority, as well as the program,'' said Jackson, who came to Pacific with Murrell. ''I'm going to take care of individual work and regular spring workouts, and keep everyone on the right track. To me, regardless of the situation, we're so close to being where we want to be. It's imperative no one take a step back.''

King said a nationwide search for a replacement already has begun and that Jackson is a candidate.

''(Murrell's) more than a good coach,'' King said. ''She's a tremendous person and that makes it more difficult for me. She's an absolute team player, and I'm thankful for that and the time we had together. She has earned the opportunity to make any decision in her life because she works hard and she produces.''

Now, King hopes to find someone who will do the same.

* To reach reporter Bob Highfill, phone 546-8299 or e-mail bhighfil@recordnet.com

Originally Published Wednesday, March 20, 2002
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Pacific, Big West can't offer same challenge


 

 

 

Lori Gilbert

Sherri Murrell's announcement on Tuesday that she's leaving to take the Washington State job came as a blow to her players.

Likewise, boosters of the University of the Pacific women's basketball program, a number that has grown during her four-year tenure, will be disappointed.

But it's hard to second-guess Murrell's jumping at the opportunity to coach in the Pac-10.

No matter how well she's done at Pacific, no matter how much she's developed her players or kept the team on the plus side of the win-loss ledger, the writing is etched on the brick walls of the campus: "It's not going to get much better."

Pacific may offer the next coach a little more money and put a little more into the program, as it did when Murrell arrived in 1998 from Portland State, where she had been an assistant, but there's no reason to believe great change is on the horizon.

Pacific athletics doesn't have the money to do much more, and some of the needed changes are beyond its control.

It's stuck in the Big West Conference, which this year ranked 28th out of 31 women's basketball conferences. The conference advanced one team, champion UC Santa Barbara, into the postseason. Beyond sending letters to the Women's National Invitation Tournament and NCAA, neither the Big West nor Pacific could lobby for at-large berths, given the conference's pathetic stature.

Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell said on Tuesday he plans to make basketball the focus of the conference's May meetings.

"The No. 1 issue that faces the Big West Conference today is developing men's and women's basketball," Farrell said. "You look at where we are in baseball, softball and volleyball, and we're comfortably tucked in the top-10 nationally. If we're not one of the top-10 conferences in men's and women's basketball, we should be close."

While the Big West sent two men's teams to the NIT this season, it's miles from respectability in women's basketball.

UC Santa Barbara has pretty much been the lone eagle soaring to exalted heights since 1997, when Hawaii left to join the Western Athletic Conference. UCSB is the only team to reach the NCAA Tournament since, winning a first-round game in 1998 and again this year when it upset Louisiana Tech.

Since then, only two teams -- Boise State in 1998 and Long Beach State in 2000 -- have joined the Gauchos in the postseason, and both played the WNIT.

It's tough to get more teams into the postseason when your conference is ranked so poorly.

Pacific has upgraded its preseason schedule to gain some respect, playing at New Mexico this year in the Preseason WNIT and meeting Santa Clara every year. The Tigers were 19-11 but apparently too many of the wins -- 14 -- were over Big West opponents and not worthy enough to push them into the WNIT.

"That was tough, having to tell the kids they weren't going, because they deserved it," Murrell said. "The L.A. papers all said we were a shoo-in, and then I had to tell them they didn't make it. I felt they did a great job. We never played rollovers. I did what I could to get great teams here."

The frustration Murrell felt over failing to get her team into the postseason isn't sending her away. An opportunity to build a program in the Pac-10 -- and a return to the Pacific Northwest -- was too great to pass up.

Murrell leaves Pacific knowing she did about all she could. She compiled a 68-46 record and her teams played a high-intensity, entertaining brand of basketball. She, as Pacific coaches have always done, brought in quality student-athletes and helped them progress, evidenced by the selection of sophomores Nancy Dinges and Gillian d'Hondt to the All-Big West Tournament team.

"We got recognized," Murrell said. "People told me they'd never gone to a game before. And boosters told me they saw smiles on our kids faces all the time."

Senior guard Selena Ho told her she leaves the school without feeling empty, that she'd had a complete career, Murrell said.

All the rest of us can do is tell her thanks for a job well done and good luck.

The tougher task is what to say to her successor.

It's hard to imagine any coach who takes her place at Pacific lasting very long. What's the incentive? Unless Farrell is successful in improving the quality of the Big West Conference, Pacific women's basketball will remain on its treadmill, working hard to get better, maybe knocking off UC Santa Barbara but not really getting ahead.

Winning the conference championship will be its only sure ticket to the postseason, and that means knocking off the Gauchos.

The Tigers have come close in recent years, and 11 players return from having tried.

"This program is in great shape," athletic director Lynn King said. "Literally, the new coach will not have to do too much coming in. We have great (returning players) and a good recruiting class coming in. It will be a good opportunity for somebody."

But one that, in its present situation, may lack staying power.

Gilbert is The Record's sports columnist. Mail: P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201; Phone: 546-8284; Fax: 547-8187; E-mail: lgilbert@recordnet.com

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