Post by clayk on Jan 24, 2022 14:31:45 GMT -5
I first talked to Vanessa Nygaard when she was at Stanford, and have had a few communications since, lately regarding her role as The Windward School girls' coach.
She's intelligent, witty, and seemed happy to be teaching and coaching at the high school level. Given her WNBA experience, though, and this kind of opportunity, it's something that would be hard to turn down.
But -- and you knew a "but" was coming -- I'm still a little skeptical as to how this will work out. At Windward, Nygaard was a good high school coach. When she had elite talent, she had an elite team; when she had good talent, she had a good team. Southern California is brutally competitive at the high school level, and there are a lot of quality coaches who have been doing what Nygaard was doing for a long time.
On the one hand, of course, basketball is basketball. It is, as the saying goes, a make it or miss it game, and talent levels determine success. Still, the options available to a pro coach are much greater than for a high school coach, and the margin for error is a lot less. Nygaard's season as an assistant and five years as a borderline player in the league (a while ago, now) are helpful, but the jump she's attempting to make a huge one.
Now, she's got a lot going for her, and presumably Diggins-Smith, Taurasi and Griner have signed off, but the Mercury job is not a training ground. This is win now, and get the Finals, or the season is a failure.
This a big, big ask, to go from high school to the WNBA, and do so with immediate pressure to win. (Indiana, for example, would have been a much better place for Nygaard to start.) And it's also far from a given that Phoenix has the talent (and youth) necessary to live up to expectations.
So I certainly wish Vanessa well, from a personal perspective and also from the overall picture of women's basketball. If she succeeds, it's a win for everyone, from high school coaches to Diana Taurasi. But I just don't how likely it is that she can live up to what people will define as "success."
She's intelligent, witty, and seemed happy to be teaching and coaching at the high school level. Given her WNBA experience, though, and this kind of opportunity, it's something that would be hard to turn down.
But -- and you knew a "but" was coming -- I'm still a little skeptical as to how this will work out. At Windward, Nygaard was a good high school coach. When she had elite talent, she had an elite team; when she had good talent, she had a good team. Southern California is brutally competitive at the high school level, and there are a lot of quality coaches who have been doing what Nygaard was doing for a long time.
On the one hand, of course, basketball is basketball. It is, as the saying goes, a make it or miss it game, and talent levels determine success. Still, the options available to a pro coach are much greater than for a high school coach, and the margin for error is a lot less. Nygaard's season as an assistant and five years as a borderline player in the league (a while ago, now) are helpful, but the jump she's attempting to make a huge one.
Now, she's got a lot going for her, and presumably Diggins-Smith, Taurasi and Griner have signed off, but the Mercury job is not a training ground. This is win now, and get the Finals, or the season is a failure.
This a big, big ask, to go from high school to the WNBA, and do so with immediate pressure to win. (Indiana, for example, would have been a much better place for Nygaard to start.) And it's also far from a given that Phoenix has the talent (and youth) necessary to live up to expectations.
So I certainly wish Vanessa well, from a personal perspective and also from the overall picture of women's basketball. If she succeeds, it's a win for everyone, from high school coaches to Diana Taurasi. But I just don't how likely it is that she can live up to what people will define as "success."
