The (ABA) Nashville Rhythm's Grand Experiment

[pking34@comcast.net]

Can a woman coach a men's pro basketball team? The answer to this one is unquestionably YES. The women's game is,if anything, more fundamentally sound and team-oriented than the men's game.Coaches like Pat Summitt(UT) and Melanie Balcomb(VANDERBILT) could coach men, women or Martians to championships. Of course,they already make more money than ABA pocketbooks can afford. Can Ashley McElhiney, at the age of 22 with no previous coaching experience, successfully coach the Nashville Rhythm? The jury is out on this one. On the plus side, Ashley Mac was,at Vanderbilt,the kind of player who was like a coach on the floor,a heady,fundamentally sound team leader on both ends of the court----the kind of player whose future is to be a great coach. And she appears to have the 100% support of management;this means that the kind of player who might question Ashley Mac's authority will not make the Rhythm roster, and, if they did, they won't be in a Rhythm uniform for long. On the minus side, asking Ashley Mac,at the age of 22, to match wits on an equal basis with the likes of Jim Harrick, Sean Higgins, and Jellybean Bryant in a close game is asking a lot. I hope that Ashley Mac is a success as the Nashville Rhythm coach. But if she isn't a success, I hope this isn't her last chance as a coach----or the last chance for highly qualified women coaches to coach male players on a high-profile level.

[Phil]

Please don't say ANYTHING in all caps. Thanks.

[pking34@comcast.net]

Since the original post of this topic,the Nashville Rhythm held their first open tryout camp at Allen Arena at Lipscomb University.At this tryout ,Ashley Mac was assisted in her evaluations by local coaching legend Charlie Anderson(big winner at Stratford High School,coached Aquinas Junior College to National Junior College Championship) and former Vanderbilt star and NBA veteran Charles Davis.These are figures of great credibility in the local basketball community,and their presence is a sign that the local sports community is rallying around Ashley Mac.I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them on the bench as assistant coaches this winter (salary isn't much of an issue here;Coach Anderson is a financially comfortable retirement-aged man,and Charles Davis is a multimillionaire).

[habsfannova]

I don't thing unquestionably yes. I think a woman coach in the NBA would be an interesting experiment, but one that has a high percentage of failure. The inmates pretty much run the assylum in the NBA, and it takes a very strong personality to run a team of people making the money that they make. Many women have very strong personalities, but dealing with the extreme egos is very hard for a man to do, much less a woman with little experience in the leauge and dealing with a psychological hurdle.(That shouldn't be there, but is.)

[pking34@comcast.net]

I hear you,and agree with you if we are talking about the NBA level at this point in time.Most NBA coaches are either former NBA players or former successful major college head coaches.This hasen't even been tried yet in the major college men's game, except on an emergency basis(Tennessee State Athletic Director Theresa Phillips coached the TSU men's hoops team for one game after firing Nolan Richardson III; they lost,but they had been losing big under NolanIII as well,and,frankly,they played better for Theresa).If this ever happens,it probably needs to happen successfully in college before it happens in the NBA.For right now, the ABA may be the right place to try this.

[habsfannova]

Yeah, true. I like the fact that more women are coaching. Imagine the ideas a whole new set of coaches can come up with, eh? A woman might break the NZT.