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HomerCecil
04-05-2023, 10:09 AM
Xavier's new coach comes from Iona, where she led the Gaels to two NCAA tournament appearances in 10 years.

https://goxavier.com/news/2023/4/5/womens-basketball-billi-chambers-named-xavier-head-womens-basketball-coach.aspx

The press release mentions a lot about her first and last year at Iona and not much else, and doesn't mention her overall record, so I looked it up.

Coach Chambers at Iona, year by year

2013-14 26-6, 18-2 MAAC
2014-15 15-15, 12-8
2015-16 23-12, 16-4
2016-17 18-13, 12-8
2017-18 2-28, 2-16
2018-19 5-26, 3-15
2019-20 9-21, 8-12
2020-21 6-9, 5-6
2021-22 11-16, 8-12
2022-23 26-7, 18-2
Overall: 141-153, 102-85 MAAC
Xville
04-05-2023, 10:19 AM
Well, it’s official. X doesn’t give a f about the women’s program.

If Sean miller hadn’t dropped in Christopher’s lap, he’d be fired by now.
GoMuskies
04-05-2023, 10:20 AM
Brutal
HomerCecil
04-05-2023, 10:25 AM
Yeah, I wish her luck (she's going to need it), but the fact that this search took a month and we ended up with a coach whose team was done playing nearly three weeks ago and has an overall losing record after 10 seasons in the MAAC doesn't inspire confidence. This program is an afterthought and it shows.
D-West & PO-Z
04-05-2023, 10:26 AM
Yikes.

Is Xavier that unattractive of a job? Or has X decided it isn't worth whatever financial commitment it takes to get a really solid coach?
XUGRAD80
04-05-2023, 10:32 AM
The record from 2017-2022 is brutal, like in getting fired brutal. Not impressed.
nuts4xu
04-05-2023, 10:36 AM
Not very often you hire a coach with 2 26 win seasons and 4 seasons with single digit wins on their record. Such big swings in the record. What happened this year to take them from 11 wins to 26 wins this season?
HomerCecil
04-05-2023, 10:40 AM
I do remember watching the three-point shooting and dunk competition this year before the Final Four and if I recall correctly, the women's champion was from Iona and won the overall title, too.

I don't really know anything about her otherwise and I'm a pretty big women's basketball fan. She doesn't seem to have any connection to the area. I hate to be so unenthusiastic about someone getting the chance to turn the program around here but there's not much to suggest she's going to have consistent success in a Big East that is only getting better on the women's side. I sure hope I'm wrong. Kudos to her for turning this great season into a better job, though.

At this point, there is little reason to think this program is funded properly anymore. Xavier was able to hire away Notre Dame's associate head coach when we were in the Atlantic freaking 10. Either we've had three really bad head coaches in a row or the problem is bigger than the coaching situation. Seems obvious to me it's the latter.
X Factor
04-05-2023, 10:54 AM
I was confused as hell reading the press release. I kept reading Billi as "Bill" and it kept referring to "her". I thought we hired the first transgendered coach in America. Then at the end, it said Billi and her wife, which confused me more. Then I realized she's just a lesbian.
paulxu
04-05-2023, 11:08 AM
Yikes…a lesbian! MAGA heads are exploding everywhere.
GoMuskies
04-05-2023, 11:11 AM
Yikes…a lesbian! MAGA heads are exploding everywhere.

In sports of all places?!? She must be the first one.
X Factor
04-05-2023, 11:13 AM
In sports of all places?!? She must be the first one.

Not just sports, women's sports!
Xville
04-05-2023, 11:14 AM
In sports of all places?!? She must be the first one.

Definitely the first in women’s basketball! I wonder though if there are going to be protests or articles in the newswire about this though, since she doesn’t follow the Jesuit ideals or whatever crap they said about deters
XUGRAD80
04-05-2023, 11:16 AM
Definitely the first in women’s basketball! I wonder though if there are going to be protests or articles in the newswire about this though, since she doesn’t follow the Jesuit ideals or whatever crap they said about deters

Good point……..wouldn’t hold my breath though.
SM#24
04-05-2023, 12:00 PM
Checks off three diversity boxes.
Masterofreality
04-05-2023, 01:04 PM
Wow.
Time will tell but we hired a coach with an all time 102-85 record in the MAAAAAAAAAAC?
Special Jennings looks better than ever.
But now, I’ll just leave it here.
X-band '01
04-05-2023, 06:11 PM
It's a good thing Iona had the patience of Job for their team to go from 2 wins to 20+ wins; unfortunately that won't be the case here.

One thing is certain - the team can't be noncompetitive in conference play like last season. I wonder who recommended her to Greg Christopher.
HomerCecil
04-10-2023, 02:02 PM
Special Jennings named head coach at Jacksonville University.
Masterofreality
04-10-2023, 04:03 PM
Special Jennings named head coach at Jacksonville University.

A horrible miss by Christopher IMO
HomerCecil
04-20-2023, 09:18 AM
Courtney Prenger has graduated and is transferring to FIU for her fifth (COVID) year of eligibility.
cinskyline
04-20-2023, 09:44 PM
Am I the only one who finds it odd that there was no introductory press conference? Maybe Christopher is tired of introducing coaches that don’t pan out. Only half kidding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Masterofreality
04-21-2023, 09:15 AM
Am I the only one who finds it odd that there was no introductory press conference? Maybe Christopher is tired of introducing coaches that don’t pan out. Only half kidding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Interesting. But I would guess there will be one?
HomerCecil
04-21-2023, 11:33 AM
If there was going to be a press conference down the road, you'd think they would at least note that it will be happening in the future somewhere. But again the MO for WBB under GC is to draw as little attention to it as possible and hope no one notices.
HomerCecil
04-27-2023, 03:25 PM
In addition to Courtney Prenger, freshman guard Kaleigh Addie and junior center Megan Harkey have entered the transfer portal. I assume there will be some incoming transfers as well.

https://wbbblog.com/womens-basketball-transfers-d-i-2022-23/16/
cinskyline
04-30-2023, 12:20 AM
Some good news last week.

Julia Garcia, a 5'7" guard and Daniela Lopez, a 5'11" wing have committed. They are both from Spain.

I hope Coach Chambers is on the search for bigs. We desperately need them, especially with Prenger and Harkey gone.

https://wbbblog.com/2023-womens-basketball-commitments/21/
HomerCecil
05-01-2023, 10:14 AM
Some good news last week.

Julia Garcia, a 5'7" guard and Daniela Lopez, a 5'11" wing have committed. They are both from Spain.

I hope Coach Chambers is on the search for bigs. We desperately need them, especially with Prenger and Harkey gone.

https://wbbblog.com/2023-womens-basketball-commitments/21/

That is good news. A Big East fan I know who lives in NYC and is familiar-ish with Iona said that the biggest key to their success had been international recruits. Obviously I don't know anything about these two players but it's good to have some good news. It's long overdue.
Masterofreality
05-02-2023, 04:55 PM
Welp. They had the intro press conference for Coach Chambers yesterday, so there is that.

https://xuathletics.exposure.co/coach-chambers-introduction
HomerCecil
05-02-2023, 09:18 PM
Welp. They had the intro press conference for Coach Chambers yesterday, so there is that.

https://xuathletics.exposure.co/coach-chambers-introduction

That’s not a press conference, although sadly I doubt there would have been any press there anyway. But yes, glad she got an introduction to the university community. Odd that it was not mentioned until after it happened.
HomerCecil
05-05-2023, 11:29 AM
Interesting note that the new assistant coach/recruiting coordinator is coming over from Cincinnati. She was at UC for one year, so it's hard to take much from that. Prior to that, she spent three years at Penn State (2019-22) and three years at Wisconsin (2016-19). At Penn State, her teams went 27-56 (12-43 B1G) and the Wisconsin teams went 43-61 (9-41 B1G). The other two assistant coaches come with Coach Chambers from Iona.
HomerCecil
06-07-2023, 04:15 PM
The women's team has added Loren Christie, a 6-3 forward who is a native of England and is grad-transferring from San Francisco. Prior to San Francisco, she played at Buffalo. At USF last year, Christie averaged 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, shooting 36 percent from the field and 22 percent from three. USF went 19-13 overall and 9-9 in the West Coast Conference.

This is her fifth season on college, but she missed part of one season with an injury, so I'm not sure if she'll have one or two seasons of eligibility at X.

The two recruits who were signed in April (which zilch has been posted about on XU's official site, unsurprisingly) are from Spain, so international recruiting seems to be a theme of the new staff.