News-Record.com

When's the last time you heard the phrase "coaching carousel" associated with women's basketball? Never? Same with me. The joke used to be that some women's coaches were like federal judges - appointed for life. Not anymore.

Suddenly big jobs are opening up and big names are making moves. None bigger, of course, than former Duke/present Texas coach Gail Goestenkors.

Now that Coach G has moved on to Austin, speculation has begun on who would replace her. (By the way, when's the last time you "speculated" about a women's coaching vacancy?" The obvious choice would seem to be former Duke player, former Duke assistant and current Cal coach Joann Boyle.

Former Duke player and current Miami coach Katie Meier's name has also been tossed around, but she's still in the midst of trying to build a competitive Canes' squad. So unless Duke decides to go in a completely different direction, it would seem to be Boyle's job to take or leave.

It's not the only job that Boyle is being courted for, though. She's reportedly talked to Florida about their opening and Cal plans to fight to keep her, as talks have alraedy begun talks about extending Boyle's contract. (When was the last time you saw schools doing the old preemptive contract extension thing for a women's basketball coach?)

Check out some of the names in that Seattle P-I story. FSU coach Sue Semrau is now a hot name. So is Georgia Tech coach MaChelle Joseph, who has interviewed for the Washington job.

That's just the start of it. As SI's Kelli Anderson points out, with jobs like Texas (now Duke), LSU, Florida, Penn State, Washington and Michigan all open now - and seemingly willing to open up the vaults for a talented coach - the Women's Final Four became what the Men's Final Four has been for some time, a hotbed for chatter and rumors about which coach is going where.

For fans of the women's game, take is a sign of progress that comes with an unfortunate side effect (isn't that always the case?) As schools become more willing to spend on women's hoops then a) coaches are more likely to jump to other jobs and b) the pressure on coaches to win increases and therefore their job terms are shortened. That means that if you've got a good women's coach, the spring might turn into an annual nervewracking wait-and-see period as you wonder whether another program will try to lure her/him away.