Post by Aggie One on Mar 6, 2008 8:29:05 GMT -5
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Hardin: A&T coach too busy to revel
GREENSBORO -- Basketball coaches tell you this is the best time of the year, the time they all look forward to, the only time of the season that matters. And for the most part, they're telling the truth.
But this also is the hardest time of the year to be a basketball coach, the time of year when people are watching you closely, watching you coach, watching you win, watching you lose. Patricia Cage-Bibbs has been here before, and she's learned one thing about coaching at this time of year.
"You'd better win," she said.
Cage-Bibbs is the women's coach at N.C. A&T, a school that had watched its basketball program spiral downward in recent years. She came in understanding what she was walking into, the sixth coach in 10 years at a school proud of its athletics tradition. In other words, she was walking into a mess. She did what she's always done, drawing on more than 20 years of coaching experience, taking what she had learned at Louisiana high schools and Grambling and Hampton, where she rebuilt programs at every stop.
"I cleaned house," she said.
Cage-Bibbs gave the players one year to prove they belonged. A few did. Most didn't.
Cage-Bibbs brought in players from across the country after her first year at A&T, a nine-victory season in 2006 that actually looked pretty good compared with the previous era of women's basketball at A&T. Last season, the Aggies won 17 games. This season, they've already won 22 games, including their first 14 in the MEAC before losing Monday night at Hampton, Cage-Bibbs' former employer.
"That was about me," she said Wednesday afternoon. "They were more fired up about beating me than A&T. But that's all right. That's what you'd expect. For us, it was a wake-up call. Sometimes you lose, but you win."
That's coach-talk, of course, but it's true. Headed into tonight's regular-season finale against Norfolk State at the Corbett Center, Cage-Bibbs has her team's attention again. And that's really all a coach wants at this time of year.
She looks around at all that's going on in women's college basketball this week, and she knows she's part of something bigger.
"It's a close community," she said of women's coaches across the country. "You're so busy you don't even notice that it's the week of the ACC (tournament) or whatever. I mean, I know they're here every year, but this time of the season you're consumed with what's right in front of you."
Across the Guilford-Alamance county line, Brenda Paul is in her 14th season at Elon. She has endured a tough season with a young team beset by injuries. She's a good person and a good coach who lost an assistant, Ann Lashley, to cancer just a couple of years ago.
Paul's challenge heading into the Southern Conference tournament today in North Charleston, S.C., is to win. She somehow has won five of six after all she's been through, she's graduated every player who's played for her and she's earned the right to have a tough season.
So has Lynne Agee, the legendary coach at UNCG, which plays Appalachian State this afternoon in North Charleston. Agee's past teams overshadow her current 6-23 squad, just as Stephanie Flamini's first four years at Guilford overshadow her current 11-14 team. They would all trade places with Greensboro College's Jason Tuggle, whose team already has won the USA South Conference and plays Friday in the NCAA Division III tournament, but almost none of them would trade places with Cage-Bibbs.
"I might sound crazy, but I'm not," she said. "When you're going into a fledgling program -- and this was a fledgling program -- you're doing so much hard work you don't even notice it. I wouldn't want a program that's up and running. I want teams that I can coach from the ground up. I want to have the team's attention all the time."
She has it now. After 14 straight conference victories, the first loss was a stunner. But she knows how to get her teams back in a hurry, and she knows how to keep players focused for an entire season. She won her 400th game earlier this season over UNC-Asheville, but refused to let her players douse her with sparkling cider afterward, something about a dry-cleaning bill and bigger games down the road. At Grambling, where she won her 200th game several years ago, her team outscored the opponent 121-25.
Cage-Bibbs wants all her friends and adversaries to win, and she knows that's impossible. The reality is you earn your way in this business, and this is the time of year when it comes into focus. The focus at A&T is on winning these days, days not far removed from the darkest era in the program's history. After 23 years in the business, Cage-Bibbs is not looking back, and she's not waiting for players to come around. You do your job, or you're gone.
That's the reality for coaches, too. Patricia Cage-Bibbs is here because she wants to be here. And she plans to be long gone before anybody comes to take her job away from her.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin @news-record.com
Hardin: A&T coach too busy to revel
GREENSBORO -- Basketball coaches tell you this is the best time of the year, the time they all look forward to, the only time of the season that matters. And for the most part, they're telling the truth.
But this also is the hardest time of the year to be a basketball coach, the time of year when people are watching you closely, watching you coach, watching you win, watching you lose. Patricia Cage-Bibbs has been here before, and she's learned one thing about coaching at this time of year.
"You'd better win," she said.
Cage-Bibbs is the women's coach at N.C. A&T, a school that had watched its basketball program spiral downward in recent years. She came in understanding what she was walking into, the sixth coach in 10 years at a school proud of its athletics tradition. In other words, she was walking into a mess. She did what she's always done, drawing on more than 20 years of coaching experience, taking what she had learned at Louisiana high schools and Grambling and Hampton, where she rebuilt programs at every stop.
"I cleaned house," she said.
Cage-Bibbs gave the players one year to prove they belonged. A few did. Most didn't.
Cage-Bibbs brought in players from across the country after her first year at A&T, a nine-victory season in 2006 that actually looked pretty good compared with the previous era of women's basketball at A&T. Last season, the Aggies won 17 games. This season, they've already won 22 games, including their first 14 in the MEAC before losing Monday night at Hampton, Cage-Bibbs' former employer.
"That was about me," she said Wednesday afternoon. "They were more fired up about beating me than A&T. But that's all right. That's what you'd expect. For us, it was a wake-up call. Sometimes you lose, but you win."
That's coach-talk, of course, but it's true. Headed into tonight's regular-season finale against Norfolk State at the Corbett Center, Cage-Bibbs has her team's attention again. And that's really all a coach wants at this time of year.
She looks around at all that's going on in women's college basketball this week, and she knows she's part of something bigger.
"It's a close community," she said of women's coaches across the country. "You're so busy you don't even notice that it's the week of the ACC (tournament) or whatever. I mean, I know they're here every year, but this time of the season you're consumed with what's right in front of you."
Across the Guilford-Alamance county line, Brenda Paul is in her 14th season at Elon. She has endured a tough season with a young team beset by injuries. She's a good person and a good coach who lost an assistant, Ann Lashley, to cancer just a couple of years ago.
Paul's challenge heading into the Southern Conference tournament today in North Charleston, S.C., is to win. She somehow has won five of six after all she's been through, she's graduated every player who's played for her and she's earned the right to have a tough season.
So has Lynne Agee, the legendary coach at UNCG, which plays Appalachian State this afternoon in North Charleston. Agee's past teams overshadow her current 6-23 squad, just as Stephanie Flamini's first four years at Guilford overshadow her current 11-14 team. They would all trade places with Greensboro College's Jason Tuggle, whose team already has won the USA South Conference and plays Friday in the NCAA Division III tournament, but almost none of them would trade places with Cage-Bibbs.
"I might sound crazy, but I'm not," she said. "When you're going into a fledgling program -- and this was a fledgling program -- you're doing so much hard work you don't even notice it. I wouldn't want a program that's up and running. I want teams that I can coach from the ground up. I want to have the team's attention all the time."
She has it now. After 14 straight conference victories, the first loss was a stunner. But she knows how to get her teams back in a hurry, and she knows how to keep players focused for an entire season. She won her 400th game earlier this season over UNC-Asheville, but refused to let her players douse her with sparkling cider afterward, something about a dry-cleaning bill and bigger games down the road. At Grambling, where she won her 200th game several years ago, her team outscored the opponent 121-25.
Cage-Bibbs wants all her friends and adversaries to win, and she knows that's impossible. The reality is you earn your way in this business, and this is the time of year when it comes into focus. The focus at A&T is on winning these days, days not far removed from the darkest era in the program's history. After 23 years in the business, Cage-Bibbs is not looking back, and she's not waiting for players to come around. You do your job, or you're gone.
That's the reality for coaches, too. Patricia Cage-Bibbs is here because she wants to be here. And she plans to be long gone before anybody comes to take her job away from her.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin @news-record.com
