Shooter: It’ll be surprising if Whalen doesn't hire Kelly Roysland as assistant

per Shooter:

It’ll be surprising if new Gophers women’s head basketball coach Lindsay Whalen doesn’t hire former Gophers teammate Kelly Roysland, who is head coach at Macalester College.

Meanwhile, while Whalen, 35, will be paid 62 percent ($250,000) of her first-year Gophers salary ($400,000), she’ll also receive $110,900 for playing this season for the reigning WNBA champion Lynx.

Whalen’s five-year Gophers contract is worth a total $2.27 million, but she’s worth a lot more than that when you consider her marketing value to Minnesota.

Lynx GM-coach Cheryl Reeve said Whalen’s future with her team will be year-to-year.

https://www.twincities.com/2018/04/14/charley-walters-xxxxxxxxx/

Go Gophers!!

Can Pam Borton be far behind?

I think she needs assistants that can hit the national recruiting trail and have some connection when they start.

Ignatius L Hoops said:

Can Pam Borton be far behind?

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Pam Borton has a very successful executive coaching career now. I very much doubt she'd go back to the basketball coaching world. And, that would require her to move back here and Lynn would have to leave her Penn State job.

Kelly Roysland has great Minnesota ties both as a Gopher student-athlete and coach here. I wouldn't mind see her back at all.

dlw4gophers said:

I think she needs assistants that can hit the national recruiting trail and have some connection when they start.

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Agree. Isn't Whalen the Minnesota connection they were looking for? Now to add another one with Roysland and I assume Macalester doesn't recruit nationally.

She needs someone like a Joy Cheek who has been with Duke, OSU and now Vandy (and that's a mess so maybe she wants to leave).

Waffle said:

Agree. Isn't Whalen the Minnesota connection they were looking for? Now to add another one with Roysland and I assume Macalester doesn't recruit nationally.

She needs someone like a Joy Cheek who has been with Duke, OSU and now Vandy (and that's a mess so maybe she wants to leave).

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Actually, Macalester seems to have more Cali girls on their roster than MN. Maybe if she had turned that team around a bit more I'd be more of a fan, but Mac is still a bottom 3 Miac team and I can't remember the last time they even had a 500% record. There are at least 3 other Miac head coaches I'd prefer if forced to hire one. Don't want to turn the Gophs into the old Twolves like country club.

Whalen needs several things. We need a good skills trainer/coach on staff for development over the summer months, one with a good post development history, and one who can implement individual development plans (given the money allocated, not sure if we have to hire this for an on staff position or if we can just contract it locally). We need a technician, x's and o's strategist, to help Whalen implement her style with systems and the types of players we have so we can hit the ground running this summer. And we need one with top notch recruiting skills with national connections that can also help out with our teams defensive issues (sort of a Steve Huber type that Creighton had for years, wonder what happened to him, health issues maybe?) . Whalen's name should help secure MN for a few years and she can adjust her staff as her learning curve advances.

Division III is a different animal and takes time to turn around a program at that level. What sport is Macalester and Hamline strong in besides hockey for Hamline? Without knowing more
about Kelly Roysland I guess I have to remain neutral at this time about her.