[crackpot]

I would really like to know, in more detail, what it is that drove our players away.  From many years of watching Kate in chalk talks it was always clear that she was not exactly a "people-person."  In fact she snapped at me once when I asked what I thought was an innocent question.  But she has good qualities too.  Extremely bright, hard working, very competitive, and she understood the Stanford experience better than anyone else could.  And there was this--as bad as Kate was with people, she did get better, and she was always more outgoing than Tara ever was.  So I had high hopes for her.  The last few years of chalk talks showed her developing a better PR skill set, for example.

So what on earth went wrong?  If we want to understand how to fix what is broken, we need to know how it broke.  Was there genuine abuse of some sort?  Was she just overly demanding and harsh for today's generation of players?  Did she lose their basketball respect?  Was it disagreements about player utilization?  Or did our players just decide that being on a more competitive team was more important than the Stanford connection?

All that said, I do think the underlying structural problems are probably insurmountable  if our standard is to compete as we did in the prior era.  But clearly there is more going on than that.  It would help to know what specifically made the players decide as they did if we are trying to figure out a better coaching fit for our program.

EDIT:  and if you want a great "people person" to lead the program, it is absolutely obvious to the chalk talk fans who that would be:  Tempie.  Also a good recruiter.  I don't know if our players liked her and if she was part of the problem, though.  Nor does she have the resume that many on this board would expect to see.  But she is not exactly a Tara protege the way Kate or Katy or Erica or Jeanette--all former players--were.  She and Heather are the most "outside" on the staff, and she is by far and away the best communicator.

I still shudder thinking about those KP-led chalk talks.
After watching Tara coach for nearly four decades, it was obvious that Tara, while naturally shy, does love people. I never got the same feeling from KP ever--it always seemed forced. Even when greeting the donors pre-game, it looks like she's trying to "gear up" to do so. I appreciate that she has tried and hoped/wished that my take on her personality was wrong. I'm heartbroken to learn that what my gut was telling me is likely true.
Tara, while the GOAT, learned from her mistakes. She was not too humble to ask for outside help when necessary (e.g., repairing the culture of the team after the 22-23 season, or learning the Princeton Offense when the personnel coming in would likely work best using it). And Tara could, undoubtedly, be tough as nails when it came to coaching, but players always knew she cared for them. And different players need different approaches. E.g., she could yell at Wiggins her freshman year, but she knew she couldn't do that with most freshman.

All that time sitting on the bench next to her after pulling the rug out from under U$C in 2017, you'd think KP would see the train that was coming in NIL, portal, etc., and start planning for that. Or at least ask for help in planning for that. Heck, Cori Close perfected it in the same time, and she had all of the HC duties, too. Maybe she was too busy working on her canned press conference spiel? 

I also keep thinking about that Maya Angelou quote: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

From the stands, it looked like this year's team was as close as any I have seen. I had hoped (and even sometimes assumed) that is because they were facing challenges we knew nothing about. I guess they did, but it saddens me to hear that it was the HC.

This is a very good post.  My observations dovetail with yours.

I feel like we're meeting up at a good friend's funeral. :(

[crackpot]

I would really like to know, in more detail, what it is that drove our players away.  From many years of watching Kate in chalk talks it was always clear that she was not exactly a "people-person."  In fact she snapped at me once when I asked what I thought was an innocent question.  But she has good qualities too.  Extremely bright, hard working, very competitive, and she understood the Stanford experience better than anyone else could.  And there was this--as bad as Kate was with people, she did get better, and she was always more outgoing than Tara ever was.  So I had high hopes for her.  The last few years of chalk talks showed her developing a better PR skill set, for example.

So what on earth went wrong?  If we want to understand how to fix what is broken, we need to know how it broke.  Was there genuine abuse of some sort?  Was she just overly demanding and harsh for today's generation of players?  Did she lose their basketball respect?  Was it disagreements about player utilization?  Or did our players just decide that being on a more competitive team was more important than the Stanford connection?

All that said, I do think the underlying structural problems are probably insurmountable  if our standard is to compete as we did in the prior era.  But clearly there is more going on than that.  It would help to know what specifically made the players decide as they did if we are trying to figure out a better coaching fit for our program.

EDIT:  and if you want a great "people person" to lead the program, it is absolutely obvious to the chalk talk fans who that would be:  Tempie.  Also a good recruiter.  I don't know if our players liked her and if she was part of the problem, though.  Nor does she have the resume that many on this board would expect to see.  But she is not exactly a Tara protege the way Kate or Katy or Erica or Jeanette--all former players--were.  She and Heather are the most "outside" on the staff, and she is by far and away the best communicator.

I still shudder thinking about those KP-led chalk talks.
After watching Tara coach for nearly four decades, it was obvious that Tara, while naturally shy, does love people. I never got the same feeling from KP ever--it always seemed forced. Even when greeting the donors pre-game, it looks like she's trying to "gear up" to do so. I appreciate that she has tried and hoped/wished that my take on her personality was wrong. I'm heartbroken to learn that what my gut was telling me is likely true.
Tara, while the GOAT, learned from her mistakes. She was not too humble to ask for outside help when necessary (e.g., repairing the culture of the team after the 22-23 season, or learning the Princeton Offense when the personnel coming in would likely work best using it). And Tara could, undoubtedly, be tough as nails when it came to coaching, but players always knew she cared for them. And different players need different approaches. E.g., she could yell at Wiggins her freshman year, but she knew she couldn't do that with most freshman.

All that time sitting on the bench next to her after pulling the rug out from under U$C in 2017, you'd think KP would see the train that was coming in NIL, portal, etc., and start planning for that. Or at least ask for help in planning for that. Heck, Cori Close perfected it in the same time, and she had all of the HC duties, too. Maybe she was too busy working on her canned press conference spiel? 

I also keep thinking about that Maya Angelou quote: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

From the stands, it looked like this year's team was as close as any I have seen. I had hoped (and even sometimes assumed) that is because they were facing challenges we knew nothing about. I guess they did, but it saddens me to hear that it was the HC.

This is a very good post.  My observations dovetail with yours.

I feel like we're meeting up at a good friend's funeral. :(