CTT Retires
Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2022 1:40 pm
I realize that when you initially claim to not mean something, people assume the opposite. It's like "I don't want to make excuses, but..." followed immediately by a long list of excuses. This also isn't meant as Marc Antony's famous "I come not to bury Charli, but to praise her..." speech, but just some curiosity and observations.
To begin with, she did very well in making a virtually dead program relevant and dominating the in-state rivalry for many of her 25 years, particularly taking advantage of the 13 years after Joan Bonvicini's best 10 years, and prior to Adia hitting her stride 3 years ago. 15 NCAA tournaments, with 3 Sweet Sixteens and 2 Elite Eights. So at 55, you'd think she'd have at least another 5 or 10 years left in the tank, and her kids are all grown up, so that's not it. She took a year off a few years ago, which I assume was a nervous exhaustion thing, and she's pretty much the poster child for Type A, so it may just be that. Financially, unless she did something seriously wrong, she's got to have at least $4M invested, which is plenty to live off dividends. To that point, the 25 years may be a key thing, as I believe that would mean she's vested in the very generous state employee retirement pension fund. Between that and some dividends, no sweat worrying about waiting for Social Security or Medicare. So it makes sense from all of those perspectives.
But, former players turned coaches are competitors. Despite all kinds of issues, Lute was still coaching at 73. I can't help but assume Adia's big splash with the women's NIT title at sold-out McKale, followed by the big splash beating UConn on the way to the title game last season, followed by whatever the post-Aari team does in the NCAA's this year also had to have played into it at some level. During that time frame, CTT has gone 24-26 with one losing women's NIT game played. You'd think there have to be some direct comparisons, even if she' the only one making them, and I assume she isn't. So there's that pressure thing again, and she may have concluded that she won't be able to restore her old momentum, particularly with annual losses to Arizona on the horizon, and if she's losing recruiting battles to Adia, which seems a certainty.
CTT doesn't need anybody's sympathy. She was riding high for a number of years, and she retires young as a multi-millionaire, having been a bit of a pioneer in women's athletics. It wouldn't be too surprising to see that sponge-bumped hair on somebody's halftime show, where she'd make pretty good money for spending weekends in New York with her husband during the season and hanging out for a few hours in a studio watching and talking about the games. Nice work if you can get it. We'll see what kind of commitment ASU wants to make to women's hoops in whoever they hire to replace her. She was a cut-rate bargain out of NAU, and she made less than half of Adia's $1M as she finished up. But Adia brings in 5,000 more paying customers per game.
To begin with, she did very well in making a virtually dead program relevant and dominating the in-state rivalry for many of her 25 years, particularly taking advantage of the 13 years after Joan Bonvicini's best 10 years, and prior to Adia hitting her stride 3 years ago. 15 NCAA tournaments, with 3 Sweet Sixteens and 2 Elite Eights. So at 55, you'd think she'd have at least another 5 or 10 years left in the tank, and her kids are all grown up, so that's not it. She took a year off a few years ago, which I assume was a nervous exhaustion thing, and she's pretty much the poster child for Type A, so it may just be that. Financially, unless she did something seriously wrong, she's got to have at least $4M invested, which is plenty to live off dividends. To that point, the 25 years may be a key thing, as I believe that would mean she's vested in the very generous state employee retirement pension fund. Between that and some dividends, no sweat worrying about waiting for Social Security or Medicare. So it makes sense from all of those perspectives.
But, former players turned coaches are competitors. Despite all kinds of issues, Lute was still coaching at 73. I can't help but assume Adia's big splash with the women's NIT title at sold-out McKale, followed by the big splash beating UConn on the way to the title game last season, followed by whatever the post-Aari team does in the NCAA's this year also had to have played into it at some level. During that time frame, CTT has gone 24-26 with one losing women's NIT game played. You'd think there have to be some direct comparisons, even if she' the only one making them, and I assume she isn't. So there's that pressure thing again, and she may have concluded that she won't be able to restore her old momentum, particularly with annual losses to Arizona on the horizon, and if she's losing recruiting battles to Adia, which seems a certainty.
CTT doesn't need anybody's sympathy. She was riding high for a number of years, and she retires young as a multi-millionaire, having been a bit of a pioneer in women's athletics. It wouldn't be too surprising to see that sponge-bumped hair on somebody's halftime show, where she'd make pretty good money for spending weekends in New York with her husband during the season and hanging out for a few hours in a studio watching and talking about the games. Nice work if you can get it. We'll see what kind of commitment ASU wants to make to women's hoops in whoever they hire to replace her. She was a cut-rate bargain out of NAU, and she made less than half of Adia's $1M as she finished up. But Adia brings in 5,000 more paying customers per game.
