After a wild off-season that centered attention on the men’s hockey program, news broke late last week for a sport that has largely been out of the headlines for years: women’s basketball.
Northeastern announced last Thursday that women’s basketball coach Daynia LaForce-Mann’s contract would be extended until the end of the 2013 season.
In LaForce-Mann’s five seasons at Northeastern, she has a record of 51-101,
and has yet to make it past the quarterfinal round at the CAA tournament in March.
Adding insult to injury, the team has gone through a bit of turmoil lately.
Last year, two freshmen, Rachel Pecota and Afreyea Tolbert, were dismissed from the
team in the middle of the season, presumably due to personal conduct issues. The team
limped to finish the season at 8-22, including just three wins in conference play. Granted,
after the dismissals (which happened in January), the team had just nine players on the
active roster, but having such a short roster after in-season dismissals can’t be healthy
for the program.
There is a lot of work yet to do with this team – the results just haven’t been
there. While LaForce-Mann becomes the fourth Northeastern head coach in the last two
years to receive a contract extension (joining men’s basketball coach Bill Coen, former
men’s hockey coach Greg Cronin and current women’s hockey coach Dave Flint), she
does so, arguably, having achieved the least of the group.
Of all the sports on campus, perhaps women’s basketball and men’s baseball
have been the last to see a significant improvement in results during the last four years.
* Both soccer teams have been able to advance to conference
championship games, and women’s soccer brought home a conference
championship and NCAA first-round victory in 2009.
* Field hockey has sown the seeds of a return to prominence,
ranking in the top 20 nationally for the first time since 2006 and
sparking predictions of a top finish in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) this year.
* Both hockey teams have climbed in the national rankings – the
men’s story is well known and the women’s program advanced to a
conference championship game for the first time in over a decade.
* The men’s basketball team has established itself as a perennial
contender at the top of the CAA table, advancing to the National Invitational Tournament
(NIT) two years ago and has finished with a winning record in conference play five out of
the last six years.
* Volleyball has contended for CAA titles the past few years, and
is expected to do the same once again today.
All the while, Northeastern women’s basketball has yet to finish higher than sixth and has
not posted a winning record since joining the CAA.
The team hasn’t seen a winning season since 2000, with a 17-13 record.
The struggles have outpaced even the baseball team, which reached the
conference tournament in 2006 and 2009, but has seen a sharp drop-off the past
two seasons.
The point, then, is clear: most teams at Northeastern have seen visible
improvements, and it’s time for women’s basketball to follow suit. Here’s to
hoping that with a contract extension in place, LaForce-Mann can concentrate on
turning the page this season, because it’s been a struggle for Huskies women’s
basketball for far too long.
