Lady Topper Hoops: Michelle Clark-Heard Leading Candidate For Ole Miss, Cincy Jobs
Since we published our article, Elliott Pratt of the Bowling Green Daily News has confirmed that MCH has interviewed with the Cincinnati Bearcats on Monday and with the Rebels over the weekend.
Rumors began swirling late Monday night that WKU women’s basketball head coach Michelle Clark-Heard is the leading candidate at a couple of different schools in Ole Miss and Cincinnati.
MCH came to the Hill following an abysmal 2011/12 for the Lady Tops and has only gone on to lead WKU to a 154–47 record and four conference titles, all earning NCAA births.
The downside of those four NCAA births is the Lady Tops have never gotten out of the first round under MCH, including dropping an ugly 82–58 decision to Oregon State in this year’s dance.
In both of the rumored locations, MCH has some history. She spent the 2002–05 seasons as an assistant coach with Cincinnati, where she was a part of 74 wins (but was apart of teams that went 15–16 and 9–19 in her final two years).
If you’ll remember, former WKU athletic director Ross Bjork currently AD’s Ole Miss, and Bjork and MCH do have a slight overlap with their time frames on the Hill (Bjork was introduced as Ole Miss’ AD the day before MCH was announced, with Todd Stewart siting at the podium). I’m unsure if Bjork helped court her to the Hill, but I’d be shocked if there isn’t a relationship there.
I’ll state the obvious — losing MCH would not be fun. I’ve long held to the belief that she’d only leave for the UofL job (she came to WKU from the Cards’ assistant coaching ranks), but she may be tired of waiting and, as I was talking to our own Ross about it, she may feel limited by not having been past the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Or, this could all be smoke being blown up our butts. Hopefully it’s that one, but we could very well be seeing a future with a new head coach for the Lady Toppers.
(Something I feel that’s worth noting — Mary Taylor Cowles, who MCH replaced, was on the Hill for 10 years and won 199 games. MCH, in six years, has 154 victories)
