Karen Aston wanted to set the tone.
After working for years as an assistant coach and as an associate head coach and gaining experience as a head coach at Charlotte at North Texas, Aston knew things were going to be different when she took the job as head coach at Texas.
Aston worked as an assistant coach and as an associate head coach for Hall of Famer Jody Conradt from 1998-2006, so she understood Texas’ place as a trail blazer in women’s college basketball. The 1985-86 squad was the first women’s undefeated national champion. It was Aston’s mission to help Texas reclaim that glory.
“I expect to go to the Final Four,” she said in her introductory news conference in 2012. “I’m thrilled to be back. My job is to make Texas proud of the women’s basketball program.”
Aston is living up to her words. In four seasons, Aston has used her recruiting acumen, her understanding of Texas’ history, and the lessons she learned from Conradt and all of the other coaching greats she worked for to make Texas a national title contender again.
At 5 p.m. today, Aston will try to earn back-to-back wins against Mississippi State when the No. 8 Longhorns (1-1) take on the No. 10 Bulldogs (3-0) on “StarkVegas Night” at Humphrey Coliseum.
The game will be broadcast live on the SEC Network. It also will be available on WLZA-FM 96.1 and at www.hailstate.com.
Last season, Texas defeated MSU 53-47 on Dec. 2, 2015, in Austin, Texas. The win was a part of a 31-5 season that saw Texas advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut.
MSU, which won a program-
record 28 games last season, lost to UConn in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Storied program
While the trip to the Sweet 16 was the second in MSU’s history, Texas is one of the most storied programs in women’s college basketball. First led by Rod Page and followed by Conradt, Texas was one of the first schools to make a commitment to women’s athletics.
Conradt, who spent the last 31 of her 38 years as a coach at Texas, was at the forefront of that movement. A six-time National Coach of the Year, she finished her career with a record of 900-307. She led Texas to the 1986 title and to the AIAW or NCAA tournaments in 27 of her 31 seasons with the Longhorns. She is a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Conradt stepped down after an 18-14 season in 2006-07. It was the second-straight season Texas failed to make the NCAA tournament. Former Duke women’s basketball coach Gail Goestenkors took over for her and led Texas to the NCAA tournament in each of her five seasons, but the Longhorns failed to advance past the first round in her final four seasons. Goestenkors resigned as Texas’ coach on March 20, 2012, and was replaced by Aston, who worked for Conradt for eight years at Texas. In that time, Texas advanced to the NCAA tournament seven times and made two trips to the Sweet 16 and one appearance in the Final Four.
Conradt said Aston was a “tremendous recruiter” and a great defensive mind. She said her commitment to finding the best players helped Texas experience a rebirth from 1998-2006, which is similar to the one the program is having right now.
“Karen set the standard,” Conradt said. “No one was outworking her. That relentless determination in that area set her apart.”
Conradt said Aston, who also has worked for Baylor coaching greats Kim Mulkey and Sonja Hogg, knew how to sell the University of Texas because she understood the nature of the state and the importance of building relationships with the more than 1,200 high school coaches in the state. She said there was no need for Aston to “catch up” when she was hired because she had been a part of the program’s culture and knew what it would take to be successful. She said she wasn’t sure Goestenkors had that same focus recruiting because she came to Texas from Duke, which she said was more of a national name.
Recruiting success
Aston’s recruiting prowess has paid off, especially in the past two seasons. Freshmen Joyner Holmes and Alecia Sutton were top-100 players in the Class of 2016. Rellah Booth, the No. 3 player in the nation (ESPN.com), and Chasity Patterson, the No. 4 player, are part of Texas’ signing class for 2017.
“(The progress) has been very significant,” Conradt said. “That first year (12-18 in 2012-13) was very difficult. … I think the connection she made as an assistant coach and being involved in the whole process, she was a part of the process to build the brand and to build the fans base to make women’s basketball relevant at the University of Texas. There was no learning curve.”
Chris Plonsky, the director of women’s athletics at Texas, identified Aston as a candidate to replace Goestenkors from the start. She said when Aston was hired that “sometimes it takes a change to bring you back to your roots. Texas was best suited to attract Karen now, if we didn’t we’d be playing her soon.”
Plonsky has worked in college athletics since 1976 and is in her 28th year at Texas. Since 2001, she has served as Texas’ third women’s athletics director, and since 1993, she has supervised men’s and women’s athletics revenue generation areas in sponsorships, TV/radio, brand development and trademark licensing. She said she recognized Aston’s ability to recruit and the passion she had for her work in her initial stint at Texas. She felt both factors would help her succeed at Texas.
“She is as intense a person in recruiting I have ever seen,” Plonsky said. “Her work ethic rears its head in how our teams play. They play hard. She demands great performance from everyone. She recruits students of character and she is championship driven. The best thing she could tell Jody and I (when she was an assistant coach at Texas) was that she was dead set on becoming a head coach.”
A different ‘aura’
Plonsky feels Aston’s willingness to surround herself with coaches and people with ties to Texas has contributed to the program’s climb back to prominence. It is even more important at Texas, where she said the tentacles of history are stronger.
“When prominent programs regain their place in history and become relevant again you can’t deny the aura changes for the sport,” Plonsky said. “When Texas is good at its traditionally rooted sports, it changes the aura for the sport. We take that with great pride and responsibility. When we haven’t been successful at some sports like that, we take it hard.”
Plonsky said Aston has made it happen by also taking a page from Conradt and recruiting players of character because it is more about the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. She said the pride Aston demands and instills in players has allowed her to recruit more players. She said it also helps to have so many former great players come back and reinforce the sense of tradition and accomplishment that is associated with Texas.
“Karen is respectfully emotional about the mantle she has and the responsibility she has,” Plonsky said. “I think she talks about it in the media opportunities and in recruiting about how inspired she is about being the head coach at the University of Texas.”
Aston acknowledges she has a “unique” responsibility at Texas. She said she has tried to follow the path Conradt laid by “growing leaders” and by setting an overall expectation for her student-athletes. She said her goal is to continue to add to a “pretty overwhelming” list of people who have made impacts as leaders.
Aston feels there is more work to be done, though. She praised Goestenkors for her work at Texas and said strides were made in that five-year stretch. She said the biggest difference was Texas won only one game in the NCAA tournament.
Right trajectory
In the last four years, Aston has led Texas to six wins in the NCAA tournament. She hopes to build on that number with a young team that she said is still figuring out how to put all of its pieces together. She is confident the Longhorns will find a way to do it because the talent is there. That is a much different feeling than the one she had when she first returned to Texas and then put together 22- and 24-win seasons in her second and third seasons to get the program back on the right trajectory.
“It took four years to get us from a culture perspective to a place where I thought we belonged,” Aston said. “It was a brick-by-brick process in the sense this program grew as the kids grew. Year by year, the players grew up a little bit more so by the time they were seniors they were able to pass down the expectations and the culture. It was kind of like we all grew up in this together.
“They took a lot of lumps (in 2012-13), but as they grew up they got better and better. Then we started to recruit players who helped them and each year it has improved. We were fortunate enough to have talented freshmen who just didn’t sit there. They got to learn by mistakes.
“It is a different feeling knowing there is only so much you can do with a group as opposed to knowing you just need to jell. This group is not there yet. We are working with new faces and players in new roles, but this group is going to keep getting better and better and better.”
n NOTES: Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. Fans are encouraged to wear black as the Bulldogs push for a crowd of 10,000-plus for the second-straight season. … Tickets are $5 for adults, and MSU students are admitted free with a valid MSU ID. Admission is also free for high school students age 18 and under. Those tickets can be picked up at the coliseum box office when doors open. … Fans can purchase and print their $5 tickets at home via hailstate.com/tickets to avoid long lines. Every fan must have a ticket to enter. … All bags will be subject to search. Backpacks, large carry bags, outside food or drink, smoking, and weapons of any kind are prohibited. … The first 5,000 fans will get free “StarkVegas Night” rally towels. … Fans also will have a chance to shoot for $10,000 and have a shot to participate in the Parker-McGill’s Full-Court Putt for the opportunity to win $5,000. … Students also will get free pizza.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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