Dear Friends,
New Woman's basketball coach will be Tory Verdi. Assistant coach from Kansas, and Eastern's first male coach of the women's team.

http://www.whoopdirt.com/blog/5ccf73a2/h...assistant/

Ken, as I stated elsewhere I thought he had an impressive resume, looked like a solid recruiter. Wonder who the other candidates were?

(04-24-2012 03:11 PM)emu79 Wrote:  Ken, as I stated elsewhere I thought he had an impressive resume, looked like a solid recruiter. Wonder who the other candidates were?

Agree with '79.

As far as recruiting he apparently landed Asia Boyd, the 2nd best women's prospect in MI last year.

Pretty impressive.

He is also pretty young, apparently not even 40 years old.

I believe Dr. Gragg has landed another really strong coach for EMU.

His record of hiring English, Murphy, (Jay) Alexander, and this guy is truly awesome.

Dr. Gragg, in my book, is the best MAC AD.

I agree with Steves perception 100% Kudos to Dr Gragg

Say what you want but we at EMU have been blessed with a solid, solid AD and a dedicated SID for many years in Jim Streeter - would be nice to win a few titles for Streets. EMU hasen't rewarded him to date with a lot of exciting seasons in major sports but I believe that era is ending.

1:00 p.m Thursday. Can watch live at EMUEAGLES.COM.

http://www.emueagles.com/news/2012/4/25/...21944.aspx

BTW. I wonder if this event was delayed.

I did not attend but I think there was an EMU alum, friends, etc. event in D.C. this past Monday.

I believe the announcement of the new coach had to be arranged around Dr. Martin's out of town schedule.

BTW, easy to see why there is no 'inside' info on the search.

The AnnArbor.Com story was written from the EMU press release announcing the press conference.

The Internet broke the story and the mainstream media picked up the story.

In fairness, the mainstream media worked hard on the FB and men's HC searches.

http://www.annarbor.com/sports/eastern-m...all-coach/

Wonder if Dennis is going to attend today and ask if the program will have more transparency in recruiting... Lol.

There was no annoucement on any fall signings. I am assuming there is a similar late signing period for women which would expire May 16. It will be interesting to see if the new coach signs any players. Recall that James was a spring signee.

Big question by me isn't the women's signings but the status of the assistant coaches/staff whom Gilbert employed.

Some might be under contracts which have expired? Others under contracts with a year (or more?) to go?

Could be messy.

Most coaches like to hire an entirely new staff from assoc HC, to dir. of bball ops, etc.

Anyone able to connect to the EMU All-Access site?

I was not.

BTW, the '12 - '13 roster is posted 13 returnees.

Last year the team had 15 players including James and Redditt.

I assume EMU has two scholarships IF they want to use them now.

Press conference was nice.
Comments were kept short and to the point.
Dr. Gragg issued a number of thank you's and
highlighted his 4 P's that he uses when making
a hiring decision. Dr. Martin had remarks and then
they introduced the new coach.

He shared a story about his father telling him he
was crazy for taking the Nebraska job and in five
years Nebraska became the #3 team in the country.
His dad then called to let him know he knew the job
would be a good one for him.
Then his dad told him he was crazy for taking the
Kansas job and in two years they made it to the
Sweet 16. His Dad called again to say he always
knew that would be a good job for him.
However this time, his dad didn't think he was crazy
for taking the EMU job. He thought it was a perfect fit.

He then said he was ready to get to work and thanked
everyone.

Indeed it was a short press conference. Less than 15 minutes.

Dear emu79,
A possible candidate, but did not get an interview was Rick Albro. He was the assistant men's coach at Cleveland State about seven years ago, and women's assistant coach at Michigan State when Suzy Merchant became their head coach. He was there for three years, and may get an interview for the assistant's job at U-M.

What is the status of AnnMarie's assistants and staff?

Did they know that AnnMarie likely would not be extended and they, likewise, were not to have their contracts renewed?

If so, AnnMarie shot a LOT of folks in the foot including current and former staffers of hers.

Lot of casualties???

Thanks Ken, just was curious as to what the candidate pool looked like.

It appears we had a highly qualified pool and I like the choice we made.

Lets start off right and get behind the team. This is going to be a tough year our centers need to step up their game if we are to have another winning season.

Does anyone know if our new coach has named any assistants to date (May 9th) or has been involved in recruiting - class of 2012???