Blue White Illustrated

W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Washington staying at PSU Reaffirms desire to coach Lady Lions after interviewing for Michigan job BY MATT HERB matt@bluewhiteonline.com C oquese Washington is not going to Michigan – or anywhere else for that matter, to judge by the tone of an impromptu news confer- ence April 16 at the Bryce Jordan Center. Courted by Michigan after leading the Lady Lions to the Big Ten regu- lar-season title and a berth in the Sweet 16 this past season, Washington said she would not be leaving Penn State. "I love it here," she said. "I love be- ing here, I love what my life is like here. … My decision to stay here was really that simple." Washington had interviewed with the Wolverines, whose head coaching position came open when Kevin Borseth left the school to return to Wisconsin-Green Bay, where he had previously coached for nine sea- sons. Washington is a native of Flint, Mich., and she said her father lives only about 45 minutes from Ann Arbor. But the Wolverines have not been a consistent power in the Big Ten; their appearance in the NCAA tour- nament this past season was their first in 11 years. Their average atten- dance this past season was only 1,773 per game. At Penn State, Washington has the Lady Lions on the verge of join- ing the nation's elite. Next season, they will return all but one player from a squad that went 26-7 and 13- 3 in the Big Ten, and they will have three McDonald's All-Americans on their roster: guards Maggie Lucas and 34 J U N E 1 , 2 0 1 2 GAME MANAGEMENT Washington gives pointers to Nikki Greene during a game. The coach's fifth season at Penn State was her best, as the Lady Lions went 26-7. Dara Taylor and center Candice Agee. Washington declined to say whether she had been offered the Michigan job. Her contract at Penn State runs through the 2014 season, and while it has not been renegotiated since Michigan's overture, Penn State ath- letic director Dave Joyner said her pact is being evaluated. "We expect to keep her here for a long time," Joyner said. In addition to family and profession- al considerations, Washington said she was eager to play a role in help- ing Penn State move forward follow- ing the Sandusky scandal. "You don't run away from fires," she said. "You have the courage to run into the fire and make a difference. I want to be at Penn State and make a difference. I want to be around peo- ple who have that same vision. "All this speculation did nothing more than make me realize how privileged I am to be at Penn State PennStateLive ketball program. The star of the impromptu presser T University at this time and this mo- ment… to continue the work that all the fantastic people who are part of Penn State are doing." Joyner said he can envision Washington playing a part in Penn State's recovery. "It's not just about basketball," he said. "It's about what this place really means and what it really is. Was there a terrible prob- lem? Of course there was. Will that terrible problem go away? No. But it's how you react to it and how you come out of it. "We even talked about the legend of the phoenix where you rise from the ashes and become stronger and greater than you ever were before something bad happened to you. Coquese and I had that talk. She's the kind of person who would be very strong in helping this university rise like the phoenix. I think that's a very, very important part of what she means to this university and what her staying here will mean." at the Bryce Jordan Center was Lady Lion coach Coquese Washington, who had interviewed for the head coaching position at Michigan the previous week. The news was that there was no news. Washington hadn't found a new em- ployer, nor had she received a con- tract extension from her current one as an incentive to stay. She had simply decided that she wanted to continue coaching the Lady Lions, whom she had just led to a No. 9 finish in the season-ending coaches' poll. The presser was attended by her players, several of whom spoke afterward about how happy they were to have her back, even though she never left. So, to sum up: status quo maintained. But while Washington's decision to remain at Penn State would have fit handily in a press release, it probably would have been a mis- take to notify the world by email or to wait for word to leak out of Michigan that someone else was about to get the job. Simply put, any excuse to raise Washington's profile is one that Penn State W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M OPINION MAT T H E R B MATT@BLUEWHITEONL INE.COM one more time into the fire Running alk about openness. Penn State called a news conference April 16 to announce that nothing had changed in its women's bas-

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