L.A. Times Article On UCLA Basketball Coach Nikki Caldwell
by Achilles on Jan 14, 2009 10:23 AM PST
25 comments
isclaimer: I've met Coach Nikki Caldwell and like her a lot. I'm far from an expert on women's basketball, but even I could tell she was a great hire by Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.
She's smart. She is a winner (national champion as a player and as an assistant coach at Tennessee). Mostly, though, she's incredibly passionate.
And she loves UCLA and its tradition of producing national championships.
Here is a link to an article about Caldwell in the Los Angeles Times.
Here is a sample:
Take that first Los Angeles news conference where Caldwell spoke last April. She had just been hired to replace Kathy Olivier, who resigned after 15 years with the Bruins. Behind her signature red glasses, Caldwell looked directly at the crowd and fielded queries with cool elegance -- and the team that finished 16-15 last year took notice.
"We're sitting there listening and she just answered all the questions with confidence," sophomore forward Nina Earl recalled. "She's like, 'Yes, we're gonna do this, we're gonna beat USC.' She was just so confident and ready to start. She hadn't even really met us yet. It was like, 'OK. We're gonna follow this lady.' "
Afterward, in the first official team meeting before the summer break, Caldwell broke it down. Everyone had something to contribute. Everyone was to set a personal goal and state it aloud. Yes, the last couple of seasons had been disappointing, but there was heart and character and drive on this team, which meant the possibility of championships and tradition. No one would ever be able to take their college years away from them, and if they took that ownership seriously, a change would come and come soon.
Something else happened that afternoon: The players began to believe.
Here is her picture:
via www.latimes.com
How much do I like Coach Caldwell? I watched women's basketball on tv last week (the Bruins stomped the Trojans, naturally) while the NFL playoffs were on another channel.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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I would love to see us be among the basketball elite in a few years
It’s going to be tough because of the high caliber of Pac-10 teams (Stanford, Cal and ASU are all ranked) but I think the pieces are falling into place.
by bruinbabe2000 on Jan 14, 2009 1:11 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
I Like This, Too...
“At Tennessee, Caldwell was the primary recruiter, renowned for her living-room savvy. She knew how to make a girl feel like fate had a hand in their meeting. In 2003, she helped sign a freshman class that included Candace Parker and five other high school All-Americans, and in 2007, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn. named Tennessee the best recruiting school in the nation.”
Holy smokes. This woman is terrific.
Love My Bruins
by Bruingirl83 on Jan 14, 2009 2:58 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Yes, indeed!
Smart, inspirational, great recruiter, already turning the team around in her first season…and looking mighty glamorous at the ’SC game, too!
by daggy on Jan 14, 2009 3:28 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
She is Terrific
I watched her in action during the SC game. She showed me she is confident and determined. Besides, she looked really good and classy. It doesn’t surprise me if we win the NCAA title within the next three years.
by NNL on Jan 14, 2009 7:13 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Very impressed
by her and will be paying more attention to the women’s program.
by BlueReign on Jan 14, 2009 9:00 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Totally agree
Honestly, while I normally do not follow women’s basketball (aside from always hoping for the best for our squad), Caldwell is an outstanding hire and actually has made me more interested in the sport.
More power and success to her.
by Barnes2JJ on Jan 15, 2009 9:33 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Very Nice Article
I’m glad to see the commitment from Dan Guerrero to bring the women’s basketball program back to national prominence again. I think Nikki Caldwell was a great hire, someone who was below the radar as far as head coaches go, but with the background and potential to be really exceptional.
It is going to be exciting watching this program grow over the next few seasons. Women’s basketball has lots of good seats left if you’re looking for an affordable alternative to football season tickets or mens’ basketball season tickets.
by CrouchingBruin on Jan 14, 2009 11:45 PM PST reply actions 0 recs
Has Dan Guerrero even had ONE bad hire?
It seems like everyone he has hired has been terrific. And please, no “well, what about KD?” talk. DG obviously didn’t pull the trigger on that hire.
by bornagainbruin on Jan 15, 2009 11:30 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Bull ...
if Dan Guerrero didn’t like Karl Dorrell, he never would have had him as a finalist and never would have had him meet the former chancellor.
Karl Dorrell is on Dan Guerrero as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t dwell on it because everyone makes mistakes. But this mistake was Guerrero’s. It’s no coincidence that he came from a program without a football program and that he tanked his first hire in that sport. It was the one thing we feared when DG got the job.
Still, I’m optimistic that he’s made a much better selection in Rick Neuheisel. It only cost us half a decade of lousy football.
Go Bruins
by Achilles on Jan 15, 2009 2:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I agree with Achilles
Mr. Guerrero hired CTS. Not someone else, but Mr. Guerrero. Not that that makes him a bad person.
by Fox 71 on Jan 15, 2009 2:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I just don't believe Guerrero had control over that hiring decision
Achilles, I understand your point that it may be no coincidence that he tanked his first hire in a sport he was never previously involved in. That very well may be. However, I personally believe that his being new to the job AND his lack of previous involvement with football kept him from having as much influence over the hiring decision as he would have liked.
The contrast in how KD was hired versus all other DG hires seems to support this. There has only been one hire on DG’s watch that didn’t go through an in-depth and deliberate process. There has also been only one hire on his watch where a candidate without a fantastic resume was hired. Those are things that I don’t consider to be coincidences.
IMO, the way in which KD was hired much more mirrors the previous AD’s off-the-cuff way of handling coaching hires, and much less mirrors the approach DG has been using on all other hires.
by bornagainbruin on Jan 16, 2009 12:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I see your point
The decision to hire CTS was stupid. Obviously we have five years of hindsight to rely on which demonstrates the utter folly of this kind of social experimentation masquerading as rational decision-making in the hiring of a D-1 football coach. Nonetheless, fhe absurdity of hiring someone like CTS should have been apparent at the time it was made. We know based on this same hindsight that Mr. Guerrero has made some very VERY good decisions (Coach Howland, Coach Neuheisel as examples), so it is difficult to imagine that the same brain came up with these polar opposite hiring decisions.
But Mr. Guerrero has never said anything (at least to my knowledge) to distance himself at all from the CTS decision. There has to be some way in Admin-speak for him to say something to the effect that he didn’t hire CTS, but was forced to make the announcement. We haven’t heard that sort of comment, and I conclude that there is a reason for that silence, namely, that he did indeed play a part in and supported the CTS hiring decision.
We’ll probably never know, and I suppose it really doesn’t matter at this point. Even if he participated in the decision to hire CTS in some way, I think it’s pretty unlikely that he would repeat that sort of idiocy. I’m solidly on the Guerrero bandwagon now, since we have Coach Howland and Coach Neuheisel on board under his guidance.
by Fox 71 on Jan 16, 2009 7:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
Buddha Dan
But Mr. Guerrero has never said anything (at least to my knowledge) to distance himself at all from the CTS decision.
I think this is a positive attribute, not an indicator of complicity.
“The Monopoly Is Over” ad and the going-over-the-wall embarrassment with recruits were done without CRN’s blessing, and probably against his wishes had he known. But, rather than distance himself from these incidents, he embraced them, saw the positives, and moved on.
If DG were, somehow, to try to distance himself from KD’s hiring now, I think it would lessen him. I think it’s to his credit that he has not done so, even though he did not have the say then that he has now.
I do think, however, that DG waited too long to pull the trigger once the mistake was realized. That one IS on him.
by Bruinut on Jan 17, 2009 10:39 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
That was because of 13-9
We went 10-2 in 2005, he couldn’t have fired him then. Had we lost that game, he would have been gone the next day.
Yes, it created a bigger hole for CRN to climb out of, but we will get there.
by bruinbabe2000 on Jan 19, 2009 12:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
He might not have had final say ...
I’ve heard that the prior chancellor had a heavy hand in this decision.
But Guerrero should never have had Dorrell as a candidate at all. If DG doesn’t make Dorrell a finalist, if he doesn’t let Carnesale meet him, then Carnesale doesn’t fall in love with whatever he fell in love with and there is no Dorrell hire.
If it was Mike Riley that DG wanted, then he should have brought Riley in to meet the chancellor. Assuming Riley didn’t tank it — why would he, he’s a pro if nothing else — then Riley is our coach then and probably is right now.
Was Riley the right guy? Who knows? He seems to be doing well in Corvallis.
And he really wanted the job, too. Remember, he turned down Alabama because he wanted UCLA.
Go Bruins
by Achilles on Jan 20, 2009 8:30 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs
if i remember correctly
one of the reasons for the dorrell hire washe was willing to work for a modest salary. the administration was not willing to pony up for a big name hire. whether or not dorrell’s hire should count against guerrero’s record i suppose is a matter of how important you weigh this fact. even the howland hire was only made possible by adidas paying part of his contract, thank you godfather vaccaro…
Across The Face
by rb bruin on Jan 23, 2009 3:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
The problem with hiring of CTS
It had nothing to do with salary. It had nothing to do with race. It had nothing to do with any of that stuff. The problem with that hire had everything to do with hiring a guy who did not have the proper credentials to run a D-1 football program. For those decisions makers, I ask this question: Do you want your open heart surgery to be performed by someone who has no experience in the operating room? Would you want your lawsuit to be tried by a rookie lawyer? Of course not.
I don’t know what CTS was paid. (Frankly, it sickens me to think that he was paid anything.) Give me that salary to offer and I absolutely positively guarantee that I could have hired someone better that CTS. Take a juggernaut high school program, for example. Make an offer to that coach. Take Cal State Dominguez Hills or someome from a D-II school in Ohio. Anyone with experience would have been better than the totally inexperienced CTS. And anyone from just about any small school would have worked at UCLA basically for free, just for the exposure on the big stage.
by Fox 71 on Jan 23, 2009 6:14 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
I don't hold DG responsible for the hire
for other reasons stated above and other reasons that have been discussed in the past, but I don’t buy the pay excuse. It is true that the administration was never going to pay for a well established top tier head coach and that a lot of candidates were trimmed because of pay, but that didn’t lead us to Dorrell. Look at Urban Meyer going from Bowling Green to Utah. If UCLA had offered Meyer the job while he was still at Bowling Green I guarantee you he would have taken the job for the same or less than Dorrell was paid. The same could be said for Jim Tressel at Youngstown St. or Jim Harbaugh at San Diego. The list of quality coaches who were at lower levels goes on and on and if we didn’t have the money to spend, any of those guys were options. It would have been high risk, high reward, but that’s better than high risk, no reward.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 23, 2009 6:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
To everyone who liked the article ...
You should go to a game.
Go Bruins
by Achilles on Jan 15, 2009 11:28 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I live 2,000 miles away
But I would if I lived closer. Mr. BB and I did watch their game against Kansas last month and do plan on watching more games this year.
by bruinbabe2000 on Jan 15, 2009 2:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs
ditto
i saw the rebroadcast of the ucla-sc game and was impressed. she was a great hire, notch another one up for guerrero. i think i have a crush on her now too
Across The Face
by rb bruin on Jan 15, 2009 11:29 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
I'm just going to come out and say it
I think Nikki Caldwell is hot.
by bruin8uclap on Jan 16, 2009 1:32 AM PST reply actions 0 recs
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