Ord leaving Lady Cards to take Weber State head coaching position

It's that time of year when the coaching carousel
gets cranking. Realtors love it...

.

THURSDAY at C.C.

-Bethann Ord headed to Weber State

-Former Lady Cards coach out at Winthrop

-Softball vs. IU

Bethann Ord, assistant women's basketball coach for Jeff Walz the last four years at UofL, has been named head basketball coach at Weber State University. The Ogden, Utah school competes in the Big Sky Conference.

Bethann at Colorado with Whitney Houston. Not the Whitney Houston you're thinking of...Bobby Brown with the photo? No, probably not... 

"I am very excited to be a part of the Weber State family and I am grateful for this tremendous opportunity" Ord said.

This is Ord's first head coaching job. She was an assistant for 21 years at Colorado, Tulsa, Dayton, Pittsburgh, Wagner and Nazareth.  Pictured here with former Colorado point guard Whitney Houston (no, not the singer...) Ord came to Louisville from the Buffaloes...where she had been an assistant for two years. Brittany Spears ( not the one you're thinking of) was on the 2006-2007 team, too...and is considered a possible WNBA candidate.

Jeff Walz commented on the new position for Ord.

"Bethann is ready for this new challenge and Weber State is getting a wonderful coach. She is an extremely hard worker and a tremendous recruiter. She is tireless when it comes to recruiting. She will be fantastic in the community with the fans and supporters. I couldn't be happier for her and for this opportunity."

There's no doubt that Louisville has had some top notch, highly ranked and impressive recruiting classes since Walz and Ord came to Louisville. Leaving the BIG EAST for the Big Sky is a pretty interesting move...but if a head coaching job is the end game result, then it's a advancement in one's career. If Ord can dazzle them in Ogden like she did in Louisville, she'll do well there. Just don't get any ideas about taking Sara Hammond or Jude Schimmel with you, coach...

Before you get to feeling sorry for Coach Walz, let the record show that he still has assistant coaches Michelle Clark-Heard and Stephanie Norman, graduate assistant Liz Sherwood and director of Basketball operations Becky Bonner around the basketball offices. Just who Walz will peg to replace Ord isn't known yet, except possibly by him. We're pretty sure it won't be Sonja.

Uncle Jed and Jethro favor Sonja joining the UofL coaching staff but can't
talk Mr. Drysdale into donating enough  of Jed's money to the WBB program to get her an job interview 

If she can get top flight players to Ogden ,Utah and have success there, we fully expect that Ord will be packing her bags again down the road and being introduced as the new head coach at a larger program. Ord hasn't let sand settle in her shoes, in her recruiting or career, and Weber State is getting a good hire. Ord has NCAA Tournament experience, has learned the Walz philosophy of basketball and if she can apply that to her WSU players...we could be seeing her and Weber State on future Selection Mondays when tournament time rolls around. Good luck, Bethann!

*********************************************************************************

Former UofL head coach Bud Childers is out at Winthrop after seven years as the head women's basketball coach at the Rock Hill, SC school....that we knew about a month ago. What we can't seem to find any information on is the events that led to Childers being reprimanded by the Big South conference for "actions following the regular season final game against Charleston Southern that were violations of the leagues' ethical conduct policy."

Childers agreed to step down as head coach after the Big South Tournament. In seven years at Winthrop, Childers was 83-130.

Bud Childers coached many talented players at UofL, including Gwen Doyle, Nell Knox and Jody Martin

At Louisville, his record was 152-88 in eight years. He succeeded Peggy Fiehrer as the Lady Cards skipper in 1989...and the Cards went from 4-24 in 1988-89 to 17-12 in his first season...1989-90. Childers left the Cards after the 1996-97 season to go to James Madison University. At the time, the JMU program was considered a step up from coaching at Louisville.

Those were some hardship times for Lady Cards hoops. We attended home games everywhere it seemed...Louisville was in the Metro Conference for six of the eight years Childers was here. He led Louisville to three trips to the NCAA Tournament. Attendance for Lady Cardinal hoops was nowhere near what it is these days and... in those pre-Jurich days...news even more scarce to come up with about the team. It wasn't till the 1998-99 season that the Lady Cards began playing their entire home schedule in Freedom Hall without playing before the men's game....like they did off and on from 1976-77 to 1982-83.

As a student at UofL back during those early days, several of my frat brothers and I would go early to watch the Lady Cards play, sit down near or behind the Cards bench and then wait to get shooed out by the ushers when the crowd started to fill in for the men's contest. They sat the students in Section 335 back in those days...just off half court in Freedom Hall..for men's hoops and we'd make a mad dash from the floor to up there to get good seats for the men's game.

We tried to recall all the different places that we've attended Lady Cards home games over the years and came up with 10 venues... Ballard, Manual, Butler and Thomas Jefferson High Schools, Bellarmine College/University, Cardinal Arena, Commonwealth Convention Center, Freedom Hall, Spalding University and the KFC YUM Center. We're probably missing or fogetting a couple places in this list...but it goes to show the 'nomad nature' of the early years of WBB at Louisville. Manual always had the best popcorn...I remember that...and Tuonisia Turner (1988-1992) had a cross-over move with the ball that was an opponent's ankle breaker.

We're not sure what happened, Bud...but here's hoping you land on your feet and find success elsewhere. You were an integral part of Lady Cards hoops growth after the dismal Peggy Fiehrer reign and your (.633) win percentage at UofL is third all time behind Tom Collen and Jeff Walz.

***********************************************************************************

Louisville softball extended the winning streak to eight straight games with a 1-0 win over Indiana Wednesday night in Ulmer Stadium. This one was a pitchers duel. no doubt...with Cardinal starter Caralisa Connell (14-4) allowing just four hits and fanning eight and IU's Morgan Melloh allowing six hits and striking out six.

The Cards had runners in scoring position in the first, fifth and sixth innings but couldn't get anyone past home plate. After Connell retired the Hoosiers 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh...Louisville opened the home half of the seventh with Jennifer Esteban reaching base on an error and then scoring on a one out Katie Keller single to give the Cards the game.

Up next, Louisville heads to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates...oops, the Panthers... in a three game BIG EAST Conference series that will take place April 9th and 10th. Wish there was radio coverage of this trip..Pitt is 4-0 in the BIG EAST and has just recently begun play at the newly created Softball field in the Peterson Athletic Complex. It will be only the second time the Panthers have played at home in a series this season.
.