Washington AD Woodward Gives Tia Jackson a "Fabulous" Endorsement

via jlindstr.smugmug.com

It's probably well known among women's basketball fans that University of Washington coach Tia Jackson was on "the hot seat" for much of last year.

Although Washington did not make the NCAA tournament last year after finishing tied for sixth in the conference, Jackson has apparently done enough to impress University of Washington athletic director Scott Woodward.

The Brewery | Washington AD Scott Woodward gives in-depth state of the (Husky) union | Seattle Times Newspaper
But Woodward decided not to use his hammer. He watched the Huskies win four of their final six games, and he deemed Jackson worthy of another year after a 13-18 record this past season. He did it mostly because he believes that, record aside, Jackson has shown significant progress as a young coach. He also thinks she has put in the work to garner some marquee recruiting classes in the future. He expects that will start with the class for the 2011-12 season that Jackson is working on currently.

"I think Tia is doing a fantastic job as a young coach and with the situation she fell into," Woodward said. "It's night and day with her style of play and style of coaching from the previous staff. She's a very demanding coach. I think she's adjusted and learned you can't put the pedal to the metal all the time. I think, when you consider it all, she's doing a fabulous job and has gotten great experience on the job. I see very good things going forward."

Given the seemingly constant injuries the Huskies faced last season, it would have been difficult to justify firing Jackson -- she simply didn't have her full roster long enough to make an evaluation. That the Huskies exceeded the last place expectations of the pre-season alone is noteworthy.

The 2010-11 season could be an even more challenging test for Jackson: after losing starting guards Sara Mosiman and Sami Whitcomb to graduation, the team will be looking for players to fill their roles on the perimeter off the court and their leadership roles off the court. In addition, the development of transfer center Regina Rogers will be crucial  -- Rogers spent much of last season working herself back into shape after sitting out and year and suffering illnesses, but showed promise as a post scorer.

Nevertheless, Washington is definitely a women's basketball program that benefited from not expanding to a Pac-16 -- with the addition of the Big 12 schools proposed, Washington could realistically have fallen from middle of the pack to the bottom half of the conference barring significant internal improvement.