After simply 4 seasons on the job, Johnnie Harris is out at Auburn, marking the second head coach opening within the Southeastern Convention as March Insanity approaches.
A number of sources instructed SB Nation that the writing was on the wall for Harris when John Cohen was employed because the athletic director a couple of years in the past and didn’t reward her with a contract extension for making the NCAA Event final season, the Tigers’ first journey to the massive dance since 2019. Regardless of working at Mississippi State as an assistant coach for eight years and wanting the pinnacle job when Vic Schaefer left for Texas in 2020, Cohen didn’t promote Harris to when he was beforehand the AD in Starkville.
The outcomes on the courtroom made the choice simpler for Cohen to dump Harris. Regardless of a First 4 look for Auburn final season, Harris by no means had a successful file in SEC play throughout her 4 seasons there. General, she was 58-63.
To rent a coach higher than Harris although, Auburn will possible should open its pockets a bit wider. In accordance to USA Today, Harris was the second-lowest paid coach within the SEC final yr (an information pool that excludes Vanderbilt’s Shea Ralph, since her personal college wage will not be public).
Auburn has had some massive moments of success in ladies’s basketball, none greater than the late Nineteen Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties when it appeared in three consecutive nationwide title video games, shedding each. Auburn groups coached by Joe Ciampi went to 6 Elite Eights and gained 4 SEC Tournament titles. Nell Fortner had success there within the 2000s too, successful an everyday season SEC title with DeWanna Bonner main the best way. Terri Williams-Flournoy went to 3 NCAA Tournaments in 9 seasons within the 2010s.
However now, Auburn must be rebuilt.
Right here’s a couple of people who Cohen would possibly name for the job.
Sam Purcell
The final time Cohen needed to rent a ladies’s basketball coach — at Mississippi State in 2022 — he known as Purcell, who had beforehand been certainly one of Jeff Walz’s high lieutenants at Louisville and helped the Cardinals make two journeys to the Remaining 4. Purcell has performed nicely at Mississippi State, at the moment having fun with his third straight season of at the least 20 wins and eyeing his second NCAA Event berth. We’ve seen SEC coaches bounce from one college to a different inside the league earlier than in lots of sports activities, together with ladies’s school basketball. Most just lately, Joni Taylor went from Georgia to Texas A&M in 2022. Other than Purcell beforehand having a working relationship with Cohen, it’s value noting that he’s a graduate of Auburn and bought his begin in teaching there as a video coordinator. Purcell’s buyout at Mississippi State is just below $1 million.
Oh, and the man who took Auburn to 3 Remaining Fours a couple of many years in the past? That’s Purcell’s father-in-law.
Carly Thibault-DuDonis
It’s a close to assure that Cohen will name Thibault-DuDonis in some unspecified time in the future this month, and he gained’t be the one Energy 4 athletic director doing so. One of many quickest rising stars in teaching circles within the sport, the 33-year-old has shortly established Fairfield as a mid-major energy, going 70-20 there in three seasons. Along with making the NCAA Event final yr, she’s led the Stags to victories over main applications in Arkansas, Wake Forest, Villanova, Rutgers and St. John’s. The daughter of three-time WNBA Coach of the 12 months Mike Thibault, she was additionally an assistant below Schaefer at Mississippi State whereas Cohen was the AD there. The Bulldogs appeared within the nationwide title recreation in each of her seasons on Schaefer’s employees.
Aaron Roussell
This is able to be fairly the step up for Roussell, who has been voted as Coach of the 12 months within the Atlantic 10 in back-to-back seasons now and has Richmond ready to land a uncommon at-large berth within the NCAA Event, ought to the Spiders falter within the convention tourney. Rousell has been a winner in all places he’s been, from the Division III ranks in Chicago, to Bucknell and now Richmond. 11 of his groups — quickly to be 12 — have performed in postseason tournaments since he first turned a head coach 20 seasons in the past. Auburn might do a lot worse than hiring Roussell.
