Cleveland – Erica White, Louisiana State’s energetic point guard, sat in the locker room Saturday and patiently tried to answer repeated questions about how the Lady Tigers could overcome a coaching change and the controversy that accompanied it.
Pokey Chatman, the 2005 national coach of the year, resigned March 7 after allegations she had engaged in a sexual relationship with a former player.
“Look, we’d already been through a lot of things,” White said following practice for tonight’s Final Four semifinal game against Rutgers in Quicken Loans Arena. “There was Coach (Sue) Gunter (who retired during the 2003-04 season for health reasons and subsequently died in 2005 due to complications of lung cancer). Then there was Hurricane Katrina. And now this.
“We’re a resilient group. It seems like every year we’re faced with a different type of adversity.”
This season, LSU (30-7) also had to overcome the absence of two departed seniors who were chosen in the first round of the 2006 WNBA draft: two-time national player of the year Seimone Augustus, who was the first overall pick, and Scholanda Hoston.
Longtime assistant coach Bob Starkey was named acting head coach after Chatman’s resignation. LSU, a third seed, became the fourth program to qualify for four consecutive Women’s Final Fours, joining Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and Connecticut.
Starkey, who began his LSU coaching career in 1990 as an assistant under men’s coach Dale Brown, insists the players deserve all the credit for staying the course. But Starkey’s fatherly, low-keyed approach no doubt served as a steadying influence.
“The absolute first and most important thing is we started off with a very focused team,” Starkey said. “It wasn’t like we had to go out and create something that wasn’t already there.
“Certainly there was a little hiccup with the change in coaching. But this has been a focused team from the very beginning of the season. It made my job a little bit easier. I just maybe had to draw them back and remind them of what we had established.”
During a team meeting following Chatman’s resignation, the players vowed to focus only on basketball and making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
“You can’t worry about things that you can’t control,” forward Ashley Thomas said. “It’s not as bad as people think it really is. When you’re an athlete, you learn to focus on what’s most important at any given point in time.”
“Everybody has taken a leadership role in this; we all have each other’s back,” guard RaShonta LeBlanc added. “We decided to talk only about playing basketball.”
The questions, however, keep coming, especially from national media at the Women’s Final Four.
Rutgers players can sympathize.
“I’m sure it’s been tough on them, but it’s easier when a team is mentally prepared, because anything can happen at any given moment,” Rutgers center Kia Vaughn said.
Everybody here is in agreement this is not the kind of publicity women’s college basketball needs as it tries to build its fan base. The Final Four is sold out for the 15th consecutive year, but some regionals had disappointing attendance figures.
“My objective has never been to have players as my friend; you have to draw that line,” North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said, when asked about Chatman’s resignation. “I’ve had young assistant coaches whom I’ve had to tell, ‘Look, when you’re friends with players off the court, it’s hard to separate those things when you get on the court.’
“Being a positive example and being the right kind of role model, those things are a priority on my list,” Hatchell added. “There are so many role models out there that are not the right kind of role model.”
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
