Full disclosure, do not personally know any of the people involved or impacted by the decisions CRI felt compelled to make. I do know there has been a good deal of frustration with the state of the women’s program the past 2 years. I did not talk to even one person at the Conf USA Tourney last March who thought next years team had a prayer to be even better. So, credit to CRI for taking steps to try and improve his program, instead of being satisfied with WNIT appearances each year.
The NCAA limits schools to 3 full-time assistants. Who can both coach and recruit. Do not believe there is a limit on administrative type positions, but could be wrong. I don’t know Lowe’s background but clearly CRI did not believe he could fulfill either this newly created position of player development, or one of the 3 existing on court coaching jobs. My guess is Pillow is not an effective recruiter, but a pretty good coach. So, he slots her into a role where she can still coach, but can’t recruit on the road. In effect, he now has 4 full time assistant coaches, instead of three. And he has divided up the administrative duties Lowe had amongst himself, his 4 assistants, and secretary.
I know it’s difficult when someone you know well takes a hit like this. However, when you are operating with a finite number of positions and a budget, tough decisions have to be made. Happens in corporate America daily.
Candidly, if CRI had made zero changes after the past 2 years, we all should have been asking why not. We have all fussed about recruiting and by all accounts, that is one of Matt’s strong point. Other than a loyal alum losing his job because maybe his skill set didn’t fit going forward, it’s hard to see any downside to this move. CRI now also has 2 former HC’s on his staff too.
