The Reality of Rebuilding in College Basketball
By Tyler Aitken | @TylerJAitken
“Rebuild” is a word every basketball fan knows. For many, it’s a symbol of hope for the future during a difficult season, but to some, it’s a dirty word.
Most of the time, the idea of a rebuild is reserved for the professional level, where a struggling team can build back up through a draft. Some teams even intentionally get worse in exchange for higher draft picks, like the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers popularized starting in 2013 with their rebuild that they called “The Process.”
A rebuild is usually centered on a draft. It’s a direct process for struggling teams to acquire talent. That’s why it’s not really talked about in college. At that level, players are acquired by signing as a freshman or as a transfer. They get to choose where to go. There’s no benefit to having fewer wins because there’s no higher draft pick to be rewarded with. It also discourages players from signing with the team as a freshman or a transfer. Plus, since student-athletes have only so many years of eligibility, it’s not like they can just wait out the rebuild forever to be on a good team again. Good veterans might transfer if they see a rebuild coming.
Long story short, embracing a rebuild is uncommon and difficult to do at the college level.
This year, the biggest national storyline relating to rebuilding in women’s college basketball has revolved around Tennessee. The Volunteers have won eight national titles, but that success waned after Pat Summitt, the coach who won all those championships, retired in 2012. Two coaches were hired and fired afterwards.
This season, Kim Caldwell took over at UTK. She’s a younger coach, just 36 years old, with her only head coaching experience coming from Glenville State, the Division II program she played for, and Marshall, a mid-major program. If anyone were to be given some leeway for a year to rebuild at the college level, which would really just mean focusing on developing younger players and building up consistent schemes, it would be Caldwell. However, she’s rejected that idea.
“I get a little bit offended with, ‘You have time to rebuild. You have time to rebuild. These seniors aren’t your players,’” Caldwell said. “That offends me. They are my players. They chose to stay, and I chose to coach them. And so, I don’t want to wait. I don’t want people to say, ‘When you get your players in here.’ These are my players. I want to win for them. I want to win right now.”
To her credit, Caldwell has backed that up, leading the Volunteers to a 15-3 record so far, good enough to be ranked 17th nationally. However, it’s a lot easier to make the comments she did when your team returns two of its top three scorers from the previous season, while also bringing in several high-level SEC transfers.
Syracuse women’s basketball is in a much different spot than Tennessee. The Orange lost three of their top four scorers from last season, including guard Dyaisha Fair, who finished her collegiate career as the third-leading scorer in women’s college basketball history. Overall, SU lost 57% of its scoring production from last season. So, while Kim Caldwell may have had a point about how rebuilding sometimes isn’t fair to student-athletes with such little time to waste, sometimes, there are situations where the long-term needs of a program require a team to rebuild, focus on the future, and put development over wins.
As of the Orange’s most recent loss, that’s where head coach Felisha Legette-Jack says her team is at.
“This is a rebuild situation,” Legette-Jack said. “I hate that word, but I think that’s where we are. You know, we came in here with an army of people, they were all mid-majors but they had that toughness. Now, we have to kind of believe that we have to begin again. It’s unfortunate that we are at this point right now. We’ve never been in this situation, and so we’ve got to figure it all out.”
With the Orange sitting at 7-11, and just 1-6 in ACC play, that’s a fair point to make. There’s so much young talent on this team to focus on developing and growing, so that over the next few seasons, they’re ready to be in a position to succeed as a team. Keira Scott, Shy Hawkins,Olivia Schmitt, and Maddy Potts have all shown flashes of success as freshmen. Sophomore sharpshooter Sophie Burrows averages over 10 points per game. Transfers Journey Thompson and Angelica Velez have become more impactful as the season has gone on, and both of them still have eligibility remaining.
Yes, it would be great to go to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. However, it doesn’t look like that’s likely. Coach Legette-Jack is focused on the future, and she does have the youth on her team for that direction to make sense.
