To the surprise of no one, the allegations of sexual harassment on Hawk Hill have ended the coaching tenure of St. Joe’s women’s basketball coach Stephanie Gaitley.
Allegations were made in January that Frank Gaitley- an assistant under Stephanie who left the team before last season- asked a player out on dates, gave her gifts and ultimately forced her to run to Stephanie to complain. Stephanie allegedly said, “he’ll change.”
The player left the team for “personal reasons,” Frank left to “pursue other career opportunities,” and now Stephanie is “being dismissed as the head coach of the women’s basketball team because I am refusing to ‘voluntarily’ resign.
“I will not resign to be made the scapegoat for a situation which the university created.”
Gaitley made the announcement on Tuesday to a group of assembled media in the backyard of her home where she lives with Frank and three children.
Gaitley’s non-ceremonious departure is the biggest move coaching-wise in women’s hoops. On the men’s side, there have been more moves than riots after schools (Purdue, Maryland, Penn State, etc.) lost in last month’s tournament.
Many of the moves center around Philadelphia and the Big 5, uh 6.
Bruiser Flint, let go by UMass, is expected to take over at Drexel. Drexel, the Philadelphia school left out of the Big 5, will get Flint, the former St. Joe’s point guard.
At St. Joe’s, Phil Martelli is expected to sign a big contract extension after receiving offers from various schools.
He’d rather stay in Philly where he gets to have a goofy TV show and coach his goofy son, and a good St. Joe’s team to boot.
Steve Lappas, the former coach at Villanova, the one that looked like a rat, has scavenged Flint’s job after being let go by ‘Nova. Hofstra’s Jay Wright took over there.
But there are three coaching moves that mean more than any of the above. These three are important one’s for the present and the future of Temple basketball.
These are three moves that, if they go down, could change the face of the Owls for years to come.
The first two involve two Temple coaches and one school- St. Bonaventure.
Oh, the Bonnies. A great place for any first-year head coach, so great that their former coach- Jim Baron- left for Rhode Island, the 7-22 Rams.
Nate Blackwell has interviewed for the position and could leave Chaney’s bench after only one season as an assistant.
But Blackwell is among a large list of candidates including our old friend Dean Demopoulos. Demopoulos installed the matchup zone at UMKC and finished his first season with a 14-16 record. But his team did finished ranked second nationally in least amount of turnovers behind, surprise, Temple.
Demopoulos and Blackwell are on the list for the job, which doesn’t mean much. But both are also on the top of the list to replace Chaney when the time comes, in however many years that may be.
The biggest move that already happened and may or may not bring benefits to the Owls is the move of Tommy Amaker from Seton Hall to Michigan.
With Amaker taking that job, Eddie Griffin is NBA bound and Coatesville recruit John Allen may want out of the Hall.
According to reports, he’ll wait to see who the new coach is before he asks for a release. But if he does ask for a release, his number one school to come to will be Temple.
The 6-foot-5 shooting forward is a Top 50 national product and the best in Pennsylvania.
He already turned down Chaney’s recruiting once, so he’ll need to beg to get onboard. David Hawkins did the same exact thing last year and we all know how great that turned out.
It all seems like a big mess, but it’s better than being in Stephanie Gaitley’s backyard.
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