New KSU women's basketball coach Danielle O'Banion and staff up and running
7/18/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Coaches are recruiting to complete roster, unpacking can wait till later
By Stephanie Storm, Akron Beacon Journal
There are plenty of moving boxes that still need to be unpacked sitting around the new home of Kent State women's basketball coach Danielle O'Banion. And she's been on the job for three months.
But that's nothing compared to assistant coach Geoff Lanier's temporary housing situation.
Thankfully, there's an end in sight for Lanier, who has only three more days before he, wife Amy, 13-year-old daughter Madison and the family beagle can turn in their key at the TownePlace suites in Streetsboro after a three-week stay. They sold their home in Massachusetts last month, and closing on the family's new home in Green is expected to be done Friday.
These are simply the kind of things that are pushed aside when a Division I basketball program is being revamped. O'Banion and her staff are taking over for longtime KSU coach Bob Lindsay, whose contract was not renewed after 22 seasons.
“It's coming together as we go,” said Lanier, a nine-year Division I assistant coach who spent the past four seasons as the recruiting coordinator at Boston College — O'Banion's alma mater — following stints as an assistant in the Mid-American Conference at Ohio and Akron.
“We're going a little bit by the seat of our pants, but we have the same vision in mind and it's getting fun because these phone calls we're getting back are from kids interested in the direction Kent State is headed in. Selling coach O'Banion is very easy. It's one of the easiest jobs I've ever had. It's like, get a kid on the phone with her once, and we've got 'em.”
It's easy to see why.
O'Banion, who began crisscrossing the country recruiting just hours after being introduced on campus at a press conference April 19, is the kind of person who makes others feel like they've known her for years, even if they met just minutes ago.
Down to earth but playful, she loves the idea of having two of her favorite KSU slogans — Flash Forward and Expect G.R.E.A.T. — put on the ceiling tiles above her desk in an otherwise sparse office.
“It was a gift from the person doing some of the changes for us in here,” O'Banion said. “He said he just wanted to show me some options he had for making my space unique. So, we now have these tiles in here and four others in the locker room. The girls love them.”
Looking at a bare corner of her office one day recently, O'Banion mentioned to Wyketha Harrell, another new assistant, that the space needed something. A large potted plant would be perfect, but O'Banion was afraid she'd accidentally kill it out of neglect. She was thrilled when Harrell surprised her with a plastic Little Tykes basketball hoop, complete with a rubber basketball, as the perfect stand-in.
With so much catching up to do, O'Banion has found herself juggling many tasks each day when she's in the office and not out on the road. That's why she keeps a to do list, written on a legal pad, handy, finding much personal joy in the process of marking each task off with “little squiggly marks” even if it takes a couple of days.
Changing the font of the team's email letter head, picking new paint colors for the office walls, adjusting the logo, touching base with the interior decorator, emailing the facilities contact regarding the office's new furniture, O'Banion is finding she has a hand in even the most minute details.
“They're little things, but anything we can do to change the messaging and the brand is important as we start fresh,” she said. “We're doing things to help everyone realize we're different now. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.”
After spending 11 years as an assistant coach, O'Banion's main focus since taking the KSU job has been building the team. When she arrived, the Flashes had just 10 players — eight returning players and two new signees from the former coaching staff.
With the coaching change, one of the newcomers decided to go elsewhere, leaving KSU with nine players for 15 available scholarships.
“Turns out this year is a great year to be in transition because there were over 70 head coaching transitions in women's basketball,” O'Banion said. “We've benefited greatly from that. Of any year to be looking late for quality signees, this is a great year. We really got lucky with the four we've been able to sign.”
There's still a chance that she could add a junior college player. In the meantime, Lanier is convinced the sacrifice the staff has made in putting the bulk of their personal lives on hold while laying the groundwork for next year's team will pay dividends more quickly than most rebuilding programs.
“It's been a little nerve-wracking because sometimes you sit and think, 'oh my gosh, we are so behind!' ” Lanier said. “But at the same time, we're fresh, we're new and we're exciting, and that's something we're taking full advantage of right now.”
Without having the opportunity to get the team together to practice until school starts in late August, O'Banion and staff (which includes assistant coach Jennifer Poff and director of basketball operations Jessica Jackson), simply have to trust the process.
“Right now we're recruiting kids and we've not yet coached the ones we have,” Lanier said. “That's what makes this time of the year difficult. But when we get through all this, getting the plan in place, getting everybody settled, getting the kids finished with summer school, and we can actually get on the court and work with them, then that's what we're all really here for.”
In the meantime, the team will have to settle for bonding over the occasional get-together allowed under NCAA rules. That's why this morning, if O'Banion's new neighbors were to peek through her window around all the boxes, they'll notice a house full of women cooking breakfast.
“Food brings people together, that's one thing I learned in the south [as an assistant coach at Memphis],” O'Banion said. “So we're all going to cook and spend some time together.”
It'll be one of the first times the returning players will get to spend some time with the newcomers who just made it to campus.
“We're not going to change our entire system to what we want to do and leave the [returning] kids out in the cold,” Lanier said. “Danny's made a commitment. She wants these seniors to have a very good senior year. So, what you see from us on the floor this first year may not be what you see four years from now. But right now, we're going to do everything in our power to make sure these kids go out on a great note. And with the pieces we added late, I really think we can have a good first year.”
