Nice work Turner.

todd turner, jeff compher... GOOD RIDDANCE! you guys flailed and failed here BIG TIME

what a couple of disingenuous, pompous stiffs.

congrats to Todd Turner for hypocritically firing the fairly successful June D. in the name of "buzz." What a positive buzz the women's hoops program is getting these days.

typical coug haha

Well we finally get some evidence as to why these girls are leaving. Obviously Tia is a disciplinarian and is pretty tough on her kids. Very much the opposite of June. The question is can she be successful?

I'm very worried about the direction of Women's basketball.

What the H is going on here? Four out of six recruits leaving? Discipline is fine, but berating, belittling and tearing people down without building them back up is not. Somebody had better get to the bottom of this and it won't be the Seattle Times. Their staff has been pretty well gutted.

I'm going to miss Katelan. She was a true gem.

That's the gamble when you hire someone without head coaching experience, isn't it. No matter how you are perceived as an assistant, things are different when you're playing with your own chips. I am not trying to be a TT apologist, but he would never have been hired if the previous tenants of the athletic department hadn't turned the mansion into a fixer upper.

Things must be really bad to have this situation...I too, would really like to understand just what exactly is driving these girls away from Tia and her staff.

This is very tragic both for the girls and the school. It isn't fun leaving your team but when a coach is that strict (Idaho just finished with a coach like this for the women and they lost their best player to U of Utah), the female athlete doesn't prosper. Why hire an asst coach to a PAC 10 team? That was a blunder. June D will flourish in Pullman as she has a player coming in next year who is over 6'7". Why don't you Huskies let Turner go and get a new AD on board!

Bob,
I read today that Dominique Banks left as well.

Has she commented on what she plans to do, and why she is leaving?

Thanks.

From what I understand, Banks could have come back for one more year but has decided she is done with college basketball and will finish up school without playing anymore.

The number of players that have left the UW women's basketball program is actually now six.

In addtion to the four players that played part or all of one season under Jackson, Stephanie Clark chose not to return prior to the start of last season. Dominique Banks has now chosen not to fulfill her final year of elgibility under Jackson.

The apparent vendatta Todd Turner had against June Daugherty (while retaining Willingham and extending Romar a new contract) shrieks of gender bias. No one should be at all surprised that these players are fleeing the campus. After first promising a "big name" head coach to succeed Daugherty and failing, Turner only fueled the fires by refusing the two players request to be released from their letters-of-intent prior to last season. His actions have now effectively torpedoed the women's basketball program.

Turner's failures at Vanderbilt were only exceeded by those at the University of Washington. One can only hope his next stop in an Athletic Department in the laundry room where hopefully he will remember not to mix the white clothes with the colored.

As to your assertion that Bennett "unlike the other three, she says she wants to go to Washington State". Do you suppose that has anything at all to do with UW's refusal to grant the departing players an "unconditional" release which would permit them to play their remaining three years for any Pac-10 school instead of only two? I suggest it has everthing to do with that. The players have left, yet the University still wants to punish them (for Turner's actions) and control their lives. Sad.

Bob,

I guess what I was wondering is has Banks commented on why she is leaving? She was going to leave anyway for health reasons? She has problems with the program? Her best friends have left the team so she has lost interest? She is joining a book club that is going to conflict with game nights next season?

I realize this team is not part of your regular beat, but I don't see anyone else covering them, so I thought I would ask you.

Guest --- All I really know on Banks is that she had the constant injury troubles --- stress fractures to both legs --- and she finally just decided to give it up. I saw her quoted somewhere else as saying the new coaching staff had nothing to do with it, she just decided she was done with basketball and isn't planning on playing anymore.

"Spin" it however you wish, but the facts remain. After witnessing up close and first hand the way the UW baskeball program was being run, Banks decided to end her career and not play her final season.

Incidentally, isn't it interesting how UW, after weeks of knowing Bennett was leaving, chose to release this latest piece of negative information on a Friday afternoon, the slowest newsday of the week? Got to give them credit there. Their media relations folks still know how to play the media, often succesfully.

Mark --- Not "spinning'' anything. I admitted up front I know little about this situation, but passed along a story written by another staffer since it was already getting commented on. I've never spoken to Dominique Banks in my life so I admit up front, I don't have a clue on that one other than what I read elsewhere, which is what I passed along. This is why I don't usually pass along stuff on the women's team since I don't cover that team and don't know much about it.

Bob,
Thanks for your clarification to my question. Thanks for going out of your way to pass this stuff on.

I have really enjoyed your reporting on both the mens BB and FB teams this past year.