Houston Roundball Review: Women's Hoops: Comets to Name Karleen Thompson Coach / GM

Monday, February 12, 2007

Comets to Name Karleen Thompson Coach / GM

The Houston Roundball Review has learned former Comets assistant coach Karleen Thompson will be named the next head coach of the Houston Comets. Thompson will also assume the General Manager duties.

No press conference has been set, yet.

2 Comments:

At Mon Feb 12, 08:13:00 PM CST, Anonymous said…

Good luck to her. So much for a fresh start and a big name to bring in more fans but at least she knows the team.
At Tue Feb 13, 04:50:00 PM CST, Anonymous said…

Thompson is actually a good choice to become head coach.

First off, she spent 8 years with the Sparks, who have been arguably the "other best team" in the West for the past seven years. She did very well as an assistant at L.A., including an 11-3 run to end the 2004 regular season as an interim co-coach of the team.

Thompson joined the Comets two seasons ago, so I think that qualifies as a "fresh start." I don't think it's a coincidence that after three years in a row of the Comets getting knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, followed by not even making the playoffs in 2004 - after Thompson joined the coaching staff, the Comets have made it to the playoffs the past two years.

Thompson also has had a lot of responsibility for a lot of the good draft picks the Comets have had the past two drafts - and more of those picks are staying with the team rather than being cut before the season begins. She has worked very well with Kevin Cook in making some very good draft picks - since Van let the two of them handle the drafts in the past two years, the Comets show some good signs of beginning to build the next generation of core players.

To top off all of that, Thompson is originally from Texas (just outside Lubbock). She already knows Tina Thompson, having played on the same team as her in college.

I'm not saying that Kevin Cook would be a bad choice - he has a lot of ties directly to Houston, and has been with the Comets since the beginning. I think either Cook or Thompson would be an excellent choice. I'm just saying that it doesn't surprise me that Thompson would be selected.