BREAKING NEWS: Starkey will not seek to become permanent head coach

Long-time LSU assistant coach and now acting head coach, Bob Starkey, made it clear to the media that he has no intention or desire to become at the head coach at LSU or at any program. Starkey made the statement that a program like LSU needs someone with head coaching experience. This almost guarantees that LSU will look to start over and bring in a big-name coach to help rebuild the program's image that will likely suffer damage the next few years as the tawdry details of popular LSU figurehead Pokey Chatman continue to come out. The first question will be how will this LSU team, capable of making a long run in the tourney, responds to losing their head coach and facing media scrutiny. Will it be an early exit or an inspired run to great heights? The next question is will Pokey speak to the media and come clean about everything following the NCAA Tournament? Hopefully Chatman, who has certainly had her poor judgment lead to an incredible downfall usually reserved for politicians, will speak up and try to explain her actions, though likely she will ever be able to restore her damaged reputation. Another question is what will the fallout be within the program. Every player on the roster returns for next season, along with a top recruiting class, but will that change with transfers due to the coaching changes and dark cloud that will settle over the program? Will Starkey and the others on the staff remain, including Carla Berry, a former teammate of Chatman at LSU and Christie Sides?

Then, of course, will come the speculation and rumors leading to the hiring of a new coach and an entirely new face to lead LSU women's basketball for the first time in three decades. Hopefully it will be someone who can sustain the program, while honoring Sue Gunter's legacy. Names surfacing all ready are Kim Mulkey, a Lousiana native, and Kristy Curry. My guess is neither will take the job. For Mulkey she says she has no intention of leaving Baylor, for Curry it would look bad to leave Tech after only one season. Others who may come into play could be Dawn Staley, who has to be one of the top candidates for every job, Kurt Budke, who formerly led LaTech before going to Oklahoma State and beginning their resurgence, and Tom Cullen, Louisville's head coach.