SPECIAL REPORT: A Storm is Brewing

As the Pokey Chatman story gets stranger and more complex by the minute, the implications of a top five women's basketball program having an unexpected coaching vacancy will start a chain of events of tornadic proportions. Something like this has not happened in women's college basketball. Sure, there have been coaching changes, but nothing so severe. This can be compared to the chain of events that caused chaos throughout the men's coaching world when Roy Williams left Kansas for UNC. That, in turn, led to Bill Self heading to Kansas, Bruce Weber to Illinois to replace Self and lots of college programs like Marquette having to ante up coaching salaries to keep their program leaders in place. The LSU job, if they don't keep it in the family with Bob Starkey, could lead to a coaching tidal wave like the women's college world has likely never seen.

Perhaps it all began when Florida A.D. Jeremy Foley fired the first shot creating a new reality in the women's game: Win, win fast, win big or you're out, no matter who you are. Foley gave national championship winning coach Carolyn Peck just five seasons before ridding of her. Foley wants the women's program to contend and he just isn't going to be patient with mediocrity. This will set the standard, especially in the SEC, which has seen the Arkansas program make a similar move with relative unknown head coach Susie Gardner after just four seasons, despite having an overall winning record.

Now, there are three major jobs open in the powerful SEC conference, with the LSU job the highest profile. Regardless of what Chatman's reasons might have been, she is gone, and the names of Kim Mulkey and Kristy Curry are all ready being bantered around because of their obvious coaching successes and because of their ties to Louisiana (Tech). So imagine that Pokey, is, as is rumored, going to Florida to build the Gators into a power and getting a lot of money in the process. How much will LSU pay to get Mulkey or Curry to keep the LSU Lady Tiger program within the top 10 year after year? And then, when one of them leaves for LSU, how much will Baylor or Tech have to pay to bring in a big name? It is going to begin a massive coaching hurricane that could wipe out many coaches looking to make a move to another school, for more money and better opportunities to win the national championship. It is a new level for the women's game. It could lead to major financial increases in salaries for women's coaches, media notoriety for all the changes and higher stakes for coaches who will no longer be allowed to just "get by," but rather have to consistently have their programs ranked and in the NCAA's fighting for at the very least a Final Four. Yes, the women's game is evolving and it all began with the shocking firing of Carolyn Peck and the shocking resignation of Pokey Chatman, both coaches in their primes. A storm is definitely brewing that could change the landscape of women's college basketball for years to come.