• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

How is Amy doing?

Powder Creek

Semper Paratus
10 Year Member
Every once in awhile we see anecdotal discussions related to coaching quality. Most recently these might be related to comparisons between Connie Yori and Amy Williams. My curiosity caused a very superficial look at this using regular season conference records and some post-season appearance info. Since Amy is partially into her 5th season I've used years 2-5, eliminating the first year for each coach. Yori's numbers include complete seasons. It's not clear that this shows anything significant other than the records are surprisingly (to me) similar.
Yori 33 wins, 31 losses, 3 WNIT appearances
Amy 32 wins, 28 losses, 1 NCAA appearance
Connie's records showed general improvement in later years, but with some significant ups & downs.
2009-2010 16-0
2010-2011 3-13
It remains to be seen how Amy's teams will progress, but so far this year seems to show progress. Obviously the ability to recruit talent will be key to future performance.
 
Every once in awhile we see anecdotal discussions related to coaching quality. Most recently these might be related to comparisons between Connie Yori and Amy Williams. My curiosity caused a very superficial look at this using regular season conference records and some post-season appearance info. Since Amy is partially into her 5th season I've used years 2-5, eliminating the first year for each coach. Yori's numbers include complete seasons. It's not clear that this shows anything significant other than the records are surprisingly (to me) similar.
Yori 33 wins, 31 losses, 3 WNIT appearances
Amy 32 wins, 28 losses, 1 NCAA appearance
Connie's records showed general improvement in later years, but with some significant ups & downs.
2009-2010 16-0
2010-2011 3-13
It remains to be seen how Amy's teams will progress, but so far this year seems to show progress. Obviously the ability to recruit talent will be key to future performance.
I ran some of the same stuff on another message board last year. When people where saying that coach was in over her head in the B1G. It seems that thier argument falls flat, when you compare the two.
 
Not an accurate comparison. Apples to oranges on just comparing the first few years. Yori walked into a disaster. Had no players. Had to ask for walkons from the student body to field a team. Got a sorority girl and a volleyball player who hadn’t played in 4 years, and they both played significant minutes. Somehow won 1 Big 12 game that season. Had to build it from nothing. Williams took over a completely different program and roster. This is not to denigrate Amy or predict her ultimate success.. But it is a meaning less comparison.
 
First year was ignored for each to help a little with this problem. Can you suggest any additional quantitative input to assist with such an effort? My intent included trying to eliminare bias. Thanks.
 



First year was ignored for each to help a little with this problem. Can you suggest any additional quantitative input to assist with such an effort? My intent included trying to eliminare bias. Thanks.

Well when you take over rock bottom, it takes more than one year to build it. Yori making the NIT in year two was phenomenal. Look at our men’s team, not remotely competitive in year 2. Look at 2010-15. Shows you the state of the program when Amy took over. She wasn’t ready to sustain it. Perhaps she will grow into the job, she’s going to have every chance. The coaching effort this year is outstanding, given what she has to work with. Improve the recruiting and it could all turn out fine. But a lot of people are still in denial about how good Yori was. One of the best coaches in the country. Won like crazy at a tough place to win, and did it the right way. No point in making the comparison at this juncture.
 
I did a little research of my own. ;) Here is my recap of some of Connie Yori's accomplishments during her 14 year tenure as HC of the WBB Program.
  • Seven NCAA appearances, two extending to the sweet-sixteen,
  • Five WNIT invitations,
  • Big 10 Conference Title
  • National Coach of the Year
  • Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year
What does this mean? It may help to visualize it linearly.

Year/ conf record / post-season
02/03: 1-15 (no post-season)
03/04: 7-9 WNIT (won 1, lost 1)
04/05: 8-8 WNIT (won 1, lost 1)
05/06: 8-8 WNIT (won 2, lost 1)
06/07: 10-6 NCAA (lost 1)
07/08: 9-7 NCAA (won 1, lost 1)
08/09: 6-10 WNIT (lost 1)
09/10: 16-0 (Lost in B-12 Championship Game); NCAA (won 2, lost 1)
10/11: 3-13 (no post-season)
11/12 10-6 (1st yr in Big Ten) NCAA ( lost 1)
12/13: 12-4 NCAA (won 2, lost 1)
13/14: 12-4 Won Big Ten Conference; NCAA (won 1, lost 1)
14/15: 10-8 NCAA (lost 1)
15/16: 9-9 WNIT (lost 1)
--------------------------------- Coaching Change
16/17: 3-13 (no post-season)
17/18: 11-5 NCAA (lost 1)
18/19: 9-9 (no post-season)
19/20: 7-11 (no post-season)
20/21: 5-3 (so far)

Make of it what you will, but I believe it shows that after starting from ground zero, Connie Yori had an unbelievable run, appearing in post-season play (winning 10 PS games) for every year of her tenure, save one, after her premier year. :Salute:

I don't think we're likely to see anything like that again in our lifetime.

This isn't to say Amy Williams can't start a run of her own; I expect her to do so. Let's Get Going!:Cheer2:
:Shout:

Edited 3/15/21 to Bold the above. :Redface:

salute.gif
 
Last edited:
Not an accurate comparison. Apples to oranges on just comparing the first few years. Yori walked into a disaster. Had no players. Had to ask for walkons from the student body to field a team. Got a sorority girl and a volleyball player who hadn’t played in 4 years, and they both played significant minutes. Somehow won 1 Big 12 game that season. Had to build it from nothing. Williams took over a completely different program and roster. This is not to denigrate Amy or predict her ultimate success.. But it is a meaning less comparison.
Amy walked into a disaster that still had the player that had caused issues for Yori while losing a starter that went right into the university of Washington to play. Yori’s last teams was destroyed by the culture in the program at the time. Amy’s first year was dealing with the left over issues. Then starting the rebuild the next year. She did not walk into rainbows and sunshine.
 



I don’t disagree with you at all. Romeo was awesome and I wish we had still had her. I was not saying that Yori left a mess either. I was talking about the fact that Eichorst destroyed the program and the fulcrum he used was still on the team. They lost the recruiting class from what I can remember. So yes I still maintain Amy walked into a dumpster fire at the beginning and did not have this program laid out for her to take over. Eichorst left her a steaming mess to try and put back together. I would have loved for Yori to stay and it was a mistake to get rid of her. But what Amy was given to start was not the program that Yori had done such a good job of building. It was the remnants from the lawyer idiot that thought he was the purifier of Husker Athletics.
 
Totally wrong about Romeo. If you want to bitch about Shepherd, fine, but Romeo wasn’t the problem. And I was quite close to it.

Plus, Yori had a phenomenal recruiting class coming in, including a top flight point guard. Thongs would have been fine had Eichorst not gone on his witch hunt.
Sorry I went and reread my first post, what I meant by culture was what was created by the AD with destroying the program, not by Yori. I can tell you are sensitive about that situation and I thought we were all on the same page about the culprit being Eichorst. Sorry I didn’t clarify the culture comment.
 
Sorry I went and reread my first post, what I meant by culture was what was created by the AD with destroying the program, not by Yori. I can tell you are sensitive about that situation and I thought we were all on the same page about the culprit being Eichorst. Sorry I didn’t clarify the culture comment.

No problem; thanks for the clarification.
 
I don’t disagree with you at all. Romeo was awesome and I wish we had still had her. I was not saying that Yori left a mess either. I was talking about the fact that Eichorst destroyed the program and the fulcrum he used was still on the team. They lost the recruiting class from what I can remember. So yes I still maintain Amy walked into a dumpster fire at the beginning and did not have this program laid out for her to take over. Eichorst left her a steaming mess to try and put back together. I would have loved for Yori to stay and it was a mistake to get rid of her. But what Amy was given to start was not the program that Yori had done such a good job of building. It was the remnants from the lawyer idiot that thought he was the purifier of Husker Athletics.

Just as an FYI, from a factual standpoint, we didn’t lose the entire recruiting class—we kept Hannah Whitish and Nicea Eilily, both of whom were good 4 year contributors. We lost Micole Cayton (and now have her here, but she’s a shell of her former self due to knee injuries), and Kathleen Doyle, who ended up being an outstanding point guard for Iowa of all places. Huge loss, and we have struggled to recruit a high level point guard since then (I don’t consider Haiby a true point guard but I love her game).
 



Well when you take over rock bottom, it takes more than one year to build it. Yori making the NIT in year two was phenomenal. Look at our men’s team, not remotely competitive in year 2. Look at 2010-15. Shows you the state of the program when Amy took over. She wasn’t ready to sustain it. Perhaps she will grow into the job, she’s going to have every chance. The coaching effort this year is outstanding, given what she has to work with. Improve the recruiting and it could all turn out fine. But a lot of people are still in denial about how good Yori was. One of the best coaches in the country. Won like crazy at a tough place to win, and did it the right way. No point in making the comparison at this juncture.
My OP was not intended to show a "denial about how good Yori was", but to focus on how well Amy is doing. I really think highly of Connie Yori and would be more than happy if she was still the Husker coach. I've read some pretty negative things regarding the job Amy is doing, but had no real understanding of how to form an opinion. After looking at her early seasons' records I don't think we're at disaster stage; could get there or could do well eventually. I'm sorry this turned into more of a discussion about Connie. Not intended. She may always be the best we've had or will have.
 
Just as an FYI, from a factual standpoint, we didn’t lose the entire recruiting class—we kept Hannah Whitish and Nicea Eilily, both of whom were good 4 year contributors. We lost Micole Cayton (and now have her here, but she’s a shell of her former self due to knee injuries), and Kathleen Doyle, who ended up being an outstanding point guard for Iowa of all places. Huge loss, and we have struggled to recruit a high level point guard since then (I don’t consider Haiby a true point guard but I love her game).
Wasn't Grace Mitchell in that class as well?
 


GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top