On Women's Basketball

Assistant hire near?

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 5:04 PM

Vanderbilt's Lisa Cermignano appears to have emerged as the leading candidate to join Jolette Law's staff.

Cermignano would replace Karen Middleton, who took the head job at Western Carolina.

Cermignano spent the last three seasons at Vandy, which reached the Sweet 16 of the most recent NCAA tournament before falling to Maryland. Cermignano was instrumental in the Commodores' recruiting efforts and she worked with the team's guards. Head coach Melanie Balcomb has lauded Cermignano's "passion for defense," which certainly fits well with Law's philosophy.

Cermignano was a standout player at George Washington, starting for three years. She began her coaching career at Maryland in 1997-98, then served two seasons at Monmouth. She moved into an administrative position with Joe McKeown's GW team and, one season later, became as assistant coach on his staff. She was at GW for five years before joining Balcomb at Vanderbilt.

Law told The News-Gazette last month that she was looking for "a national recruiter," someone who could find the type of players she prefers to pursue.

Other tidbits:

--Freshman Destiny Williams is expected to depart Monday for Colorado Springs, Colo., where she will take part in the final trials for the U19 World Championship team. Williams was one of 14 finalists for the 12-player team, but that was before Stanford's Sarah Boothe withdrew because of injury.

Williams is in Champaign working out with her teammates but is not taking summer school courses.

--Mentioned in an earlier article that the Illini were expected to participate in a tournament that included San Diego State and UC Riverside during Thanksgiving weekend. That appears to have changed. The Illini will be in a Cal Poly tournament that weekend. The official schedule won't be released for several weeks.

--LSU transfer Ayana Dunning, who considered Illinois after leaving the Tigers (and out of high school), reportedly is headed to West Virginia.

 

 

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