Just over a month into the Nikki Caldwellera, the UCLA women’s basketball program already looks poised for a turnaround.
UCLA hired Caldwell April 17, after she had worked as an assistant coach at Tennessee for six seasons. Since her hiring, Caldwell said she has worked to bond with the players, and on Tuesday she announced the hiring of a new staff.
Caldwell hired three new assistants ““ Stacie Terry, Tony Perotti and Tasha Butts ““ and chose Pam Walker as the director of operations for women’s basketball.
Like Caldwell, Butts and Perotti have connections to the dominant Tennessee women’s basketball program. Perotti was a practice player with the women’s team while he attended Tennessee, and Butts played on Tennessee teams which went to Final Fours in 2003 and 2004.
Terry starred as a player at Texas-Arlington and has coached at Dayton, Louisville, Illinois and Southern Miss.
“They all know what it takes to win,” Caldwell said. “That’s going to be a major attribute for this staff.”
Caldwell said the excitement surrounding the UCLA program right now made it very easy to build a staff.
“It was not a matter of me having to go and sell them on UCLA,” Caldwell said. “They already knew what’s in store in terms of the potential for this program.”
The Tennessee connection this new staff brings will be a big change for a UCLA program which did not reach a Final Four under former coach Kathy Olivier.
But the staff’s recruiting ability may be what quickly turns UCLA into a national power.
Caldwell was hailed as one of the top recruiters in the nation while at Tennessee, and two of her new assistants have significant connections to the West Coast recruiting scene.
Terry is a San Diego native, and Perotti has coached at Northern Arizona and San Francisco.
“When you look at the state of California, it has a wealth of quality student athletes,” Caldwell said. “A lot of times we talk about the state being loaded with talent. I think we bring that West Coast tie.”
With her staff complete, Caldwell has started to focus on the 2008 season, which she said could show “immediate improvement.”
The Bruins will return 10 players from last season’s team and add two highly touted recruits, guards Atonye Nyingifa and Rebekah Gardner.
And Caldwell said the first step toward next season is creating chemistry between herself, the players and the new staff.
“It really is about us forming a bond as a staff and as a team,” Caldwell said. “That’s my primary goal right now while school is still going ““ to establish that great bond.”
Caldwell was very upbeat in an interview Thursday afternoon. She said she’s seen daily improvement during workouts with her new team and has been tremendously impressed by UCLA during her first few weeks as a coach here.
“This is such an unbelievable place because the people make it unbelievable, all the way from academics, to skill development and the other coaches,” Caldwell said. “What has made the transition so smooth is that the people here have been very warm and giving.
“You can’t ask to be in a better situation than that.”