An ACC program with deep pockets needs a new women’s basketball coach

Toyelle Wilson is out as women’s basketball coach at SMU as Damon Evans takes over as AD for the Mustangs.

On March 21, SMU hired Damon Evans as its new athletic director. Nine days later, he made his first major move as the leader of the Mustangs, firing women’s basketball coach Toyelle Wilson after four seasons at the helm.

Wilson, 43, went 55-64 in four years at SMU, spending three of those seasons in the American Athletic Conference and this past season in the ACC. In SMU’s first campaign in the Power 4 league, it went 10-20 overall and an abysmal 2-16 in ACC play — tied with Wake Forest for the league’s worst record. Earlier this season, SMU blew a 32-point lead and lost to Pitt, tying the NCAA Division I record for the biggest comeback.

Before taking over at SMU, Wilson had been an assistant at Michigan and Baylor, and the head coach at Prairie View A&M. She took the Panthers to three NCAA Tournaments as a head coach, and was an assistant for the Baylor team powered by Kalani Brown and Chloe Jackson that won the national title in 2019.

However, she finished a season with a winning record just once at SMU, and Evans felt a change was necessary.

“With the investments the university and our donors have made in support of SMU Athletics, we have shown we belong in the ACC and expect to compete for championships,” Evans said in a statement. “With all that our campus and community have to offer — the value of an SMU degree, our prime location in Dallas, our top-tier facilities, the NIL opportunities for our student-athletes and more — we believe we are well-positioned to stand alongside the nation’s best programs.”

Investments. Compete. Championships. Top-tier facilities. NIL.

Keep those phrases in mind.

When Wilson’s firing was announced Sunday evening, SMU became the seventh Power 4 job to open and first in the ACC to become vacant in this coaching cycle. The opening is a compelling one that many folks in coaching circles have an eye on.

“Evans’ statement makes it clear that they think they should be competitive,” one longtime assistant coach in women’s basketball told SB Nation. “They have big bucks.”

The Mustangs have long wanted to be in a major conference and arrived in the ACC last summer alongside Pac-12 refugees Stanford and Cal. SMU wanted to be in a Power 4 league so desperately that it is foregoing media rights revenue from the ACC for its first nine years in the conference.

According to ESPN, SMU raised a record $159 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year for athletics, including $100 million just days after the announcement that the Mustangs had landed in the ACC.

“They definitely have money,” one agent told SB Nation. “Just not sure if they’re willing to spend it on women’s basketball.”

After its first fall in the ACC, SMU handed both volleyball coach Sam Erger and football coach Rhett Lashlee extensions after successful seasons. Lashlee’s team made the College Football Playoff powered by players SMU got from the transfer portal, while Erger’s volleyball team went 25-8, made the NCAA Tournament and was nationally ranked in the top 10.

SMU has invested in football and volleyball and seen the return at the Power 4 level. Is it ready to do the same for women’s basketball?

“SMU has potential and the resources necessary to win at a high level, but doesn’t have a history of success,” another agent told SB Nation. “It’s a great recruiting base, but it’s just a different recruiting situation anywhere in Texas in terms of the politics you have to play.”

This is a Mustangs’ program that hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 17 years and has never advanced to the second weekend.

Nearly all of SMU’s success as a women’s basketball program came under Rhonda Rompola, who was the head coach from 1991 through 2016. All seven of the Mustangs’ NCAA Tournament appearances happened during her watch, as did conference tournament titles in the WAC and CUSA.

Since leaving CUSA for the American in 2013, SMU hasn’t had a winning record in conference play in women’s basketball. But of course, in this era of college sports with NIL, the transfer portal and revenue-sharing made possible by the looming House settlement , investment could create a path to winning.

The question remains, is SMU willing to pony-up for women’s hoops?

“The job is really interesting,” a third agent told SB Nation. “They have good money and their volleyball program just benefited from that.”

Here’s who might be in the mix for the job.

Karen Blair

This wouldn’t necessarily be a big, expensive home run swing, but a solid line drive into the outfield that gets SMU on-base. It makes sense for a lot of reasons too. Blair is a former SMU guard who played on some of Rompola’s best teams, helping the Mustangs reach three NCAA Tournaments. Blair then started her coaching career as an assistant under Rompola, helping them land three more March Madness berths. Most recently, since 2018, she’s been on Brenda Frese’s bench at Maryland where she’s helped the Terps go to four Sweet 16s and win three Big Ten titles. Before he was the AD at SMU, Evans was the AD at Maryland for nearly eight years. This wouldn’t be a hire that grabs a ton of headlines, but one that checks most of the boxes.

Karen Aston

After being pursued previously in this cycle by Houston and Arkansas, SMU might be the program that pulls Aston back into the Power 4 level. If SMU wants to hire a coach with a history of winning and someone with deep ties in the Texas high school recruiting circuit, there’s few options better than Aston who has spent nearly all of her 30-year coaching career in the Lonestar State. Aston coached under Kim Mulkey and Sonja Hogg at Baylor, and under Jody Conradt at Texas. She just completed her fourth season as the head coach at UTSA, where she led the Roadrunners to a single-season program record 26 wins while winning AAC Coach of the Year. Previously, at the Power 4 level, Aston was the head coach at Texas for eight years where she guided the Longhorns to six NCAA Tournament appearances and went 184-83. Her next victory will be the 350th of her career.

Mark Kellogg

To land Kellogg, SMU is going to have to pay a buyout of about $1 million, as his contract at West Virginia stipulates that it’s 50 percent of his remaining base salary. But SMU may think that Kellogg is worth it. He has deep Texas roots and has proven he can win at the Power 4 level by going 50-16 with a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in two seasons at WVU. Before landing in Morgantown, Kellogg — who grew up in and went to college in Texas — was the head coach at West Texas A&M and Stephen F. Austin. At the latter, he went 195-55 in eight seasons and went to two NCAA Tournaments. He’s had double-digit losses in a season just once in 10 years as a Division I head coach.

If SMU wants to really make a splash, they could call Yolett McPhee-McCuin of Ole Miss or Alabama’s Kristy Curry, the latter of whom just took the Crimson Tide to its fourth NCAA Tournament in five seasons and is the lowest-paid head coach in the SEC, according to USA Today. In the Big 12, Kansas State’s Jeff Mittie and Oklahoma State’s Jacie Hoyt both make a salary of less than $700,000 per season and just led their teams to the NCAA Tournament. Both were pursued by Missouri, per multiple sources, before the Tigers hired Kellie Harper.