Friday came with the news that Danielle O’Banion (coach Dani) as she is known, was announced as the new head coach of the Loyola Maryland Greyhounds team. So, first and foremost, we want to say Congratulations to Coach Dani and we look forward to seeing you lead the Loyola program! You will be missed in Maroon and Gold country!
Now I give my guess or thoughts on names that possibly could be added to the Gopher Program with the departure of Coach Dani. I will state right up front, I have no insider knowledge or anything like that, so this list is truly some of my personal thoughts and maybe even suggestions. Some of these are WAYYY out of there and would never likely happen and some are more realistic options.
Some questions to ponder when I was thinking about this list were: A, does Coach Whalen want the hire to be a woman? B, is there hope for a connection to the Gopher Program historically or connections to Coach Whalen during her playing career? Some of these names listed below fall into those categories and some do not.
Shannon Nelson (formally Shannon Bolden)
Simply looking at connections to the program and the current coaching staff, you might not find a person who checks more boxes than Nelson. She was not only teammates with Coach Whalen and assistant coach Kelly Roysland-Curry, but she was a member of the magical 2004 final four run. She is a former Ms. Minnesota basketball and also likely holds a strong argument to the claim of being one of, if not the best defender in the Gopher Women’s program history.
Then taking a look at her coaching resume, she has been the Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers women’s basketball coach since 2010. In that time, she has secured 215 wins with a winning percentage of .811 in her career. She won a NJCAA Division 3 national title in 2014 and was runner up in 2016, not to mention was named Region XIII B Coach of the Year in each of her first eight seasons at Northland per her bio on the Northland team website. https://northlandpioneers.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/coaches/shannon-nelson/75
Shannon was a name that was mentioned when Whalen first got the Gopher job, and my guess she is a name that at least will be a look and possibly a phone call with the new opening.
Rebekkah Brunson
A five-time WNBA Champion. I mean could you ask for a better possible post player to help work with and mentor college aged players? While it may seem unlikely with Brunson already a WNBA assistant for the Lynx, a business owner in the Minneapolis community and a Bally Sports (formally FSN) reporter, but it’s still hard not to have some hopes and dreams of her and Whalen reconnecting on a basketball team once again.
Taj McWilliams-Franklin
While we are on the subject of post players who are former WNBA champions with Coach Whalen, we would be remised if we didn’t mention Taj on this list. As a player, she was one of the smartest and most creative post players in the history of the WNBA. She was a voice that others listened to and respected. After her playing days, she had coaching stints in both the WNBA as well as women’s college basketball.
Kiara Buford
Buford is another former Gopher who has found success in the coaching world. After finishing her career in the maroon and gold as a top ten scorer in Minnesota history, she went on to coach at Robbinsdale Cooper High School in Minnesota and in 2018 she won a AAA Minnesota State Championship. As a player she also won two Minnesota State titles in 2006 and 2007.
Jackie Voigt
Jackie was given the nick name “steady eddy” during her time with the Gophers. She was the type of player who did a little bit of everything for her team from the forward position. She was a strong rebounder, tireless worker and could stretch the defense with her outside shooting.
In terms of coaching, she has been at Augsburg college for the previous four years and before that had a two-year stint at North Dakota, where she worked with post players. A previous Gopher with coaching experience and experience teaching posts, sounds like she also checks a good amount of boxes Minnesota could be looking for in the next hire.
Lindsay Widsom-Hylton
While not someone with direct connections to Minnesota, she does have deep ties to the Big Ten. Played and graduated from Purdue before also being a coach for the Boilermakers and then was an assistant coach for the Wisconsin Badgers. She would know how to recruit the Midwest as well would be a fantastic post-player mentor to have on the staff.
Cheryl Reeve
I know, I know… but I mean I would love to be a fly on the wall if Lindsay called Coach Reeve as asked her to an assistant coach.
Jim Peterson
Once again, I’m not saying its highly likely or even possible. What I am saying is we saw the post magic that Jim Pete can work during his time with the Minnesota Lynx, including with players like Brunson. Unsure if travel or recruiting would be something he would be interested in at this point in her career.
Other Names of Interest:
-Ashley Ellis-Milan
-Brittany McCoy
-Annalese Lamke
-Rachel Banham
-Plenette Pierson
