By Colleen Kane
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Xavier coach Kevin McGuff and Dayton coach Jim Jabir face off in a women's basketball game Friday at Cintas Center to end their regular season.

While the meeting of two male coaches isn't unusual in the Atlantic 10, it is somewhat of a rarity around the country. Only 32.9 percent of Division I women's basketball coaches are men.

And some coaches say that's not likely to change.

Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, who has won four NCAA titles, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May that, "It's over for men as head coaches at the big schools because no president or no athletic director is going to have the guts to hire the best coach."

It's a bold and unusual argument, considering that women coached about 44 percent of all women's teams, and less than 2 percent of men's teams collegiately in 2002. And it's a statement that has drawn objections.

"White males in American society have had the most opportunities for achievement in most any endeavor than any other group - racially or gender-wise," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. "So for white males to ever beef or complain about one of the only places where there is a glass ceiling for them is ridiculous."

But Auriemma's claim is worth examining. Some coaches say the number of male coaches might even decrease as more female coaches gain opportunities for experience, and as high-profile, major-conference programs make gender-conscious hires.

The Underdogs?

Joe McKeown hasn't had to worry about the hiring process, posting a 338-122 record in more than 14 years as George Washington's head coach. But he said if he were a young coach today, he would find that jobs for men in women's basketball are "limited."

"You have this mentality (of being) a little bit of the underdog now. I'm not saying it's right or wrong," McKeown said.

But McKeown, McGuff and Jabir aren't the underdogs in the Atlantic 10, one of five conferences in the country in which women's basketball is coached mostly by men. Seven of the 12 (58.3 percent) coaches in the A-10 are men - the most in any Division I conference.

And McGuff had no problem notching his first head coaching job at Xavier after six years in a Notre Dame program that won the NCAA championship in 2001.

"We didn't go into it with the mindset that we want to hire a man or a woman. ... You really pigeonhole yourself if you go into it saying, 'I want a person that fits into this square box,' " said Xavier senior women's administrator Dawn Rogers. "You owe it to your institution, you owe it to your athletes to look at a diverse pool of individuals. ... There are times you feel like you want to help other women, you want to help young professionals, but in the end, you need to hire the best person for your team."

For Xavier, that was McGuff, who has gone 35-21 in nearly two seasons and shouldn't have to face a job search soon. So he's not too worried about the women's basketball job market for men.

"In the past, it was maybe not as important being successful as being more politically correct. But I think we're moving past that in that people want to win," McGuff said. "They examine a UConn and how their success positively affects the university, and people want that. ... Enough guys will get opportunities just because people want to win. It's kind of like the marketplace for women's basketball will regulate itself to the point of really good male coaches will get good jobs, as will really good female coaches."

Competition for big jobs

Not all coaches feel the same way, and the leader of the critics is the one with the most success - UConn's Auriemma.

In a November Sports Illustrated article, he reiterated that he was one of the last male coaches to grab a high-profile job. After repeated attempts to contact Auriemma, UConn officials declined an interview with the Enquirer.

But other male coaches agree with Auriemma.

"I don't think men are held out of jobs, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to land high profile jobs, " said Louisville coach Tom Collen, whose team plays at Cincinnati on Saturday. "It might be a combination of factors. At high-profile schools, presidents and athletics directors want to be very gender-conscious. Those certain conferences have better television contracts, better resources and greater program exposure ... more prestigious jobs that qualified and successful women aspire to."

Collen was an assistant coach for 16 years before getting a head job at Colorado State. He had a 79.6 winning percentage and made the NCAA Tournament four times in five seasons with Colorado, but was denied or not contacted for certain openings throughout his career.

"Any time you see people in a successful position, there's a tendency to want to use that as a model for success," Collen said. "There's been a trend recently in high-profile jobs to hire attractive, energetic, married females. ... And it's worked out very well for schools, but many times, it's not the most experienced person."

In the six elite conferences (Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern), only 17.6 percent of the head coaches are male. And in the past 10 years, only 16.9 percent of the coaching vacancies in those conferences have been filled by men. Recent head coaching hires such as Purdue's Kristy Curry, Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson and Oklahoma's Sherri Coale - all of whom have gone on to success - got their jobs without any collegiate head coaching experience.

"It's hard for a male coach right now," McKeown said. "There are a lot of outstanding young women coaches coming up that become immediate candidates ... rather than someone who's been around for so many years."

Growing women coaches

Though Collen said about 90 percent of his assistant applications come from men, about 625 of the 900-plus Division I college assistants are female, perhaps paving the way for even more women to be hired as head coaches.

DePaul's Bruno, a men's and women's coach since 1973, thinks that's important. He was elected this summer to be the Male Coaches of Women's Basketball representative on the board of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. His goal is to unify and educate coaches "regarding the positive growing of our game" and to focus on "growing young women into coaches."

"As more and more women reap the benefits of college athletics through Title IX, women should be coaching women," Bruno said. "Men (coaches) shouldn't be ostracized by women, and men coaching women should understand that women should have an opportunity to coach."

And many coaches are molding young female talents into leaders.

Cincinnati's 18-year head coach, Laurie Pirtle, has all female assistants, including two coaches and a director of basketball operations who played for her at UC.

"I think we should be grooming both genders to be coaches on either side of the stick," Pirtle said.

While female coaches dominate the women's college ranks, the trend is the opposite in high school girls' basketball. In Greater Cincinnati high schools, about 73 percent of the girls' varsity basketball coaches are male.

And it's often in high school where players' preferences are developed. Xavier freshman Chelsea Chowning has had male coaches all her life, and said she would pick a male if she had to. So would junior Alexis Henderson, who had four female coaches when Xavier went 12-19, 5-11in her first season.

Henderson said she takes criticism and encouragement better from males, and she and Chowning said they can talk to McGuff as well as they can to any female. But some players would rather deal with women. Rogers has received players' requests for men and women in coaching searches.

"Sometimes they have to get over their stereotypes, too," she said.

And perhaps that is the point that's missed in all the speculation about gender.

"I think as the game grows and the high school kids get more into it, they just want to play for the best coach they can get," McGuff said.