Oregon State’s Women’s Hoops Left With Almost Entirely Reset Roster

To say that the Oregon State women’s basketball program is in disarray almost feels like soft-peddling the immense crisis in which it finds itself. Five years ago, the school brought in coach LaVonda Wagner to revive a program that had finished 6-23 the year before. Despite some success, including a 20-12 record that earned them a trip to the WNIT tournament in 2008, the team might now be even worse off in the wake of Wagner has being fired on Tuesday.↵↵Because of an abrasive coaching style that alienated players coupled with demands that players compete while injured, seven underclassmen have opted to leave the program since the beginning of the 2009-2010 season, with two more freshmen giving it considerable thought. Should that happen, it would leave a team that finish 11-20 last season with only two players on its roster: junior forward El Sara Greer and sophomore guard Brittany Kennedy.↵With several episodes of player intimidation documented by local media, including one instance where Wagner reportedly upbraided Kassandra McCalister in June 2009 for an emergency room visit after the guard was struck in the head and began experiencing headaches, the school had been looking for a way to remove the coach without paying her the remainder of what she was owed in her contract. Those investigations couldn’t turn up legal justification for doing so, meaning Wagner will earn $1.2 million over the next three years from Oregon State even after her ouster.↵

↵↵Because the school delayed as long as it did to remove her, the program will likely be worse off in the near term. Given all the vacancies, the next coach will at least have an easier time remaking the roster in their image. But that’s probably going to be the only positive for a while.↵

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