Tough spot for Panthers’ new head coach

Alejandro Solana/ Staff Writer

What a difference a year makes in sports, especially for the women’s basketball program at FIU.

Only a little less than 365 days ago, the athletics department was announcing the new hire that was going to replace the great Cindy Russo. Just a year ago, it seemed like all was well for the Panthers.

New young coach coming from a respected program in Maryland to take the Panthers back into contention in women’s basketball, where this team once shined thanks to three decades of Russo.

Fast-forward now to the present day, apply a bit of hindsight bias and you now have what seems like an impossible situation for Tiara Malcom, the new head coach for this FIU women’s basketball team.

To be fair, nobody could have foreseen the Marlin Chinn firing. Chinn had everyone at FIU sold. Players seemed to love him. The coaching staff marveled in his ability to connect with the players.

After three decades of a peevish leader that ended poorly, the new blood seemed to excite everyone, especially amongst the student media, myself included.

The Chinn firing came at no surprise once the truth was brought to light. No question he deserved to be fired and hopefully never allowed to return to a sideline ever again.

The firing, however, did not stem from the sexual-harassment case, officially. According to Pete Garcia, everyone’s favorite athletic director, “The decision comes after Mr. Chinn admitted to University officials that he knowingly violated NCAA bylaws regarding impermissible benefits provided to a student-athlete.”

As far as the sexual harassment case, which from the beginning seemed was attempted to be kept a secret and swept under the rug by the FIU athletics department, “The University’s Title IX investigation into other serious allegations made against Mr. Chinn by a student-athlete will continue.”

Malcom was brought to FIU by Chinn last season, along with most of the women’s coaching staff, which is customary for new hires at programs. The First State native had only known University of Delaware basketball until last year.

It was Malcom who overtook the FIU team as Interim Head Coach after Chinn was fired and it only took a few weeks after the season concluded for her to be elevated to Head Coach of the program.

Considering Malcom’s coaching experience, one must ask if she is ready to be a Head Coach for a Division 1 program, let alone the disaster that is FIU at this moment.

According to FIUSports.com, “Malcom primarily worked with the post players as well as handling recruiting, equipment and scouting opponents,” at her previous job with Delaware over the span of nine seasons.

It is fair for Panther fans who question whether a life long assistant coach who specialized only with post players and spent most of her time scouting has what it takes to revive a program. What Malcom takes over now is an FIU program that has reached its lowest depths possible.

The team went 8-52 the last two seasons, including a 2-34 Conference USA record over that stretch. The Panthers will lose four seniors including two starters and their leading scorer, Taylor Shade.

Only three starters will return to the team, two of which are only starting because of injuries to other players. With all this being said, it still may not be the biggest challenge that awaits Malcom.

The players who are not graduating all understand what transpired with Chinn. They are friends with Destini Feagin and have heard her side.

They realize this coaching staff was brought to the school by Chinn himself and the university chose one of Chinn’s hires to lead the program. That may not sit well with most of the players and even fans who thought hiring from within is unfair, considering these were Chinn’s people.

Recruiting, which already was a tough spot having to compete with University of Miami and the other Florida schools, will only get tougher now that it is a new Head Coach with no experience.

The sexual harassment case hanging over the program which will also increase its difficulty to sway players to come to Miami.

Malcom was once a dominant post player at the University of Delaware, that will never be disputed. It must be noted, however, that she will definitely need much more than a sky hook to figure out how to save this FIU program from its total collapse.