WBB: who applied to be Wisconsin's head coach?

A lot of people you've probably never heard of, that's who!

I like to file FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests with the University of Wisconsin athletic department because one day I’m going to receive something juicy and newsworthy. Until that day comes, however, I will continue to file BORING ones that are resolved once UW sends me a list of people you, nor I, have ever heard of.

The recent Wisconsin women’s basketball head coaching search left, uh, a lot to be desired. Please find my initial thoughts about Robin Pingeton being selected as UW’s head coach below!

Since Pingeton was announced as head coach she has, to her credit, done a really nice job of rebuilding the Badgers roster and, also to her credit, won her opening press conference. My feelings on the hire have gone from a “one out of ten” to a robust “three out of ten” in just a few short weeks. At this rate, Pingeton and UW will be raising the national championship trophy around mid-January 2026.

I was interested in who else threw their hat into the ring for this less than desirable P4 job, hence the FOIA request. Here is what I asked:

My name is Drew Hamm and I cover the Wisconsin Badgers women's basketball team at my newsletter. I would like to request a list of all candidates that applied for the recent open position of Head Women's Basketball Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I would also like to request a list of all candidates that were interviewed by Chris McIntosh and Marcus Sedberry.

On Friday afternoon, I received a list of all candidates that applied for the job barring any candidate “who requested confidentiality in writing during the recruitment and hiring process pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.36(7)(b).” I also received an answer to my question on “all candidates that were interviewed.” We’ll start with the second question because, uh, the answer is quite short.

“Per our Athletics Department, Robin Pingeton was the candidate interviewed by Chris McIntosh and Marcus Sedberry.”

Oh, I see.

Now, I know that in the world of Big Time College Athletics Coaching Searches most of the real candidates aren’t just sending out resumes and hoping for a call. Wisconsin hired a search firm, whom I can only assume they paid an ass-load of money to, to reach out to various agents and see if anyone was interested in the Badgers job. While Pingeton’s name was on the list I received, I’m sure she only “applied” once she had agreed to the job so that all state laws were followed.

I find it hard to believe that she was the only coaching option interviewed, but the way I phrased my request may have been used against me so that UW could just provide a Technically True Response. Did McIntosh or Sedberry interview candidates individually? Did a different combination of senior level staffers interview other candidates?

The other option is almost too embarrassing to think about: what if Pingeton WAS the only candidate they interviewed. I heard from a few sources that a number of coaches said “thanks but no thanks” to Wisconsin when asked about scheduling an interview, but that couldn’t mean they only interviewed one (1) candidate…right?

Anywho, let’s take a look at some of the names of people that did apply for the job. I will say that almost all of them would fall under the category of “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” and were never considered for the position.

• there were a number of high school coaches, mostly from Wisconsin and Iowa

  • Dave Donarski, the La Crosse Aquinas girls basketball head coach, is a name that some of you might recognize. He has a pair of daughters, Lexi (Iowa State/UNC) and Macy (Montana), that played (Lexi) and play (Macy) college hoops.

• somewhat strangely there were two different coaches from Israel that applied

• there were a handful of younger applicants who worked in basketball operations or had been grad assistants

• there were also a few applicants about whom I could find zero information either because their name was too common (Michael Green) or because they have zero internet presence

There are four applicants that I want to specifically highlight as they are the four most qualified in my opinion.

• Tywaune (Ty) Evans: graduate of UW-Whitewater where he played ball; current assistant coach at Syracuse; was head coach at Tennessee State for three years; has also been an assistant coach at Alabama, Auburn, Saint Louis, and Georgetown; with the latter two teams he was associate head coach

• Eun Jung (EJ) Lee: from South Korea; played ball at UL-Monroe and then was on the coaching staff at ULM for 30 years; she is currently the head coach at Sul Ross State in Texas

• Tamara Moore: former Wisconsin WBB player; has coached AAU ball in the Twin Cities; currently a scout for the Dallas Mavericks

• Jarrod Olson: he has been the head coach at Cal Baptist since 2012; at CBU he sports an overall winning percentage of 0.718 (0.665 for years in D1) and a conference winning percentage of 0.772 (0.720 D1); he has been conference coach of the year five times (three times in the WAC) and won the Kay Yow Coach of the Year Award (given to the top D1 coach in the nation) after the 2020-21 season; 2x WAC Champion and 2x WAC Tournament Champion; 2023 WBI Champions; led CBU to their first ever NCAA Tournament bid in 2023-24

Would any of these four been a better choice than Pingeton? I don’t know and neither does Wisconsin since they apparently only conducted one (1) interview for the job.