VCU’s Stollings accepts job at Minnesota

Just one year after failing to lure Shaka Smart from Richmond to the Twin Cities, former VCU AD Norwood Teague hired Marlene Stollings on Monday.

April 7, 2014; 3:56 PM • by Aaron Williams

Nathan Cushing profiled Marlene Stollings in January: Marlene Stollings: The FURY! of VCU

Just one year after an unsuccessful attempt to lure Coach Shaka Smart to the Twin Cities, University of Minnesota athletics director Norwood Teague has successfully hired Virginia Commonwealth University’s head women’s basketball coach Marlene Stollings. Teague was the VCU AD from 2006 until 2012 and is known for hiring of Coach Shaka Smart.

While Teague didn’t hire Stollings to VCU, she was a part of the Villa 7 program started by VCU’s Mike Ellis that was instrumental in bringing Smart and former VCU coach Anthony Grant to VCU. Ellis and his Villa 7 moved to Minnesota with Teague in 2012.

Stollings did an incredible job at VCU installing her FURY! system over the past two seasons. After a difficult 11-19 (4-10) campaign in 2012-13, VCU added six talented recruits including top-100 prospect Camille Calhoun shoring up a talented core for the future.

Despite an abundance of youth, the 2013-14 Rams started 14-1 before finishing the season 22-10. Her uptempo style of play averaged a school record 75.8 points per game and hit 235 3-pointers.

Now known as a turnaround specialist after one year at Winthrop and two years at VCU, Stollings finds herself coaching a team that finished 22-13 overall and 8-8 in the Big Ten–but 22-13 wasn’t good enough for an athletics department establishing lofty expectations. Nine days ago Teague fired Pam Borton after a five year drought from the NCAA Tournament and last season he fired Tubby Smith after a 21-13 campaign that ended in the 3rd round of the NCAA Tournament.

With a $25 million practice facility expected to break ground soon that includes all the bells and whistles for the women’s team, a talented core of players, and the rising profile of VCU, the Rams should find a more than capable replacement in the coming weeks.