Three's a crowd: Hoosiers land two coaches and one recruit

IU women's basketball coach Felicia Legette-Jack's tireless work continued over the past week. She officially announced the addition of two assistants, a head of basketball operations and also garnered the first commitment of her short tenure at IU.\nJoining Legette-Jack on the bench as assistant coaches for the 2006-2007 season are Vera Jones and Marc Wilson.\nJones, a college teammate and good friend of Legette-Jack's at Syracuse University, spent the past two seasons serving as an assistant coach at the University of Dayton. Jones also has an extensive background as a basketball television analyst.\n"Vera knows everything good and bad about the game," Legette-Jack said. "And she's very loyal."\nWilson's resume includes previous Big Ten experience as an assistant at the University of Minnesota. Wilson was most recently at Kent State University, where he was part of a coaching staff that led the Golden Flashes to two conference title games in each of the past two seasons. He also spent time as an assistant at the University of Rhode Island.\n"Marc is a fantastic X & O guy and an extremely good recruiter," Legette-Jack said. "He spearheaded some great recruiting efforts at Minnesota."\nLegette-Jack also announced the hiring of IU alumnus Jeana Finlinson as head of basketball operations. She credited Finlinson's passion for IU as one of the main factors in the decision to bring her on board.\n"Jeana just loves Indiana University," Legette-Jack said.\nLegette-Jack hopes that the hiring of these staff members will pay immediate dividends in recruiting, an area that she has made a top priority since her arrival.\n"We want to create history," she said. "We want to be thought of as a great basketball program. We have a long way to go but we want to begin that journey with the next couple of student athletes."\nThe recruiting season has had its ups and downs thus far.\nLegette-Jack landed her first commit last week, Illinois' Nicole Hardin. Hardin, a 5'7 guard from Calumet, Ill., spent her last two seasons at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Ill. Legette-Jack had no comment on the situation.\nUnfortunately, Legette-Jack also lost a commitment when IU granted a release to guard Angel Gray, who had signed her letter of intent when Sharon Versyp was still in charge of the program.\n"Everything is a work in progress right now," Legette-Jack said. "There is no right or wrong way to do it."\nDespite the loss, the new coach is still very optimistic about the future. And she thinks that the recent hires will only improve that optimism.\n"The energy in our office is just overwhelming," Legette-Jack said. "We're just excited for this opportunity. Bloomington is about Hoosierland. It's about winning and tradition. We want to become a part of that"