Legette-Jack becomes IU's 3rd coach in 3 years

Call it déjà vu.\nFor the second year in a row, the IU women's basketball team is starting a new season with a new head coach. On April 19, Felisha Legette-Jack was named the new head coach of the Hoosiers, becoming the third person in a little more than 13 months to hold that position.\n"I think after what happened in the past, our team needed some fire," said sophomore Whitney Thomas. "The coaches that came in, they definitely brought that. They brought energy and everything we needed to get back up to where we should be."\nThe saga began March 1, 2005, when Kathi Bennett resigned after going 3-13 in the Big Ten to earn ninth place in the conference. After losing to Wisconsin in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, IU began the search for Bennett's replacement.\nMore than a month later, on April 8, 2005, the Hoosiers found their coach in Mishawaka, Ind., native and Purdue alumna Sharon Versyp, who was coaching at the University of Maine. During the Versyp era, the IU women's basketball program improved, going 19-14 in her first year and advancing to the quarterfinals of the WNIT.\nBut the success came with a price. In West Lafayette, the coaching carousel was turning. On March 30, 2006, Boilermaker coach Kristy Curry left Purdue to become the coach at Texas Tech University. A little more than a week later on April 7 -- 364 days after she took the IU job -- Versyp resigned to take over at her alma mater.\n"That's in the past; that's her decision," said junior Nikki Smith. "We hold no grudge; we're just looking forward to the future."\nBut for Nikki Smith and the three seniors -- Leah Enterline, Sarah McKay and Carrie Smith -- the hiring of Legette-Jack from Hofstra University marks the third coach the upperclassmen have seen since arriving in Bloomington.\n"That's kind of cool. You get to play for three different coaches and three totally different viewpoints about basketball," Enterline said. "I've learned something from every single coach, and it's just something that happened. It's not a big deal."\nIf anything, the Hoosiers say what they've been through in their years at IU has made them even closer as a team. Even sophomore Thomas, who never played for Bennett but whom Bennett recruited, can see this.\n"I think it makes the team even stronger and closer together," Thomas said. "Last year around the time coach (Versyp) was leaving, our team got closer, and we came together."\nLegette-Jack said that she feels that the team has responded to her and her coaching staff and is ready to start with a new coach once again.\n"This is my team now; there's no more Sharon Versyp," Legette-Jack said. "I wish her well at Purdue, but there's a new kid on the block now, and we're moving forward."\nLegette-Jack said she is committed to staying with IU. During a speech she gave at an National Association for the Advancement of Colored People banquet last month, Legette-Jack said she doesn't leave a place until the job is done. As for what it takes for the job to be done, she said "championship, after championship, after championship."\n"I love it here," Legette-Jack said. "I'm not a job-hopper; I don't need a certain prestige about things. I just love what I do. As long as I'm empowering and people have confidence in what I'm doing, I can be a couch. I can lock in like a piece of furniture and be here"