Law promises a national championship at Illinois

5/11/2007 5:51 PM

By DAVID MERCER
Associated Press Writer

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -New Illinois women's basketball coach Jolette Law wasted no time Friday promising big results in Champaign.

She said her team would be the best conditioned in the Big Ten and would win conference titles.

Then the 5-foot-4 former University of Iowa and Harlem Globetrotters guard went one better, guaranteeing an NCAA title, something no Illinois basketball team has ever done.

``We will - we will - win a national championship at the University of Illinois,'' she said at a news conference on campus.

Law, the associate head coach at Rutgers, was hired this week to replace Theresa Grentz, who resigned April 17 after a dozen years with the Illini.

Grentz, one of the winningest coaches in women's basketball history, struggled on the recruiting trail her last few seasons in Champaign, particularly in state. Her last team, which finished 19-12 and 8-8 in the Big Ten, included only two players from Illinois.

Law said she'll immediately start working to fix that, trying to open doors particularly in Chicago. She said she's had success there before, convincing players like Tasha Pointer - a highly regarded guard who played at Rutgers and now is an assistant coach at Xavier.

``Starting today, that's what it's going to be about,'' she said, ``getting back in and opening those doors.''

Women's basketball recruiting analyst Mike Flynn called Law a good hire, but said she faces a stiff challenge.

Big Ten basketball tends to be less athletic and less appealing to gifted players than the game played by schools elsewhere in the country, he said.

``She's got a tough sell, along with a lot of schools in the Midwest, because the other national powers will come into this region and recruit the same limited number of talented athletes,'' said Flynn, director of Blue Star Basketball.

Law is also part of a period of turnover among Big Ten women's basketball coaches. She's the sixth new head coach hired by a Big Ten school in the past two years.

Pending university board of trustees approval, Illinois will pay Law $300,000 a year, athletic director Ron Guenther said. The school paid Grentz $262,000 a year.

Law, who is from Florence, S.C., was one of the few women to play for the Globetrotters. She played for the showboating team from 1990 to 1994, when she took her first coaching job as an assistant at Ball State University.

Guenther said a Globetrotters connection - former Illini player and current Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson - helped convince him Law was the right choice.

``'If you can get her, hire her,''' Guenther said Jackson told him.

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, who hired Law in 1995, said the 39-year-old should be a good fit at Illinois.

``Jolette is ready,'' Stringer said Friday in a statement. ``No coach could be prouder than I am to see one of their own take the next step.''

The Scarlet Knights finished last season at 27-9, won the school's first Big East tournament championship, and made it to the NCAA final, losing to Tennessee.

The team faced unwelcome off-court attention after the championship game, when radio host Don Imus referred to them as ``nappy-headed hos.'' That cost him his job.

Grentz came to Champaign after coaching the 1992 U.S. women's Olympic basketball team to a bronze medal. She led Illinois to its only Big Ten title, in 1997, and took the Illini to the postseason in 10 of her 12 seasons.

Grentz, a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, resigned less than two months after seeking a contract extension.