Pam Borton

In less than one year, Pam Borton went from being on top of the world to being under it.  In her first three years at Minnesota, she had put together a truly enviable record and had had much success in recruiting.  Her future, and the future of her program, looked strong. 

But that was a year ago. 

In about three months, she managed to undo all the good things and leave both her future and the future of her program in serious jeopardy.  In early February, her Gophers played the top three teams in the Big 10.  Not only did they lose all three games, but they were blown out in all three.  Borton did not handle the defeats well.  There were not adjustments apparent.  Publicly she simply mouthed platitudes.  That really is fine if she has more substantive things to say to her team.  There is no indication that she did. 

As the Gophers tumbled, she simply panicked.  Her team’s first round NCAA loss was one of the worst coached games in recent memory.  Her more than a little strange decisions cost her team any chance it had of winning.  After the game, her behavior was totally classless.  She took no responsibility and instead lashed out at her players, especially Jamie Broback. 

Her comments, and apparent attitude, accurately reflected a much larger problem that she was having with her players.  Borton is not a warm and fuzzy person.  Some say that she is not bright.  It is undisputable that she had significant problems with her players.  After the season five of the eight players scheduled to return in 2006 left the program.  Included in the departures was all but one of her high profile recruits. 

The team she takes to the court in Oct 2006 will have only three players with any experience and only one who has played a significant amount.  This is not the first time that Borton has faced a player revolt.  In her fourth season at Vermont, a similar situation occurred.  At that time she left for an assistant job at Boston College.  This time she’s going to stay and try to fight through things.  It will be very, very difficult for her to do so. 

Minnesota is not a traditional power in women’s basketball.  Almost all of the success that the program has had has come in the past few years.  When a program is trying to make the jump to elite, coaches generally don’t get second chances with recruits.  Borton managed to sell some high profile players on her vision and her program.  Most of them have left because they were unhappy with her.  That will make it much harder for her to lure top players to Minnesota in the future. 

Borton clearly didn’t learn from her experiences at Vermont.  She says she will this time.  She may or may not, but it may well be too late even if she does.

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