Head Coach: Angie Lee
Lee has to be the league's
most puzzling coach. She inherited a powerhouse when Vivian Stringer
ran off to Rutgers and she coached them to league championships in both
the regular season and the post-season tournament. In the process
she was named Coach of the Year in her first year as a head coach.
Although this is her first head coaching job, her 68.8 Big 10 winning percentage
ranks second to Rene Portand among current coaches. Her teams are
built around defense. They swarm, work hard and make teams pay for
mistakes. But Lee simply can't recruit. She has struggled to
fill her roster and routinely fails to meet her self-proclaimed recruiting
goals. Early in her tenure, she lost a number of players to transfer.
As a result, her roster in 1998 consisted of one senior, no juniors, 2
sophomores and 7 freshmen. She did not recruit as many players as
she wanted in either the early or late signing period this season.
Lee appears to get along well with her players and her public persona is certainly positive, her occasional rather strange comments notwithstanding.
She appears to be bright, personable and very likeable. For
some reason, high school kids don't seem to agree. She has
the skills to coach in the Big 10. Her ability to improve her recruiting
will ultimately determine her success at this level.