Because there just wasn’t enough breaking news in women’s college basketball today:
• Diamond DeShields is reportedly transferring from North Carolina after just one season;
• And Beth Bass is stepping down as the chief executive officer of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.
The WBCA issued the announcement about Bass’ departure Thursday afternoon, indicating that chief operating officer Shannon Reynolds will serve as interim CEO.
The release said that the organization’s board “will appoint a search committee, hire a search firm, solicit input from key stakeholders and select a new staff leader who can guide the organization and women’s basketball to the next level.”
There was no estimate on how long that process might take, or what getting to “the next level” might entail.
This will mark only the second time that the WBCA will be seeking new leadership at the top. Bass was hired in 2001 to succeed Betty Jaynes, the WBCA’s first executive director and CEO. Jaynes, who served as a WBCA consultant since her retirement as CEO, died in February. 
Bass said that “the time is right for someone who not only loves the game as much as I do, but who also has a fresh perspective and new ideas. While the decision to leave has been difficult, I’m convinced that the future of this organization and the sport of women’s basketball is extraordinarily strong.”
Current WBCA president Sue Semrau of Florida State and past president Doug Bruno of DePaul hailed Bass’ tenure in the release.
Among the notable WBCA achievements in recent years was what is now known as the Play4Kay breast cancer fundraising and awareness initiative, in honor of the late N.C. State coach Kay Yow.
Beth’s energy and enthusiasm have been boundless, and her fellow coaches made that point strongly today on social media. Her love for the game, the WBCA and the coaches and people she came to know along the way are genuine.
And this clearly has been a difficult time for so many within the organization with Betty’s passing.
The last few years I’ve written about the major generational transformation going on within the coaching ranks, and issues going on within the sport that eventually prompted the Val Ackerman White Paper on women’s basketball.
When the topic of coaching salaries was a hot media topic a few years ago, Beth offered this cautionary comment, and it’s something I think of often while referring to Ackerman’s report:
“You have to be careful what you wish for. You have to be careful of the devil at the bottom of the wishing well. … You’re going to be held to the same standard as on the men’s side. We have make sure we’re ready to go for what comes with that.”
The sport of women’s college basketball, and in particular at the highest levels of the game, is at a rather significant crossroads. A younger generation of coaches is gradually populating important posts in the WBCA hierarchy (including the current roster of the board of directors).
At the WBCA convention in Nashville, a day-long marketing seminar was held, inspired by the Ackerman report, that board member and Toledo coach Tricia Cullop organized and is hopeful of continuing in future years.
I talked to Tricia at the Final Four and will be posting more about this very shortly, because I gathered there is a changing sense of responsibility, at least among some coaches, of “taking ownership” (I hate the cliché but that’s the best way to describe it) for many of the so-called business aspects of the job.
At the marketing event, Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly told his peers that “marketing and promotions is like breathing. Do it or die.”
Beth Bass and the WBCA have been very business-like during her tenure, but I also sense there’s an eagerness for new ideas and energy in the post-Ackerman environment.
I don’t know if any of this is related to Bass’ decision to leave, but here’s one other thing for now: When the WBCA revealed its high school All-America team in February, it also announced it would not stage its All-America game at the Final Four. The reason cited was “declining sponsorship revenue and the rising cost of operating the game,” and that funding the event from existing resources would result in “redirecting money from services the association’s membership rate more highly.”
At the time, Bass said the decision to suspend the game was “financially responsible and necessary. . . We will explore the feasibility of reinstating the game in future years if new sponsorship revenues are made available.”
That decision, and many others, will be left up to Bass’ successor.
