Destruction in Need of a Solution

The Oregon State University women's basketball team is in a state of dysfunction and disintegration. Star players are leaving (several have already gone) and the University and media are strangely silent. Charismatic coach LaVonda Wagner appears to be at the heart of the problem

By the end of last season, which can only be described as a debacle, it was clear that something was VERY WRONG.  That wreck of a season included a 16-game losing streak from a team that had started the season young and inexperienced but with promising sparks.  It was a downward spiral.  Every fan I spoke with criticized LaVonda's "strategy" of incessant substitutions.  How can a 5-player team gel, when they never get to play together longer than a few minutes?  How can a player improve, when she gets pulled off the court and publicly berated every time she makes a mistake?

Does this seem like an inconsequential thing to be commenting on?  It is not world peace; it is not health reform.  I know that.  But when you follow a team, you get to care about the people.  You get to think you know them (even though you know you don't).  They get to be part of your life.  For example, I'm going to miss Talisa Rhea, and I'm sorry that what became her last season at OSU turned into such a disaster.  I'm going to miss the OSU announcer celebrating, "That's a three-a for Rhe-a!" several times during any typical game.  When she was on, she could light up the court (and the scoreboard).  And how hard must it be to leave your team and your school for your last year?  Now she has to sit out a year before she can play again (NCAA rules).  How hard will that be?  And will she be able to come back at anything like the level she could have been?  What a waste.  And, to date, no solution.