Haigh resigns as SFU women’s coach
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Two of Joe Haigh's daughters, Teresa and Anna, will battle it out tonight on opposing teams when Bishop Guilfoyle Catholic plays host to Bishop Carroll Catholic, and dear old dad will get to be on hand to watch.
It's an opportunity Haigh treasures, and an opportunity he has time to enjoy now that he's no longer a college basketball head coach.
"This is the last time they'll compete against each other, and if I was coaching, I'd miss it," Haigh said. "I'd be out on the road. I've missed so much of it. So, being able to be there for that game (tonight) is a good thing."
Saint Francis finally made it official Thursday when it announced Haigh had resigned as women's basketball coach for personal reasons.
Haigh told the Mirror, "I'm sad to be leaving," and added he had a "really good 10 years" with the Red Flash.
Thursday's announcement was long expected, since Haigh took a leave of absence just a week into the season on Nov. 13. Still, the timing of the whole situation was odd from the beginning, opening up a lot of questions about what was really going on.
Haigh, after all, led Saint Francis to the NCAA Tournament last year, and the Red Flash were picked to finish second in the league this season.
Haigh was asked if there was anything more to the situation, and if the decision to leave was entirely his call.
"It was all my decision," he said. "It was a tough one to make, a really sad one. It's not an easy decision at all. But I had to make it for my kids."
Haigh would not elaborate on any of his specific reasons, but he did say he hopes to coach again at some point.
"Yeah, I will," he said. "Right now I'm getting through things with my kids, then I will look at other options."
Saint Francis athletic director Susan Robinson Fruchtl has been serving as interim head coach of the women's team and will continue to do so the rest of the season.
"I won't be the coach next year," Robinson Fruchtl said, adding the school will conduct a search for the new coach after the season.
The Red Flash are 8-12 overall and tied for third place in the Northeast Conference with a 5-3 mark.
Robinson Fruchtl has handled both the coaching and AD duties since Haigh's departure in mid-November.
"Doing two jobs, you can't put enough time into either one," she said. "When I left Providence, I left the coaching. … I didn't come back to Saint Francis to coach."
Robinson Fruchtl, a former star player at Penn State, had been SFU's head coach from 2007-12 before becoming head coach at Providence. Haigh, an assistant with the Red Flash at the time, was promoted to take over the program and went 93-100 overall and 66-42 in the NEC during his tenure.
Haigh enjoyed success with Saint Francis, but it didn't come without controversy and second guessing.
When he first replaced Robinson Fruchtl, Haigh ran a traditional system with the Red Flash. But he eventually made a drastic change when he implemented an ultra fast-paced tempo designed after the old Loyola-Marymount system, made popular by coach Paul Westhead and star players Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble.
The system produces tons of shots and lots of points, and turned SFU players such as Alli Williams, Alexa Hayward and Jess Kovatch into scoring sensations over the years. Kovatch, now a senior, is the career scoring leader in the NEC -- men or women -- with 2,588 points, and she's second in NCAA history in made 3-pointers with 425.
Haigh admitted the wacky system has its detractors within the sport, but would not say if there were some at Saint Francis.
"Yes, it is (controversial) in basketball, and it's especially controversial in women's basketball," Haigh said.
The Red Flash suffered an embarrassing 88-point loss to juggernaut UConn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year, with Haigh sticking with the fast pace from start to finish in a 140-52 defeat.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma was placed in an odd position of having to defend his team's huge blowout, even though the final score was made possible in large part because of Saint Francis' style of play.
"That's one of the strangest things I've ever seen," Auriemma said after the game. "The pace of the game was unlike anything that you would expect in a tournament game like this. It's like watching one of those old Loyola-Marymount games."
Saint Francis shot an NCAA Tournament record 57 3-pointers in the game, making only 10, and Haigh said he felt like continuing to play his style was the right thing to do regardless of the outcome.
"There was only one chance that we would have had to come close in this game, and that was going to be to shoot a million 3s and hope that they go in," Haigh said after the game. "So, we shot a million 3s, and we didn't make them."
What should have been a great achievement by the Saint Francis program getting to the NCAA Tournament instead became somewhat of a joke within the sport.
"I don't regret playing this system because it accomplished the things I wanted to do -- it brought attention to Saint Francis, we were able to win with it, the people who enjoyed it really really liked it," Haigh said.
However, sources have told the Mirror over the past year that the debacle against UConn did not sit well with some people at Saint Francis.
Robinson Fruchtl was asked if she had any issues with Haigh's unorthodox system.
"Every coach is different," she said. "I'm never going to say about any coach's system, 'Oh, that doesn't work.' Because it did work. He got kids in here that can run his system, and we won championships with it. ... He did a really good job of recruiting players to fit his system."
The AD then was asked if the system rubbed some people at Saint Francis the wrong way.
"I think every system rubs people the wrong way," Robinson Fruchtl said. "There's going to be critics of every system. I'm sure there's critics of my system -- 'Oh, you're not scoring as much.'"
Robinson Fruchtl inherited a team with Kovatch and good scorers, and while they don't run and gun as much as in Haigh's system, they still can put up points. The Red Flash exploded for a 107-70 win over Wagner their last time out.
Asked if the squad has a realistic goal of winning the NEC and getting back to the NCAA Tournament, Robinson Fruchtl said, "We certainly can shoot the ball well enough to win it."
Haigh said the Saint Francis program is in good hands with Robinson Fruchtl.
"She's a championship coach," he said. "That made the decision (to resign) much easier to walk away, knowing what we've built over the last 10 years is in good hands now."
As for his own future, Haigh plans to enjoy watching his daughters play high school ball and getting to spend time at home with his wife and five kids. But he now needs a job, and ultimately, depending on how things work out, he would like to coach again in college.
"Coaching, I'm good at it," he said. "I'll look at other things and pursue all options. But if I can coach somewhere and support our family, that's my first love."