Athletics Director Jim Schaus couldn't fit his excitement into just one simile. He needed two.
I feel like we just won the national championship
Schaus said. Or we just hit that half-court shot at the buzzer.
Schaus enthusiastically announced the hiring of Semeka Randall as Ohio's new women's basketball coach Friday ' just 10 days after Sylvia Crawley's departure to Boston College, but not soon enough as far as he was concerned.
When you know you know said Schaus, who added that Randall's name popped up over and over again in his research of potential candidates. She wants to be here and that's exciting ... As soon as we ran into her
search over.
She's the right person at the right time for this program.
Randall
29
was signed to a five-year contract and will make an annual salary of $142
000.
I want to take the Ohio Bobcats to the next level, Randall said. A level that will put us to the top of the map and manifest our dreams to get to that NCAA Tournament.
Like Crawley
Randall played four years in the Women's National Basketball Association. In her final season with the San Antonio Silver Stars
she played alongside Crawley
who Randall said contacted her to gauge her interest in the Ohio job.
Randall was as an assistant at Cleveland State for one year before holding a three-year stint as a Michigan State assistant from 2004-07
coaching Ohio transfer Jenny Poff in her final season as a Spartan. In 2005
