Women’s coach creates buzz

SEATTLE – The Washington pep band played its fight song as cheerleaders waved purple pompoms near Tia Jackson’s face. It was the beginning of the buzz that school administrators want back in their women’s basketball program.

Then there’s this: Washington is the first major college to have blacks coaching each of the three biggest sports programs.

Amid Friday’s pep-rally setting, the Huskies’ new women’s basketball coach caught the eye of an old friend, Tyrone Willingham.

Jackson delivered a smile and a coy wave to Washington’s football coach, her pal from when she was an assistant at Stanford. Then she walked past and was announced as Washington’s third women’s basketball coach in 22 years.

One night earlier, Jackson met with Willingham and Lorenzo Romar, her new colleague as men’s basketball coach.

“I’m going to pick their brains,” Jackson said.

It was an unprecedented gathering.

“No question, it’s unprecedented,” Willingham said over the band’s music about Washington’s new coaching triumvirate. “But in Tia, the number one thing is we have an outstanding person with an unbelievable passion.

“The quality of the people here outweighs the situation with us being minorities.”

That quality was worth Washington giving the 34-year-old Jackson, who has never been a head coach, a five-year contract that athletic director Todd Turner said will have an annual base salary of $180,000. The deal includes incentives based on performance, academics and administrative goals that could push the pay above $300,000 per year for the former assistant at Virginia Commonwealth, Stanford, UCLA and Duke.

“The salary is very competitive in the Pac-10, and exceptional for a first-time head coach,” Turner said.

Turner said he wanted to put “buzz” back into Washington women’s basketball when he fired June Daugherty and her entire staff on March 18. Friday, there was plenty of that.