Sterk gives Murrell more time to get program on winning track

PULLMAN – Jim Sterk has voiced his public support for women’s basketball coach Sherri Murrell, who just completed her fifth season at Washington State.

Murrell’s Cougars went 5-24 this season and finished last in the Pac-10 for the fourth time in her five years, going 1-18 against conference opponents.

While Sterk affirmed that he has every plan to bring Murrell back in 2007-08, the athletic director indicated that he is expecting better results sooner rather than later.

“We’re all disappointed this season didn’t turn out better,” Sterk said. “We’ve got to make this go and I’m supportive of her. I think she’s got a group that next year kind of makes a difference when they’re juniors and sophomores. And she needs to fill it in. But there needs to be improvement in that and she’s well aware and is pushing to do that.”

Murrell has compiled an overall record of 27-114, never winning more than two Pac-10 games in a season. After her second season, which included a ninth-place conference finish, Sterk gave Murrell a three-year extension that pushed the end date on her contract to 2010.

The coach also expressed her disappointment earlier this week, three days before her team was eliminated from the conference tournament in the first round by UCLA.

“I’m not pleased and I have to evaluate at the end of each season what’s going on and what we can do better,” said Murrell, who has managed to maintain at least a bit of her sense of humor through the on-court struggles. “This program in 24 years has had one winning Pac-10 season. I didn’t have my dad come in here to help me out. And thank God he didn’t; he’s a plumber by trade.”

Murrell declined to say specifically if she intended to complete her contracted time at WSU, but said she was happy with the support structure around her.

“I’m a Cougar basketball coach, that’s for sure,” she said. “I love this place. This place has been great and supportive and I love my kids.”

In her evaluation process, Murrell said she planned to examine the makeup of her coaching staff, especially with an eye toward recruiting.

The Cougars have been unable to bring in the caliber of player needed to compete in a major conference, even though the Spokane area has churned out Division I talent at a remarkable rate. (Only one player on last year’s team, senior Adriane Ferguson, grew up in the area.)

Sterk said he’ll give Murrell the latitude to do what she thinks is necessary.

“We have talked about that and whether we need to look at recruiting, every facet,” Sterk said. “I think she’ll evaluate that and come to me with what she wants to do.”

WSU’s top player this season was a freshman, Marisa Stotler, and Murrell has indicated that she hopes to build her program in the future around the forward. But after five years of building with little in the way of on-court success to show for it, the coach has to hope that Stotler and her teammates manage to improve in a hurry.

“We’ve got a young team – it seems like we always have a young team – but the youth here, we’ve got to make sure that they get better,” Murrell said. “We’re evaluating whether the players got better along the season, too, so that’s something we have to sit down and look at.”