By MONTE DUTTON
I was thinking Thursday night that the best course for Furman women’s basketball would be to promote Pierre Curtis to succeed Jackie Carson as head coach. Completely independent of my thoughts, athletics director Jason Donnelly arrived at the same conclusion.
I don’t know Curtis – I’ve exchanged pleasantries, perhaps even bumped fists with him – but he’s aided Carson for 10 years – and in this time of transfer protocols and unprecedented mobility, I assume the stability of the hire will keep the team somewhat intact.
The quick hire of Curtis prevents uncertainty in the minds of returning players. They know him.
Carson’s last team took some unexpected casualties before the 2022-23 season even started. The best player, Tate Walters, tore an achilles tendon shortly before the season, and another starter, Niveya Henley, fell a summer ago to knee surgery. The result was an 11-19 season a year after the Paladins reached the finals of the Southern Conference Tournament.
Curtis recruited the 2022 SoCon Player of the Year, Tierra Hodges, the most relentless woman I’ve seen on a hardcourt. I am likely the only observer who likened Hodges to John Havlicek. At 5-9, she led the SoCon in rebounds and was third in scoring. She was fantastic. She told me that the secret of her success was never taking a shot she had not practiced over and over. I loved watching her.
My suspicion is that Carson’s departure to become a major administrator in the Atlantic Coast Conference was long in the works. In her final season, Carson seemed less interested in media coverage, a common occurrence in coaches who don’t expect to be around much longer. In ’21-22, I covered most of the team’s home games as well as the SoCon Tournament. I enjoyed interviewing her, and she frequently expressed her gratitude for my presence.
Early last season, I was at Timmons Arena for a 75-69 loss to Kennesaw State, and afterward Carson stiffed me for an interview. She didn’t refuse to talk. I just stood behind a partition outside the locker room and waited the way I always had. One of the security people tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hey, I think Jackie slipped out on you.”
I wouldn’t have been more surprised if she had poured Gatorade over my head. I didn’t cover another Furman game except for a doubleheader at The Well and the SoCon Tournament in Asheville, N.C. I would have been at other games, regardless of it being a lousy season, but I have the distaste most sportswriters have for subjects who seek exposure during the good times and anonymity during the bad. I watched several games on TV, but my stories were nameless. They were reports from a staff composed entirely of me.
Carson, though, is a likable person, and I wish her well overseeing the women’s teams of the ACC. A tiny part of her character is once avoiding me. I expect she didn’t long remember what I never forgot.
Nightrider's Lament 