The process included a call earlier in the week to former Temple head coach Dawn Staley , who Johnson quizzed about the qualities to look for and some feedback on the candidates they were going to speak to. By the time Staley and her South Carolina Gamecocks raised the national championship trophy on Sunday night, Johnson had made up his mind. Diane Richardson center poses with members of the Temple University women's basketball team.
Photo courtesy Temple Athletics. Her reputation as a program builder precedes her. Towson had only ever had one win season and one postseason appearance prior to her time on campus. She did both of those things twice. Though she stressed that she will continue to build the brand of Temple nationally and touted that she has been keeping an eye on Philadelphia hoops from afar for a long time, her roots in the DMV keep Temple in an important hotbed.
That area has been fruitful for the program in the past, producing all-time leading scorer Mia Davis and three current players. Richardson got her start in coaching as the head coach at Riverdale Baptist High School where she had two stints.
The group is over its last five seasons and has not won an NCAA tournament game in over a decade. One of the first things she did was talk to the strength and conditioning staff about what it takes to play for her team, a conversation that she said generated excitement.
Off the court, she has the culture she is looking to instill. There are the obvious introductory presser things, talk of molding young people and helping them get to where they want to go in life. Richardson, a former student-athlete herself at Frostburg State, is looking for her team to develop habits.
