If it was not quite in the tradition of a president leaving behind a handwritten letter for their successor in the Oval Office, that’s because Tricia Cullop’s office at Toledo was rectangular.
Before Cullop finished packing up her work home — filled with milestone basketballs and framed newspaper covers and 16 seasons of memories — she took a moment last Monday to pen a note to the next Rockets women’s basketball coach.
It was short and sweet, congratulations and well wishes. She slipped it in the top drawer of her desk.
“I hope you enjoy this job as much as I did,” Cullop wrote, before signing off: “Here’s my phone number, if you ever need anything. I’ll be there for you.”
“I hope they know that I mean that,” she said.
Cullop didn’t yet know who she was writing to, but, the very next day, the addressee sat in the same seat and opened the letter.
Ginny Boggess was moved.
“You walk into that office for the first time and it's empty and a shell of the space that once held a very prominent figure,” the new Toledo coach said. “To open the drawer, and see a letter from coach … when you sit down and read a handwritten letter, you just pause. We don’t see that often these days, right? It was a moment of gratitude and gave me an even deeper realization of how important this transition is to everybody involved. It meant a lot to me.”
Call it Cullop’s final gift to Toledo.
I don’t mean the letter.
I mean what her small act of kindness and grace represents.
When Cullop tells you she wants the best for Toledo and its new coach — and she’s high on Boggess, for the record — she’s not putting us on.
That might seem unremarkable.
But these days — in a free-agency era that makes it difficult for programs to sustain momentum through a coaching change — her actions are a notable gust of fresh air.
Face it: A lot of coaches leave a school and never look back, their former players scattering like pollen in a spring breeze. It’s as if they were never there at all. (In a perfect summation of the times, new Arkansas coach John Calipari said last week: “I met with the team. There is no team.”)
Cullop, meanwhile, is proud of her work at Toledo, and she wants the players she cares for to continue building on their success.
When a reporter asked Cullop at her introductory press conference in Miami if she expected any UT players to follow her south, she said … nope (and not because a couple of them couldn’t have provided valuable depth on the Hurricanes).
“When I parted with them, I wished them the very best and I asked them to give the new coach a chance,” Cullop said. “I hope that they stay, simply because I think that is the best place for them. I love that team. When I left [Toledo], that was one of the hardest things we've done, because that's a six-year relationship in some cases. Two, three years recruiting, then coaching them. To have it dropped in their lap that, hey, I’m leaving, that’s not easy.
“But they are great kids. They just made a great hire and they'll be fine. I will still be cheering for them from a distance. But the answer is no, and for good reason. They're in the place where we recruited them to be and I hope that they stay there, because I do think they have a chance to win their fourth championship in a row.”
Again, it’s a nice message to hear these days.
That’s not to suggest players should or shouldn’t stay. They ought to do what is right for them, same as athletes anywhere. (If coaches can freely leave, they deserve similar rights.)
But there is something to be said for a closely knit group remaining together, and that appears where Toledo is headed. Remarkably, no players have entered the portal since Cullop moved on, meaning the Rockets — despite losing stars Quinesha Lockett and Sophia Wiard to graduation — are tentatively set to return six of their top eight scorers (UT’s four 2024 recruits — including Toledo Christian star Kendall Braden — also remain committed).
While Boggess will no doubt add her own twists to the roster — and some movement would be natural — the Rockets next season may yet look familiar, after all.
That’s exactly as the new coach wants it.
The former one, too.
“Sometimes, it gets lost by the fans and public how hard it probably was for Tricia to make that decision to leave, and how hard it was for me to leave Monmouth,” Boggess said. “But the one thing everybody does know is these players didn’t choose it and they can’t change it. My number one focus is taking care of those young women whose lives just got shook, and they are the reason I hopped on a plane and rushed up [to Toledo].
“I wanted to make sure they know who I am, to feel my energy, and ask all the questions you could possibly ask. … I wanted to make sure they know I am for them, that Toledo chose them, and I am choosing them. I want them to choose me and continue to choose Toledo, and the biggest thing is they are. They are continuing to choose each other. The future of this program is very, very bright.”
First Published April 14, 2024, 9:57 p.m.
