USC Hires Stanley to Coach Women : She Won 3 U.S. Basketball Titles While at Old Dominion

USC announced Thursday that Marianne Stanley, who coached Old Dominion University to three national titles, has been hired to coach the Trojan women’s basketball team.

Stanley, 35, has most recently coached at the University of Pennsylvania, where she compiled a two-year record of 11-41.

Stanley was a two-time All-American point guard at Immaculata College, which in the 1970s was a power in the defunct Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. She has melded her intense, aggressive playing style with her coaching philosophy and is regarded as one of women’s basketball’s leading coaches.

“This is one of the highlights of my career, I’m thrilled,” Stanley said at a news conference at the school. She said she met briefly with some of the players and is looking forward to starting work.

“There is a great deal of work to be done,” she said. “I looked at that schedule and I think that’s probably Hollywood’s version of a death march. But this team will not back down from any challenge, I can promise you that. We are going to hit the ground with our feet flying.”

Stanley will leave today to begin recruiting, which officially starts July 1.

Stanley replaces Linda Sharp, who resigned May 24 after 12 years at USC to coach the women’s basketball team at Southwest Texas State. Stanley said she is bringing to USC her longtime assistant, Barbara Thaxton. Thaxton worked with Stanley for six years at Old Dominion and followed her to Penn.

Fred Williams, a USC assistant for six years, has been retained by Stanley.

Williams was one of the candidates for the position and was given “serious consideration,” according to Barbara Hedges, associate athletic director. Two of the final four candidates withdrew their names, leaving Williams and Stanley.

Stanley reportedly turned down a coaching job last month at the University of Rhode Island.

USC won consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles in 1983 and 1984, but the program has declined since. Last season, the Trojans were 12-16.

Stanley, who has a record of 280-100, is expected to produce a disciplined, defensive-minded team, in contrast to USC’s usual free-wheeling style of play.

“I like a running style,” Stanley said. “But more than that, I’m defense-oriented. All my teams have been defensive first.”

She said her philosophy might be summed up by a line from the film, “Stand by Me,” a story of the get-tough high school principal, Joe Clark. “He says, ‘Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm.’ I like that,” Stanley said.

Stanley’s teams at Old Dominion won the AIAW title in 1979 and 1980 and the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. title in 1985. Old Dominion also won the women’s NIT.

In 1979, Old Dominion was put on two years’ probation by the AIAW for a recruiting violation. Stanley was found to have visited the home of a recruit, a violation of AIAW rules. Under the terms of the probation, no university funds could be used for recruiting.

Stanley is a two-time national coach of the year and has extensive international coaching experience. Among the players she has coached are former Olympians Nancy Lieberman and Anne Donovan.

Stanley said that she thrives on pressure and is looking forward to the challenge of rebuilding USC’s program.

“Penn was pretty much a pressure-free situation,” she said. “One of the things I’ve learned about me is that I don’t like that kind of situation. I am an extremely competitive person. I like to be in a pressure situation.”

Stanley was inadvertently put under pressure Thursday as her plane was delayed a few hours and she nearly missed her news conference. She was rushed from LAX to USC and made this discovery: “I don’t think I like freeways.”