Coaching changes mark a busy time for the FIU and Barry women’s basketball teams

The Miami Hurricanes signed a player, the FIU Panthers hired a coach, and the Barry Bucs are in the middle of a national search for a person to run their program.

In short, it’s been a busy few weeks for three of South Florida’s biggest women’s basketball programs.

Over at Barry, Bill Sullivan retired last month after 44 years in coaching, including 21 with the Bucs. Of those 21 years, he spent seven seasons as an assistant coach in men’s basketball. The past 14 years, Sullivan was the head coach of Barry’s women’s team, compiling a 206-192 record and leaving as the program’s wins leader.

“All five of our starters will be back next season,” said Sullivan, 69. “The program is in good shape. I thought this was a good time to step down.”

Sullivan’s 44-year career was spent coaching in Miami-Dade, a remarkable run that is one of the longest in county history.

For 15 seasons, he coached the Coral Gables High boys’ program, a span that includes one of his favorite memories — a playoff victory againsts Killian and its NBA-bound guard Raja Bell.

There was also a five-overtime win while he coached at Miami Edison.

At Barry, Sullivan also recalls a miraculous win against Rollins that included a banked-in, half-court shot that forced overtime.

Meanwhile, FIU has hired former University of South Florida assistant Jesyka Burks-Wiley to replace Tiara Malcolm, who had a tough record in four years running the Panthers program: 24-92 overall and 13-55 in Conference USA.

The Panthers haven’t finished with a winning record since 2013, when coach Cindy Russo led them to a 19-13 record. But that was the last of Russo’s 20 consecutive winning seasons, and she resigned in the middle of the 2014-2015 season.

There has been no progress since then as Marlin Chinn was fired after one season that included a 5-26 record.

Now, Malcolm has given way to Burks-Wiley, a Kansas City native who played at the University of Boston and also professionally in Romania, Finland and Portugal.

She has spent the past eight seasons as an assistant, most recently at Boston College and USF.

On the player side, there’s 5-10 point guard Karla Erjavec, who is Miami’s newest recruit.

Erjavec, a native of Croatia, is transferring from the University of Wyoming. She has two years of eligibility remaining and will have to sit out 2020-2021 unless she can get some sort of waiver.

A two-year starter, Erjavec averaged 8.0 points, 3.5 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 53 games at Wyoming. She earned praise for her vision, passing and decision-making.

WNBA DRAFT

On Feb. 10, 2015, Miami High and Beatrice Mompremier defeated Flanagan and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, 49-47, in an epic girls’ basketball regional semifinal state playoff game.

Mompremier, who had 30 points, 17 rebounds, five blocks and made 6-of-6 free throws against Flanagan, went on to lead Miami High to its second straight state title, becoming a McDonald’s All-American along the way. Harrigan, who had 19 points, never won a state title. In fact, that was as close as she got.

Since then, however, things got much better for Harrigan, who won a national title at South Carolina as a freshman and was the team’s leading scorer as a senior, when the Gamecocks finished the abbreviated season ranked No. 1 in the country.

Last Friday, Harrigan earned Broward-Dade bragging rights as she was the sixth pick in the WNBA Draft. Her rookie salary will be $65,250.

Mompremier, who surprisingly slipped to No. 20 in the draft, will earn $57,000 if she is able to make the veteran-laden Los Angeles Sparks team, which won’t be easy.