In The Beginning: How UC Is Rebuilding Its Women's Basketball Program

In the photo shown, UConn celebrates its national championship at the White House, a month before assistant coach Jamelle Elliott left the Huskies to join UC.

We're a good six weeks away from the official start of college basketball practice, but for Jamelle Elliott and the Cincinnati Bearcats, the 2009-2010 season started back in May.

That's when Coach Elliott was named head coach for the University of Cincinnati women's basketball team, her first-ever head coaching job.

In the process, she left behind a pretty comfortable position as an assistant at the University of Connecticut, where national titles have become as expected each winter as a good Nor'easter.

That day in May, the work began.

Because Coach Elliott not only has to build up the program from its 14-17 record last season, she also has to build up a fan base that is eager for a good dose of optimism. And let's face it, while nothing draws excitement around a team faster than winning, the expectation of better things to come is a pretty tasty appetizer of better days ahead.

And while the Bearcat coaching staff has been doing its work on the road most of the spring and summer recruiting and scouting, now comes the work at home—finding that Bearcat fan looking for a team to support.

So how do you do that? Coach Elliott worked on that this week, with a fan meet and greet at a local auto showroom. But before that, she and her staff had a free kids' basketball clinic. They've met fans under the hot sun at Kings Island. They'll hit the dorms and Greek houses when students return to campus.

But Coach Elliott has done more than that. She's met with former Bearcat players and coaches. She's asked advice. She's taken notes. And she's listened.

Programs don't often turn around on a dime. But Coach Elliott has a pretty good roadmap to follow, thanks to someone else on the Clifton campus, Brian Kelly, who's made Bearcat football 'must see' at UC.

And remember this, when Jamelle Elliott arrived at Storrs, Connecticut in 1992, the UConn women's team had just as many national titles as UC does now—zero. All successful programs have to start somewhere.

The UC Bearcats program starts with Jamelle Elliott.