The Ole Miss women’s basketball program has made a questionable hire which is already being described as “sickening.”
The team announced the appointment of Quentin Hillsman as an assistant coach this week, and it’s resulted in some backlash.
According to The Athletic’s Chantel Jennings, she received a text from a player who once played for Hillsman and was disgusted by the hire.
“A text message popped up on my phone on Wednesday afternoon,” Jennings wrote. “So sickening,” the message read with an included tweet from the Ole Miss women’s basketball account announcing its hiring of Quentin Hillsman as an assistant coach on head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s staff.”
Fans would recall that Hillsman was forced to resign from his position as Syracuse head coach after he was accused of threats and vulgar language toward his players.
That Ole Miss would choose to add him to their coaching staff has taken many people by surprise.
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“The hiring by Ole Miss isn’t just damaging and dismissive to those women and others who experienced this treatment under Hillsman at Syracuse,” Jennings wrote. “It’s damaging to all the players at other institutions who haven’t yet come forward, or the ones who’ve considered coming forward and thought instead, ‘What’s the point?’”
You can see some of the reactions from social media below:
The New Ole Miss Assistant Coach Has A Checkered Past
An investigation conducted by The Athletic in 202 led to accusations from nine women who claimed Hillsman was prone to threats. One former player claimed he would always vow to beat members of the team up.
Others recalled an incident in which he stood in front of every player in the locker room during halftime and told them, “I don’t give a F- about you. Another player said she felt violated after he wrapped his hands around her from behind and put his hands near her pelvic area. He brushed it off as a joke.
Back in 2010, Hillsman allegedly kept an inhaler from an asthmatic player during sprints and threatened to bench her if she used it.
It’s certainly an interesting hire by Ole Miss. Whether the program decides to address the concerns regarding his past behavior remains to be seen.
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