Tennille Adams’ relationship with Merriweather goes back even farther with the two crossing paths on the coaching and recruiting circuits the last 15 years.
“When I had my first head coaching job (at Howard University), I talked to her about coming to work with me,” Adams said. “And when she first got this job, she talked to me about coming with her. It was just a matter of the timing finally working out.”
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The associate head coach spot opened when Keith Freeman left to join the staff at Old Dominion, and Merriweather knew who she would call first. Not just because she was friends with Adams, but she was tired of recruiting against Adams, who had been the associated head coach at Ball State the last three years.
“We’ve always done a really good job of recruiting in Illinois, and then Tenille gets to Ball State and I knew she was really strong in Illinois, too,” Merriweather said. “So we did bump heads a couple times and in all actuality, Ball State beat us.”
The idea of recruiting together has both of them excited.
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“Maybe now we can go and double-team some kids and maybe steal some kids people don’t think we’re supposed to have,” Adams said. “I’m really excited from that standpoint.”
Merriweather said Adams is just as strong with Xs and Os and developing post players as she is in recruiting.
“And she really buys into taking care of kids, which is a huge thing for me and our entire athletic department,” Merriweather said. “She just exemplifies everything we want to have here.”
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Jump, who graduated from WSU in 2015, returns home after spending the last two seasons as an assistant at Morehead State, where she helped lead the Eagles to their first postseason appearance since 2010.
“I really liked my situation there, really liked my boss and the staff I worked with, and we brought in a really good team and had a lot of success,” Jump said. “But getting into this profession, Katrina is one of my mentors that I talk to a lot throughout the season. And when she asked me if I was interested in coming back home, I didn’t even have to think about it.”
Jump, who helped guide WSU to a 84-49 record as a player and led the Horizon League in 3-point percentage as a senior, said she knew her freshman year that she wanted to get into coaching. And when an injury sidelined her for the first half of her senior season, she spent a lot of time in Merriweather’s office “picking her brain.”
“It kind of feels like it’s come full circle of being this 19 year old asking Katrina advice about coaching and how to get into it, and now I’m sitting in her office for recruiting meetings,” Jump said. “You can’t dream up a more perfect dream.”
Jump fills the vacancy created by the departure of Semeka Randall, who took an assistant job at Cincinnati.
Merriweather also made another move, promoting Ashley Barlow to recruiting coordinator. Barlow has been with the program since 2016 after spending three seasons as an assistant at Evansville and two at IUPUI after graduating from Notre Dame, where she remains the only player in Fighting Irish history — male or female — to record at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 250 assists and 250 steals in a career.
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“Ashley has done a tremendous job recruiting the past two years,” Merriweather said. “She has handled a great amount of responsibility, as well as continued to grow her recruiting network. She has proven that she is more than capable of doing the job already and continue to carry out her other duties. I’m excited for her to have the opportunity to show she is one of the talented young coaches in the business.”
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