The press conference announcing former UConn assistant coach Jamelle Elliott as the new coach at Cincinnati will be airing live on the Cincinnati website.

I'll have to say the biggest challenge ahead of Elliott won't actually be winning games it will be changing the culture in the program and the program's visibility. By my count, 13 of Cincinnati's home games last season drew fewer than 500 fans.

Her first order of business will be putting together a staff quickly so they can hit the ground running by the time coaches are allowed to go back on the road in July. Tari Cummings is the only assistant coach still listed on the team roster while the bio of director of basketball operations Tomeka Brown also has her bio still up on the website. The Bearcats do return three of their four top scorers from last season including leading scorer Kahla Roudebush so Elliott may not have too much work to do to turn around Cincinnati's on-court fortunes.

If I were Elliott (luckily for her I am not) my first call would go to former Georgetown head coach Pat Knapp, recently let go at Pennsylvania. Knapp is a close friend of UConn coach Geno Auriemma's and certainly knows the Big East thanks to his 18-year stint with the Hoyas and being that Elliott is a native of Washington, D.C., it could be a decent fit. Sure, Knapp is a bit quirky like the time when he opted not to get on the team bus after a particularly poor effort by his team at Gampel Pavilion and chose to get a cab to take him to Hartford. Anybody who has ever been in Storrs can attest to how difficult that could be. Have you ever seen a taxi in Storrs? Me neither. Naturally, it would not be a shock if Elliott placed a call to former UConn star Mel Thomas, a Cincinnati native. Something tells me that the competitor in Thomas wants to at least see if she can make the Seattle Storm first before she decides to give coaching a try but the chance to get a job in her hometown on the staff of one of her former college coaches could be pretty enticing. Next, I would look to get a staff member with ties to the Ohio high school scene since I would think keeping some of the in-state prospects in state would be a major priority.