WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Pokey Chatman To Coach Russian Team
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Former LSU Lady Tigers Head Coach Pokey Chatman has accepted a lucrative coaching position with Spartak, a professional basketball team based in Russia, WAFB's Greg Meriwether reports.
Chatman says she accepted the job Thursday and plans to begin work in October. Chatman says she will be living in Russia about six months out of the year.
Chatman resigned from LSU last March amid allegations she had an inappropriate relationship with a former player. Chatman was a highly successful and decorated coach at LSU, having taken the Lady Tigers to three consecutive Final Fours beginning in 2004.
BACKGROUND FROM NBA.COM: The Spartak Moscow Region women's basketball club was founded in 1949. They play in suburban Moscow. Spartak gradually became one of the top teams in the Soviet Union and in Russia. They won their first title in 1967, the "All-Soviet Winter Games." In the years 1968-1982, Spartak won one USSR Championship, was runner-up seven times and took third-place once. Spartak also excelled in Europe, winning the Lilian Ronchetti Cup three times (1977, 1981, 1982).
For the past quarter-century Spartak has been less successful. They took third place in the 1993 Russian Championships. In 2007, in Russia, the team placed fourth and in Europe it won the prestigious FIBA Eurocup, becoming the first Russian Club ever to win both the Ronchetti Cup as well as the FIBA Europe Cup.
WAFB 9SPORTS WILL HAVE MORE ON CHATMAN'S NEW JOB ON WAFB 9NEWS AT SIX.
