TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Nolan Richardson resigned as coach and general manager of the WNBA's Tulsa Shock, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press early Saturday.
The Shock are off to a 1-10 start in their second season in Tulsa and are on pace to have the worst victory total over two seasons in league history. Richardson's last game was an 86-78 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the move.
First-round draft pick Elizabeth Cambage said after the game that something needed to change for the Shock, who won only six games last season and aren't showing many signs of improvement.
"People keep saying, `There's change coming. There's change coming.' Well, I don't see any change really," Cambage said. "We've changed a few players. Where's the change?"
Now, she'll be moving on with a change at the top.
Richardson, who led Arkansas to an NCAA men's championship, was 7-38 in his first endeavor as a women's coach. He attempted to adapt his trademark "40 Minutes of Hell" style to the WNBA game, but it didn't immediately take with a roster stripped down when several All-Stars refused to make the move from Detroit with the franchise.
"We want to win quick," team president Steve Swetoha said during the game. "We do want to be sustainable. We can't afford to keep having losing seasons.
"We're ahead of our season ticket base by 20 percent, and can you imagine when we start winning games the amount of people that will now be more interested in coming out. You look at our record. We're 1-8, 1-9. Now, do I want to spend my discretionary income to do this?"
Team owners met privately with Richardson after the game at the BOK Center.
"I think winning breeds success, success breeds winning," Swetoha said. "We've got to win to be successful here. That's a big part of it. We didn't build our budgets to have losing teams."
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