Suzy Merchant to Michigan State

Looks like it will be announced as soon as today.

Congratulations Coach Hutchins

On win 1000 at Michigan.

Suzy Merchant a candidate for MSU's job

From the Detroit Free Press:

Eastern Michigan's Suzy Merchant is a candidate for the women's basketball coaching job at Michigan State.

"Michigan State called and asked for permission to talk to Suzy," Eastern Michigan athletic director Derrick Gragg said Friday. I spoke to Ron Mason today, and I gave him permission."

Mason is MSU's athletic director, and he is trying to replace the most successful coach in MSU history, Joanne P. McCallie, who accepted the Duke job last week.

I've seen Curt Miller and Melanie Balcomb's names mentioned as well - sounds a lot like Michigan's search.

Sue Guevara

Today's Ann Arbor News has a column by Jim Carty about former Michigan and new Central Michigan coach Sue Guevara. I don't know too much about the ins and outs of high school recruiting, but I found this interesting:

She began building her new coaching staff with one of the most respected high school coaches in the state, Kathy McGee, who won 599 games at Powers Catholic in Flint.

It will be interesting to see if the new coaching hires at U of M, MSU & CMU combined with the change in girls basketball seasons in Michigan will change the balance of power in the state.

Not so fast - UWGB is still looking

Apparently SDSU's Aaron Johnston had a change of heart and decided to stay in South Dakota. Ironically, Kevin Borseth did something similar with the Colorado job a couple of years back.

Wisconsin Green-Bay has a new coach

They have named Aaron Johnston, coach of South Dakota State. (SDSU has been transitioning from NCAA Division II to Division I).

Mike Williams to be assistant coach

From the Grand Rapids Press:

ALLENDALE -- The wait to become the next women's basketball coach at Grand Valley State proved too long for Mike Williams.

Williams, who served the past five seasons at Grand Valley State as associate coach to Dawn Plitzuweit, has decided to join Plitzuweit on the new coaching staff at the University of Michigan as its top assistant.

Penn State has a new coach

Looks like it will be Coquese Washington, associate head coach at Notre Dame. Kentucky is supposed to name their new coach today as well. That leaves two Big Ten openings - Illinois & Michigan state. I think for now those are the only ones in BCS conferences, though a number of smaller schools are still looking.

Offseason

Posting has started to slow down and will probably stay that way. Michigan has their new coach, and while there will be a few news items, not much is really expected to happen until shortly before the season starts. Michigan has only one open scholarship and unless a Ta'Shia Phillips or someone of that ilk decides to come to Ann Arbor, recruiting news ill probably be sparse as well.

There are still three Big 10 coaching openings (Penn State, Illinois, & Michigan State), so there will be a bit of news in the coming weeks.

Letter from Coach Borseth

This email was sent out yesterday. (A similar one was sent by Coach Beilein.)

M-Mail
University of Michigan Athletics

April 19, 2007



Dear Michigan Family and Friends:

I want to thank you for the gracious welcome and well wishes you gave Coach Beilein and me Tuesday night at the rally. I was thrilled to have an opportunity to meet each one of you and express how much it means to me to being wearing Maize and Blue and representing this fine institution. Dawn and I have been welcomed into the community with open arms, and both of us appreciate all the support that has been shown to us so far.

I'm excited to begin the task of taking our women's basketball program to the next level. These young women are so proud to wear the Block M, and, with your help, we look forward to turning the corner next season and making you proud to be a Michigan fan.

On behalf of our coaching staff and student-athletes, I invite all of you out to Crisler Arena next season to show your continued support of both programs. This is an exciting time for Michigan Basketball, and we're happy to share this experience with our loyal fans.

I look forward to seeing all of you at Crisler next season! Thank you again for your support, and have a safe and prosperous summer.

GO BLUE!

Kevin Borseth
Head Coach

Video Interview with Kevin Borseth

Free, on rivals.com. "We have nowhere to go but up, and we're going."

First Varsity Letter Reception and Ceremony

The ceremony for all winter sports at U of M was held April 11th. If you click on the link to the Photo Gallery, you'll find in the slide show a group photo of the four women's players who earned their first letter - Sireece Bass, Kalyn McPherson, Krista Phillips & LeQuisha Whitfield.

Melanie Balcomb

In addition to being contacted by Michigan during their coaching search, apparently Vanderbilt's Melanie Balcomb apparently interviewed with Penn State, but then withdrew from consideration. I've seen her name mentioned (as speculation, nothing more) in relation to Duke, Illinois and Michigan State as well.

Big 10 going to 18 conference games

The change is for both Men's & Women's basketball. Sounds like it was motivated, in part, by troubles scheduling smaller schools:

What fueled the schedule change was the difficulty that Big Ten, and other major conference schools, faced each year filling out their nonconference schedules. UW assistant men's basketball coach Greg Gard said mid-majors demand an excessive amount of guaranteed money and hold out until they get it.

"You get into July and the high majors still have games available. At that point in time, they're pretty much at their mercy to pay at what the others are requesting to fill the schedule," he said

Rally for new coaches

Photos and video from the event Tuesday night at Crisler welcoming Kevin Borseth and John Beilein. (Video requires Internet Explorer.) The Ann Arbor news has an article as well.

Michigan State's McCallie headed to Duke

Despite her recent contract extension, she's leaving MSU and taking over at Duke.

Michigan Daily Articles from 4/17

Two more from yesterday - I hope this level of coverage continues when the season starts. One about recruiting, the other more about the new coach.

Welcome Rally tonight at 7:00pm

Michigan is hosting a welcome rally for both new basketball coaches, John Beilein and Kevin Borseth at Crisler arena. Admission is free.

Michigan Daily Articles from 4/16

The Michigan Daily had four articles today about the team. One was about Kevin Borseth, another about new associate head coach Dawn Plitzuweit.

A third article was about recruits, mentioning incoming frosh Veronica Hicks and primarily about Alex Guyton's reaction. (Mixed, to say the least - they're still open to Michigan but seem to be taking a "wait and see" approach.)

The Guytons haven't had a chance to really get to know Borseth, especially considering they had a two-year relationship with Burnett and her staff. There are obviously reservations from the recruit's end.

"It appears to me that Michigan made the same type of hire that they had before," Robin said. "He comes from a mid-major environment. The teams that they played against aren't, obviously, the Big Ten-level teams.

"If he were to offer again, I don't think we'd make a decision right away, at least until we have seen him coach and what he's able to do with what he has there at Michigan now."

But that doesn't mean Michigan is out of the running.

As a fan, I hope Guyton does end up committing to Michigan, but only if it is a good fit for her. Choosing the right college can involve any number of factors even if you aren't going to be playing varsity sports.

The final article was about the current teams reaction to their new coach - in general, quite positive.

Photos

Some photos of players with kids from U Meet the Athelete (April 14th).

OMBA (One more Borseth article)

From the Escanaba (MI) Daily Press:

Kevin Borseth’s move from Wisconsin-Green Bay to the University of Michigan offers a two-folded theme. You’re happy for Borseth and the Wolverines but sad for UWGB.

Dawn Plitzuweit

There's a nice article this morning in the Grand Rapids Press about Dawn Plitzuweit, the new Associate Head Coach at Michigan.

More on Yesterday's Press Conference

The Ann Arbor News, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and Green Bay Press-Gazette all have articles about yesterdays press conference. They mainly summarize what was said, but there are a couple of quotes from the players.

Krista Clement (Ann Arbor News):

"The way he came in and was completely honest with us and said he was nervous and said exactly how he felt, it was really refreshing to hear something like that,'' guard Krista Clement said.

Janelle Cooper (Detroit News):

"We (team) talked to him yesterday and I was really impressed with the things he was saying," junior guard Janelle Cooper said. "I'm looking forward to this season. He is more looking forward to having us use our strengths, and I think that will be really good for us."

Kevin Borseth's press conference

A video link is available here and some quotes/highlights are here.

Post Season Banquet

The team's banquet was held last night. Kelly Helvey, Stephany Skrba, Krista Phillips and Krista Clement all received awards. Congratulations to all.

Update: here's a link to some photos from the banquet.

Yet more articles on the new coach

A few papers in Michigan & Wisconsin have done stories that at least go beyond they wire service release. Links to the Michigan Daily, Ann Arbor News/MLive, Detroit Free Press, Milwaukee Journal Sentinal and the Ironwood Daily Globe.

Carly Benson & Krista Clement on Borseth

Both Benson & Clement are from the Upper Peninsula (as is Borseth) and were recruited by him while he was at Wisconsin Green-Bay. The whole article is good - a couple of quotes:

Benson:

She does not expect any problem with UM picking up Borseth’s style. “We don’t have a style,” she said. “We had a lot of set plays that we ran a lot, every time down the floor. He will be a lot more motion and transition, things we tried to run and didn’t run too well.”

Clement:

With one year left, Clement is not taking this as a chance to start fresh. However, she said “I’m definitely excited to go out every day and play basketball. It hasn’t always been that way.”

Clement said the UM players “conveniently located ourselves on campus when people interviewed” to get a perspective on their potential coach.

Borseth has already contacted Ta'Shia Phillips

While I think its a long shot that we land Phillips, its good to see we're showing interest:

Less than a day into his role as the Wolverines' coach, Borseth was preparing to speak with Ta'Shia Phillips, one of the nation's prized recruits of the 2007 class, on Tuesday night.

The 6-foot-6 post player from Indianapolis made a verbal commitment to play for Purdue next season, but is talking to other schools. Phillips is the type of player Borseth never had the opportunity to recruit, but the type of player he has a chance to get at Michigan.

Curt Miller signs contract extension

From the Toledo Blade (hat tip shesgotgame blog):

BOWLING GREEN - Bowling Green State University was serious about keeping its most successful coach, even though some big-name schools were pursuing Curt Miller.

The Blade has learned the BGSU women's basketball coach has agreed to a contract extension. The school could announce it as soon as today.

More on Borseth

Most of the news articles about Borseth's hiring are either rehashes of the AP wire release or just brief blurbs including his record at Wisconsin Green Bay. Over at NE Wisconsin Sports Blog, there is a nice summary of his accomplishments, under the title "New UWGB coach already on hot seat".

Official Announcement

The official announcement has been posted on mgoblue.com. The press conference will be on Friday. (Insert your own jokes about being nervous until then, given what happened at Colorado. Somehow a repeat of that doesn't seem very likely. For those who don't know, Borseth was more or less hired to coach at Colorado, but changed his mind and returned to UW-GB just a few hours before being introduced).

Dawn Plitzuweit

Some of the reports are saying that Borseth is bringing in Dawn Plitzuweit as Associate Head coach. She's a former assistant coach of his at UWGB, is the current head coach at Grand Valley State and was reportedly in the running for the Central Michigan head coaching position.

Morning articles about the new coach

There hasn't been an offical release on mgoblue.com nor as far as I know a press conference scheduled. Articles have appeared in the Ann Arbor News/mlive, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, USA Today, the Appleton Post Crescent among others.

Looks like its Kevin Borseth

http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2007/04/michigan_hires_borseth.html

Profiles of known candidates

In the absence of any news, here are links to profiles of the coaches Michigan has asked permission to interview:

Melanie Balcomb
Kevin Borseth
Curt Miller
Suzy Merchant

I've got nothing

Nothing new that is. Its the off season and no new coach (yet) - haven't even been able to dig up any rumors. (Of course, with four known candidates there aren't too many new rumors to be had.)

Here's an article about the new basketball facility at Wisconsin Green Bay - it does have a brief quote from Kevin Borseth.

Over on umgoblue.com there is a fairly long thread about the coaching position. On page two, if you scroll down, mzonefan has posted a nice article about Oregon State's coach Lavonda Wagner. She sounds like she would be a great choice for Michigan's opening. I must say though that I have seen or read nothing to suggest she's either interested or under consideration.

More internet rumors

According to a rumor here, the Michigan job is between Miller and Borseth. Yet another rumor on the same site says Miller may be headed to UC Berkeley or Penn State. (That, of course, assumes the Cal coach takes the Duke job).

Now I just need to find something that says Melanie Balcomb is headed to Ann Arbor....

Coaching Speculation

No news on the coaching front (or anything else related to the team for that matter). Two bits of internet speculation, somewhat contradictory:

Over on the Bowling Green message board on ay-ziggy-zoomba.com, more than one poster assumes Michigan won't hire Curt Miller because Michigan has typically hired women to coach the team. They also believe Michigan will end up hiring EMU's Suzy Merchant.

On another new blog, newisconsinsportsblog.blogspot.com there is a nice article about Kevin Borseth that says the time may be right for him to move on, and suggests the Michigan job may be a good choice.

Me? No idea, really. Based on the hiring of John Beilein as the men's coach and the time being taken for the women's search, I would say Bill Martin and the athletic department are taking this seriously. Suzy Merchant is the "easy" choice for a variety of reasons, but they did not leap to hire her immediately. Whoever it ends up being, I'm sort of expecting an announcement next week.

Another school is interested in Balcomb

Apparently at least one other school is interested in Vanderbilt's Melanie Balcomb. From the nashvillecitypaper.com:

While Michigan requested and received permission to speak with Vanderbilt women’s basketball coach Melanie Balcomb last month, VU Vice Chancellor David Williams said he doesn’t know if a formal interview has taken place.

The City Paper has learned that one other school also requested and received permission to speak with Balcomb, although that school was not identified.

A coaching search update - sort of.

This article from mlive doesn't say much, but it does suggest there could be at least one more candidate in the mix Oh yeah - the search is "right on schedule".

Cincinnati has a new coach

And its not Kevin Borseth or Curt Miller. (The University of Cincinnati had requested permission to speak with both of them.)

2nd interview for Borseth

University of Wisconsin Green Bay's Kevin Borseth has apparently had a second interview for the open head coaching position.

Congratulations Ta'Shia Walker & Krista Clement

Both were named to the Academic All Big Ten Team.

Coaching musical chairs

According to this article, Kevin Borseth has received a second interview with Michigan as well as EMU's Suzy Merchant. In addition, former U of M coach Sue Guevara is a finalist for the Central Michigan position (as is one of Borseth's former assistants).

My pick for a new coach....

Not that it matters in the slightest. I really don't have any problem with the known candidates (Merchant, Miller, Borseth & Balcomb). Initially, Melanie Balcomb was my first choice, simply because of her experience as a head coach in a "power" conference. I'm inclined to believe that one of the things that caused problems for Cheryl Burnett was underestimating the athleticism of the Big 10 and what that meant for 16 games in conference play. That wouldn't be an issue for Balcomb, though it might not for any of the others either.

Unfortunately, Michigan needs more than a winning coach, though that would be an excellent start. This is a program that really needs to be built almost from the ground up. There is a rather limited tradition of success, and not exactly a large fan base. Competition for entertainment dollars (and even people's attention) is much greater in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti/metro Detroit than it is in Green Bay or Bowling Green. There is no doubt some of the support (new practice facility?) has to come from the Athletic Department, but the coach plays a role too.

To be honest, I don't know that much about Balcomb's history at Xavier or the state of the program while she was there. She might still be the best candidate. Borseth appears to have had some success at Green Bay, as Miller has at BG. Merchant and Eastern Michigan have struggled with attendance, despite having the new convocation center.

In other words, this is a really long way of saying "I don't know".

2nd Interview for Merchant

According to the Detroit News, Suzy Merchant is being given a 2nd interview.

Not really Michigan related

But a nice article about Cheryl Burnett's first final four team.