Jessica Starling

It looks like Jessica Starling will be playing at the University of South Alabama. She was one of seven in Cheryl Burnett's first recruiting class and left the team during her sophomore year. She isn't listed on last years roster at South Alabama, but I'm assuming that is due to sitting out a year after transferring.

Big Ten Coaches

As this article points out, with all the Big 10 coaching changes the past two years, Lisa Bluder is now the "Dean" of the conference in her eighth season. Jim Foster at Ohio State and Pam Borton at Minnesota are next with six years seniority.

Ta'Shia Phillips

Is heading to Xavier. That she was considering Michigan is a compliment to the hard work of Cheryl Burnett & her staff - I didn't expect her to end up in Ann Arbor, but as a fan I could always hope.

Big 10/ACC Challenge - Michigan to face Miami

The ACC & Big 10 are adding a challenge series for Women's Basketball to go with the existing Men's series. This fall Michigan will travel to Miami on November 19th.

Eastern Michigan/Michigan State Caoching changes

Eastern Michigan assistant coach Shane Clipfell (and acting coach during Suzy Merchant's maternity leave) withdrew his name from consideration for the open Eastern Michigan job and rejoined Merchant at Michigan State.

Also, former MSU assistant AnnMarie Gilbert who originally was staying at Michigan State will be announced as the new EMU coach this week.

Jolette Law new Illinois Coach

She was the associate head coach at Rutgers - coincidentally, the previous Illinois coach Theresa Gerentz was also hired from Rutgers. I believe this is the last of the BCS openings to be filled.
From the Chicago Daily Herald:

Law to coach Illini women’s team

Associated Press
Posted Friday, May 11, 2007

Jolette Law, the associate head coach at Rutgers, will become the women’s basketball coach at Illinois.

Law will replace Theresa Grentz, who left Illinois on April 17 after coaching there for 12 years. Illinois plans to announce the hiring today.

In 2006-07, Rutgers finished 27-9 and won the school’s first Big East tournament championship. The Scarlet Knights advanced to the NCAA championship game before falling to Tennessee 59-46.

Law joined Rutgers as an assistant in 1995 when coach C. Vivian Stringer was hired, and was promoted to associate head coach in 2003. Law will be the second straight coach from Rutgers to lead Illinois; Grentz led Rutgers for 19 seasons before heading to Illinois in 1995.

Becky Flippin

Cheryl Burnett's first recruiting included a point guard from Missouri, Becky Flippin. After her first year at Michigan, she transferred to be closer to home - she's currently playing for Drury University and will be starting her senior year in the fall.

UWGB hires Matt Bollant

Wisconsin Green-Bay named Matt Bollant to replace Kevin Borseth (we'll ignore the whole Aaron Johnston interlude). He comes from NAIA school Bryan, but he was an assistant coach under Kathi Bennett at Indiana and Evansville. Kathi Bennett is daughter of former UWGB coach Dick Bennett.

Tianna Kirkland

The Flint Journal has a short article about Tianna Kirkland, an assistant hired by Kevin Borseth. She previously was an assistant at Eastern Michigan under Suzy Merchant, at Butler (2004-6) and a graduate assistant at Central Michigan.

Interview with Kevin Borseth

From the Ann Arbor News, with Jim Carty. A number of good things in there, but I found this quote interesting:

Q: Anything that's surprised you about Michigan in the first few weeks?

A: Michigan's a tough academic school. That's what I've learned. We're really trying to study and get our arms around the academic criteria, and this is a tough place. They mean business. But I worked at Michigan Tech for 11 years and academically, that was challenging. I get the feeling it'll be even more challenging here, but the support staff is remarkable, and that's part of what makes Michigan special.

Rest of coaching staff announced

From mgoblue.com:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's basketball program announced Tuesday (May 1) the hiring of assistant coaches Tianna Kirkland and Mike Williams, as well as director of operations Lisa Savoury. The three will join head coach Kevin Borseth and associate head coach Dawn Plitzuweit in their first season on the Wolverine bench in 2007-08.

Also the article mentioned Mark Uitermarkt will remain as Administrative Assistant - he's been with the program the past three years.

A bit more info about the staff (and photos) can be found here.