Dawn Plitzuweit Named New Gopher Head Coach!

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Statement from Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker on the WVU Women’s Basketball Program - West Virginia University Athletics

Wren Baker
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Statement from West Virginia

Wren Baker
Vice President and Director of Athletics

"Earlier today I met with Coach Plitzuweit, and she informed me she will be departing our basketball program to pursue an opportunity with the University of Minnesota. This move allows her to be closer to her home and her family, and we understand and respect that.

"I want to thank Coach Plitzuweit for the positive impact she made on our women's basketball program this year. I also want to thank our women's basketball student-athletes for the pride they have and the effort they give in competing for West Virginia University. Our student-athletes deserve the best, and we will immediately begin a national search for our next head coach. We have a proud tradition, and our program is well-positioned for the future. I am confident we will identify an outstanding leader to build on our success and take WVU women's basketball to even greater heights."
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gopherdudepart2 said:
I will always have great respect and admiration for coach Whalen. Her staff tried hard. She showed us as a player you can do great things at Minnesota. I'm thankful they hired a successful coach. Hoping Coach P can build on what the previous staff started.
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Very excited about Coach Dawn but also want to thank Coach Whalen for putting herself out there for U of M. It’s not easy to choose something that doesn’t work out..publicly. She will always be a MN icon for Basketball IMHO.
 

bbwannabe said:
Very excited about Coach Dawn but also want to thank Coach Whalen for putting herself out there for U of M. It’s not easy to choose something that doesn’t work out..publicly. She will always be a MN icon for Basketball IMHO.
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Always put people in a position that they can succeed...unfortunately Coyle didnt to do that for Lindsay.
 


Welcome Coach Pitzuweit. If you can retain our starters and find one impact player in the Portal, you will be off to a good start.
 


Her name isn't quite (but almost) as hard to spell as Krzyzewski. Let's hope she has similar success.
 

PhiloVance said:
Always put people in a position that they can succeed...unfortunately Coyle didnt to do that for Lindsay.
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It is certainly possible for a person with Whalen's background experience to step in and hit the ground running and be a successful coach without lower level or assistant experience. A lot of people laughed when Steve Kerr was hired at Golden State. The questions are many...can they communicate? Can they delegate? Motivate and inspire others? Do they have a plan? Can they evaluate talent? Can they identify and hire the right assistants? There is ton of factors to predict in hiring somebody who hasn't done it. Lindsay said yes to the opportunity...she thought she could do it and she failed. Coyle gambled and gave her the chance, the opportunity to succeed.

We know how it turned out but I don't think that is Coyle's fault. He wasn't the reason it didn't work.
 

60's Guy said:
It is certainly possible for a person with Whalen's background experience to step in and hit the ground running and be a successful coach without lower level or assistant experience. A lot of people laughed when Steve Kerr was hired at Golden State. The questions are many...can they communicate? Can they delegate? Motivate and inspire others? Do they have a plan? Can they evaluate talent? Can they identify and hire the right assistants? There is ton of factors to predict in hiring somebody who hasn't done it. Lindsay said yes to the opportunity...she thought she could do it and she failed. Coyle gambled and gave her the chance, the opportunity to succeed.

We know how it turned out but I don't think that is Coyle's fault. He wasn't the reason it didn't work.
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I don't think they did, he already had a decade of experience in the NBA front office, including 5 seasons as a GM. He was working at TNT and was by far the hottest name in coaching the year he got hired to a massive contract.

The NBA also had a history of guys going from the booth to the bench (Doc Rivers, Mark Jackson, etc.).

I'm not disagreeing he lacked some experience as a coach, I'm just saying he was a REALLY popular hire at the time.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I don't think they did, he already had a decade of experience in the NBA front office, including 5 seasons as a GM. He was working at TNT and was by far the hottest name in coaching the year he got hired to a massive contract.

The NBA also had a history of guys going from the booth to the bench (Doc Rivers, Mark Jackson, etc.).

I'm not disagreeing he lacked some experience as a coach, I'm just saying he was a REALLY popular hire at the time.
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Not with Mark Jackson, Steph and Klay at the time.
Story
 




60's Guy said:
Not with Mark Jackson, Steph and Klay at the time.
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Well clearly not Mark Jackson - that's who he replaced. Steph and Klay were also loyal to their former coach.

All of that said, Steve Kerr was THE hot name in coaching that year. No one laughed when GS hired him.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Well clearly not Mark Jackson - that's who he replaced. Steph and Klay were also loyal to their former coach.

All of that said, Steve Kerr was THE hot name in coaching that year. No one laughed when GS hired him.
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Maybe my "laughed" choice of words was poor. Kerr like Whalen had not coached before. Yes, Kerr was sought after. I'm guessing if time had gone by...many would of thought Whalen would make a great choice as a coach. Coyle acted quickly eliminating the clamor.
My main point...Coyle didn't fail Lindsay by hiring her.There were questions
 







Watching the middle video above and comparing DinkytownAthletes.com to CountryRoadsTrust.com
I'd say we are behind. Dinkytown has improved or is there a second Gopher collective I'm thinking of?
CountryRoads has way more trust to me with the recognizable people involved. They explain things better. I think both could do a better job explaining NIL....what it is, why it is important, how fans can help etc etc. How much of my money goes to the players? How much of my money goes to administration expenses of the website, bookkeeping etc etc

The coach promoting it, endorsing it, is very helpful!
 
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Bob_Loblaw said:
I don’t follow women’s college basketball as closely as men’s, but I’m a little surprised there isn’t more excitement about the hire. She has a proven track record and she is poached from another P5 program after a successful season.

The resume really checks out. Am I missing something?
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I think it's a fantastic hire. This is someone who has earned their stripes in the business, paid their dues, and is ready for this position.

Welcome to DinkyTown, Coach Dawn!!!
 

BBsteve said:
So South Dakota upsetting #7 Mississippi and #2 Baylor in the Big Dance last year isn't impressive? The program is in very good hands now.
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Those wins are awesome, but hardly why I like her (I appreciate the years of winning in a row more). I was curious why the poster wouldn’t share why they didn’t like her. That poster seems to have some connections.
 

Dawn’s contract is six-year contract worth $800,000 per year in base salary.

Wow she got a nice $250K increase in her WV salary which was $550k.

The University of Minnesota is really committed to women’s basketball with that type of commitment to the new coach.
 

UnFadeable21 said:
Dawn’s contract is six-year contract worth $800,000 per year in base salary.

Wow she got a nice $250K increase in her WV salary which was $550k.

The University of Minnesota is really committed to women’s basketball with that type of commitment to the new coach.
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Not surprising. One of the reasons this is a good job, despite a tough run of losing, is the U’s commitment to womens sports.
 

Gopherfan84 said:
Why does the buyout matter to you?
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Just out of curiosity ... what kind of "huge" buyout are we talking about here?

If we have money to buyout a women's HC contract ... do we have money to buyout a certain men's HC contract??? :unsure:

EDIT: even a million is nowhere close to $8M, and it wasn't even a half million.
 
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Being largely glib to women's bball and the candidates, I thought Johnston would be good.

But looking at Plitzuweit, this seems just as good.

Was at South Dakota (not State) for six seasons, and other than the first season, finished either first (one tied) or 2nd in the regular season and won the Summit conf tourney the last three years.


And she's a woman! Wooooo!!! ( :rolleyes: )
 


Regarding the one year thing:

Her stops have been:
Michigan Tech (player then assist coach) for 8 total years
Green Bay (asst.) for 4 years
Grand Valley (Mich.) head coach for 5 years
U of Mich asst. for 5 years
N Kentucky head coach for 4 years
South Dakota head coach for 6 years
WV head coach for 1 year


It's possible she just wanted to be closer to home and this opportunity popped up. If Coyle would've pulled the plug one year earlier, she could've easily just slid over from SD.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Regarding the one year thing:

Her stops have been:
Michigan Tech (player then assist coach) for 8 total years
Green Bay (asst.) for 4 years
Grand Valley (Mich.) head coach for 5 years
U of Mich asst. for 5 years
N Kentucky head coach for 4 years
South Dakota head coach for 6 years
WV head coach for 1 year


It's possible she just wanted to be closer to home and this opportunity popped up. If Coyle would've pulled the plug one year earlier, she could've easily just slid over from SD.
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I get the closer to home idea, but it strikes me that the job is so all consuming that getting more time with family in Wisconsin doesn’t get any easier for her from Minneapolis than West Virginia. Perhaps the rest of her family benefits but the sheer volume of work doesn’t seem like it fits with increased family time for her. Glad to have her on board for whatever reason she is here, though.
 

Even makes me wonder: maybe Coyle vetted her and had "informal" discussions with her, one year ago? But then ultimately decided to give Whalen one more year? That's just wild guess musing
 

Holy Man said:
I get the closer to home idea, but it strikes me that the job is so all consuming that getting more time with family in Wisconsin doesn’t get any easier for her from Minneapolis than West Virginia. Perhaps the rest of her family benefits but the sheer volume of work doesn’t seem like it fits with increased family time for her. Glad to have her on board for whatever reason she is here, though.
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Sure.

Play the other side of the card: maybe she just didn't like WV? Too small, too isolated in the mountains? No idea, haven't been there. I know it's only an hour or so drive from Pittsburgh, but that's not the kind of drive you do to go out to eat.

But then she was fine in Vermillion, SD for 6 years? That's I think 20k people an hour drive to Sioux Falls. So maybe I'm just flailing here.
 

Gophers_4life said:
Sure.

Play the other side of the card: maybe she just didn't like WV? Too small, too isolated in the mountains? No idea, haven't been there. I know it's only an hour or so drive from Pittsburgh, but that's not the kind of drive you do to go out to eat.

But then she was fine in Vermillion, SD for 6 years? That's I think 20k people an hour drive to Sioux Falls. So maybe I'm just flailing here.
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Message boards are partly for flailing. Distinguishing between flailing and not is imperative though. Not all do it well.🤔
 

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