West Virginia University Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker spoke about the West Virginia women’s basketball coaching vacancy, following the departure of Dawn Plitzuweit to Minnesota over the weekend.
Baker spoke of his conversations with Plitzuweit, gave insight on possible coaching candidates, as well as spoke on the timeline and the next steps for West Virginia women’s basketball.
Plitzuweit’s Departure
Dawn Plitzuweit and West Virginia were just hours removed from their first round NCAA Tournament loss to Arizona, when the news about her leaving for Minnesota became official.
“I was a little surprised just because it’s rare to lose a coach after one year,” Baker said. “Shortly before the conference tournament, I was made aware that Minnesota had interest in her… and really the conversation she and I had was let’s focus on the team, we’re trying to win some games to get into the NCAA Tournament.”
Baker added this was more of a family decision for Plitzuweit and Baker said she is not comparing West Virginia to Minnesota, but it is more about trying to go closer to home.
“I hate it for West Virginia, I hate it for WVU, but most of all I”m disappointed for the young women in our women’s basketball program because it’s hard to go through transition.”
Baker said Plitzuweit met with the team Saturday morning, and then he met with them right after that meeting.
“I did get a chance to meet with them. Dawn informed me Saturday mid-morning that she was going to meet with the team at 11 a.m. She met with them for a few minutes, then I stayed and met with them,” Baker said. “I got a chance to visit with them, tell them how proud I am of them, tell them this program, the women’s basketball program is about a lot of people. It’s about everybody in West Virginia, everybody who’s a WVU [alumni], everybody in ou athletic program, everybody at the university. But mostly It’s mostly centered and focus around student-athletes — both current and former… I just shared with them how proud I was of them, how much pride I have in what’s happening at WVU and the unique opportunity we have to represent this entire state and that I feel confident the opportunities here moving forward for success both personal and team are as good or greater than anywhere else out there.”
Baker said his message to them was to focus on the student-athletes and valuing them as people more than anything.
“The last thing I left them with is no matter what, to focus on their family and education because that’s the most important thing,” Baker said. “The gist of my message is love you, want you here, proud of you, feel great about the opportunities here, but one thing that is most important is take care of your classes, take care of each other, and make sure you spend time with family.”
Replacement Candidates
Baker spoke on possible replacement candidates for Plitzuweit. He said he has high regard for Kim Stephens — the current head women’s basketball coach at Glenville State University and won the NCAA DII Championship a season ago. Baker also said he plans to reach out to former head coach Mike Carey just to learn more about the program in general.
“I’m familiar with her background,” Baker said of Stephens. “I have a lot of respect for success that any coach has at any level that wins at a high level.”
As for Carey, Baker said he has not met with Carey, but he hopes to meet with him and right now he is not planning on conducting talks with Carey about returning.
“I have not had a chance to meet and visit with Coach Carey,” Baker said. I got a ton of respect for what he’s accomplished here, I know a lot of people that know him… have just great respect for what he has done here. Probably not ready yet to talk about candidacy of the job just because we’re still so early in the process and I don’t think it’d be appropriate to do that. But when you have somebody who was recently the head coach and has a lot of experience and was there, if they’re willing to have a conversation just to talk to you just about the state of the program and the changes that have been made in college athletics.”
Going Forward
Baker said there is a large appeal here for anyone to take this job. He said there is not a specific timeline for the decision to be made, but hopes they complete the search sooner rather than later.
“I think anybody would be lucky to have this job. I haven’t been here very long, but I will tell you this is home. The people here are some of the most incredible, genuine, kind, passionate, people that I’ve ever been around,” Baker said. “Four different coaches have taken us to 14 different NCAA Tournaments… I think any coach would be lucky to be here. I know it hurts and it stings when you lose a coach after a year… that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with West Virginia.”
Baker said they are still going through the process of finding candidates. Baker said he and a search committee spent around five or six hours to find the next head coach yesterday, and are going to go through the list of names.
“I wouldn’t try to say anyone is a candidate or isn’t a candidate,” Baker said. “We won’t probably get to the point of having conversations with candidates until the end of the week or early next week.”
Baker said he hopes this happens within the next month, and said his sole focus will be finding this replacement.
“I don’t want to throw a timeline out there, but I don’t like uncertainty for the young women in that locker room,” Baker said. “The quicker we can deliver them a coach, the more it sets their mind at ease, and the better chance it gives us to retain them. However, I won’t rush it just to get somebody. I want to feel like we turned over every stone and we vetted all the candidates worth vetting and got somebody who can embrace West Virginia and who can embrace this program.”
Finally, Baker said he is going to try and find someone who wants to be at West Virginia.
“Somebody will have to come in and tell me why they want to be at West Virginia. That will be important, “Baker said. “It can’t be just one way about selling you about why you want to be at West Virginia. You need to tell me what research, what homework, what you know, and why you want to be here.”
