The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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WOMEN'S BASKETBALL U-M Head Coach Kevin Borseth Leaves The Program Kevin Borseth resigned from his po- sition 16 days after leading the Wol- verines to their first NCAA Tourna- ment since 2001. "My family and I have really en- I n a surprising move, Michigan women's basketball head coach joyed our time at Michigan," he said in a statement. "We have made some terrific friends and we will miss ev- erybody. I would like to thank ev- eryone at the University of Michigan for giving me this opportunity to be the women's basketball coach, and I wish everyone the best in the future." Borseth will resume his position at Wisconsin-Green Bay, where he was head coach for nine seasons before accepting the Michigan job. The opportunity to return to Green ported there were rumors that Bors- eth showed interest in returning to the Phoenix after last season, when Bollant flirted with taking the Wis- consin job. Now, those rumors have come true. "Kevin felt it was best for him and Bay opened up when Matt Bollant accepted the head coaching position at Illinois in late March. The Green Bay Press Gazette re- his family to return to Green Bay," Michigan athletics director Dave Brandon said in a statement. "We appreciate all that Kevin has done for the Michigan women's basket- ball program over the past five years, and we wish the Borseth family the best of everything as they move back home to Green Bay." Before accepting the Michigan job, Borseth led U-M to an 87-73 mark and four postseason appearances (three WNIT and one NCAA Tournament) in five seasons. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL lost 30 consecutive games to Big Ten foes. It was not an easy situation to Borseth built a pristine résumé at the mid-major level. In 20 combined seasons at Michigan Tech and Wis- consin-Green Bay, he had a 441-159 record, won 13 conference titles and reached the NCAA Tournament 14 times, including a run to the NCAA Division II Fabulous Four in 1993. At that time, the Wolverines hadn't put together a winning season since 2002. The previous coach, Cheryl Burnett, had compiled a 35-83 record in four seasons from 2004-07, includ- ing a stretch in which the Wolverines 68 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2012 walk into — but after some slow and, sometimes, frustrating progress, Borseth seemed to have the program headed in the right direction; only one coach in program history had earned multiple postseason tourna- ment invitations and tallied a career win-loss record above .500 (Sue Gue- vara, 1997-2003). In five years at U-M, Borseth com- gan will be remembered, one thing is certain: he left the program in a much better place than he found it. Whoever the new coach will be comes in with a stacked roster, a brand-new player development cen- ter (shared with the men's team), re- sources and a larger recruiting base. He or she will also inherit a team piled an 87-73 record (.544 winning percentage) and led the Wolverines to four postseason appearances (three WNIT and one NCAA Tournament). However Borseth's time at Michi- that knows how to win — some- thing that hasn't been the case with the Michigan women's basketball program. The Wolverines were handled, 88-67, by No. 6 Oklahoma in the first TO NCAA TOURNAMENT U-M RETURNS