As posted yesterday, Kevin Borseth resigned from his position as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines to fill the recently vacated position at Wisconsin-Green Bay.
Here is a list of potential candidates for the Michigan coaching position (more names to follow):
- Tricia Cullop, Toledo: Cullop is a very logical option being that Toledo is about forty minutes from Ann Arbor. Has created a phenomenal buzz at Toledo and won last year’s WNIT. Couple that with the fact that Cullop has a lot of Midwestern ties and seems interested in making a move -- she talked to both Wisconsin last year and Illinois this year about their vacancies before both went in different directions: Wisconsin hired former Stanford assistant, Bobbie Kelsey and Illinois chose Matt Bollant from Wisconsin-Green Bay. Click here for more on Cullop.
- AnnMarie Gilbert, Eastern Michigan: Gilbert is coming off a very successful season this year as she led Eastern Michigan to the NCAA tournament and a MAC tournament championship with a 23-9 season. During her five years at Eastern Michigan, she had an overall record of 94-64. She was also an assistant at Michigan State for five years under Joanne P. Mccalie in which the Spartans reached the National Championship game in 2005. The one drawback to Gilbert is the impending and ongoing NCAA investigation that came to fruition in 2010 under her watch. What’s very ironic about the connection to Michigan is that the day after Kevin Borseth resigned; Gilbert resigned from her position today.
- John Barnes, Assistant coach at Michigan: Born in Escanaba, Mich., Barnes has a very strong connection to the state of Michigan as he played college basketball at Michigan Tech and has coached most of his career in the state. Already on staff at Michigan, Barnes was the former coach of Division II power Michigan Tech. During his time at Michigan Tech, he compiled a 156-55 record (74%) and 104-30 record (75%) in the GLAIC conference. Barnes was named GLAIC coach of the year three times and led the Huskies to the Elite Eight in 2009 and 2010. Barnes also has served as an assistant at Marquette in 2011 and Wisconsin during the 2010-11 campaign.
- Dean Lockwood, Assistant coach at Tennessee: Lockwood’s name came up when Michigan was looking for a replacement for Cheryl Burnett. The Bay City native has a plethora of connections to the state of Michigan: He played basketball at Spring Arbor University and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2010, was an assistant at Central Michigan (1982-83, 1997-98), head coach at Northwood University for six years (1991-97) and then a head coach at Saginaw Valley (1998-04). If Michigan is interested and the interest is reciprocated, Lockwood could be a prime candidate as he’s learned from arguably the greatest women’s basketball coach of all-time in Pat Summitt.
- Melanie Balcomb, Vanderbilt: Balcomb was one of the candidates that Michigan contacted when they were looking for a head coach the last time around. Balcomb is one of the best basketball minds in women’s basketball and has a lot of Midwestern ties. She was a coach at Ashland University from 1993-95, then she took over the reigns at Xavier (1995-02) and had a tremendous amount of success -- culminated with an Elite Eight appearance in 2001. And ever since taking over Vanderbilt in 2003, what she has done there is unprecedented: Three SEC tournament titles, four Sweet 16 appearances, eight WNBA draft picks and has averaged around 24 wins per season. Another tidbit about Balcomb is that she’s had this kind of success at two very tough academic institutions in Xavier and Vanderbilt, Michigan prides itself on their academics.