Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Plitzuweit’s Name Synonymous with Success
April 05, 2022 04:55 PM | Women's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you've been as successful as Dawn Plitzuweit has been during the course of her college coaching career, winning 73% of her games at places like Grand Valley State, Northern Kentucky and South Dakota, you don't take on a new challenge by skipping right to Point D.
You start at Point A, get it right, and then you move on.
"The first thing we've got to do is to find a house, and it's really hard to find one around here," she joked Tuesday afternoon after being formally introduced by West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons as the school's sixth women's basketball coach. The introduction took place on the WVU Coliseum floor and was streamed live on WVU Athletics' social media platforms.
For Plitzuweit, whose three-syllable last name is pronounced Plits-ZOO-white, everything begins with her players. She wants them to have fun playing basketball because she understands the unprecedented stresses and pressures college players are experiencing today.
"There is a process in really getting to know our players and developing those relationships," she explained. "It's something that we want to be authentic, and we want that to take a little time. We've been meeting with them, and I think they're very eager to get started and I'm very excited for an opportunity to get on the basketball court and spend some time with them."
Lyons was certainly eager for an opportunity to spend some time with Plitzuweit, but her team's amazing success this year kept delaying things.
Plitzuweit's track record of success going way back to her Division II days winning a national championship at Grand Valley State in 2006 put her on his short list of coaches that he always keeps in his back pocket. But after she captured her third straight Summit League Tournament championship last month, Lyons had to keep hitting the pause button on reaching out to her.
He hit it first when South Dakota upset Ole Miss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament; he had to hit it again when the Coyotes upset Baylor in the second round, and he almost had to do it a third time when South Dakota lost to Michigan 52-49 in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
"Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for her, (her team's success) slowed the process down because she continued to play in the NCAA Tournament," Lyons said. "It was unfortunate to see that missed shot at the end against Michigan, but in one way, I was relieved because I was excited to get her on campus and show her what we have to offer at West Virginia University.
"And now she's here."
Plitzuweit, 49, has had other opportunities to move on during her six seasons at South Dakota, a program that experienced some success at the Division II level but had not won an NCAA Tournament game at the Division I level until this season. But the opportunity to coach at West Virginia University in the Big 12 Conference right now seemed to line up with her career aspirations.
"I've had a chance to coach for a few years and certainly during that time you understand the landscape of women's basketball and West Virginia women's basketball is a national brand and a brand of basketball that has a great legacy behind it," she explained. "To have an opportunity to be here and be the next women's basketball coach is something that was really attractive and really, really exciting."
"You look at Dawn's resume … 73% of her overall games she's won and 72% of those Division I games," Lyons pointed out. "She led her teams to four NCAA tournaments at South Dakota and eight overall as a head coach. She's been a head coach for 475 career games, with five 20-win seasons in Division I and nine overall. She's won six coach of the year awards and six conference regular season championships and five tournament championships.
"We are excited to get her and her family here to West Virginia University," he said.
Lyons said he purposely kept the search committee small, relying solely on Keli Zinn, chief operation officer and deputy athletics director, and Matt Wells, executive senior associate athletics director for external affairs and also women's basketball's senior administrator, for advice and counsel.
"It was just the three of us going through the search and having conversations with the different candidates. As we continued through this process, the name that kept coming to the top was Dawn Plitzuweit," Lyons said.
Plitzuweit's teams are known for being tough, which should be an easy carryover for the players here who were coached by Mike Carey. South Dakota ranked second in the country in fewest points allowed this year. Her offensive system has been referred to as "positionless" and ranked second nationally in the fewest turnovers per game.
"We find that it is a style that a lot of young ladies enjoy playing," she explained. "I do think it's really fun for players to work on their whole game, and from a recruiting standpoint, it is something a lot of players want to play in that type of a style and system.
"It's a strength of our staff to develop players and continue to help them grow their games and stretch their games, whether that's shooting it better on the perimeter or handling it better," she added. "The great part about it is we've had players we've coached over the course of time that have helped modify that system, so it's going to be fun to see how they do that."
She mentioned that Grand Valley State is where her four-out system originated. It was at Northern Kentucky where she gave it a little twist.
"We had a young lady there who wouldn't stay locked down on the block and kept floating all over the place, and it made it a little harder to guard so we had to modify it," she laughed.
Her system at South Dakota changed based on the personnel she had. One year they had a 6-foot-4 post who developed into a versatile player, and another year they had a small roster with no players taller than 6-feet.
This past season the Coyotes had a really strong post presence again so they went back to a four-out, one-in style.
"The good part for us is we're able to modify it to best fit our personnel," she said.
Yesterday, Plitzuweit announced her entire South Dakota coaching staff consisting of associate head coach Jason Jeschke and assistants Aaron Horn and Ariel Braker will be joining her in Morgantown.
They will be inheriting a team that posted a 15-15 record in 2021-22.
You start at Point A, get it right, and then you move on.
"The first thing we've got to do is to find a house, and it's really hard to find one around here," she joked Tuesday afternoon after being formally introduced by West Virginia University director of athletics Shane Lyons as the school's sixth women's basketball coach. The introduction took place on the WVU Coliseum floor and was streamed live on WVU Athletics' social media platforms.
For Plitzuweit, whose three-syllable last name is pronounced Plits-ZOO-white, everything begins with her players. She wants them to have fun playing basketball because she understands the unprecedented stresses and pressures college players are experiencing today.
"There is a process in really getting to know our players and developing those relationships," she explained. "It's something that we want to be authentic, and we want that to take a little time. We've been meeting with them, and I think they're very eager to get started and I'm very excited for an opportunity to get on the basketball court and spend some time with them."
Lyons was certainly eager for an opportunity to spend some time with Plitzuweit, but her team's amazing success this year kept delaying things.
Plitzuweit's track record of success going way back to her Division II days winning a national championship at Grand Valley State in 2006 put her on his short list of coaches that he always keeps in his back pocket. But after she captured her third straight Summit League Tournament championship last month, Lyons had to keep hitting the pause button on reaching out to her.
He hit it first when South Dakota upset Ole Miss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament; he had to hit it again when the Coyotes upset Baylor in the second round, and he almost had to do it a third time when South Dakota lost to Michigan 52-49 in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
"Unfortunately for us, but fortunately for her, (her team's success) slowed the process down because she continued to play in the NCAA Tournament," Lyons said. "It was unfortunate to see that missed shot at the end against Michigan, but in one way, I was relieved because I was excited to get her on campus and show her what we have to offer at West Virginia University.
"And now she's here."
Plitzuweit, 49, has had other opportunities to move on during her six seasons at South Dakota, a program that experienced some success at the Division II level but had not won an NCAA Tournament game at the Division I level until this season. But the opportunity to coach at West Virginia University in the Big 12 Conference right now seemed to line up with her career aspirations.
"I've had a chance to coach for a few years and certainly during that time you understand the landscape of women's basketball and West Virginia women's basketball is a national brand and a brand of basketball that has a great legacy behind it," she explained. "To have an opportunity to be here and be the next women's basketball coach is something that was really attractive and really, really exciting."
"You look at Dawn's resume … 73% of her overall games she's won and 72% of those Division I games," Lyons pointed out. "She led her teams to four NCAA tournaments at South Dakota and eight overall as a head coach. She's been a head coach for 475 career games, with five 20-win seasons in Division I and nine overall. She's won six coach of the year awards and six conference regular season championships and five tournament championships.
"We are excited to get her and her family here to West Virginia University," he said.
Lyons said he purposely kept the search committee small, relying solely on Keli Zinn, chief operation officer and deputy athletics director, and Matt Wells, executive senior associate athletics director for external affairs and also women's basketball's senior administrator, for advice and counsel.
"It was just the three of us going through the search and having conversations with the different candidates. As we continued through this process, the name that kept coming to the top was Dawn Plitzuweit," Lyons said.
Plitzuweit's teams are known for being tough, which should be an easy carryover for the players here who were coached by Mike Carey. South Dakota ranked second in the country in fewest points allowed this year. Her offensive system has been referred to as "positionless" and ranked second nationally in the fewest turnovers per game.
"We find that it is a style that a lot of young ladies enjoy playing," she explained. "I do think it's really fun for players to work on their whole game, and from a recruiting standpoint, it is something a lot of players want to play in that type of a style and system.
"It's a strength of our staff to develop players and continue to help them grow their games and stretch their games, whether that's shooting it better on the perimeter or handling it better," she added. "The great part about it is we've had players we've coached over the course of time that have helped modify that system, so it's going to be fun to see how they do that."She mentioned that Grand Valley State is where her four-out system originated. It was at Northern Kentucky where she gave it a little twist.
"We had a young lady there who wouldn't stay locked down on the block and kept floating all over the place, and it made it a little harder to guard so we had to modify it," she laughed.
Her system at South Dakota changed based on the personnel she had. One year they had a 6-foot-4 post who developed into a versatile player, and another year they had a small roster with no players taller than 6-feet.
This past season the Coyotes had a really strong post presence again so they went back to a four-out, one-in style.
"The good part for us is we're able to modify it to best fit our personnel," she said.
Yesterday, Plitzuweit announced her entire South Dakota coaching staff consisting of associate head coach Jason Jeschke and assistants Aaron Horn and Ariel Braker will be joining her in Morgantown.
They will be inheriting a team that posted a 15-15 record in 2021-22.
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