May 26, 2023: From UWL to Duke?! Plus, schedule announcements and coaching updates
UWL HC Karen Middleton was recently announced as an assistant at Duke + Shenandoah, Wheaton have released their 2023-24 schedules + more coaching news
It’s been a while since I’ve posted as we continue to roll through the month of May, but I hope the offseason has been treating everyone well! I know several coaches have been out on the road at countless AAU tournaments the last several weekends, so kudos to you all and best of luck on the recruiting front!
Anyway, I figured it might be time for some thoughts on some of the recent coaching changes plus a few additional notes…it actually hasn’t been all that quiet in the world of D3 women’s hoops!
Quite possibly the biggest news came this past weekend, when UW-La Crosse HC Karen Middleton was announced as an assistant coach at Duke. Yes, that Duke. Pretty impressive, really. I just got done having a conversation a few weeks ago with someone about how D3 coaches generally tend to be overlooked for the good D1 assistant jobs at power conference programs and then Duke head coach Kara Lawson hires Middleton!
"Karen has experience at different levels and in different roles. She knows what it takes to win," said Lawson in a press release. "I wanted to find an experienced tactician to continue to grow our program and help us take that next step.”
I had the opportunity to watch UWL several times this past winter, especially throughout WIAC play, and the defensive intensity shown by the Eagles was exceptional. They went 19-7 for a reason, and made a handful of appearances in my Toop 25 ballot during the season, though UWL was also a challenging team to figure out most of the time.
Middleton led UWL from 2016-2023 and her departure creates the first head coaching vacancy in the WIAC this offseason.
This is a piece of coaching news I am very late on mentioning but Justin Busch has been tabbed to lead the Loras WBB program, succeeding Justin Heinzen, who guided the Duhawks to a tremendous season this past year. Loras was undoubtedly one of the best jobs out there this offseason when it came to open D3 HC positions, especially since they are set to return quite a few from the main rotation.
In the end, Loras went to an alum in Justin Busch, who will be a first-year head coach and also will be coaching a women’s team for the first time. He has ample collegiate experience, having joined Loras’ men’s coaching staff following his graduation in 2018. He moved over to Illinois Wesleyan in 2020, and helped the Titans to back-to-back CCIW championships before returning to Loras this past season. He’s been around winners at both Loras and IWU, and though young, has proven his ability to develop talent on the court. I’m excited to see what Loras does in a very tough American Rivers Conference this next year. They are likely a preseason Top 25 team for me!
A few other (somewhat) recent hires that I’d also written down:
Hood College (MAC): Hired DeRonte Polite, former assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at UW-Milwaukee, on May 23
Defiance: (HCAC) Named Courtney Peay, former head coach at Trinity International (NAIA), head coach on May 17
St. Joseph’s Brooklyn (Skyline): Hired Joe Giacchi, assistant at Caldwell Univ., as head coach on May 10
Salisbury (C2C): Went to an alum and hired Aprile Preller ‘19, as head coach. Preller previously was an assistant at Marymount (VA).
Monmouth (MWC): Michelle DeCoud, a three-time D-III All-American at the Univ. of Dallas, was hired as head coach on May 23.
My condolences to the family of Rowan head coach Demetrius Poles, who passed away on Saturday night. I never had the pleasure of interacting with him during my time covering D3 WBB, but everyone I have spoken with had nothing but excellent things to say about his character and leadership, on and off the court. A Rowan alum, he led the women’s hoops program to a pair of NJAC titles and two NCAA Tournament appearances. He was the 2022-23 NJAC Coach of the Year, and deservedly so, as Rowan won the league and reached the national tournament. This is a very sad situation, and certainly my thoughts and prayers have been with his family and the entire Rowan community. A GoFundMe was set up over the weekend to help support his family, which is linked here.
I also wanted to congratulate UW-Stout’s Raegan Sorensen, who was outstanding on the basketball court this past winter, but even better when it came to throwing the javelin for the Blue Devils this spring. Yesterday, she finished fourth overall in the Javelin Throw at the D-III Track & Field National Championships in Rochester, NY! She PR’d at 44.2m and finished the season a tear after breaking the Stout record in the Javelin Throw last week. Really cool to see 2-sport athletes competing on such a high level.
While I’m at it, yes, I’m still going to put together a post highlighting the 2-sport (and 3-sport) D-III WBB student-athletes…it is coming soon. Stay tuned.
I came across some scheduling news of note over the weekend that I thought I might put out there. Most schedules are finalized, but not all have been released, which is pretty normal.
Shenandoah (ODAC) does have its schedule out, and it includes a few notable non-conference dates. Randolph-Macon will be hosting a classic Nov. 18-19, which includes Catholic and Mary Washington, two schools that Shenandoah is scheduled to play. Shenandoah will also battle two opponents with first-year head coaches in back-to-back games, as they host Goucher on Dec. 30 before traveling to Salisbury in Jan. 3.
Wheaton (CCIW) also dropped its schedule. The Midwest teams always have a few intriguing non-conference games set up, and Wheaton is no exception. They host UW-Oshkosh, Bethany Lutheran, and Dubuque on the opening weekend of the season (Nov. 10-11), which is really cool considering they are getting four teams from four different states to one weekend classic (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois). Later on, they play at UW-Whitewater, host Concordia (Wis.), and take a West Coast trip to play Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Not too bad! Certainly some good RRO potential in there.
Once I got going with all the schedules, I kept finding more and more, so I’m going to put more info out on notable non-conference matchups and all of that in a post on Monday of next week. So be looking for that one!
I’ll stop here as I covered pretty much everything I was planning on mentioning. Certainly hope everyone has a great weekend. Enjoy these summer months!