Plitzuweit brings experience, exciting brand of basketball to West Virginia

For Dawn Plitzuweit becoming the head women’s basketball coach at West Virginia was a dream.

Athletic Director Shane Lyons conducted a national search in order to find a replacement to take the reins of the program that former head coach Mike Carey established to even greater heights.

And as Lyons continued to look into the qualities and characteristics that he wanted in that position it was Plitzuweit’s name that kept coming up.

The highly successful head coach has won 72-percent of her division one games, led four teams to NCAA Tournaments and is fresh off a Sweet 16 appearance this past year at South Dakota. She also claimed a Division 2 national title in 2006 during her time at Grand Valley State.

That previous success as a head coach coupled with the vision that Plitzuweit had for the Big 12 Conference program perfectly aligned with Lyons’.

And the rest as they say is history.

Plitzuweit was introduced as the sixth coach of the women's basketball program and is excited for building upon what has already been established.

“How do we take this great foundation and build upon it? It all comes down to people. We are on a mission to surround ourselves with high energy individuals who are going to focus on the details on a daily basis,” Plitzuweit said. “Our goal is really quite simple, we aim to do the little things both individually and collectively.”

The goal is to commit to the players with everything that the coaches have by assisting them in their development on and off the court. They are working to grow players into the most versatile and complete versions of themselves while also establishing a fun brand of basketball in the process.

Plitzuweit will play what she calls a “position less,” style of basketball where players will grow and develop in all areas of the game. It’s a style that Plitzuweit believes recruits and players alike will enjoy and from a recruiting standpoint. It’s a brand that has attracted a lot of talented prospects in the past.

“A lot of players want to play in that style and that system,” she said.

It’s also something that has been adapted over her career morphing from a four out, one in style at Grand Valley State to taking advantage of a small roster that was hard to guard due to their versatility at South Dakota and everything in between.

“We are able to modify it to accommodate and fit our personnel to the best of our abilities,” she said.

It’s a brand of basketball that will pride itself on toughness on the defensive end while at the same time valuing the basketball on offense to build to what they want to become.

A national brand, Plitzuweit understands the expectations that come with the position and her mission is to first establish connections with the current players and fostering those bonds to develop trust. She has already met with several of the players and they are anxious to get to work.

Given her background at multiple schools, Plitzuweit has experiencing recruiting in this area while she also has recruited nationally during her time at Michigan.

“That is something we believe our staff is really talented at and really looking forward to,” she said.

It’s a new era for Plitzuweit and she is excited for the challenges of taking the West Virginia brand even further than the heights it has already reached.

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