Coaching question???

[kchats]

I have a question for you fans both SDSU and NDSU fans.

Amy Ruley has been NDSU's womens basketball coach for over 25 years and has had enormous success at the division II level which includes 5 national championships and being inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Tim Miles was a fairly new hire when NDSU made the decision to move its athletic program to division I. Tim Miles has had great success during the transition to division I and has shown a great blueprint for navigating the transition. He has since been hired away by Colorado State.

Aaron Johnston is the womens basketball coach at SDSU and I'm not sure when he started but I believe it was fairly recently. I know he advanced to the national championship in division II and has won one national championship in division II. His team has been wildly successful in division I and has shown a great blueprint for how to navigate the transition.

Scott Nagy has been the mens basketball coach at SDSU for what seems like forever and he was wildly successful in division II. SDSU regularily won the NCC Title and advanced to the elite 8 a few times. His mens team has struggled in division I.

My question is this; is there a correlation between a coach being new to the program just before the move to division I that enables them to succeed sooner in division I? Since the coach hasn't fully established his or her program at division II is it easier to adjust the program for division I and have more success? :-/ *

[NDSU_grad]

I think it's a fair question, but I think the example you used of the four programs is just a coincidence. The NDSU women were losing momentum the last few years in DII, and that continued into the transition. Miles was able to sell his program on the allure of DI. As far as drawing parallels with what happened at SDSU, maybe a bunny fan could comment.