From The Desk Of Kevin Borseth... New Faces
7/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
From The Desk Of Kevin Borseth...
Kevin Borseth, head coach of the Michigan women's basketball team, will share his thoughts on all things Michiganwomen'sbasketball onMGoBlue.com.
MONDAY,July20 -- "New Faces"
Hello everyone! We have lots of exciting things happening around here with the influx of six new frosh hitting the books early with summer school starting for all of our incoming athletes. Getting everyone in place is HUGE as the newcomers transition from the confines of home-cooked meals, clothes washed, etc. etc. to Youre on your own now. I think we have done a really good job of helping with the transition with some huge efforts of associate head coach Dawn Plitzuweit and assistant coach Mike Williams in getting things organized for these players so they feel both welcome and in place here. I know when I attended college out of high school it scared me to death and not having it organized made me homesick in short order. We have a lot of different personalities in the new faces and it appears to be fun for them to learn about each other. We have done a few team building exercises already and have yet a few more to go before everyone heads back home in mid-August for summer vacation. Not a whole lot of time will unfold before we come back in September, but at least we will all have an idea of who everyone is, and understand more about each and every teammate. I really believe harmony to be the key element in the teams success and the prep time this summer should have put us on the right track.
In the meantime, the coaches are hitting the pavement observing players from throughout the country all over the country as the club teams compete in front of hundreds of coaches during the month of July. I think one coach put it best when he said, Identifying the talent is easy, its getting them to come your way that makes it difficult. From what I am experiencing, two things come to the forefront that perhaps most arent aware. The first is that in order to get to some of these elite athletes, you have to go through multiple layers to get to them. Each layer these recruits have, has formed an opinion of your program as to the style of play or type of coach you are, as well as success level both achieved and expected. Getting through these layers can be difficult sometimes, but we are working diligently getting to know who these coaches are as well as getting them to know a little more of who we are and what we are about.
The second thing that comes to mind is that established programs are recruiting two to four years out. In some respects, that could be a gamble since these young athletes mature so rapidly at this age you never know what a difference a year will make. With that said, the list of transfers this past years was a very long list of players who for whatever reason wanted out after one year. I know from our standpoint we want to make certain that each player we recruit is absolutely convinced they want what the University of Michigan has to offer. That not only eliminates any transfer situations from players we have recruited but also allows us four full years with each player so we can develop them into the stars that will carry the torch for our program. We feel we have a special gift in developing players so the key is to find those who are not only willing to put in effort but want it. With that said, we are looking deeper and deeper into the talent pool as we proceed. Its amazing however that a lot of these kids have some idea of whether or not your school would be the place to further their education as well as basketball playing days. We have a few that are definitely MICHIGAN people and their recruitment becomes that much smoother.
I feel the players we brought in this season have a super competitive spirit that will lay good ground work for our program. We are always looking for program changers in our recruiting but competition for these types of kids is very steep. We are onto some very hungry talent so far so make sure to keep an eye on who we sign in November!!
A thought that sticks in my head since arriving here at Michigan, is one that was stated by DAndra Poyfair-Walter who was a student-athlete of mine at Michigan Tech University way back when I started coaching womens basketball. Our program at Tech was at the bottom of the barrel where the most difficult thing you had to do to get a win at Houghton was to get the bus there. When interviewed about the future of the program there, DAndra said We have no place to go but up and we are going. While Rome wasnt built in a day nor do I feel any differently with the building of Michigans womens basketball program.We are working and have been working to get the right people in here, who want to be here and will sell the farm on every possession to get this thing on track.
The arrival of the new facility is right around the corner and the excitement of our player development complex coming to fruition is indescribable.
Gotta run and catch a plane, Im on the road again.
Continued blessings,
KB
