Dawn Plitzuweit’s Minnesota Rebuild Is a Coaching Masterclass

The modern era of college sports has completely changed expectations for how fast it should take to rebuild a program. The transfer portal has transformed common team-building strategies, which has made many people think you should be able to build a winning team overnight, but that's not always the case. Dawn Plitzuweit's job in three seasons at Minnesota, taking the Gophers to the Sweet 16 in Year 3, is something that should not go unnoticed.

When Plitzuweit was hired before the 2023-24 season, she took over a program that had just two NCAA Tournament appearances in 14 seasons, and none in five straight campaigns. The program's most popular player, Lindsay Whalen, had a 71-76 overall record in five seasons as a head coach. It was clear there needed to be a change.

The Gophers had a talented roster in 2022-23, and seven players stayed through the coaching change. Mara Braun, Amaya Battle, Mallory Heyer, Niamaya Holloway, Sophie Hart, Maggie Czinano and Aminata Zie all remained with the program. Plitzuweit has slowly brought in her own players, and it has paid off.

"This has been a journey that has been in the making for quite a few years now. For this team, for a lot of the young ladies who are a part of this. They've been with us for a few years. Obviously, you have some who've joined us this season. But it's certainly something that they've worked their tails off to get to a point where they're competing at they're at this point and time. We have a great challenge ahead of us, certainly, with our matchup with UCLA. But we're really thrilled to have an opportunity to continue playing," Plitzuweit said on Thursday at her Sweet 16 press conference.

The Gophers program hasn't been to the Sweet 16 since 2005, but Plitzuweit recently got to the second weekend in 2022 with the University of South Dakota. With a one-year stop at West Virginia in between, she has not rebuilt the Gophers into a successful program.

"So much has changed in four years. Certainly, there were challenges then, and there are new challenges now. Regardless of where you're at, to be able to continue playing is something that is really, really special. It's something that is really hard to do," she said.

"We have a team of young ladies who are battling to give their best, and that's what it takes, in terms of giving ourselves an opportunity to be here, and continue to compete at the highest level. It's so vastly different... It's very, very challenging. There are so many new things that you're navigating on a daily basis."

The sport is vastly different. Minnesota lost a three-year starter, Mallory Heyer, to the transfer portal just weeks before the start of this season. The Gophers program didn't need a complete teardown, just some fine-tuning. Plitzuweit has laid out the blueprint for how any program rebuild should look in the modern era of women's college basketball.

The Gophers face a tall task on Friday night against No. 1 seed UCLA in the Sweet 16. Their success in that game shouldn't imapct the view on their season. It's clear that Minnesota women's basketball will be a serious factor in the Big Ten as long as Plitzuweit is leading the program.