Former WVU WBB HC Dawn Plitzuweit Explains What Led to Accepting Minnesota Job

Now that some time has passed since Dawn Plitzuweit’s sudden departure from the WVU women’s basketball program, the one person who fans were waiting to hear from has finally decided to tell her side of the story.

Plitzuweit herself sat down with KMSP-TV Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul to discuss her decision to leave the Mountaineers after only one year and become the new head coach at Minnesota. She was asked pointblank what actually happened that led to her exit from WVU not even 24 hours following her team’s loss in the NCAA Women’s Tournament to Arizona.

“After the announcement was made that there was a change in leadership at the University of Minnesota, they reached out to see if there would be any potential interest. I said certainly there would be, but at the same time it’s a very difficult decision because we just moved,” said Plitzuweit, acknowledging she had an initial conversation with Minnesota in the middle of the season. Now as far as when the official offer came, Plizuweit says it came the night of WVU’s loss to Arizona.

In an interview with Minneapolis FOX affiliate KMSP-TV, former WVU Womens Basketball Coach Dawn Plitzuweit discusses her decision to take the Minnesota job and the process of leaving WVU. Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/lTq4OTGEAg pic.twitter.com/xCAxcmnLZN

— Tom Hunter (@tphunter) March 24, 2023

“Certainly a quick turn around and that made it challenging. But at the same time, these young ladies here at the U (Minnesota) have been waiting for a coach too,” said WVU’s now former head coach about the timeframe of her team’s season ending and receiving an offer from new school. This timeframe slightly disputes what WVSN’s source suggests happened on that same day. The source claims Plitzuweit and her assistant coaches did not ride back on the bus with the team and that acted checked out almost immediately following the game. WVU AD Wren Baker’s comments on the matter does at least line up with the Mountaineers being aware of Minnesota’s interest prior to the Big 12 Tournament and that she called him about her choice to join the Golden Gophers the morning after WVU’s season ended.

Source: WBB Players First Heard About Dawn Plitzuweit’s Departure on Twitter

Even though everyone’s timelines still don’t stack up exactly and some feel Plitzuweit could have handled things better, especially in regards to a WVSN source claiming the players found out about the news on Twitter and not from her directly, hearing from Plitzuweit should now at least be the final piece needed to move on. Plitzuweit did express a mix emotions about having to leave players that just went through losing a coach the year prior, but that she is excited about the opportunity at Minnesota and family reasons made this the right move for her.

The focus for West Virginia is now on finding the program’s next head coach, something Baker and others have been working on for over a week now.

For those interested, the full interview with Plitzuweit can be found below.