Roos out as BG women's basketball coach

3/8/2018
BY JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
  • SPT-BGwomen19p-1

    Bowling Green State University women's basketball head coach Jennifer Roos shouts instructions during a game a year ago.

    BLADE

  • BOWLING GREEN — Bowl­ing Green State Univer­sity fired women’s bas­ket­ball coach Jen­ni­fer Roos, the school an­nounced Thurs­day.

    The Fal­cons just fin­ished the sea­son with an 11-19 record that in­cluded a 3-15 mark in Mid-Amer­i­can Con­fer­ence play, plac­ing BG 11th in the 12-team league. That marked the fourth con­sec­u­tive los­ing sea­son for the Fal­cons un­der Roos, who posted a six-year record of 92-97.

    Roos still had one year on her con­tract, which was ex­tended dur­ing the 2014-15 sea­son, and will be paid the re­main­ing $205,000 on that con­tract.

    “I want to thank coach Roos for the 17 years she has given to our women’s bas­ket­ball pro­gram,” BG ath­let­ics di­rec­tor Bob Moos­brug­ger said in a re­lease. “She was a part of tre­men­dous suc­cess within the pro­gram, and we wish her the best in her fu­ture en­deav­ors.”

    VIDEO: Roos will not return as BGSU coach

    Roos has been in­volved with women’s bas­ket­ball team the past 17 sea­sons, hav­ing first joined the staff of pre­vi­ous coach Curt Miller as an as­sis­tant in 2001-02. When Miller left for In­di­ana, Roos was pro­moted to the top job.

    In her first sea­son, Roos led the Fal­cons to a 24-11 mark and an 11-5 record in MAC play. That team ad­vanced to the third round of the WNIT be­fore los­ing to even­tual tour­na­ment cham­pion Drexel.

    In 2013-14 the Fal­cons posted a 30-5 record un­der Roos, in­clud­ing a 17-1 league mark that gave them a reg­u­lar-sea­son ti­tle. In that sea­son BG de­feated Michigan twice and Ohio State be­fore los­ing in a WNIT quar­ter­fi­nal to Rut­gers, who won the tour­ney that year. Roos was named MAC coach of the year and WBCA re­gion coach of the year af­ter that sea­son.

    But the four sea­sons that fol­lowed were lean ones. This year’s 11 vic­to­ries were the most for one sea­son in that pe­riod as the Fal­cons com­piled a 38-81 record (.319 win­ning per­cent­age) and were 15-57 in MAC games (.208 win­ning per­cent­age).

    The Fal­cons had only two se­niors on this year’s 14-player ros­ter, and they will add Mem­phis trans­fer Alyssa Dean as well as three sign­ees from the No­vem­ber sign­ing pe­riod. Four of the re­turnees are start­ers from this past sea­son.

    “I am deeply in­vested in the BG com­mu­nity & have given all I could to the Univer­sity bc it has been more than just a job,” Roos said on Twit­ter af­ter the an­nounce­ment. “For the past 17 yrs, BGSU has af­forded me count­less op­por­tu­ni­ties to sup­port stu­dent-ath­letes as they grow on & off the court.

    “I take great pride in con­trib­ut­ing to the suc­cess of so many out­stand­ing ser­vant lead­ers. The peo­ple have al­ways been the best part of BGSU & the city of BG. From the tal­ented stu­dent-ath­letes, to the ded­i­cated staff, from the pas­sion­ate fans to the highly en­gaged alum­nae, there are count­less in­di­vid­u­als to thank. It has been an HONOR!”

    As for the rest of the staff, as­sis­tant coaches Jacey Brooks, Nick Moore, and Jessie Ivey re­main em­ployed by the uni­ver­sity. The school did not name an in­terim coach.

    Moos­brug­ger said the search for a new head coach will be­gin im­me­di­ately.

    “BGSU strives for ex­cel­lence in all we do, whether in ac­a­dem­ics or ath­let­ics,” he said. “Our women’s bas­ket­ball pro­gram has been a source of pride for our alumni and fans.

    “We are com­mit­ted to suc­cess in the class­room and on the court.”

    Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.