Minot State University has chosen not to renew the contract of longtime head men's basketball coach Mike Hultz, the school announced on Tuesday.
Hultz leaves as the school's all-time wins leader with a record of 194-159 in 12 seasons at the helm of the Beavers men's program. The Beavers finished with an 18-11 record in 2009-10.
"I just wanted to start by thanking Mike for his time here and his service here at Minot State University," MSU Athletic Director Rick Hedberg said. "He's been here 12 years and Mike's a good person, he's worked hard and he obviously has won quite a few games.
"This decision wasn't an easy one. It never is. It came down to looking at the future of the program. We decided with the move to Division II that we're looking at a new direction for our program at this time."
Hultz said he felt he deserved to get the opportunity to make necessary changes to the program the athletic department was looking for.
"Although we've talked about some of these things, I felt like what I've done here over the years, I felt I deserved to have some criteria laid out before me and deserved the chance to make some corrections," Hultz said. "I did it nine years ago and I'm confident I could have done it again."
Hedberg said that his decision had more to do with the direction of the overall program than the Beavers play on the court.
"It wasn't just any one thing," Hedberg said. "Mike's a quality person. It came down to making this move and moving forward with the program. A head coach wears a lot of different hats - from being able to win games to recruiting to being able to connect with community and boosters and connecting with campus. There are a lot of different aspects that a head coach has to take care of, so it's not an easy job."
Hultz said he didn't think he had the type of image the university was looking for as it made the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II.
"They don't think I'm the face to lead the school into Division II," Hultz said. "They don't think I'm visible enough in the community. They've always wanted me to do a better job of shaking everyone's hand and saying hi. It's not somehing I'm a natural at. I'm not good at faking how I feel about things, so people I feel I thought I should stay away from, I stayed away from. I needed to do a better job of mending fences and be the poster boy they want their men's basketball coach to be."
Recruiting was another issue in the school's decision not to renew Hultz's contract.
Hedberg said getting a larger base of high school players to build the program is something he would like to see.
"We need to get back to having a solid base of high school kids and base our program around 4- or 5-year kids," Hedberg said. "I think we got away from that a little bit the last few years."
"Mike obviously looked at the junior college route a lot the last few years and we were successful and we won some games. I'd like to see us get back to more of a high school base. We obviously can't just build around North Dakota high school kids, that's where we have to start."
Hultz said very few schools similar to MSU rely heavily on North Dakota high school players.
"They're frustrated that we don't have enough (area) high school kids in our program, but who does?," Hultz said. "Williston (State College) has one (N.D. high school player) who has contributed heavily to their program. Dickinson State has two. Valley City and Mayville have one (each). We have the Packineaus (from Parshall), Bojan Janjic played two years of high school ball here. We have last year's Mr. Basketball Cameron Malzer and Andrew Crosby from Minot High redshirting. The reality is, North Dakota basketball isn't a hotbed of talent right now and we've had to go out of state to get some help with the resources we've had and the way the NAIA is structured with six scholarships."
Hedberg said finding a proven recruiter will be one of the main charateristics the Beavers look for in the search for a new coach.
"Somebody that's proven themselves," Hedberg said. "Somebody that most likely has a background in recruiting. That's a huge part of what we're looking at. (Someone) who's a proven leader, has the solid Xs and Os background but is able to connect with our community and campus and can bring in some young men that can represent us and continue to build a program."
The Beavers plan on starting a nationwide search for a new coach immediately and hope to have the position filled by the end of April.
"It'll be similar (to the search that landed MSU head football coach Paul Rudolph), but we're going to try to speed it up just because of the time frame," Hedberg said. "I'm confident that people are going to be interested in our position. We've got a solid school and we've done well. The Division II thing is exciting for a lot of people. The provisional status might scare some people but overall I think it will be an attractive position."
Hultz's top assistant, Steve Grabowski, will stay on and head up MSU's recruiting effort.
"Steve Grabowski will continue with the recruiting until we have a head coach hired," Hedberg said. "Hopefully (we will) not lose a recruiting class because kids are making decisions now so it's important that we work quickly."
Hultz said he'll take time to evaluate his future.
"I don't know exactly what's going to happen," Hultz said.
