Contract not renewed
Hultz out as Minot State men’s basketball coachBy CHRIS BIERI Sports Editor cbieri@minotdailynews.com
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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.
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RoTiSeRiE
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04-10-10 10:09 PM
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I forgot to put my name here, I forgot to do it after I seen Doug's name. But, I am merely posting an opinion in reference to this article, and just to give the people a lilttle perspective. Tell you what, you just motivated me to write a letter to the Head AD about the great decision Minot State made.
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rangerchuck
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04-06-10 10:50 AM
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Conan Moore (AKA RoTiSeRiE), It's too bad that a former player feels like this is the place to come and anonymously rip his coach. I have no allegiance to MSU or Coach Hultz. I don't know anything about you or him (other than it took less than 2 minutes to figure out your real name). Good luck to you Conan.
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RoTiSeRiE
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04-03-10 12:51 AM
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Minot State made a great decision. I personally played for Mike Hultz in my last two years of college sports. I honestly regretted every minute of it. He did not have any social skills, not a very good communicator, and he was not a fun person to be around. As far as his coaching abilities, I felt they were sub-par in terms of running offenses and defenses around his players. I played for Clete Adelman, the older brother of Houston Rockets Basketball Coach Rick Adelman, who recenlty was inducted to the Hall of Fame for California Basketball. He was a great role model, teacher, and person. I played for Ray Johnson, who turned me into an All Conference, All State, and an All American in high school. People whom I love dearly, and I respect them so much. I have yet to touch a basketball in 9 years after playing for him, and I hope he doesn't get another chance to Coach again. I never want players to experience what I did, and I hope to start following Minot State again.
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Dougiej
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03-25-10 6:55 PM
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I was extremely disappointed when I learned that Coach Hultz would not be given a chance to lead the Beavers into this change. I know that some people had a hard time connecting with him, but he is one of the smartest coaches I have played under. I played for Coach Hultz for two years and also helped coach with him for a couple years and I know how passionate he was about winning. I feel Coach Hultz was a big part of MSU getting to have this chance so why did they not stick with him and see what he could do? I have no doubt that he would have adapted to the new requirements they were looking for and been successful at the next level. Good job on a great career at MSU Mike and I will miss seeing you on the sidelines for the Beavers next season. I know that you will have continued success no matter what you do. Doug
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CassiusZimmer
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03-17-10 1:16 PM
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Every spring and summer Coach Hultz was kind enough to give me the opporunity to officiate basketball with him, other area coaches and officials, and his players. I always enjoyed this and hope to continue my career as a junk ball basketball ref. I would like to hear what some of the ND players who had success and actually saw time on the college basketball floor think of him as a coach. As a fan, he didn't seem like a put a hand on your shoulder and softly explain the offense type of leader. It seemed like he would put his hand on your shoulder to put a chip in your shoulder.
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CassiusZimmer
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03-17-10 10:23 AM
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Coach Hultz is quoted, in kind of a sarcastic way of him saying, he wasn't much of a people person. If MSU forced him to lead the golf program along with his duties as the head men's basketball coach, then on I don't blame him for the negative view the Minot golfing community had towards him. Hultz made reference to the other schools in the Dac who had less ND players on their roster than his team. This may be true. However, many of their teams out of state players were from the midwest and easily mistaken as a ND type of basketball player. For example, two of the starting guards on the Dickinson St team were from MT, but looked like they could have been from Mohall, ND. Honestly and as sad as it is, the Beaver Boosters wanted to see more white kids on the team than Coach Hultz had on the team.
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Minotian
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03-17-10 3:44 AM
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Check back in five years and I bet Hultz is winning games somewhere (maybe as an asst., doesn't matter) and Minot will be getting their tails handed to them.... and having to travel 600 miles to do so.
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Minotian
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03-17-10 3:42 AM
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First of all, Minot State 'College' has no business moving to D-II in the first place. But since that bridge has already been crossed, I gotta say that Mike H. was the perfect guy to lead the transition in hoops and for the entire athletic department. He'll be missed by this fan (MSU grad that still gets to several games a year). Mike is a class act. Good luck finding your ideal guy Hedberg & Co. Geez... man, you're gonna have to use Juco guys to get it done in D-II..... wow, wake the*****up!! Just like Beaver hoops should've stayed in Swain years ago, they should've stayed NAIA also..... and now they let go the winningest coach in school history...... another amazing decision... I think we should 'can' Hedberg and every other booster-fool that was behind this. Best of Luck to you Mike.... you'll land on your feet. Check back in five years and I bet Hultz is winning games somewhere (maybe as an asst., doesn't matter) and Minot will b getg their tails handed to e
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