Robin Selvig

Robin Selvig (born August 21, 1952^[1] in Outlook, Montana) is an American women's college basketball coach. He is currently the head coach for the Lady Griz women's basketball team at the University of Montana.^[2] Selvig is in his 33rd season with the Lady Griz in 2010-11. It is his 38th year as either a player or a coach at his alma mater. Selvig enters the 2010-2011 basketball season ranked sixth among active coaches in victories with 740.

Basketball career

While Selvig is entering his 33rd season as coach of the Lady Griz, his association with the University of Montana goes back to the fall of 1970, when he was at UM as a student-athlete. Selvig was a four-year member of the Montana Grizzly men's basketball team, earning second-team All-Big Sky honors as a senior in 1974. In his final year of competition he was awarded the John Eaheart Award as the team’s top defensive player and the Grizzly Cup, an annual award given to the University of Montana's Department of Athletics’ best all-around athlete, scholar and person. Selvig played his final three years for former Griz and Michigan State University coach Jud Heathcote. Montana went 19-8 Selvig’s senior season, tying for the Big Sky Conference regular-season title with an 11-3 league record.

Early coaching career

Selvig began his coaching career following the end of his time as a University of Montana student-athlete. After coaching the Montana men’s freshman team to a 10-8 record in 1974-75, Selvig took over the girls’ basketball program at Plentywood High in Plentywood, Montana, where he totaled a 38-24 record over three seasons. Selvig was then hired by UM Director of Athletics Harley Lewis June 6, 1978, following a three-year stint coaching high school girls’ basketball.

Montana coaching career

Selvig took the head coaching reins for the University of Montana women's basketball team in fall of 1978, inheriting a team that had gone 7-13 the previous season under head coach Eddye McClure. Selvig’s first Montana Lady Griz team finished 13-13 and in second place in the Northwest Women’s Basketball League. After going 19-10 in 1979-80, Montana went 22-8 in 1980-81 and won the program’s first league title. The season started a string of 19 consecutive winning seasons and 18 straight 20-win seasons.

Montana made its first of 22 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship appearances under Selvig in 1981-82, losing 57-52 decision to Wayland Baptist in the opening round of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national tournament in Berkeley, Calif. After coaching Montana in the NWBL for four seasons, Selvig and the Lady Griz moved to the Mountain West Conference in 1982-83. Selvig and Montana continued success in the Mountain West Conference for six seasons, going 78-6 in conference play, winning five regular-season league titles and four postseason conference championships and earning four NCAA tournament trips.

The 1982-83 season marked the University of Montana Lady Griz basketball team's first trip to the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, losing at Louisiana-Monroe, 72-53 in the first round. In 1983-84, the Lady Griz recorded their first NCAA tournament win, a 56-47 home-court victory over Oregon State. Starting in 1987-88, Selvig took Montana to the NCAA tournament 10 of the next 11 seasons.

In 1988, the Lady Griz moved to the Big Sky Conference. The success they had in the NWBL and MWC translated into their new conference. Montana won the first three Big Sky Conference women’s basketball titles with perfect 16-0 records. The team has gone 283-51 (.847) in Big Sky play, winning 15 conference titles in 22 seasons.

Coaching awards

Selvig won his first conference coach of the year award after the 1981-82 NWBL season. Eighteen more league accolades have followed, with five Mountain West and 13 Big Sky Conference coach of the year awards. Selvig has also been named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) District VII Coach of the Year nine times. Following the 1990-91 season, Selvig was one of three finalists for national coach of the year honors. He was inducted into the Grizzly Basketball Hall of Fame in February 1983 and the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. Montana has gone 394-72 in league play under Selvig, a .845 winning percentage. Selvig has coached one All-American, 12 conference Most Valuable Players, 81 all-conference athletes and 115 academic all-conference selections.

Win No. 700

Selvig reached career victory No. 700 with Montana’s 59-57 overtime victory over the University of Illinois in Cancun, Mexico, Nov. 26, 2008. By winning his 700th game in 899 games coached, Selvig matched former Texas coach Jody Conradt as the sixth-fastest coach in NCAA men’s or women’s Division I basketball history to reach 700 victories.

Head coaching record

Selvig has amassed a head coaching record of 740-218 going into the 2010-2011 season. Selvig enters the 2010-2011 season ranked sixth among active coaches in victories with 740. He trails Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (1,098), Rutgers' Vivian Stringer (843), North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell (831), Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer (793) and Georgia’s Andy Landers (750).

Selvig ranks eighth in winning percentage at .772. Filling the seven spots above him are Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma (.858), Summitt (.841), VanDerveer (.803), Arkansas-Little Rock’s Joe Foley (.780), Chattanooga’s Wes Moore (.777), Baylor’s Kim Mulkey (.776) and Texas’s Gail Goestenkors (.773).

His 27 20-win seasons at Montana is a feat surpassed by only Summitt (34 20-win seasons), Vivian Stringer (30) and former Texas coach Jody Conradt (29) in women’s Division I history.

Personal life

A native of Outlook, Montana, Selvig came from a family of eight children. Selvig graduated from the University of Montana in the spring of 1974 with a degree in health and physical education. His brother, Doug, and sister, Sandy, were both University of Montana basketball letterwinners. Doug Selvig’s daughter, Carly, is a freshman member of the 2010-11 Lady Griz basketball team, and son, Derrick, is a junior on the 2010-11 Griz basketball team. Selvig and his wife, Janie, have two adult sons. Jeff and wife Mariana live in Los Angeles. Dan Selvig is attending University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Selvig has also served as the director of the Montana Special Olympics and as a spokesman for Missoula Youth Homes and is the chairman of the 2011 Missoula Heart Walk.

See also

• List of college women's basketball coaches with 600 wins

References

External links

• Lady Griz Basketball official webpage
• http://www.montanagrizzlies.com/pages/?p=83&m=48
• http://www.ladygrizbasketball.com/
• http://missoulian.com/sports/football/college/article_ff8cbc25-5cdf-57d6-a947-dc2bb0f3fb0f.html