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Miami women's basketball hires a big Division II name in Cleve Wright

After leading Gannon University to a near-perfect season, Wright is headed to Division I.

By Matt Sussman
Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

Maria Fantanarosa had a modest amount of success but Miami was looking for more. So their next hire is a person that has tons of success at a lower level:

Cleve Wright coached Gannon University for 11 seasons, with their most prominent run coming in 2009-2010 when they finished 37-1, with the lone loss in the Division II Final Four to Emporia State in an overtime loss. He leaves Erie, Pennsylvania with a career coaching record of 233-100 and five trips to the NCAA tournament. Lots of Wright's other accomplishments with the Golden Knights can be read here.

Prior to that he did some assistant coaching in Division I (Northwestern, Butler) so he is acclimated to larger schools, but we all know too well in the MAC that success at a smaller school can translate to a larger one. The fact that Wright was able to bring a program to the top of their division should bode well for a school that desperately wants to separate themselves from the other top MAC women's basketball schools. Their only trip to the NCAAs was in 2008 and with everybody else in the league seemingly getting better, at the very least they need to keep up.

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