Apr 5, 2002 3 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Spurned by Bob Huggins and others, West Virginia hired Bowling Green’s Dan Dakich as its head coach Thursday. Dakich played at Indiana and was an assistant to Bob Knight for 10 years there. At West Virginia, he’ll try to rebuild a team that set records for losses in two of the past four seasons and was racked with discipline problems.

The Mountaineers were 8-20 this season, 1-15 in the Big East.

“What’s happened in the past has happened in the past. It’s where you want to go, how hard you want to work that is going to determine how far we get to,” Dakich told a news conference on the floor of the WVU Coliseum.

“You can rest assured, we are used to absolutely nothing but players’ best effort, not only on the court, but in the classroom.”

Dakich replaces Gale Catlett, who retired in February after 24 seasons with the Mountaineers and a school-record 565 wins.

Dakich went 89-57 in five seasons at Bowling Green, without a trip to the NCAA tournament. The Falcons went 24-9 this season – the school’s most victories in more than half a century – and played in the NIT for the second time in three years.

Dakich signed a five-year contract that will pay him $500,000 per season. That includes a $150,000 base salary; $300,000 in income from radio, television and other appearances and endorsements; and $50,000 in deferred compensation.

He’ll have the opportunity to earn an additional $135,000 per year in income from summer camps and competitive incentives, such as graduation rates, NCAA tournament appearances and season-ticket sales.

Catlett’s compensation package was $300,000 per season. At Bowling Green, Dakich’s base salary was $125,000.

Dakich plans to bring three assistant coaches with him from Bowling Green. He’ll review West Virginia’s players before deciding on the makeup of next year’s team. He said he doesn’t believe any Bowling Green players will follow him to West Virginia.

“There are some guys here who can play a little bit,” Dakich said. “I want to see what their interest is in turning this into something special. We’re going to work like crazy, but we’re going to treat kids right.”

The players who attended the news conference liked what they heard.

“I’m excited,” said West Virginia forward Josh Yeager. “I think it will be good for West Virginia, the state and the university. It’s what we need – the discipline and the offensive and defensive hustle.”

Dakich is probably best remembered for shutting down Michael Jordan in the 1984 NCAA regional semifinals. Dakich held Jordan to 13 points and one rebound in his final game at North Carolina as the Hoosiers upset the top-ranked Tar Heels 72-68.

Much like Knight, Dakich’s practices are intense. He storms the sidelines during games and he preaches defense.

“He said he wants to work on defense, and that’s what we needed last year,” WVU guard Drew Schifino said. “We were near the bottom of the Big East and we weren’t very good. That’s going to have to improve.”