Filling Suzy Merchant’s role as the Michigan State women’s basketball head coach will not be an easy task. Sources inside the MSU athletic department tell Spartans Illustrated that this national search is focused on finding someone with a track record of success who can replicate Merchant’s accomplishments, both on and off the court, and hopefully take the Spartan women to another level.
Michigan State fans shouldn’t expect much information to be made publicly available during this search – from all indications, it will be treated just like the volleyball and hockey searches were. In fact, this hire should be viewed as just as important – if not more important – than those two hires were for MSU's athletic director, Alan Haller.
Generally speaking, searches like this require the university to reach out for the help of an external firm due to its complexity. Collegiate athletic departments are not set up to do the amount of work required to conduct an in-depth national search. If you don’t have someone on your staff who is experienced at running a national coaching search, it can be a very challenging process. The fact that both the women’s NCAA and WNIT tournaments are still ongoing as MSU conducts its search process also poses a unique challenge; figuring out opportunities to talk to the candidates who are interested can become a complex endeavor when also factoring in that potential logistical challenge.