David Stluka/UW Communications
Tony Granato, coach for UW men’s hockey, is one of three new hires.
If the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team proved anything during its unexpected run to the Sweet 16, it’s that change in college sports can be a good thing.
Change is just beginning for Badgers fans. A little more than three weeks after athletic director Barry Alvarez removed “interim” from Greg Gard’s title and officially made him head coach of the basketball Badgers, he named Tony Granato head coach of the men’s hockey team. A day later, Alvarez introduced Jonathan Tsipis as head women’s basketball coach.
Granato and Tsipis face monumental challenges, rescuing programs that hit new lows in recent years. Men’s hockey is a decade removed from its sixth and most recent NCAA championship, and UW won only 12 games the past two seasons. Mike Eaves was fired in mid-March after 14 seasons at the helm.
The women’s basketball team, meanwhile, went 47-100 during Bobbie Kelsey’s five seasons as head coach — including a 19-65 record in the Big Ten. The Badgers never finished higher than ninth in league play and ended the 2015-16 season with seven straight losses.
Initial reaction to Alvarez’s hiring decisions has been positive, and rightly so.
Granato, 51, played for UW from 1983 to 1987, earning honors from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and American Hockey Coaches Association two of his four seasons.
He then spent 13 seasons in the National Hockey League, playing for the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. He went on to coach three NHL teams, including the Colorado Avalanche, which went to the Stanley Cup playoffs twice during his tenure.
Granato is now an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings and will remain in that position for now as the team battles for a playoff spot. Granato’s brother, Don, introduced last week as one of UW’s new associate head coaches, will oversee day-to-day Badger operations until the Red Wings’ season concludes.
Tsipis (pronounced SIP-iss), 43, arrives after serving as head coach at George Washington University for four years, where his record was 92-38. While there, he rebuilt a losing program, taking the Colonials to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament the past two seasons.
Prior to that, he served as women’s associate head coach at Notre Dame and is the first male head coach in Badgers women’s basketball history.
Rarely do three Division I collegiate programs (if you include men’s basketball) enter new eras all at the same time. This offseason just got a little more exciting.
