Michigan women's basketball coach Kevin Borseth was in his new office in Ann Arbor when the phone rang.

Like he always has, Borseth answered.

But now he doesn't have to. His secretary told him just to let it ring; she'll take care of that kind of stuff.

Having his first secretary is just one of the many adjustments Borseth will have to make coming to a premier athletic institution - the school Borseth has always loved.

The first televised sporting event Borseth said he ever saw was the 1965 NCAA men's basketball championship game. Gail Goodrich (24.8 points per game that season) led UCLA to 91-80 victory over Cazzie Russell's (25.7) Michigan squad at Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

So where has Borseth been between watching the Wolverines on TV and becoming their eighth women's basketball coach?

Borseth comes to Michigan following a nine-year stint at Wisconsin-Green Bay, where his teams finished first or tied for first in the Horizon League (formerly the Midwestern Conference) each season. The Phoenix went to the NCAA Tournament seven of those years and the WNIT the other two.

Wisconsin-Green Bay reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season after upsetting ninth-seeded New Mexico.

When the Phoenix fell to top-seeded Connecticut in the second round, the writing was on the wall for Borseth's departure. Wisconsin-Green Bay's three leading scorers were all seniors and Borseth was publicly upset with the difficulties of playing in a smaller conference.

"Other (Horizon League) schools need to take their nonconference games seriously and try to win those games," Borseth told the Appleton Post-Crescent. "They're all building for the conference tournament and trying to play a bunch of players in the nonconference games. We play to win those games."

Borseth accepted the women's basketball coaching position at Colorado in 2005. He flew to Boulder, Colo., but decided to back out of the job hours before the scheduled press conference. He said Friday his wife's father and grandmother were ill and he was uncomfortable being a plane ride away from them. They have both since passed away.

Connie Borseth, Kevin's wife, said in addition to Colorado, Central Michigan, Indiana and possibly Cincinnati showed interest in Kevin at some point.

At his inaugural press conference at Michigan, Kevin Borseth spoke of the benefits of the move up. At Wisconsin-Green Bay, he said he could get honorable-mention players and maybe even an all-state player. At Michigan, he can get all-Americans.

Prior to coaching the Phoenix, Borseth spent 11 years at Michigan Tech, leading the Huskies to a 225-97 record (.699).

"He basically came into Michigan Tech when the program was not very successful, on the low end of their conference year, and he turned it into a national powerhouse," said John Barnes, Michigan Tech's current coach and a friend of Borseth.

The first five years of Borseth's coaching career were spent at Gogebic Community College in Ironwood.

When he started there in 1982, Borseth said the team had just two players - and one had mono. He had to convince nine players who were already enrolled in school to join. That team didn't have the best record, but Borseth said it was the most fun he's had coaching.

Now Borseth fulfills a dream by making Michigan his fourth stop in his coaching path.

"He's taken those things that have made him successful at this level, and hasn't changed as a person," Barnes said. "He has stayed true to his values and his ways, and that's taken him to the top everywhere he's been - from Gogebic to Michigan Tech to Wisconsin-Green Bay to the University of Michigan. I don't have doubt in my mind that he's going to turn that program around and make it a Big Ten and national powerhouse."

Notable Quotables

"I have to tell you, some people ask 'Are you the women's basketball coach?' And I generally say, 'I am she.' Sometimes I almost walk into women's bathrooms because I've been doing this for such a long period of time."

- Kevin Borseth
Michigan women's basketball coach

"The biggest challenge (for Borseth) is the perception of Michigan basketball as a whole right now. . The high school basketball players' perception of Michigan right now probably isn't the highest."
- John Barnes
Michigan Tech women's basketball coach