Change They Can Believe In

Bozeman Jumps Right In as GW's New Women's Coach

Mike Bozeman had seen enough. The new George Washington women's basketball coach was watching his players mess up one of his carefully designed plays at a recent practice, when he decided to take control. He stripped off his sweatshirt, grabbed the ball, and took over at guard. He backed down his defender and then slung the ball inside to a cutting player, who converted an easy layup.

"That play works!" Bozeman shouted, as he strutted around the court. "That play works! Stop messing up my genius!"

The players smiled. Bozeman walked to the sideline and put his sweatshirt back on. Practice resumed.

"He's like a mad scientist," senior center Jessica Adair said later. "And this is his lab."

Bozeman is one of five new Division I women's basketball coaches in the area. Four of them -- Matt Corkery (American), Jeri Porter (George Mason), Niki Reid Geckeler (Howard) and Stefanie Pemper (Navy) -- are taking over teams that have had little to modest success in recent years. Bozeman, however, faces the challenge of maintaining a program that has been, along with third-ranked Maryland, the region's best.

He replaces Joe McKeown, who spent 19 seasons building George Washington into one of the most consistently successful programs in the nation. The Colonials won 20 or more games 17 times under McKeown, and over the past two seasons, they posted a 55-11 record, were ranked as high as eighth and played in two NCAA region semifinals. McKeown left in June to take over at Northwestern.

"For me, basketball is very, very important. I want to be good. I'm a basketball nut," said GW Athletic Director Jack Kvancz, who served on the NCAA Division I men's basketball selection committee from 1998 to 2003. "Without question, this was a big hire. Joe, through hard work, created a job that is a very good job. I wanted to hire someone that was going to keep it as a very good job."

Kvancz, who narrowed the search down to "six quality people that I could hire," said he believes that Bozeman is the right choice, even though this is his first collegiate head coaching position. Bozeman, who turns 42 at the end of the month, was a highly successful high school coach, leading Bishop McNamara to a 151-35 record and a No. 1 national ranking in six seasons (1999-2005).

McKeown hired him as an assistant in August 2005, and over three seasons, Bozeman filled in for McKeown as interim coach four times. He directed the Colonials to three wins, including one over 10th-ranked Georgia in December 2006.

"In a way, he brought a head coaching mentality as an assistant," McKeown said in a telephone interview. "He was experienced enough that when I wasn't there, he could run practice, and he had a good rapport with the players. I think he just needed to learn how things work at the college level. But his basketball background allowed him to escalate very quickly."

Bozeman seemingly has been preparing for this challenge for years. He has leaned on his older brother, Todd, the men's head coach at Morgan State. He has drawn from his experiences as a student-athlete; he played two seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson, and helped the Knights qualify for the 1988 NCAA tournament.

Even the eight-plus years he spent as a police officer in Prince George's County, working everything from narcotics to hostage negotiations, has helped prepare him.