Eastern Michigan Athletics
AnnMarie Gilbert Named EMU Head Women's Basketball Coach
5/15/2007 9:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Gilbert becomes the seventh coach in the program’s history
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YPSILANTI, Mich. — AnnMarie Gilbert, who spent the past five years as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Michigan State University, has been named the head coach of the Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball program Athletics Director Dr. Derrick Gragg announced today. Gilbert was formally introduced at a Tuesday morning press conference in the atrium of the Convocation Center.
Gilbert, a rising star in the collegiate coaching ranks, possesses 16 years of collegiate coaching experience, including eight years as a head coach. At Michigan State, she helped the Spartans compile an impressive 120-44 record, good for a .732 winning percentage. During her time in East Lansing, the Spartans made it to five consecutive NCAA tournaments and to the 2005 national championship game.
"When we began our search for a new head coach to follow Suzy Merchant we knew it would be a difficult one," EMU’s Gragg said. "Suzy was a tremendous ambassador for Eastern Michigan University and the women’s basketball program for the past nine years and she represented this institution with integrity, passion and commitment to both athletic and academic achievement. She made this program one of the premier basketball programs in the Mid-American Conference and we felt that it would attract outstanding candidates for the position.
"And that is exactly what happened," Gragg continued. "The pool of candidates was exceptional and despite the quality of prospective coaches, one name kept coming to the top in all of our research. AnnMarie Gilbert not only was a great college player, but she has also paid her dues as a Division III head coach for eight years, and for the past five years has been an integral part of one of the most successful women’s programs in the nation - Michigan State University. AnnMarie has proven her ability as a coach and recruiter and we are confident that success will follow her as the new leader of the Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team."
"It is both an honor and a privilege to take on the challenge of leading the Eastern Michigan University women's basketball program," Gilbert said. "The bar has been set high here, but I'm looking forward to raising it to new heights."
"Recruiting is the key to winning MAC championships and advancing to NCAA tournaments," Gilbert added. "Our staff will be committed to signing the top players not only within the state of Michigan, but in the Midwest and nationally in order to build upon the winning foundation that has already been laid here."
"I would like to thank Dr. Derrick Gragg and the advisory committee for making this wonderful opportunity possible," Gilbert continued. "The joy is in the journey, not the destination. I look forward to a very successful journey with EMU women's basketball."
Under Gilbert’s tutelage, Kristin Haynie and Lindsay Bowen were honorable mention All-America selections in 2004-05, while Haynie was a first-round draft pick (No. 9 overall) of the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA. In 2005-06, Bowen was selected as a John R. Wooden Award candidate and was named second- team All-Big Ten. This past season, Victoria Lucas-Perry earned second-team All-Big Ten honors, while Rene Haynes garnered second-team honors by the coaches.
As the recruiting coordinator for MSU, Gilbert has consistently brought excellent talent to East Lansing, including four top 25 recruiting classes in the past four years. Last November, Gilbert was instrumental in signing five exceptional student-athletes to National Letters of Intent, including three players ranked in the top 100 nationally. As a class, it has been ranked among the top 20 in the country by several recruiting publications.
Gilbert helped land another stellar recruiting class for the 2006-07 season, including Michigan Miss Basketball Allyssa DeHaan, who went on to become the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. All-Star Girls Report ranked the 2004-05 class 18th in the nation and Courtney Davidson was ranked as the nation's sixth-best point guard. The 2005-06 class was ranked 21st in the nation and includes Aisha Jefferson, who was the nation's sixth-ranked forward.
During the 2004-05 season, Gilbert helped guide the program to a school-best 33-4 record which included a Big Ten Conference championship, a Big Ten Tournament title and a trip to the NCAA National Championship game.
In her first season with the program Gilbert coached the post players. Under her direction, Liz Shimek was named co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year along with Lindsay Bowen, marking the first time ever for two players from the same team to earn such an honor.
Prior to joining the Spartans, Gilbert spent the previous eight seasons (1994-2002) as the head women’s basketball coach of NCAA Division III Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She is still the winningest coach in Oberlin women's basketball history as the Yeoman made six appearances in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) postseason tournament during her tenure. She assisted in the development of eight separate all-conference players as well as the 1999 All-NCAC Newcomer of the Year.
She began her coaching career at Oberlin as an assistant coach with the women's basketball team in 1992-93 and was an assistant men's basketball coach in 1993-94, before assuming the women's basketball head coaching duties in 1994. In addition to coaching, Gilbert served as the Senior Women's Administrator/Associate Director of Athletics at Oberlin from 1996-2002.
Gilbert played for two seasons (1986-88) at Mid-American Conference member Ohio University. She transferred to Oberlin for her junior and senior seasons (1989-91), where she was a two-time Kodak First-Team All-American, a two-time NCAC Player of the Year, the Honda Division III Athlete of the Year and the Champion USA/WBCA Player of the Year in 1991.
As a junior at Oberlin, Gilbert led the nation in scoring as a junior (31.1 points per game) and was the nation's second-leading scorer as a senior (31.3 ppg). She set the NCAA Division III record for points in a game with 61 against Allegheny, Feb. 6, 1991. She is still the Oberlin record holder for points in a season (778, 1989-90), field goals in a game (28), field goals in a season (319) and free throws made and attempted in a game (13-of-17 vs. Case Reserve, Jan. 6, 1990).
In just two seasons as a player at Oberlin, she registered 1,527 points to become the school's leading scorer, a record which stood until 2002. All told, Gilbert set 24 school records and 10 conference records as a player and still holds 10 standing NCAA Division III records.
She received an invitation to compete for the U.S. team in the 1990 Pan Am Games trials in Colorado Springs. Oberlin retired her jersey in 1994 and in 2001 she was inducted into the Oberlin College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Gilbert was a Street & Smith's All-American, a McDonald's All-Star game participant and was Ohio Miss Basketball her senior year of high school.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts in sociology with a minor in economics from Oberlin in 1991.
Gilbert has a daughter, Jada, who was born Dec. 13, 2001, and a son, Jaden, who was born Aug. 31, 2004.
