Jonathan Tsipis’ own path to becoming a head coach at a Power 5 women’s basketball program was certainly a unique one, and now he’s adding a final piece to his own coaching staff puzzle that is about as unique as himself.
On Monday afternoon, the Badgers announced the hiring of Craig Carter as an assistant coach. Carter joins Sasha Palmer and Myia McCurdy on the Badger bench.
However, he doesn’t come with much in the way of interaction with the women’s basketball game. Instead, Carter will join UW after two seasons as an assistant coach at Cornell on the men’s side of the game.
In fact, Carter’s career as a coach has all been on the men’s side of the game. He first coached at Siena College with now Iowa men’s basketball head coach Fran McCaffery and then at his alma mater of Rutgers.
“We are excited to welcome Craig to the Wisconsin Women’s Basketball family,” Tsipis said. “Craig and I have known each other for a long period and he has a great reputation as being an outstanding coach. He was an accomplished player at Rutgers and has helped recruit and develop high level student-athletes.
“Craig worked with Fran McCaffery on two different occasions and knows the detailed efforts I am looking for in the area of scouting and game planning. He is a great fit with Sasha Palmer, Myia McCurdy and Michelle Nason, serving as great role models and mentors for our student-athletes.”
Interestingly enough, Carter and Tsipis both have ties to the McCaffery coaching tree as Carter was Tsipis’ replacement when he took a different job after being the director of operations at UNC-Greensboro. Carter followed McCaffery to Siena College and then went off on his own to coach at Rutgers.
As a player, Carter was part of one of the most successful times in Rutgers basketball history.
Carter was a four-year letter for the Scarlet Knights from 1987-91, serving as a two-time team captain. Rutgers participated in three post-season tournaments, including the NCAA tournament in 1989 and 1991. He was also selected to the Atlantic-10 Conference All-Tournament team in 1989. Carter graduated from Rutgers in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
Bringing Carter on is seen as a great fit with his reputation as an advanced scout and his overall organizational skills for the coaching staff. Adding him came about thanks to the relationship both have with McCaffery it turns out.
“Jonathan and I are from the same coaching family tree,” Carter explained. “We have been mentored and taught by the same coach. When this job came open, Fran recommended me to Jonathan. Tsip is a great guy and Wisconsin is a great school. It’s a great opportunity and something I couldn’t say no to. I had other opportunities that I actually walked away from to give this job a really good look and I’m glad it worked out.
“I bring a high-level of preparation, confidence and belief. I think the main thing you can do with a player that you mentor is let them know how much you care about them – preparing them and believing in their talent, their ability to get better. I think we’re going to be able to do that. It’s a great mix of personalities, enthusiasm and energy that’s going to take the Wisconsin program to new levels.”
What will be interesting is seeing his transition in to the women’s side of the game and how he deals with the differences. Luckily he’ll have some of the same family tree to lean on to help in that transition.
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