The NCAA Division I women’s volleyball coaching carousel did some serious spinning Tuesday, considering it’s February; the NCAA men’s schedule has a few key matches on tap for Wednesday; the AVCA top 25 looks a lot like last week’s AVCA top 25; and the International Volleyball Hall of Fame looks at huge move in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Coaching carousel
The long-standing vacancy in Evanston, Illinois, has finally been filled. Northwestern hired Grand Canyon coach Tim Nollan to take over the role vacated by Shane Davis, who resigned on December 1 after eight seasons.
Nollan, a former USC assistant for eight seasons with Mick Haley, has been the head coach at Grand Canyon in Arizona the past eight years. This past season, Grand Canyon finished 23-8, 13-3 in the Western Athletic Conference, which included the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament. Jeff Liu will serve as the interim head coach at GCU.
Northwestern finished 15-15 last season, 9-11 in the Big Ten. Northwestern has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2010 …
Miami, Ohio, has hired Dan Gwitt to replace Carolyn Condit, who retired after 40 seasons. Gwitt was an assistant the past two seasons at Penn State, his alma mater, after four seasons as an assistant at Indiana. He also was the head coach at 24 at Centenary in 2007, which was then in Division I. He takes over a program that finished 5-25 last season, 1-17 in the Mid-American Conference. Miami has been to the NCAA Tournament 10 times, the last in 2016 and 2017 …
Long Beach State has a surprise opening. Tyler Hildebrand, the head coach there the past two seasons, will become an assistant to Brad Keller at USC. Hildebrand, who played at Long Beach State and also professionally on the beach, was an LBSU assistant coach for the men and had two stints at Nebraska, including when the Huskers won the 2017 NCAA women’s title. USC finished 19-13 last season, 12-8 in the Pac-12 and lost to Pittsburgh in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. USC moves to the Big Ten next season …
Jackson State promoted Marcus Hereford to head coach at his alma mater, which finished 17-13 overall, 10-6 in the SWAC last season, losing to Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Hereford replaces Rose Washington, the 2023 SWAC coach of the year who retired after 22 seasons.
AVCA poll, POW
The top three teams — Long Beach State, Grand Canyon and Hawai’i — stayed…
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