Mike Carey has turned program into a winner

A lot of coaches say that they enjoy the challenge of building a program. Few, however, have the opportunity to take a team to the highest level.

West Virginia women's basketball head coach Mike Carey has done it not once, but twice in his coaching career.

Making a name for himself

After serving as the assistant coach for the 1987-88 season, Carey was given his first collegiate head coaching position at his alma mater, Salem College, the following season. Before Carey's tenure, the Tigers were consistently one of the bottom teams in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

In 13 years, Carey was able to make Salem one of the nation's top programs, guiding the program to 288 wins and two trips to the Elite Eight. He even made a Final Four appearance in 1997 after

finishing the year with a 28-3 record.

Following a 26-7 season and his second Elite Eight appearance, Carey decided that he had done all that he could and left Salem for another coaching position. But the surprising part of his decision was that his next destination would be his current job at West Virginia, coaching a women's team coming off of a 5-22 season.

"I felt that … it was in my home state," Carey said of his decision to leave Salem for WVU. "It was a chance to go Division I, and at Salem, I felt that we did everything that we could do."

It was his chance – and WVU's chance – to finally hit the national spotlight.

"I had gone through (rebuilding) before, so I knew how to build a program," Carey said. "We were able to come here because of the administration and the support that we got and that's helped us build this program."

A drastic change

While some asked why Carey would leave a powerhouse program to go to one that hadn't had a winning season since the 1996-97 season, others surely wondered something else: Why would he make the switch from coaching a men's team to a women's team?

Well, it turns out, he had done it before.

"I coached women in high school, so it's not like I hadn't done it before," Carey said. "It was just an opportunity for me and I felt I could come up here and hopefully turn this program around and be successful."

His history of coaching women's basketball at the high school level proved to be just like his two college gigs have been – very successful.

For seven seasons, he coached the Flemington and Liberty High School girls. His final season was his best one, as he earned Harrison County and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors and led Liberty to the regional finals.

Building another program

While he's been at West Virginia, he immediately began turning the program around, inching it closer to his ultimate goal of bringing a national championship to Morgantown.

Much like his success at Salem, a lot of Carey's success at WVU has been due to the fact that the players have adopted their coach's personality. They show the same intensity and fire that Carey has for coaching when they're out on the floor, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.

Right now, Carey's Mountaineers are ranked No. 6 in the nation. It's safe to say he is well on his way to exceeding the expectations placed on him when he took over at WVU.

"The success factor and exposure of the program speaks volumes to what (Carey) has brought to this program and part of that ... has been a personal mission on his behalf to elevate this program," said Associate Athletic Director Terri Howes.

"He recognizes the value of this program and what they bring to the University and ... he has really elevated this program to a level beyond any expectations we had 10 years ago."

While Carey admits the top-10 ranking is nice, he realizes there is work to be done before they can say that they truly exceeded any expectations.

"I'm very competitive, and I want to be the best, not just one of the top 10," Carey said. "Our goal is to win a national championship, and we're going to keep trying to do that."

And until they're hoisting up that trophy at the beginning of April, the Mountaineer players know that there will never be a moment where Carey isn't pushing them to get better.

"He stays on us constantly," said sophomore center Asya Bussie. "On the court, he won't stop yelling, he'll never stop. He wants us to be perfect."

What the future holds

But, no matter how things pan out in the rest of his career, Carey said that he doesn't want his legacy to be about how many wins he had or how many Big East Championships he's won.

To him, it's all about the players.

"We've always had quality young ladies in this program. They've graduated, they've made good grades and they've played hard," Carey said. "We do the right things, both on and off the court. And that's something that's always going to be very important to me."