Megan Griffith returns from a 3-game suspension as Columbia falls to No. 2 Michigan

NEW YORK (AP) — Megan Griffith was excited to be back on the sideline for Columbia after serving a three-game suspension to start the season.

She was suspended by the school after an external review determined she had coaching interactions with the team that didn’t align with expectations for the program. Her first game back was against No. 2 Michigan, which beat the Lions 81-58 on Thursday night.

“I think today, obviously getting to coach this team for the first time this year was a big deal for me," Griffith said “You know I’m just excited about what we can achieve moving forward.”

Griffith said once the game started, it was just like any of the other nearly 300 games she had coached before at her alma mater.

What was special was that many of her former players were attendance, including a few that helped the team reach the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team twice and win the WBIT championship last season.

“That means a tremendous amount to me to have all those players here, you know, that won a championship with us and the ones that were part of the championships and the banners we’ve hung that means a lot to me,” Griffith said.

She has built the program into one of the top mid-major teams in the country. When she first got to Columbia as coach in 2016 they were under .500. Now the Lions have had five consecutive 20-plus win seasons.

“Meg has done a phenomenal job. The kids, they’re tough as crap,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “We pride ourselves on being tough. We pride ourselves on doing the intangible things. They were beating us on the boards. ... They’re a really good program. They’ve been a really good program for a number of years now.”

Her players were happy to have Griffith back on the bench. Co-captain Fliss Henderson spoke at the end of the postgame press conference how the team supports their coach.

“We are a winning program and we pride ourselves on that, like all 14 of us,” she said. “We are winning program, but it’s tough. The standard is high. ... One thing I’m going to say about her and about our entire coaching staff is they love us so much. Yes they push us, we push each other, but they love us so much.”

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