While the focus of most Wisconsin sports fans has been on the Sweet 16 runs of the Badgers and Golden Eagles or the pure joy and excitement surrounding the state high school tournaments, the UW-Whitewater men's basketball team was quietly making NCAA history.
The Warhawks won the national championship last Saturday night in Salem, Va., after a sensational comeback in the final against Cabrini. Whitewater became the first Division III school to win national titles in football and men's basketball in the same academic year. (Only Florida has accomplished the same feat in Division I, pulling off the double in 2006.)
National championships are nothing new for UWW athletic director Paul Plinske. In his eight years at the helm, the Warhawks have brought home seven big trophies -- four in football and one each in men's basketball, women's volleyball and baseball. The latest title makes him the subject of this edition of 5 Questions.
1. FSW: To win championships in both football and men's basketball in the same year is a tremendous accomplishment. What's the feeling right now in the athletic department?
PLINSKE: There are a lot of tired people in the athletic department but also a lot of really happy people right now. I think when you enter into a season and the expectations are that a team is going to perform well but you have no idea how well they're going to perform and then when you go into the NCAA tournament and you're sitting in the national championship game 18 points down and you make a comeback to win it, it was probably one of the most exciting moments of my career as an athletic director.
2. FSW: Why are Whitewater teams performing so well?
PLINSKE: It's a lot of things coming together. It's the institutional support we receive in athletics. It's the tradition of success we have on our campus. It's the facilities that we have that allows us to draw outstanding student athletes. And then it's the coaches that we have that are teaching our student athletes how to play and then it's the student athletes. So we have a lot of things falling together at the same time. And look at our coaches. Lance Leipold (football) John Vodenlich (baseball) and Pat Miller (men's basketball), all three of them are graduates of the school and they've helped carry on the tradition that they helped establish when they were student athletes by leading their programs to conference and national championships.
3. FSW: How much of your success can be attributed to the level of expectation each athlete has when putting on a Whitewater uniform?
PLINSKE: I think it really starts at the beginning of the year when they come on campus for the first time and see the expectations are high and they understand that they need to get in the weight room to work out and train. And we've been to Salem (host city of D3 national championship games) 10 times now -- seven times for football, once for volleyball, once for softball and now for men's basketball -- and every time we go down there, they know who Whitewater is and of our success. And every one of our programs is thinking, "If football can do it, our volleyball can do it or men's basketball, then why can't we?" And that's the culture that's been created. There is a high level of not only expectation but of work ethic, determination and confidence to be able to be successful on the national stage.
4. FSW: Many of your athletes are from Wisconsin. How much of your success is a testament to Wisconsin kids, growing up here and the way they were brought up?
PLINSKE: You have to remember that the Wisconsin Badgers are the flagship of the UW system. The kids that don't get a scholarship there will go to Milwaukee, Green Bay or Parkside. And with our success as it is, we're able to draw in these Wisconsin student athletes, they know how to work. They understand how to be committed and loyal team members. They're excellent athletes, and they're comfortable being on the national stage because they could easily be at Division I or II schools. We have strong Wisconsin student athletes coming in here and really making a name for themselves in their particular sport.
5. FSW: With your success, your alumni, boosters and people who help the program financially must be excited. Given that, what plans do you have for the future in terms of facilities and new capabilities in the athletic department?
PLINSKE: Our alumni are really excited. I think that sometimes we get hidden in Division I men's basketball and the WIAA state basketball championships. But at the end of the day, our alumni are watching us closely and they all see good things and they are tremendously excited so they are eager to get involved. They want to help us. And we're getting more and more students applying to school than we've ever had before. And our commitment is to keep our facilities in first-class condition. We're going to do a lot of locker room upgrades. We've got a new softball building that we want to build. We have a baseball building that we want to put in. We're thinking bigger and better every day. We know that the moment we take it easy that somebody's going to beat us. So instead of counting our national championships we're looking for ways to get better and feel our facilities need to be better than they are currently.
