BOWLING GREEN — Fred Chmiel knows what it takes to succeed on the hardwood.
So do the players that he is coaching.
As the Bowling Green State University women’s basketball team continues to go through summer practices, blending the winning mindsets of the former South Carolina assistant and a Falcons squad coming off one of its best seasons in program history will be a big focus in preparing for the 2023-24 campaign.
“I think there’s a recipe to winning. There’s discipline, dedication, and sacrifice,” said Chmiel, who took over as BGSU’s coach in mid-April. “They’ve done it here, we’ve done it before we got here. It’s easy to say, but it’s hard to do.
“But they’ve done it already. We’re just trying to get to the next level. We would love to go to the NCAA tournament, we would love to win a conference championship. Those are goals of ours, I don’t think we’re far off. I think there’s things that we can do better, I think there’s things they did really well… So it’s all work. As much as they want to work is as good as they’re going to get.”
There is no doubt that the members of the BGSU women’s basketball program — whether it’s players or coaches — have seen or been critical parts of remarkable success.
Chmiel spent the previous eight seasons on coach Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina, which had a 247-32 record, two NCAA national championships, and four Final Four appearances during that stretch.
BGSU, meanwhile, has nine players returning from a 2022-23 squad that went 31-7 in tying a program and Mid-American Conference record for wins in a season. A handful of those players were key factors in the Falcons’ run to their first Women’s National Invitation Tournament semifinal.
“That success was huge for us last year,” BGSU senior guard Lexi Fleming said. “Hopefully we get a few more fans from that WNIT tournament run, but also, I think it’s so important that those girls saw it.
“So it’s like that’s what we keep working for. We keep working for championships, we keep working for sold-out crowds and everything like that. So just little things like that, little things that happened last season are going to transfer over to this season as long as we work hard.”
Even the incoming freshman class, which includes two-time first-team All-Ohioan Paige Kohler of 2023 OHSAA Division I state runner-up Olmsted Falls, had successful high school careers. Erika Porter, a 6-foot forward who recently transferred from Baylor after spending two seasons at Illinois, will add experience and depth in the frontcourt for the Falcons as well.
“We have a lot of team leaders, which is a good thing. We also have our newbies, we have a lot of underclassmen as well, so it’s good just to get everyone on the same page,” Fleming said. “Make sure we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do, being in the gym, getting together off the court and everything. So just little things like that’s really important.”
Shortly before his first practice with the team June 26, Chmiel said he and his coaching staff had been itching to get on the court to watch the players compete and go through drills.
At this point in the year, communication is the biggest point of emphasis for the Falcons as the coaches and players learn each other’s tendencies, expectations, and abilities.
“We just talked about communication,” fifth-year BGSU senior guard Morgan Sharps said. “They’re still learning, we’re still learning, but communicating is big just so we can understand each other and it can go more smoothly throughout the process.”
Chmiel is emphasizing relationships.
“It’s about communication and understanding the messages, and the receiving of messages,” Chmiel said. “They’re a very intelligent group, so I have to up my intelligence. But I think it’s something that can be done and I think it’s going to happen very quickly.”
First Published July 18, 2023, 4:26 p.m.
