BleedGopher
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per the Daily:
Mike Ellis’ desk is littered with thank-you notes — each card representing a different athletics department ranging from California to Florida.
College basketball programs across the country have a reason to be thankful for Ellis, the Gophers’ executive associate athletics director.
In 2004, he founded Villa 7 — an event that allows Division I assistant coaches to network with athletics administrators. In the 10 years that followed, well over 100 men’s and women’s assistants from Villa 7 have gotten jobs as head coaches.
While he was an athletics administrator at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ellis used the connections he made at Villa 7 to hire Florida assistant coach Anthony Grant in 2006. And three years later, when Grant went to Alabama, Ellis and athletics director Norwood Teague selected Shaka Smart, another Florida assistant coach, to replace Grant.
Smart quickly catapulted underdog VCU to the Final Four in 2011. One year later, Teague left for Minnesota, and Ellis quickly followed suit.
Since then, Ellis has used his connections to help Teague hire Richard Pitino and Marlene Stollings as Minnesota’s head basketball coaches.
“Who’s really good, and who’s good because of the shirt they wear? There’s a lot of guys and ladies out there that are good because their shirt has the right school on it,” Ellis said. “Our job is to find the people that will be good with the University of Minnesota on their shirt.”
http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-basketball/2014/06/17/mike-ellis-networker
Go Gophers!!
Mike Ellis’ desk is littered with thank-you notes — each card representing a different athletics department ranging from California to Florida.
College basketball programs across the country have a reason to be thankful for Ellis, the Gophers’ executive associate athletics director.
In 2004, he founded Villa 7 — an event that allows Division I assistant coaches to network with athletics administrators. In the 10 years that followed, well over 100 men’s and women’s assistants from Villa 7 have gotten jobs as head coaches.
While he was an athletics administrator at Virginia Commonwealth University, Ellis used the connections he made at Villa 7 to hire Florida assistant coach Anthony Grant in 2006. And three years later, when Grant went to Alabama, Ellis and athletics director Norwood Teague selected Shaka Smart, another Florida assistant coach, to replace Grant.
Smart quickly catapulted underdog VCU to the Final Four in 2011. One year later, Teague left for Minnesota, and Ellis quickly followed suit.
Since then, Ellis has used his connections to help Teague hire Richard Pitino and Marlene Stollings as Minnesota’s head basketball coaches.
“Who’s really good, and who’s good because of the shirt they wear? There’s a lot of guys and ladies out there that are good because their shirt has the right school on it,” Ellis said. “Our job is to find the people that will be good with the University of Minnesota on their shirt.”
http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-basketball/2014/06/17/mike-ellis-networker
Go Gophers!!
