Wednesday afternoon, the Minnesota Golden Gophers would win the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament 75-63 over Belmont. Former University of South Dakota head coach Dawn Plitzuweit is the head coach of the Gophers.
On the staff is a familiar face to Plitzuweit, Onida native and USD stand out Chloe Lamb who finished her first year as an assistant in Minnesota. Lamb says winning is always fun…
Lamb left Sully Buttes graduating with back-to-back state championships before arriving at USD where Plitzuweit and the Coyotes would build a winning culture over the course of the next five years while Lamb was playing. USD would win three Summit League conference championships and made three official NCAA Tournament appearances with what would have been a fourth appearance in 2020 if not for Covid. USD went to the Sweet 16 in 2022, her final year, and won the first two tournament games in program history. After the season, Plitzuweit would take the job at West Virginia and went 19-12 in her only season with the Mountaineers. She then took the job at Minnesota over the last two seasons.
Meanwhile, Lamb grabbed an assistant coaching job at NAIA University of Mary in North Dakota. After two years with the team, Plitzuweit hired her as assistant coach. Lamb says it has been different, but fun to be working with Plitzuweit as a coach instead of as a player…
Lamb says she always had trust in Plitzuweit from the time she was a player…
Lamb credits her coaches from college, but especially growing up and through high school for her love of the game and coaching. Specifically the late Mark Senftner, who won four state girls basketball champions during his time at Sully Buttes. As for what the future holds in coaching, Lamb says the game is evolving and changing everyday and while she is open to opportunities she’s going to continue to live and coach in the moment…
The Central South Dakota area, especially the Onida area are still big fans of Lamb and her journey now into coaching. Lamb says she really felt the love getting texts and seeing posts after the Golden Gophers won the WBIT on Wednesday…
The WBIT championship is the first postseason tournament championship in program history for Minnesota Women’s basketball.
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