I’ve spent the last few days at my grandpa’s house in Michigan. It’s an hour-and-a-half from East Lansing, and if you asked my grandpa, he’d probably say, “Who knows and who cares?” about its distance from Ann Arbor. It’s a Spartan household, through and through.
The birthday boy and No. 1 Spartans fan
On Sunday, in the midst of his 96th birthday party, the Michigan State/ Michigan was on TV, with various family members coming in and out to check the score. Michigan won — quite a rude thing to do to a 96-year-old Spartan fan on his birthday — but it got me thinking about MSU coach Robyn Fralick.
I knew about Fralick before she made her way to the Division I ranks. In 2017 I took my first job out of college, working for a paper called The Daily Mining Gazette in Houghton, Michigan. The town of about 8,000 people is home to Michigan Tech University, which houses a Division I hockey team and several other Division II athletic programs. When I got to town, my co-worker in the sports section (he’s now my husband, but that’s a story for another time) told me about the Ashland women’s basketball team. The Michigan Tech women’s basketball team was good – they went 23-6 that season – but Ashland (a member of their GLIAC conference) was a powerhouse. Ashland topped Michigan Tech 103-68 that season on the way to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Division II tournament. In 2016-17 Ashland went 37-0 to win the national title.
At the helm for Ashland was an up-and-coming coaching star named Robyn Fralick.
She went on to coach for five seasons at Bowling Green, completely reviving the program. In her first season the Eagles went 9-21. In her final year they finished 31-7 and advanced to the WNIT semifinals.
When Fralick was named the head coach at MSU in 2023, I instantly knew she would be successful. Not because of what she did at Bowling Green – though that was impressive – but because of Ashland. She maintained a powerhouse for three seasons with limited resources (that’s always the challenge of lower division sports). Maintaining excellence is insanely difficult, no matter the division.
More programs would be wise to look in the Division II or Division II rankings for their next coaching hire, rather than always promoting Division I assistants, hiring former players or looking in the NBA, which is a current trend.
Princeton did the same thing with Carla Berube, who was a successful Division III coach at Tufts for 17 years before taking the job with the Tigers. She went 384-96 at Tuffs, and maintains a similar success at Princeton, going 121-24 over her first five seasons and winning the Ivy League three times.
Winning means everything, no matter the division. If you can do it at Division II or Division III, we have seen that you can do it in Division I.
Fralick has already elevated the MSU program. The Spartans went 16-14 the year before she took over, 22-9 in her first season and 22-10 in year two, making the NCAA tournament in both seasons.
And things are only getting better. Despite losing to Maryland last night, MSU looks set to host a first-round NCAA tournament game this year. And next season, Fralick is bringing in 6-foot-6 Lilly Williams, the No. 15 recruit in the class of 2026.
Williams, like Fralick, grew up in Michigan and is opting to be a part of her local team. Howell, where Williams lives, is 36 miles from East Lansing. But that’s a long drive compared to Fralick’s home town of Okemos, which is just three miles from Spartan country.
Yet, another reason why she is the perfect fit for MSU.