Kim Cameron - Women's Basketball Coach - Bowling Green State University Athletics

BGSU Women's Basketball - 2018-19 Team Photo

Kim Cameron

Title:
Associate Head Women's Basketball Coach
Email:
kacamer@bgsu.edu
Phone:
419-372-2255

Kim Cameron recently completed her fifth season on the women's basketball staff at Bowling Green State University in 2022-23, having helped head coach Robyn Fralick completely change the culture of the program in their first four seasons together in Northwest Ohio.

Cameron was hired at BGSU on May 10, 2018. Cameron, like Fralick, came to BGSU after a highly-successful tenure at a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) school. She joined the Falcon program after spending 13 seasons on the staff at Michigan Technological University, the last eight as head coach. She compiled an impressive 181-53 record as head coach, leaving Michigan Tech with the highest winning percentage (.774) in program history.

Upon arriving at BGSU, the staff slowly implemented their culture – both on and off the court – and style of play, while recruiting the bulk of the current team. After going 19-42 overall and 5-31 in Mid-American Conference regular-season games in the first two seasons, the Falcons posted marks of 69-31 overall and 38-18 in league regular-season play over the last three years. BGSU has qualified for national postseason play in each of those last three seasons.

The Falcons went 31-7 in 2022-23, tying the school and MAC single-season records for victories. With a wildly entertaining style of play, BGSU shattered the school records for points, field goals made and attempted, rebounds and steals this season. The Falcons led the MAC in six statistical team categories, and BGSU was ranked among the top-22 teams in the country in no fewer than nine categories, including assists, steals, turnovers forced, scoring offense, scoring margin and, most importantly, winning percentage.

As of March 30, 2023, BGSU was second in the entire nation in turnover margin, while ranking eighth in the country in both assist/turnover ratio and turnovers forced per game, ninth in steals per game and 15th in winning percentage.

The Falcons finished 14-4 in the MAC in 2022-23, and BGSU advanced to the MAC Tournament’s championship game for the second time in three seasons. Elissa Brett became the program’s first All-MAC First-Team selection in nine years, while Allison Day was named to the all-league second team. Nyla Hampton, who shattered the school single-season record for steals, was named the MAC Defensive Player of the Year, with Brett joining her on the MAC All-Defensive Team.

BGSU advanced to the WNIT and won four games in that tournament. BG downed Liberty, Green Bay, Memphis and Florida to advance to the semifinals of that 64-team tourney for the first time in school history. The last two games -- vs. UF and Columbia -- were played before loud, raucous crowds at the Stroh Center.

In the '21-22 campaign, BGSU lost nearly 75 player-games to injury -- including losing the reigning MAC Freshman of the Year just days before the start of the season -- but the coaching staff guided the Falcons to 17 wins and a second consecutive national postseason berth. The Falcons won 10 games in MAC play, were selected to participate in the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) and went 2-1 in that tourney, finishing the '21-22 season with a victory.

BG went 17-16 overall and 10-10 in league play, and the Falcons led the conference in overall field-goal percentage as well as three-point field-goal rate. BGSU was ranked fourth in the entire nation in the latter category, shooting 38.4% from the arc in 2021-22.

The '21-22 Falcons also finished among the top-40 teams in the country in scoring, assists and steals, displaying an exciting brand of 'team-first' basketball typified by Fralick-coached squads over the years.

In the 2020-21 season, Fralick, Cameron and the staff orchestrated one of the top turnarounds in the nation. The Falcons, picked to finish in 11th place in the 12-team MAC standings, proceeded to win the league's regular-season title. BGSU went 14-4 in MAC play to earn the number-one seed for the MAC Tournament.

The Falcons, in fact, were tied for second in the nation on the NCAA’s list of top Division-I turnarounds from 2019-20 to ‘20-21, going 21-8 overall last season after finishing with a 10-21 record the previous winter.

In the MAC Tournament quarterfinals, BGSU defeated Eastern Michigan, 63-47, for the program’s first league tourney win since 2013. Then, the Falcons topped Buffalo, 80-67, in the semifinal round to advance to the MAC Tournament’s championship game for the first time since 2011.

BGSU finished the 2020-21 campaign ranked 65th in the nation in the final NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), after finishing 253rd in the RPI the previous season. BGSU led the MAC in nine statistical categories, including winning percentage, while ranking second among conference schools in nine other categories. And, the Falcons finished the season ranked 30th or higher in a total of eight categories, including steals (third), three-point field goals made (14th), turnover margin (16th) and assists (20th).

In 2020-21, BG more than quadrupled the program’s MAC win total from the previous season, and the Falcons more than doubled the overall win total from a year ago. Fralick’s first two teams, however, definitely showed glimpses of the turnaround to come.

In the new staff's first season in Northwest Ohio, Fralick, Cameron and the Falcons posted an overall record of 9-21 and a 2-16 Mid-American Conference mark. Those records, however, do not accurately reflect the progress made by the coaching staff and their team during the 2018-19 campaign.

The '18-19 Falcons saw a total of 13 games decided by eight points or fewer. In fact, 13 of BGSU's 18 MAC games were within three points with under 12 minutes remaining.

Twelve of those 18 conference contests, including 11 of the 16 losses, were within three points at some time in the fourth quarter. And, no fewer than seven of the Falcons' MAC matchups were tied or were a one-possession game in the final minute.

The Falcons continued hammering away in 2019-20, in the program's quest to return to the upper echelons of the MAC standings. In the staff's second year, 11 of BGSU's 21 total losses were by nine points or less. Four of those 11 – as well as an additional loss (by 10 points) – came in overtime.

A total of 19 of BG's 21 setbacks in 2019-20 were within eight points at some point in the fourth quarter. Fourteen of them were four-point games or closer with under eight minutes to go. And, no fewer than 10 were within two (or fewer) points within the last two minutes of regulation.

BGSU, 10-21 on the season, outscored opponents, 2241-2239, in the 31 games.

In 2019-20, the Falcons averaged 72.3 points per game. BGSU had not averaged as many as 70 ppg in nine years. The Brown and Orange scored 75 or more points in a game 14 times on the year, the program's highest since the 2010-11 team also had 14 games of 75-plus points en route to 28 wins. No team had had more since the 2009-10 team reached the 75-point plateau 15 times.

In fact, BGSU scored at least 75 points on 23 occasions in the staff's first two years, after doing so a total of 13 times in the previous four seasons.

The year before Fralick and Cameron arrived in BG, the Falcons were close to last in the nation in assists. BG was ranked 343rd in the country (out of 349 schools) in total assists and 345th in assists per game. Cameron's first year in town saw the Falcons move into the top 100 in the land in both categories, and in her second year, BG was ranked among the top 30 in each.

The 2019-20 Falcons dished out 502 assists, an average of 16.2 per game, ranking 27th in the country in total helpers and 25th in assists per contest.

Under Cameron's guidance, post player Angela Perry led the entire MAC in field-goal percentage (57.7% – second place was 51.2%) and tied for third in blocked shots. Perry ranked 14th in the loop in scoring.

During her tenure at MTU, her alma mater, Cameron became the first Division II coach in Tech history to lead the team to a national title game appearance, taking the Huskies to the championship game in 2011. She was named the GLIAC Coach of the Year in both 2011 and ‘15, and also was the 2011 WBCA Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

Cameron led MTU to five GLIAC North Division titles, two GLIAC Tournament championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances. She coached 19 all-conference selections, five All-Midwest Region honorees and four All-Americans, and her team earned a spot on the WBCA Top-25 Team GPA list in seven of her eight years. The Huskies finished second in the nation on that list in 2017.

Cameron’s first season as head coach, the 2010-11 campaign, saw the Huskies vastly exceed expectations. Tech’s historic run came just months after she was elevated to the head-coaching position on June 17, 2010.

That 2010-11 team compiled a 31-3 record (.912), doing so with a group of players that began the season with a combined 12 games of starting experience between them. Tech won the GLIAC North Division with a school-record .947 winning percentage (18-1) before claiming the GLIAC Tournament title. The Huskies also won a third consecutive NCAA Midwest Regional crown, then defeated No. 1-ranked Arkansas Tech and No. 18 Northwest Missouri State at the Elite Eight. Along the way, Cameron’s 2010-11 team set school records for consecutive wins (18) and home wins (18).

Cameron led the 2012-13 team to a GLIAC North Division title, and the Huskies advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Midwest Regional before falling to the eventual national champion.

The 2014-15 squad accumulated 20 conference wins to claim the program’s 13th league title. The Black and Gold hosted and won the GLIAC Tournament before hosting the NCAA Midwest Regional, where they suffered just their third loss of the season in the regional semifinal. The Huskies 28 wins was the fourth-most in school history.

In her final season in Houghton, Cameron guided the Huskies to an overall record of 23-6 and a GLIAC mark of 17-3. Tech secured its 15th regular-season GLIAC North Division title, and the program’s fifth under Cameron. The Huskies advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional for the fourth time in Cameron’s eight-year head-coaching tenure.

During those eight years, Cameron’s teams posted six 20-win seasons and won 19 games in each of the other two campaigns. The Huskies had a record of 134-33 in GLIAC play during those eight years, for an eye-popping .802 winning percentage.

Cameron assumed the head-coaching job after spending five years as assistant coach at Tech. In that time, she helped head coach John Barnes and the Huskies to 119 wins, a .768 winning percentage and two NCAA Elite Eight appearances. In those five years, Tech also claimed three GLIAC North Division titles, advanced to the NCAA Tournament four times and cut down the nets for two NCAA Midwest Regional Championships.

As mentioned, Cameron’s winning percentage (.774) is the best of any coach in the program’s history, topping a list that also includes three Michigan Tech Sports Hall of Famers (Cheryl DePuydt, Kevin Borseth and Darla Olson).

Cameron graduated from Michigan Tech in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. The Alpena, Mich., native earned four letters as a player for the Huskies from 2001-05, helping the squad to a 71-42 record in her four years and a trip to the NCAA Tournament as a senior.