Maria Kasza - Women's Basketball Coach - Bowling Green State University Athletics

Maria Kasza

Title:
Assistant Women's Basketball Coach
Email:
mkasza@bgsu.edu
Phone:
419-372-2255

Maria Kasza recently completed her fourth season on the women's basketball staff at Bowling Green State University. Head coach Robyn Fralick announced the hiring of Kasza, who came to BGSU after spending the previous two seasons on the staff at fellow Mid-American Conference member Northern Illinois University, on August 20, 2019.

Upon her arrival at BGSU, Kasza joined a staff that was slowly implementing their culture – both on and off the court – and style of play, while recruiting the bulk of the current team. After going 10-21 overall and 3-15 in Mid-American Conference regular-season games in Kasza's first season in Northwest Ohio, 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, Kasza 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 the previous year.

In Kasza's first season in Northwest Ohio, the Falcons continued hammering away in a quest to return to the upper echelons of the MAC standings. Eleven 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.

The Falcons ranked among the national leaders in assists in '19-20. BGSU, after ranking among the bottom-10 schools in NCAA Division I in 2017-18, dished out 502 assists, an average of 16.2 per game, in 2019-20. BGSU ranked 27th in the country in total helpers and 25th in assists per contest.

During her two years in DeKalb, Kasza helped the Huskies to a total of 34 wins, including an overall mark of 19-13 in her second season. NIU went 10-8 in MAC play that winter, and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament.

She joined NIU after spending five seasons at Michigan Tech, where she helped the Huskies to a 107-37 record during that time.

Kasza was reunited with associate head coach Kim Cameron at BGSU, as they worked together in various capacities at Michigan Tech. Cameron was assistant coach at MTU during the three years that Kasza was on the roster. During that span, MTU went a combined 81-18 and made back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. Kasza played in all 34 games in the 2009-10 season, as the Huskies went 31-3 and advanced to the national quarterfinals.

Then, with Cameron as the head coach, Kasza was Tech's assistant coach for five years, helping the Huskies to that aforementioned 107-37 mark. During that stretch, MTU made a pair of NCAA Division II Tournament appearances as well as winning a regular-season Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference championship in 2014-15 and the GLIAC North Division crown in both 2012-13 and 2015-16.

Before joining the college ranks, Kasza spent two years coaching high-school basketball. She spent the 2010-11 season as the varsity assistant coach at her alma mater, Kalkaska High School, helping guide the Blazers to a 23-2 record, and she coached the Kalkaska Middle School's seventh grade boys' basketball team as well. In 2011-12, Kasza was the head coach of the freshman girls' basketball team at Williamston High School.

A native of Rapid City, Mich., Kasza earned her bachelor's (2009) and master's (2010) degrees from Michigan Tech. Kasza spent three years with the Huskies' women's basketball team, playing only one season due to injury and transfer rules and was a part of back-to-back Elite Eight teams. She began her collegiate career at Northern Michigan, where she played in all 80 games in three seasons for the Wildcats.