Assistant coach Dunn returns to Cleveland State

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Though it took Cleveland State until September to round out its coaching lineup, the group’s newest addition shouldn’t take too long to get caught up.

Bob Dunn, a Vikings assistant coach from 2021-23, has been re-hired to Chris Kielsmeier’s staff, the program announced on Wednesday. Dunn spent last season at Miami (FL), where he helped the Hurricanes to a 19-12 overall record before head coach Katie Meier retired and triggered turnover at The U.

“We are excited to welcome Bob back to the Cleveland State sidelines, and we are looking forward to having his experience help our program as we continue to level up,” Kielsmeier said in CSU’s release. “Bob has a track record of working with successful teams and his knowledge of our system will allow him to quickly adjust as we close in on the start of the season.”

During his first stint in Cleveland, Dunn was notably a part of the Vikings’ record-breaking 2022-23 season. That squad’s 30-5 mark included the third Horizon League tournament championship in program history, as well as the associated bid to the NCAA Tournament.

On top of his coaching duties, Dunn was also the team’s scheduling czar, a significant responsibility during 2021-22 when COVID-19 consistently threatened the status of CSU’s games. Early during 2022-23, a historic blizzard forced the cancellation of a game at Niagara, resulting in the late addition of a home contest against Chicago State.

Before his first two seasons at Cleveland State, Dunn spent time at Wagner, Kentucky and Dayton, but most notably at George Mason, where his six years on Nyla Milleson’s staff included a program-best 24 wins in 2017-18. The Patriots collected the first postseason victory in school history that year as well, a WNIT result against Stephen F. Austin. Additionally, GMU boasted the Atlantic-10 players of the year in both 2017-18 (Natalie Butler) and 2018-19 (Nicole Cardano-Hillary).

His return to a different program that has recently claimed consecutive conference MVPs brings a bizarre sense of full-circle closure to a coaching staff that had been relatively stable until the summer of 2023. That June, both Dunn and Desma Thomas Bateast were hired away by ACC schools (with the latter still in Florida State’s program). Those vacancies were then filled by hiring former Akron head coach Melissa Jackson and promoting Shelby Zoeckler from her previous director of basketball operations role.

However, that arrangement proved to be short-lived, as Jackson left to become the head coach at Youngstown State in March, while Frozena Jerro – who had been with Kielsmeier since his CSU tenure began in 2018 – joined Marisa Moseley’s staff at Wisconsin. The Vikings hired former Merrimack and John Carroll assistant Emily Taylor in May and now Dunn, who helped trigger the recent spate of departures, has returned things to homeostasis.

The remainder of the Vikings’ support staff, including operations director Hanna Zerr, special assistant to the head coach Chenara Wilson, and video coordinator Angie Lewis, is expected to return for 2024-25.

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