Let’s just get this out of the way: I love Minneapolis. Grew up in Minneapolis, went to DeLaSalle High School, would move back there if I could, the whole nine yards.

That doesn’t mean I don’t find Aaron Griess’ decision to go from Chaminade to Augsburg puzzling, to say the least. If Griess didn’t have a Division III background (Colorado College graduate, former Loras grad assistant) I would have to wonder if there were something going on at Chaminade we didn’t know about.

I’m even more confused by Pam Ruder’s move from UW-Oshkosh to Southwestern. Ruder is a WIAC lifer, graduated from Whitewater, was an assistant at Oshkosh and took over as head coach after the Titans’ national title team of 1996. Southwestern had a down year by its recent standards (16 wins in 2003, 15 wins in 2004, nine wins this past year) but has at least been competitive in its conference. That’s not the same as being competitive in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, one of the top five Division III leagues for women’s basketball.

This is the opposite of the unusual coaching move announced the day before, in which Central, the 1993 national champions, hired Mount Ida head coach Natalie Nakic. She’ll be going from the 40th-best conference in women’s basketball (according to the Massey Ratings, out of 41 Division III conferences) to the 16th-best. She was 34-19 at Mount Ida in two seasons, but 40 of those 53 games were against North Atlantic Conference foes. This is a big leap.

As for Griess, well, I only hope the job comes with a wardrobe allowance. The whole family is going to need it!