UWS’s Siverling finalist for UWEC’s coaching position

EAU CLAIRE — And then there were four. Again.

UW-Eau Claire on Wednesday afternoon announced four finalists to become the new head coach of the school’s men’s basketball program and replace Kyle Green, who suddenly resigned last month after one season.

The finalists are Edgewood College coach Todd Adrian, Ashford University coach Oliver Drake, Milwaukee School of Engineering coach Brian Miller and UW-Superior coach Matt Siverling.

“I think we’ve got an excellent, excellent group of finalists,” UW-Eau Claire director of athletics Scott Kilgallon said Wednesday afternoon.

The four finalists were selected from a field of 96 applications — 40 fewer than last year, when the Blugolds picked Green to replace longtime coach Terry Gibbons.

Adrian and Miller both were among the six finalists for the open job last year. Drake and Siverling both have direct connections to the Blugolds program.

The Blugolds named six finalists and interviewed five to replace Gibbons last year. Four remained on May 18, 2011, when the university announced the hiring of Green, then a Northern Iowa assistant.

Green breathed new life into the struggling program and coached the Blugolds to a 15-10 season after taking over. But on April 5 — less than 11 months after accepting the position — Green stepped down, citing family reasons.

Two weeks after announcing his resignation in a McPhee Center hallway, Green’s return to Northern Iowa as an assistant coach was made official.

The finalists will be on campus for interviews next week, allowing members of the team to meet the candidates before finals week and summer break begins at UW-Eau Claire.

Kilgallon said he hopes a new coach is selected within a week of those on-campus interviews.

“I think we definitely were a lot more efficient with the process this year,” Kilgallon said. “Four is what I usually go with. It’s a good number. We just feel like we got four very solid candidates.”

Siverling, a Ladysmith native who graduated from UWEC and was an assistant in the Blugolds program, has been the head coach at UW-Superior since 2010.

Siverling is 29-24 in two seasons as coach of the Yellowjackets. He coached them to a 14-12 record and a place in the six-team WIAC tournament last season.

Before joining the program at UWS, Siverling was a program specialist for the men’s basketball team at the University of Arkansas from 2007-10.

He was an assistant for the Blugolds from 2004-07. He also was an assistant men’s and women’s golf coach at UW-Eau Claire from 2004-05.

Siverling was a graduate assistant at the University of Florida from 2002-04. He also served as an assistant coach for the Eau Claire North boys basketball team from 1999-2002. He was the program’s head freshman coach from 2000-02 and a volunteer assistant from 1999-2000.

He graduated from Ladysmith in 1997. He’s also a 2002 graduate of UW-Eau Claire and a graduate of Florida.

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