Kim Muhl has Kirkwood women’s basketball on task, chasing 10th national title

Kim Muhl was not in his happy place.

“Are you available to talk?” the first text asked.

“I’m on a bus to Joplin,” the response came.

“Can you talk for a few minutes?”

“Yep. Pretty boring.”

The winningest coach in NJCAA women’s basketball history — his 1,076 career wins sit fourth behind Pat Summit among all women’s basketball coaches — Muhl was en route to Joplin, Mo., for the NJCAA Division II national tournament.

It’s his 24th trip to the NJCAA tournament in 36 seasons as the Eagles coach. He still loves what he’s doing and once that bus parked, he definitely was in his happy place.

But ...

“I hate road trips,” the 69-year-old coach said upon answering his phone. “I hate them.”

The NJCAA D-II women’s basketball tournament begins Monday inside the Leggett & Platte Athletic Center in Joplin. Kirkwood is the defending national champ, has been ranked No. 1 all season and is the No. 1 seed for this year’s tournament.

No shock there.

At 31-0, the Eagles have a chance to join the 2016-17 team as the only unbeaten national champs in school history.

This is what Muhl loves, this is what keeps him going after all these years. The winning, he said, never gets old.

“I wouldn’t be doing it” if he didn’t love it, he said Saturday during that bus trip.

But this tournament “will be an interesting tournament.” The Eagles, who open Tuesday against the winner of the SUNY Niagara/Rock Valley College game, got no special treatment from the selection committee.

Muhl wasn’t thrilled with how the bracket broke last week. His Eagles are on the same side as second-ranked, but fourth seeded Johnson County Community College. The Cavaliers were 30-0 before losing to Highland CC in the semifinals of the Region 6 tournament.

“It makes no sense,” he said.

Kirkwood’s side of the bracket also includes Messa CC, which ended the season ranked fifth, and Union College, the sixth-ranked team in that final Top 25.

“It’s not going to be simple,” Muhl said.

But that’s OK in a way, too, he said. When you race through the season at 31-0 — and have won 52 straight games since last season — sometimes the winning becomes so expected the work to get it done gets overlooked.

This tougher-than-expected road to national title No. 10 should keep the Eagles “on task.”

“That’s kind of a big part of it,” Muhl said, “It’s hard to keep kids on task sometimes.”

Plus, he said, seeing new teams, different teams than those that dominate the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference regular-season schedule is a good thing.

“This is all new,” he said. “I think they are ready to go.”

Nothing will be taken for granted.

“One game at a time,” he said, using the oldest cliche in sports history. “If you get one bad game, you’re done.

“Everybody has a sense of urgency.”

Including these Eagles.

“If you don’t have a sense of urgency, you’re going to get beat,” he said.

And this year, the Kirkwood women aren’t alone making this trip. The Eagles’ men’s basketball team also left Saturday for the NJCAA II tournament in Danville, Ill. This is the first trip for Coach Tim Sandquist, in his fifth season at the helm.

That tournament, too, starts Monday.

“That’s a great thing for Tim,” Muhl said.

Muhl’s a great thing for Kirkwood, for Cedar Rapids and for women’s basketball.

Comments: (319) 398-5861; jr.ogden@thegazette.com