Dons: from have-nots to Haave's

Pat Rooney, Special to the News

Published April 29, 2006 at midnight

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Tanya Haave, one of the biggest names in Colorado women's basketball history, is moving west.

Haave, an Evergreen native who led the University of Tennessee to three appearances in the Final Four during the early 1980s, was named the head coach at the University of San Francisco on Friday.

Haave played professionally for 14 seasons in Europe and Australia before beginning her coaching career as an assistant at Regis University in 1999. She joined Ceal Barry's staff at the University of Colorado two years later and, after Barry retired in 2005, spent last season as an assistant at the University of Denver.

Haave was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

University of Denver coach Pam Tanner said Marisa Moseley, who was a first-year assistant this past season, will take on an expanded role and that the search for a replacement for Haave will begin immediately.

"I think when I hired her last year, we had that conversation that I knew her desire was to be a head coach and that her time at the University of Denver wouldn't be very long," Tanner said.

Haave replaces Mary Hile- Nepfel, who spent 19 seasons as San Francisco's head coach. The Dons, who play in the West Coast Conference, went 9-20 this past season and recorded a 65-59 win at home against DU on Dec. 16.

"One thing about that it is that (San Francisco) struggled in their league last year," Tanner said. "I think Tanya will go in there and be able to fix that."

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