Melanie Balcomb coaches against Purdue Monday night. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Xavier women's basketball coach Melanie Balcomb has had five job interviews at other schools in the past two years.

        After leading the Musketeers to a 57-8 record the past two seasons, including the school's best NCAA Tournament run this spring, Balcomb figures to be an even more popular job candidate.

        Balcomb, 38, interviewed with Michigan State and California a year ago, and after she decided to remain at Xavier, the university gave her a raise and extended her contract through the 2004-05 season. After the 1999 season, she talked with Purdue, Northwestern and Washington State.

        Balcomb didn't want to discuss her future at this weekend's NCAA Mideast Regional in Birmingham, but she talked about her place at XU with the Enquirer in November.

        “The big thing that's kept me here is Xavier has grown with me,” she said. “If they would have stayed where they were resource-wise and staff-wise, I wouldn't have still been here, because I wouldn't have been able to achieve my goals.”

        When Balcomb arrived in 1995, the Xavier women's team had one full-time and one part-time assistant coach. Now the program has three full-time assistants, and last year the university added a director of women's basketball operations.

        “I've stayed because they've given me the support, the resources,” Balcomb said. “When they do that, I feel like I can achieve and continue to get better here; I don't need to go anywhere else. I just don't feel like we're done yet. Why would you leave before you're finished?”

        Balcomb is a players' coach and is especially close to the five-member senior class that came into Monday night's game with a 98-28 record in four seasons. It was her first full recruiting class.

        “The biggest reason I stayed here is I just enjoy the kids I coach,” Balcomb said. “Everybody says, "Don't stay for your kids.' I stayed for my kids, especially the upperclassmen, the seniors, that I knew I couldn't leave.

        “It wasn't cool to say that until Roy Williams did that at Kansas. When he did that, I loved that. I was like, "Oh, my God, that's what I did, but everybody made fun of me so I wasn't allowed to say it.' It's never been about the other stuff — the money, the exposure. That's why I think I've been successful: I don't have an ego; it's never been about me. I built everything around my players, and then I didn't want to leave them.

        “There's so many coaches that make it about them and their ego. That's one other reason I'm still at Xavier. If I had an ego, I would have been gone and out of here to be able to say, I was at the University of Whatever, making all this money. That's not what I'm looking for. To me it was a no-brainer (to stay), but a lot of people told me I was nuts.”

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