Mike Geary is in his first year as an assistant coach with UDM's women's basketball team and is featured in this week's Q&A.

What do you see as the biggest difference coaching Division I versus DII or DIII?
At the two places that I coached, Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan, we were able to recruit a good number of Division I caliber athletes, which is why we had the record we were able to have. The biggest difference is that at the DII schools, we had six or seven players that could play at the DI level where the DI schools had 12 or 13 that could have played for us.

What do you see as your biggest adjustment having to go from the head coaching role to the assistant coaching role?
Going from the role as a head coach to the role as an assistant coach is one that is best described as going from a decision maker to a suggestion maker. A head coach must oversee every aspect of what goes on in a program, and in an assistant's role, the duties are usually more specific, such as, recruiting coordinator, player development, scouting, etc. The head coach sets the course and vision for the program and the assistant coaches work to make that vision happen.

What are your main responsibilities here at Detroit?
My role in our pre-season was to establish a player development program, where we worked on improving each player's ability to handle the ball, to shoot the ball, to pass and catch the ball, as well as to work on position specific moves. In our season, my position group is our post players. My other responsibilities include scouting of opponents, recruiting, the scheduling of future opponents, and monitoring a third of our team's academic performance.

Where were you raised?
South Bend, IN

Where did you play collegiate basketball?
Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. I was our captain in both my junior and senior year and I was our starting point guard for three seasons.

What was your most memorable moment as a player at Aquinas?
My most memorable moment as a player at Aquinas was a trip that we took to play at Michigan Tech University. We played them twice, on a Friday night and a Saturday afternoon. We thought we had traveled to a foreign country - it took so long to get there, which is funny to me now, with as many years as I lived in the Upper Peninsula.

Why did you choose Aquinas?
When I figured out that I wasn't going to play at Indiana, Purdue or Notre Dame, I started looking at schools where I could play and Aquinas fit for me in that it was a smaller school, in a bigger city (Grand Rapids).

Have you ever coached your two sons, Sean and Tyler?
I coached my sons, Sean (a recent Michigan Tech grad and point guard) and Tyler (currently a redshirt freshman point guard at Lake Superior), while they were growing up in Marquette and can honestly say those were the most enjoyable times of my life.

Why did you choose to become an assistant coach to Detroit?
My basketball academy was in full swing last June when Coach (Rademacher) called offering me the job. I loved what I was doing, but missed being a part of a team. So, the challenge of being a part of building something here at Detroit interested me greatly.

As a coach, do you have any pregame superstitions?
I really don't. What I do is to review a series of what ifs? What if we have to foul? Who do we foul? Stuff that I'm sure all coaches do. I guess I wouldn't classify that as a superstition.

Did you have any superstitions as a player?
That was a long time ago. No, I don't remember any.

What does it mean to you to be a Titan?
To me, it means being part of a team. We have all been given a special opportunity to have a hand in building up a struggling basketball program. And though we are struggling now, if we can look ahead and establish the habits that champions establish, and stay together, this will be something that we will all look back on with pride of how we hung together through tough times to create something that eventually will be great.