EAST LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan State University women’s basketball team said Monday that head coach Suzy Merchant has been released from the hospital following a single-car crash.
On Saturday, Jan. 28, the team announced that Merchant would miss Sunday’s game in Illinois due to being hospitalized from a car crash. Merchant was involved in a minor, single-car crash “due to a medical incident” that Saturday morning, the university’s athletic department said. She was taken to a hospital in Lansing and was listed in stable condition.
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The team tweeted Monday, Jan. 30, that Merchant has been released from the hospital and is “resting at home.” It was not said if Merchant expects to return to coaching anytime soon.
Over the weekend, officials said associate head coach Dean Lockwood will act as interim head coach during Merchant’s absence.
Merchant began coaching at Michigan State University in 2007. Prior to joining MSU, she was a head coach at Eastern Michigan University and at Saginaw Valley State University.
The East Lansing-based university says Merchant has “established herself as one of the premier coaches in MSU history,” with the team finishing “third or better in the Big Ten in eight of the last 15 seasons.”
Under Merchant’s leadership, “49 Spartans have earned All-Big Ten recognition and 76 have been named Academic All-Big Ten.”
— Michigan State Women's Basketball (@MSU_WBasketball) January 30, 2023