The Big Ten Conference hired former coach and current Mid-American Conference Associate Commissioner Rick Boyages as associate commissioner for men’s basketball, effective January 1. Boyages, a 19-year college basketball coaching veteran, will serve as the Big Ten’s primary administrator and conference office liaison for the sport and also have primary oversight for the men’s basketball officiating program, including supervision of an officiating technical advisor to be hired after the 2009-10 season. Boyages has coached at Babson, Bates, Boston College, William and Mary, and Ohio State.

Other transactions

Coaches

Men’s and women’s gymnastics – Dick Filbert, the head gymnastics coach at Towson since 1983, and his wife Lynda Filbert, the Tigers’ assistant coach for the last 20 years, have announced their retirements, effective June 30, 2010. A 1971 graduate of Towson, Dick Filbert was named head coach in 1982. Lynda Filbert, a former gymnast at the school, joined the program in 1989.

Deaths

John “Jack” Cotton, a former football and basketball coach at Wayne State (Michigan), died November 1 at the age of 86. He was a three-year football letter-winner at the school from 1942-46. His collegiate career was interrupted for war duty in 1943. He spent two years in the service and was awarded two Purple Hearts, one while wounded in Saipan, the other while wounded in Okinawa. He was a line coach at Wayne State from 1947-56 and an assistant coach for the Tartar basketball team in 1956 that reached the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament before falling to Kentucky.