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Bowling Green is targeting Southern Utah coach Todd Simon to be its next coach, sources told ESPN on Tuesday. A deal is expected to come together in the upcoming days, sources said. Simon is set to replace Michael Huger, who was fired in the wake of an 11-20 season. Simon emerged as the top target of new athletic director Derek van der Merwe after winning 20 or more games in three consecutive years at Southern Utah. That included a Big Sky regular season championship in 2020-21. Simon has been at Southern Utah since 2016 and compiled a 118-106 record there. He was UNLV's interim coach during the 2015-16 season and went 9-8 during a 17-game stint. Prior to his time as an assistant coach and interim coach at UNLV, Simon coached for seven years at prep powerhouse Findlay Prep. He went 35-1 as a head coach in 2012-13 and the program was 192-9 during his entire time there. Southern Utah's 23 wins in 2021-22 were the second-most in school history and he oversaw the transition from the Big Sky to the WAC this season. The Thunderbirds went 22-21 this year and finished third in the WAC with a 12-6 record. Bowling Green has a history of hiring strong coaches, as Jim Larranaga, Dan Dakich, Bill Fitch and Chris Jans all coached at the school. Bowling Green has not made the NCAA tournament since Fitch was the head coach for a lone season in 1967-68.
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