Minnesota head coach Lindsay Whalen announced changes to the women’s basketball support staff Thursday with the addition of Melissa Maines as the director of basketball operations.

“Melissa Maines’ wealth of knowledge and level of expertise in running an operations department speaks for itself,” Whalen said. “She knows what it takes to operate a program at a championship level. We are thrilled to have her.”

Maines recently completed the second of two stints at her alma mater, Texas Tech. She spent the past five seasons as director of basketball operations and earned a promotion to the title of assistant athletics director in 2014. Prior to that, she worked for the Red Raiders from 1996-02 in the operations position, as well as the regional director for women’s athletics.

Her responsibilities with the Lady Raiders include managing the budget, working as the liaison with Under Armour, fan engagement, team travel, supervising the graduate assistants and managers and community service outreach.

Maines graduated in 1998 from Texas Tech with a degree in exercise sports science and received a master’s from there in sports administration in 2001.

Prior to returning to her alma mater, Maines was the director of basketball operations at Auburn University from 2004-12. She initially left Texas Tech in 2002 when she was hired as the assistant to the head coach at the University of Florida from 2002-2004.

Along with Maines joining the Golden Gophers, Garrett Solis will see his role shift to assistant to the head coach. Previously, he was the team’s video and player development specialist for the 2017-18 season and was the program’s intern for 2016-17.

Meanwhile, Greg Haag will return for his third season as the team’s video coordinator, and Stephen Patterson will be back as the team’s athletic trainer for a fourth year.