Big Red Rising

30 spring2010

Husker Women’s Basketball Team Enjoys Best Season in School History Story by Jeff Griesch, ’96; Images courtsey of NU Media Relations

I

n the moments following the Nebraska women’s basketball team’s seasonending loss in the Kansas City Regional semifinal on March 28, Coach Connie Yori fought back tears in the locker room while addressing her team in uniform for the final time.

“I love this team,” the Big 12 Conference and National Coach of the Year said. “You know I love our pyramid and all of you define that pyramid. You have great character and mental toughness. You play with great effort and you love and respect one another. You were disciplined and communicated with each other and always stayed together. You had fun and took pride in your work and you achieved competitive excellence. I love you guys, and know this – you will always be Huskers.”

It didn’t seem right for her history-making Husker team to end its season with a loss. Unfortunately, at NCAA Tournament time, only one team gets to go home with a win. However, the Huskers knew they had produced more wins than any team in Nebraska history with a 32-2 final record.

NEBRASKAMAGAZINE 31

The Huskers delivered a dream season that spanned the longest winning streak in school and Big 12 history. The season included the school’s first Big 12 title and first NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance. Along the way, the Huskers produced the first unbeaten regular season in Big 12 history, while achieving the highest national rankings in school history at No. 3 in both the writers and coaches polls.

After stretching a Big 12-record winning streak to 30 games with a second-round win at the Big 12 Tournament on March 12, the Huskers claimed the school’s first-ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

In a season of firsts and bests, Yori wanted her Huskers to know that a loss to a talented Kentucky team would not be the way this team would be remembered.

“This loss will not define our season. In the years to come when we look back on this year, we are going to remember everything that we accomplished,” Yori said. “But you all know I’ve said this all along, when you look back on your time at Nebraska, you won’t It rained confetti at the Devaney Center as the Huskers celebrated their first remember the wins and the losses. You are going to remember all the great times you had Big 12 championship. with your teammates on and off the court.”

Following Yori’s brief address to her team, she offered the players a chance to say a few words of their own. All-American Kelsey Griffin, wiping away tears after her final game as a Husker, spoke to her teammates with all of the emotion of a tremendous senior leader.

“I just want to thank you all for letting me play with you this year. Thank you for helping me to love playing basketball and become a better player every day,” Griffin said. “I loved playing with you, and you are always going to be my best friends and my sisters.”

Yori’s approach to building team chemistry and a winning program are strikingly apparent in those final words to the greatest basketball team in Husker history.

Yori, who captured every major national coach-of-the-year award in 2010, including the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA), the Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Kelsey Griffin launches a shot as Nebraska defeats No. 5 LSU Association honors, came to Lincoln eight years ago in December and begins to garner national attention. with a major construction project on her hands.

The 2002 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year led her 10th Creighton team to the Missouri Valley title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. Nebraska was coming off back-to-back losing seasons when Yori arrived in late-June of 2002, and in her first season the Huskers competed with just a handful of healthy scholarship players.

In 2002-03, the Huskers struggled through the worst season in school history, posting an 8-20 overall mark and a 1-15 Big 12 record. Although the results didn’t show it, the transformation of Nebraska women’s basketball was well under way.

The overmatched Huskers played with gritty determination and began to buy into Yori’s focus on work ethic. Nebraska’s transformation on the court was also apparent to the Husker faithful who continued to support the team at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

On multiple occasions in 2002-03, Big Red fans gave the Huskers standing ovations following losses. The fan acknowledgement of NU’s fighting spirit brought Yori to tears, and helped fuel the fire for upcoming success in the Husker program.

From 2003-04 to 2008-09, Nebraska earned six consecutive postseason tournament berths, including NCAA bids in 2007 and 2008.

The Huskers continued to show their fighting spirit last year by winning five of their final seven Big 12 games to finish 6-10 in the league and earn a Postseason WNIT bid, despite playing the entire season without Griffin. The Huskers also suffered season-ending injuries to Nikki Bober and Layne Reeves, and key starters Cory Montgomery, Yvonne Turner and Kaitlyn Burke played through pain all year.

Dominique Kelley fires up her teammates in a second-round NCAA game in Minneapolis.

32 spring2010

The Husker hoopsters cheer from the Nebraska Champions Club as they learn of their No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

During the offseason, Turner underwent shoulder surgery, and Griffin’s status was uncertain after her second foot surgery to repair an injury suffered in August of 2008.

Those injuries tempered the expectations of Big 12 coaches, who predicted a sixth-place finish for the Huskers in the preseason poll.

What the coaches didn’t know was that Griffin’s second surgery was a success, and for the first time in almost a year, she was pain free. The year off not only allowed previous injuries to heal, it also fueled her fire to return to the game, while offering her coach-like insight into the game.

“We knew it was important for all of us to have great off-seasons, and every one of us took it to heart,” Griffin said. “We all improved, which showed our commitment to each other. I think that helped our communication and our togetherness, too. I promised the coaches they weren’t going to have to worry about effort because I was going to make sure we practiced hard and played hard. The great thing was I didn’t have to worry about it either, because every player made sure they brought it every day. That was the real secret to our success.”

The off-season work resulted in the first perfect non-conference campaign in school history, which included a landmark win over No. 5 LSU in front of more than 7,000 fans at the Devaney Center on Dec. 20. Following the double-digit win over the perennial Southeastern Conference power, the Huskers rolled to a 47-point win over Albany and a 44-point win at Vermont – a team that went on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskers entered Big 12 play at Iowa State Jan. 9, with a 13-0 record. The Cyclones were coming off an NCAA Elite Eight appearance and owned a 12-game winning streak of their own. The Huskers worked their way past ISU, then ran past No. 19 Texas in a shootout in their Big 12 home opener Jan. 12.

With a 15-0 record and a No. 11 national ranking, the Huskers headed to Waco, Texas, for a showdown with No. 9 Baylor and national freshman-of-the-year Brittney Griner. In front of a Fox Sports Net national television audience, Nebraska powered its way to a 65-56 win over the eventual Final Four qualifiers.

It was another landmark win, and the string of big-name victories created an unprecedented buzz around Nebraska women’s basketball.

For the next home game against Kansas State, the seventh-ranked Huskers attracted 13,303 fans. Nebraska drew more than 10,000 fans for each of its final seven home games, including a school-record 13,595 against Missouri for the first-ever women’s basketball sellout at the Devaney Center on Feb. 27.

Following the win over the Tigers, the Huskers celebrated their first Big 12 regularseason title, which they had clinched with an 80-64 victory at No. 11 and eventual Final Four qualifier Oklahoma on Feb. 24.

“It was so amazing to see how the community and the whole state of Nebraska joined our run this season,” Yori said. “We appreciate every fan that came to the Devaney Center.

But we really want to thank those fans who were here in our first season. We didn’t give them much of a reason to come out and watch us, but they kept coming anyway. They were huge in helping the growth of our program.”

National Coach-of-the-Year Connie Yori cuts the net at Devaney.

Lindsey Moore scrambles against UCLA as NU records its first-ever entry into the NCAA Sweet Sixteen.

NEBRASKAMAGAZINE 33

#42 Nikki Bober

#20 Katya Leick

#44 Catheryn Redmon

#5 Kaitlyn Burke

#40 Cory Montgomery

#12 Layne Reeves

#23 Kelsey Griffin

#00 Lindsey Moore

#21 Harleen Sidhu

#24 Dominique Kelley

#11 Nicole Neals

#22 Yvonne Turner

#13 Kala Kuhlmann

#35 Jessica Periago

#10 Meghin Williams

The No. 3 Huskers completed a perfect regular season with a road win at Kansas State on March 6, when more than 2,000 Big Red fans filled the seats at Bramlage Coliseum.

The win over the Wildcats followed a resounding Senior Night victory over Kansas on March 3, when Nebraska honored the largest and most successful senior class in history.

Griffin certainly ranks near the top of the list among the greatest Huskers in history.

Griffin finished her NU career with 2,033 points and 1,019 rebounds, joining 1993 Wade Trophy winner Karen Jennings as the only players in history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

Griffin became Nebraska’s first AP, USBWA and Wooden All-American, while capturing NU’s first-ever Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award across all sports. The three-time firstteam All-Big 12 selection both on and off the court was the 2010 Big 12 Conference Player of the Year, and earned a spot on the Big 12 All-Defensive Team with 60 steals, 26 blocks and a remarkable 29 charges drawn.

“Kelsey is the best player I have ever coached,” Yori said. “She is tough both mentally and physically and she is the one of the hardest-working players I have ever been around.

But even more impressively, Kelsey is a great person. She is an outstanding teammate, and she truly cares about the people around her. She deserves every award that comes her way, and I’m looking forward to seeing her continue to grow both as a basketball player and a person in the future.”

Seniors Cory Montgomery and Yvonne Turner also earned spots on the first-team All-Big 12 squad with impressive careers of their own. Montgomery joined Griffin as one of just eight players in Husker history with more than 1,300 points and 600 rebounds, while Turner was one of just six players in NU history with 1,000 points, 200 assists and 200 steals. Turner closed her career ranked No. 2 on NU’s three-point list and in the top five in career steals.

“We are so excited that both Cory and Vonnie earned All-Big 12 honors,” Yori said.

“They have meant so much to our program and they both had great Big 12 seasons.”

Junior starter and Lincoln native Dominique Kelley added honorable-mention All-Big 12 accolades, while point guard Lindsey Moore earned a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team.

In addition to all five Husker starters earning All-Big 12 recognition, a league-leading six Huskers earned first-team academic All-Big 12 awards, and Yori was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year.

“It was truly a special season – a season that we will all remember for the rest of our lives,” Yori said. “This was the hardest working team and the best practicing team I have ever coached, and the results were obvious. This team deserved every win and every award it received.” n About the writer: Jeff Griesch is in his 12th year as the media relations director for Nebraska women’s basketball. He is also the color analyst for women’s basketball games on the Husker Sports Network and the host of the Bank of the West Nebraska Women’s Basketball Show with Coach Connie Yori.

34 spring2010

Husker Success Spurs Ticket Sales Nebraska women’s basketball became one of the hottest tickets in the state during January and February. The Huskers, who rolled to a perfect 16-0 home record at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, attracted a Big 12-leading 11,383 fans per conference game in 2009-10.

For the season, Nebraska ranked No. 8 nationally with a school-record 7,390 fans per game at the Devaney Center.

The Huskers attracted 10,000 or more fans to each of their final seven home games, including the first-ever women’s basketball sellout (13,595) at the Devaney Center on Feb. 27.

In an effort to continue the momentum generated by the Huskers’ breakthrough campaign, the Nebraska Athletic Department launched a special 2010-11 season ticket promotion in association with “March Madness.”

The promotion was a resounding success, as the Huskers nearly doubled their season ticket base from just over 1,400 to well over 2,500 on April 1.

Although Nebraska’s March Madness promotion ended on March 31, Husker fans can still purchase season tickets for 2010-11 right now on Huskers.com. Fans can also call the Nebraska Athletic Ticket Office at 1-800-8-BIGRED to purchase tickets during regular business hours Monday through Friday.

Nebraska women’s basketball tickets offer one of the best values in Husker sports, as reserved season tickets are available for less than $150 for 18 home games in 2010-11. To put that in perspective, an all-session pass for the 2010 NCAA Women’s Final Four in San Antonio cost $175. n