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Young Drachma · 04-19-2012, 11:37 AM

In Year 4, we’re taking the training wheels off and we’re going to schedule much tougher opponents. Coach Summitt was known for scheduling tough regular season games and while our conference can’t match the SEC, we’re going to go out and find tough non-conference in the interim.

We went into this season with seven scholarships. It’s going to be a real adventure replacing all of those spots on the roster, but I’m going to see what we can do to fill as many as possible, though leaving us a bit of space might be nice. Not sure we’ll get any of our targets, but we’ll try. So far, the problem is that top recruits would rather go play for Wyoming -- we’ve lost so many kids to them -- and Nebraska isn’t yet producing the kinds of recruits we can really use in our program, though I always go after the best players in NE, SD, ND, MN and even Missouri. Wyoming produces even less than we do, so they have to dominate the region and do. Titles will do that for you though. So we’ve been having to hit overseas kids because they’re less biased against us, except it’s expensive to recruit lots of those kids. It seems like the right tactic to build this program up though.

Since we’re about to lose two of our standouts, I’ll start to chronicle a Pronghorn Hall of Fame so that we can recap the best players to ever done the Blue and White.

SEASON RECAP
Seems this year, we were the Murray State of our league. It also coincided with the emergence of point guard Sophia Foster who transferred from George Washington. The former 2-star recruit from Florida has done extremely well for us in her senior year, but has always been a quiet scorer putting up double digits in all four years she’s been here and was 2nd-team All-WAC last year.

We ended the regular season at 28-1 (15-1 in the WAC) and so, now it’s conference tourney time. Our schedule was not as strong as I thought it was gonna be. We were actually 335th in SOS this year. Our RPI was 26 at the end of the WAC tournament which culminated with a 54-41 win over UT-Pan American to claim our second straight WAC title and to again make the NCAAs.

Hilariously, we’re the #2 seed in the South Region and our first game? Against Summitt’s alma-mater UT-Martin.

NCAA 1st round: Nebraska State 71, Tennessee-Martin (22-11) 53
NCAA 2nd round Nebraska State 68, 10th seed VCU (25-10) 57

In the Sweet 16, we lucked out in the sense that there were upsets. #14 MTSU knocked off defending champion Mississippi State in the 1st round and 11th seed Clemson pummeled Stanford and so, we knew we’d end up with a low-seeded team in our first Sweet 16.

NCAA Regional Semi-final Nebraska State 85, MTSU 56 (25-11)
NCAA South Region Final Nebraska State 80, SE Louisiana 69 (28-8)

With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the upsets kept coming as we focused against 9-seed SE Louisiana who beat #1 North Carolina State in the Round of 32 and then knocked off #5 seed UConn in the Sweet 16. These kids are not going joking around.

The club was starting three seniors, but wasn’t enough to stop the Pronghorns from making their first Final Four. It’s an astounding ascent for a team that was made up largely of cast-offs from other programs and it’s setting the stage for bringing Nebraska State into the big time.

For once, I’m recapping the Final Four from being in it rather than just talking about the other teams. In this year’s Final Four we have two 3-seeds in Florida (27-8) and St. John’s (30-8) and we’ll be pitted against West region champ, 6-seed Iowa (29-8) in the other semi. Iowa’s current class lost in the title game two years ago and lost in the Elite Eight last year. They are battle tested and ready. Florida is making back to back Final Four appearances, while St. John’s is in the Final Four for the first time since 1944.

We are a team with SEVEN seniors, so naturally we're extremely experienced. That's surely why this is going so well. We have four players scoring in double figures, we rebound well and while in the earlier years Ava Ramsey was our dominating player, we've got a lot of contributions now.

FINAL FOUR
Nebraska State 83, Iowa 73

Spoiler

In the Final, we will face St. John's who were in the Final the last time they made the Final Four.

2002-03 NATIONAL TITLE GAME

Spoiler

Coach Summit made her first Final Four (if you count AIAW, which I do) in her 3rd season. It took Coach Charles until her 4th to do it. But in her 1st try, she won a national title. It was an unlikely ascent for the Pronghorns, but the real question is whether this is a flash in the pan fueled by aggressive recruiting and a lot of luck (and senior-laden roster) or whether they'll be able to sustain it over time.

04-19-2012, 11:37 AM	#9
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	2002-03 SEASON RECAP In Year 4, we’re taking the training wheels off and we’re going to schedule much tougher opponents. Coach Summitt was known for scheduling tough regular season games and while our conference can’t match the SEC, we’re going to go out and find tough non-conference in the interim. We went into this season with seven scholarships. It’s going to be a real adventure replacing all of those spots on the roster, but I’m going to see what we can do to fill as many as possible, though leaving us a bit of space might be nice. Not sure we’ll get any of our targets, but we’ll try. So far, the problem is that top recruits would rather go play for Wyoming -- we’ve lost so many kids to them -- and Nebraska isn’t yet producing the kinds of recruits we can really use in our program, though I always go after the best players in NE, SD, ND, MN and even Missouri. Wyoming produces even less than we do, so they have to dominate the region and do. Titles will do that for you though. So we’ve been having to hit overseas kids because they’re less biased against us, except it’s expensive to recruit lots of those kids. It seems like the right tactic to build this program up though. Since we’re about to lose two of our standouts, I’ll start to chronicle a Pronghorn Hall of Fame so that we can recap the best players to ever done the Blue and White. SEASON RECAP Seems this year, we were the Murray State of our league. It also coincided with the emergence of point guard Sophia Foster who transferred from George Washington. The former 2-star recruit from Florida has done extremely well for us in her senior year, but has always been a quiet scorer putting up double digits in all four years she’s been here and was 2nd-team All-WAC last year. We ended the regular season at 28-1 (15-1 in the WAC) and so, now it’s conference tourney time. Our schedule was not as strong as I thought it was gonna be. We were actually 335th in SOS this year. Our RPI was 26 at the end of the WAC tournament which culminated with a 54-41 win over UT-Pan American to claim our second straight WAC title and to again make the NCAAs. Hilariously, we’re the #2 seed in the South Region and our first game? Against Summitt’s alma-mater UT-Martin. NCAA 1st round: Nebraska State 71, Tennessee-Martin (22-11) 53 NCAA 2nd round Nebraska State 68, 10th seed VCU (25-10) 57 In the Sweet 16, we lucked out in the sense that there were upsets. #14 MTSU knocked off defending champion Mississippi State in the 1st round and 11th seed Clemson pummeled Stanford and so, we knew we’d end up with a low-seeded team in our first Sweet 16. NCAA Regional Semi-final Nebraska State 85, MTSU 56 (25-11) NCAA South Region Final Nebraska State 80, SE Louisiana 69 (28-8) With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the upsets kept coming as we focused against 9-seed SE Louisiana who beat #1 North Carolina State in the Round of 32 and then knocked off #5 seed UConn in the Sweet 16. These kids are not going joking around. The club was starting three seniors, but wasn’t enough to stop the Pronghorns from making their first Final Four. It’s an astounding ascent for a team that was made up largely of cast-offs from other programs and it’s setting the stage for bringing Nebraska State into the big time. For once, I’m recapping the Final Four from being in it rather than just talking about the other teams. In this year’s Final Four we have two 3-seeds in Florida (27-8) and St. John’s (30-8) and we’ll be pitted against West region champ, 6-seed Iowa (29-8) in the other semi. Iowa’s current class lost in the title game two years ago and lost in the Elite Eight last year. They are battle tested and ready. Florida is making back to back Final Four appearances, while St. John’s is in the Final Four for the first time since 1944. We are a team with SEVEN seniors, so naturally we're extremely experienced. That's surely why this is going so well. We have four players scoring in double figures, we rebound well and while in the earlier years Ava Ramsey was our dominating player, we've got a lot of contributions now. FINAL FOUR Nebraska State 83, Iowa 73 Spoiler Nebraska State 83, Iowa 73 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nebraska State (36-1, 15-1): Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts Iain Gidley C 33 8-18 1-1 2 5 4 0 17 C. Desmuelliers C 29 2-2 0-0 2 9 0 3 4 Ava Ramsay PF 35 5-10 10-10 5 16 2 2 20 F. Carruthers SG 27 8-14 2-2 2 2 1 3 18 Sofia Foster SF 34 8-25 3-3 4 8 6 2 19 K. Schwager PG 24 1-2 0-0 0 3 2 1 2 Chloe Dittman PG 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 Ximena Lafreniere SG 3 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Ally Jackson SF 8 1-1 1-2 0 1 0 1 3 Emily Camper PF 4 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Turnovers: 14 (I.Gidley 2, C.Desmuelliers 2, A.Ramsay 2, F.Carruthers 1, S.Foster 3, K.Schwager 3, E.Camper 1) Blocked Shots: 5 (I.Gidley 2, C.Desmuelliers 1, S.Foster 1, K.Schwager 1) Steals: 4 (C.Desmuelliers 1, A.Ramsay 1, S.Foster 1, K.Schwager 1) 3P FGs: 0-4 (A.Ramsay 0-1, S.Foster 0-2, K.Schwager 0-1) Iowa (29-9, 11-5): Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts Julia Jones C 19 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 3 0 Sarah Brannan PF 34 3-6 0-0 1 6 1 1 6 Aubrey Lehman SF 29 10-19 0-0 5 8 2 2 24 Abigail Steinke SG 31 3-4 0-0 1 6 6 2 7 Maggie Shultz PG 33 8-19 2-2 1 3 10 3 21 Briley Scott PF 17 0-6 0-0 1 4 0 3 0 Isis Maldonado SG 15 1-6 2-2 1 2 0 1 4 Lara Evenson SF 8 2-5 1-2 1 3 0 1 5 Joslyn Wilder SF 8 1-2 0-0 1 2 0 1 2 Liana Hendrix SF 4 2-3 0-0 0 2 1 0 4 Paloma Ruiz C 3 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0 0 Turnovers: 16 (J.Jones 3, S.Brannan 3, A.Lehman 2, A.Steinke 1, M.Shultz 1, B.Scott 1, I.Maldonado 1, L.Evenson 1, J.Wilder 3) Blocked Shots: 3 (S.Brannan 2, I.Maldonado 1) Steals: 5 (A.Lehman 1, M.Shultz 1, B.Scott 1, J.Wilder 1, L.Hendrix 1) 3P FGs: 8-27 (J.Jones 0-1, S.Brannan 0-2, A.Lehman 4-7, A.Steinke 1-1, M.Shultz 3-9, I.Maldonado 0-5, L.Evenson 0-2) Player of Game: PF Ava Ramsay (BRASKA) In the Final, we will face St. John's who were in the Final the last time they made the Final Four. 2002-03 NATIONAL TITLE GAME Spoiler Nebraska State 86, St. John's 70 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- St. John's (31-9, 13-5): Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts Natalie Alvarado C 25 2-3 0-0 1 1 1 4 5 Kylie Martin PF 24 1-3 0-0 1 7 3 2 2 Saniya Coss SF 35 9-17 1-1 4 7 4 1 24 Itzel Gooding SG 30 7-20 0-0 1 6 1 3 18 Chloe Duarte PG 35 4-9 0-0 2 2 1 3 8 Edith Mead SG 20 1-6 3-5 1 3 1 4 6 Sonia Hardeman SG 19 2-4 0-0 1 1 0 1 5 Juliana Marshall PF 7 1-3 0-0 1 2 0 0 2 Abigail Dennis C 5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 Turnovers: 16 (N.Alvarado 2, K.Martin 2, S.Coss 5, I.Gooding 1, C.Duarte 3, E.Mead 1, J.Marshall 1, A.Dennis 1) Blocked Shots: 0 Steals: 9 (S.Coss 4, I.Gooding 1, C.Duarte 2, E.Mead 1, A.Dennis 1) 3P FGs: 12-39 (N.Alvarado 1-1, S.Coss 5-12, I.Gooding 4-14, C.Duarte 0-4, E.Mead 1-5, S.Hardeman 1-3) Nebraska State (37-1, 15-1): Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts Iain Gidley C 30 7-10 4-5 2 6 2 2 18 C. Desmuelliers PF 28 3-6 2-4 2 7 1 2 8 Ava Ramsay PF 34 7-9 2-2 3 8 6 2 17 F. Carruthers SG 32 6-9 3-4 0 4 1 0 15 Sofia Foster SF 34 5-9 1-2 2 7 6 0 12 K. Schwager PG 22 1-7 2-2 0 4 0 3 4 Chloe Dittman PG 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Ximena Lafreniere SG 6 2-4 0-0 1 1 0 1 4 Ally Jackson SF 10 2-2 2-2 0 0 0 1 6 Emily Camper PF 1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 Tegan Ainsworth C 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 Turnovers: 13 (I.Gidley 2, C.Desmuelliers 2, A.Ramsay 3, F.Carruthers 1, S.Foster 3, K.Schwager 2) Blocked Shots: 4 (I.Gidley 2, F.Carruthers 1, S.Foster 1) Steals: 7 (I.Gidley 2, C.Desmuelliers 1, A.Ramsay 1, S.Foster 2, A.Jackson 1) 3P FGs: 2-9 (A.Ramsay 1-2, S.Foster 1-1, K.Schwager 0-4, X.Lafreniere 0-2) Player of Game: PF Ava Ramsay (BRASKA) Coach Summit made her first Final Four (if you count AIAW, which I do) in her 3rd season. It took Coach Charles until her 4th to do it. But in her 1st try, she won a national title. It was an unlikely ascent for the Pronghorns, but the real question is whether this is a flash in the pan fueled by aggressive recruiting and a lot of luck (and senior-laden roster) or whether they'll be able to sustain it over time. Last edited by Young Drachma : 04-19-2012 at 10:24 PM.