MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The revival of Minnesota women's basketball
began when a 5-foot-9 point guard named Lindsay Whalen from the
small town of Hutchinson decided more than four years ago to play
for the Gophers.
Around the same time, Laurie Koehn -- a widely recruited
sharpshooter out of Moundridge High School in Kansas -- chose to
sign with struggling Kansas State. The 6-foot-5 Nicole Ohlde,
another Kansan from Clay Center, did the same.
Minnesota plays Kansas State Tuesday night in a second-round
NCAA tournament game at Williams Arena, a matchup of resurgent
programs that will send one school to the Mideast Region semifinals
next weekend in Norfolk, Va.
Listening to and looking at these two teams makes it obvious
that a commitment to attract in-state players was -- and continues
to be -- the keystone behind building a perennially successful
program.
"That's where you have to start," said Gophers coach Pam
Borton, whose first recruiting class was all Minnesotan: Jamie
Broback, Liz Podominick and Kelly Roysland -- freshmen who are the
first three off the bench. "You need to get those kids that
already bleed the maroon and gold or the purple and white."
Whalen's high school was about an hour away from the Twin
Cities. Only three players on the Gophers' roster are from outside
the state.
Koehn, Ohlde and forward Kendra Wecker, who is from Marysville,
are the Wildcats' stars. They're all from Kansas.
"It has a ripple effect in the high schools, the junior highs
and the elementary schools," said Kansas State coach Deb
Patterson. "It really helps build the excitement and the dreams of
kids across the state."
Wecker, a junior, remembers as a high school student when Koehn
and Ohlde signed to Kansas State. She was a year behind the two.
"It was just exciting for me finding out that they made that
commitment," she said.
Second-seeded Kansas State (25-5), which beat Valparaiso in the
first round on Sunday, went 2-14 in the Big 12 when Ohlde and Koehn
were freshmen in 2001. (Koehn was redshirted because of a foot
injury.)
The Wildcats had made the NCAA tournament in Patterson's first
season, 1996-97, but they went the next four without an appearance
until finishing 26-8 and advancing to the round of 16 in 2002.
Despite the struggles, the potential for success was there as
well as respect for Patterson and her staff -- big reasons why
Koehn, Ohlde and Wecker picked K-State.
"They knew the game so well," Koehn said, "and were so good
at designing offenses toward players' strengths."
Minnesota went 8-20 when Whalen was part of an eight-member
freshman class of which only three remain on today's team. (Starter
Kadidja Andersson is the only other one who plays.) Cheryl
Littlejohn was fired following that dismal 2000-2001 season for
NCAA rules violations, and Brenda Oldfield (who now coaches at
Maryland under her maiden name, Frese) arrived and guided the
Gophers to a 22-8 finish and their first NCAA tournament in eight
years.
This is their third straight appearance, just like Kansas State.
"Kids want to stay close to home," Borton said. "If you build
something great to stay home for, other kids in the state will want
to stay."
Plenty of potential future Gophers will be watching Tuesday
night, undoubtedly offering their loud support for seventh-seeded
Minnesota (22-8).
Ohlde, the Big 12 Player of the Year who scored 25 points on
Sunday, will have her hands full in the post with the Gophers'
Janel McCarville -- and vice versa.
"I'll just try to take away her strengths," McCarville said.
"She's got a lot of them, so I think it's going to be kind of hard
to do."
The Wildcats, who lost in the second round to Notre Dame on
their home floor last year as a No. 3 seed, have certainly played
in front of unfriendly crowds before.
"It will definitely be challenging," Wecker said. "They pack
the house every game."