University of Minnesota Athletics
Golden Gopher Women's Basketball Season Preview
10/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
-- Pam Borton, following the Golden Gophers' 2003 NCAA Sweet 16 contest versus Texas
Nearly eight months have passed since that magical trip to the Sweet 16. Oh so many sweet memories were made as the Minnesota women's basketball team clawed out its niche among the elite of collegiate women's basketball teams. The fire and the passion displayed by the team and fans alike has simply smoldered during an offseason highlighted by success after success on the recruiting trail and the awarding of one of the 16 2004 NCAA Tournament sites for the first and second rounds in our house.
The 2003-04 season comes around to the Land of 10,000 Lakes with an unsurpassed excitement bursting from the Golden Gopher faithful. Season-ticket sales are up over 45 percent from a year ago. Young girls in the state view their Gophers as heroic role models and want to don the maroon and gold someday. The success of the Golden Gophers and their two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament has created quite the stir. The Gophers, and their second-year head coach Pam Borton, are loving it.
"I've been anticipating this season since the loss to Texas last year," said Borton. "We've tasted that success, playing in the Sweet 16, and we want to go back. We feel we were three possessions from the Elite Eight, that there were three possessions that made the difference in that game. You have to seize the moment because you just never know if you'll get that close again. We will do everything in our power to get back to the Sweet 16 and take it even further."
Texas defeated the Gophers, 73-60, in that West Regional semifinal game and went on to a Final Four appearance where the Longhorns gave eventual national champion Connecticut quite a scare in the national semifinal game. Texas ended Minnesota's season, but that Sweet 16 game with the Longhorns solidified a belief, and secured the cornerstone of an emerging tradition of Minnesota women's basketball. The Golden Gophers have arrived and thrived on the national women's basketball stage and they don't plan on leaving the spotlight any time soon.
The foundation to this tradition is built brick by brick, or in the case of a basketball program, victory by victory. In a 2002-03 season that included huge conference wins over rivals Purdue and Penn State, no victory had the lasting effect on the Minnesota program that the Gophers' nationally televised 68-56 NCAA Tournament second-round win over Stanford in Maples Pavilion has.
"It was such a big win for us in a lot in a lot of different ways," explained Borton, a Naismith National Women's Basketball Coach of the Year finalist. "That win on such a big stage helped us in our recruiting nationally. It helped people across the country identify with what our team is all about, watching us play, our effort and winning attitude. That win established our program as one of the elite in the country.
"That win made a statement, Minnesota is here and the Golden Gophers are here to stay."
Now it's time to back such statements up with hard work and determination, assuring that the amazing campaign of a year ago is a springboard to bigger and better things in 2003-04.
This Golden Gopher squad has already responded to the challenge and took the first step by coming into preseason drills in tip-top shape. The work ethic instilled by Borton and her coaching staff is firmly in place with the dividends expected to pay off early when the Gophers embark on a tough non-conference schedule.
All-American guard Lindsay Whalen spent her summer winning a gold medal with the USA Young Women's Team in Croatia. All-Big Ten center Janel McCarville earned her first international experience as part of the USA team that captured a silver medal at the Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic. The three incoming freshmen, Jamie Broback, Kelly Roysland and Liz Podominick, celebrated their summer with a national AAU title. Other Gophers worked basketball camps or summer jobs, but it's obvious that they all frequented two places often, the gym and the weight room.
With her name and the number 13 poised to join Laura Coenen and Carol Ann Shudlick as honored players with banners in Williams Arena, Whalen begins the final chapter of one of the best and storied careers in Minnesota women's basketball history. Whalen is coming off a junior season in which she earned Kodak/WBCA All-America First Team honors, was a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection and was a finalist for both the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Award.
The three-time Golden Gopher most valuable player has compiled 1,731 career points and is closing in on the all-time Minnesota record of 2,097 held by Shudlick. If Whalen averages the 20.1 points per game that she has throughout her career, Minnesota should be celebrating a new scoring champion midway through the Big Ten season. A tribute to Whalen's all-around play, the 5-9 guard is also 199 assists away from equaling Deb Hunter's career mark of 632.
Borton fully appreciates Whalen's talents and gives her star player her due. "Lindsay Whalen is a special player. When you have someone like that, someone who is a difference maker, she helps separate this team from the rest."
While Whalen may be the big name, the rather unassuming team captain, knows that she is only as good as the teammates around her. They in turn, realize that having Whalen in the lineup makes them better players.
Joining Whalen as returning starters for the Golden Gophers are the low-post tandem of Janel McCarville and Kadidja Andersson and point guard Shannon Schonrock.
McCarville is on her own quest in establishing herself as one of the premier post players in Minnesota history. The feisty 6-2 junior dominated the paint in averaging nearly a double-double (12.8 points and 9.0 rebounds), while finishing second in the nation in field goal percentage (.657). McCarville is a prime-time performer with her career averages swelling to 14.7 points and 9.5 rebounds against nationally ranked opponents. She garnered All-Big Ten honors a year ago, with the media placing her on the first team and the coaches picking her as a second-team selection. Coming into her junior season in the best playing shape of her career and with a complimentary cast of big and talented cohorts joining her in the post, watch for McCarville to make an even bigger impact this season.
Andersson, a 5-11 senior forward, has quietly been one of the most effective and efficient players for the Golden Gophers. Though undersized by Big Ten standards in the post, Andersson makes her presence known with her tenacious defensive play and work on the boards. She has averaged 8.2 points and 4.3 rebounds as a Gopher, and has earned the starting nod in 83 of her 89 career games. Andersson is a steady performer and one of those supporting cast talents that every successful team has on its roster.
The point guard position is in the capable hands of Schonrock, a spunky 5-6 sophomore. After earning her first start in early February, Schonrock was one of the shining stars of the Gophers' trek through the NCAA Tournament last season. A true warrior, Schonrock played 118 of the possible 120 minutes in Minnesota's three NCAA games. With Tulane and Stanford doubling her guard-mate Whalen and daring her to make the play, she made them pay with a pair of career-high 12-point performances. Schonrock fits the role of a true point guard perfectly, turning the ball over only once in every 16.4 minutes of action. Point guards are often court generals and Schonrock is no exception. A tribute to her leadership skills, on and off the court, Schonrock, along with seniors Andersson and Whalen were voted team captains for 2003-04.
While an experienced corps of veterans such as Whalen with 86 career starts, Andersson with 83 career starts and McCarville with 45 career starts will shoulder a lot of the expectations for this season, a breakdown of the team as a whole reveals a balance of experience and talented youth.
Outlooks of recent seasons found Golden Gopher squads loaded with guards and a precious few post players. The tide has changed for Minnesota, at least for the upcoming season. The 2003-04 Gopher roster is stocked with post players ready to battle in the physical inside game presented by Big Ten teams.
Andersson and McCarville are the veterans in the Gophers' front line but the first McDonald's High School All-American in Minnesota history, 6-2 freshman Liz Podominick, is expected to make an immediate impact. As perhaps the most highly touted recruit to ever choose Minnesota, Podominick has Minnesota coaches and fans anticipating the sight of two big, athletic posts wrecking havoc in the paint on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Sophomore center Christina Collison is vastly improved and looks to contend for playing time. Collison played sparingly in her rookie season, seeing action in 18 games.
In Pam Borton's system, the small forward is virtually a third guard. It is at this position, where the Gophers have the biggest shoes to fill. Last season, Corrin Von Wald played exceptionally well and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors. Von Wald was the Gophers' second-leading scorer but more importantly, was the defensive star in Borton's new defensive scheme.
Several players will make bids for this open position. Sophomore Shannon Bolden has the most experience coming in but due to the lack of bodies in the post last season, she saw most of her action at the power forward position instead of the perimeter. Bolden is a solid defender and an excellent rebounder and has worked diligently in the offseason to become an offensive threat at the position. Freshman Jamie Broback offers an intriguing aspect to the mix at small forward - size. Broback stands 6-3 and could play either forward position, but her ball-handling skills offer the Gophers the prospect of putting a tall and athletic player on the wing who could cause match-up problems galore for opposing defenses.
Senior Leslie Hill and freshman Kelly Roysland will also add competition to the No. 3 position. Hill has shown versatility playing at every position but center at some point of her Gopher career. Last season, Hill played a major role coming off the bench and sparking the Gophers with hustle and key plays.
Freshman Roysland is perhaps the player who will remind Gopher fans the most of the graduated Von Wald. Roysland has the ability to play either of the guard positions or small forward. She can shoot the pull-up jumper or drive to the basket and is a heady, intelligent player despite her youth.
The stable of guards on the Golden Gopher roster is not a deep one. What may be lost in numbers, however, is made up for with talent. Whalen and Schonrock are two durable guards who have proven records of playing well over 30 minutes an outing, game after game. Look for Roysland to spend more time at the guard than the small forward, as well as the option of Bolden and Hill handling minutes if necessary.
Relief is on the way as transfer guards April Calhoun and Katie Alsdurf join the Gophers this season but will have to sit out the 2003-04 season. Both are native Minnesotans who are returning to their home state to join the Gopher program. Calhoun transferred after two season at Iowa. She started all 33 games for the Hawkeyes a year ago. Alsdurf started 49 games in her two years at Marquette and led the Golden Eagles in scoring in Conference USA action last season. Calhoun and Alsdurf will have junior eligibility for the 2004-05 season.
When Borton took over the program a year ago, she brought a new defensive intensity to the program. Coupled with an already potent offense, the Golden Gophers made great strides during the 2002-03 season. While the offense continued to produce, ranking ninth in the nation and tops in the Big Ten averaging 77.8 points per game, the defense gradually improved throughout the season. By the season's end, Minnesota was allowing 64.5 points a game, a new school record.
We can expect to see the same philosophy this season.
"Watch for us to be more consistent this year," said Borton. "Last season, we didn't start playing well defensively until February. It took us until the last 13 games of the season to hold teams to 59 points a game. Our players understand the system, what we are teaching, what we want to do and they have developed a mentality defensively. They believe in our system, that's the most important thing."
The Golden Gophers will need the whole package to accomplish their lofty goals for the upcoming season. After tying for second place in the Big Ten the last two seasons, winning the conference title is at the top of their list.
"Every year going into a season, you want to be a team that is capable of winning the Big Ten championship. That's a goal every year," said Borton. "This is the toughest the Big Ten has been in over a decade. It's going to be tough every night. Winning the Big Ten has to be your focus as a team. Accomplishing that puts you in a great position for the NCAA Tournament."
The Gophers have the opportunity to prepare for Big Ten play with a tough non-conference schedule. Unlike last season's non-conference slate where the Gophers were seldom posed a stern challenge, the 2003-04 non-conference schedule is loaded with NCAA participants from a year ago.
Minnesota opens the season by hosting the Subway Basketball Classic, welcoming a talented field of Colorado, Harvard and Southern. A Thanksgiving week trip to the Bahamas for the Junkanoo Jam offers games against Texas A&M and either Seton Hall or Southern California. The Gophers final game before Christmas finds Wisconsin-Green Bay visiting Williams Arena. After the holiday, Minnesota joins Temple and Georgia State at Virginia for the Cavalier Classic. And to close their non-conference slate, the Gophers will play host to South Carolina on Jan. 3, in a nationally televised contest on CBS.
Minnesota opens its Big Ten schedule on Jan. 1, at home versus Michigan. Other home dates to circle on the calendar are clashes with Penn State on Feb. 8 and Ohio State on Feb. 26. In the 16-game schedule that makes up the conference regular-season slate, Minnesota will play Indiana, Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin once and the other Big Ten schools twice. Purdue and Wiscsonsin will not visit Williams Arena this season. The Big Ten Conference Tournament once again will be contested at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, on March 4-8.
"We have a good mix of non-conference games, a lot stronger schedule than last year," stated Borton. "We will get tested at home and on the road. A lot of our non-conference opponents played in the postseason last year. One of our top games could be Virginia on the road. They had the strongest schedule in the country a year ago. If we play Virginia, I think that could be the biggest non-conference test for us this season."
Adding fuel to the frenzy already created by this talented Golden Gopher ballclub, was word that Minnesota and Williams Arena were selected to host a first and second-round site for the 2004 NCAA Tournament on March 21 and 23. The tourney will be the first time Minnesota has hosted an NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament contest in Williams Arena and the first time overall since Minnesota played host to the 1995 Women's Final Four at the Target Center. A huge positive to hosting a women's first/second-round site, if Minnesota earns its third straight trip to the Big Dance, the Gophers will play on their home court in front of their own fans.
After going 11-0 in Williams Arena and leading the Big Ten and ranking seventh nationally with an average attendance of 7,800 a year ago, the Golden Gophers hope to use this extra momentum to get back to the Sweet 16 in 2003-04.
Bring on the season. The winning tradition of Golden Gopher women's basketball is a reality. "Looking ahead to next year, I think we've really learned a lot. Most importantly, we learned what it takes to get here - the hard work, the kind of defense we need to play, playing consistent basketball and playing together. I feel extremely happy that we made it to the Sweet 16. I wanted to take this program one step further and now we want to build on it. We want to build a tradition at Minnesota."
-- Pam Borton, following the Golden Gophers' 2003 NCAA Sweet 16 contest versus Texas
Nearly eight months have passed since that magical trip to the Sweet 16. Oh so many sweet memories were made as the Minnesota women's basketball team clawed out its niche among the elite of collegiate women's basketball teams. The fire and the passion displayed by the team and fans alike has simply smoldered during an offseason highlighted by success after success on the recruiting trail and the awarding of one of the 16 2004 NCAA Tournament sites for the first and second rounds in our house.
The 2003-04 season comes around to the Land of 10,000 Lakes with an unsurpassed excitement bursting from the Golden Gopher faithful. Season-ticket sales are up over 45 percent from a year ago. Young girls in the state view their Gophers as heroic role models and want to don the maroon and gold someday. The success of the Golden Gophers and their two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament has created quite the stir. The Gophers, and their second-year head coach Pam Borton, are loving it.
"I've been anticipating this season since the loss to Texas last year," said Borton. "We've tasted that success, playing in the Sweet 16, and we want to go back. We feel we were three possessions from the Elite Eight, that there were three possessions that made the difference in that game. You have to seize the moment because you just never know if you'll get that close again. We will do everything in our power to get back to the Sweet 16 and take it even further."
Texas defeated the Gophers, 73-60, in that West Regional semifinal game and went on to a Final Four appearance where the Longhorns gave eventual national champion Connecticut quite a scare in the national semifinal game. Texas ended Minnesota's season, but that Sweet 16 game with the Longhorns solidified a belief, and secured the cornerstone of an emerging tradition of Minnesota women's basketball. The Golden Gophers have arrived and thrived on the national women's basketball stage and they don't plan on leaving the spotlight any time soon.
The foundation to this tradition is built brick by brick, or in the case of a basketball program, victory by victory. In a 2002-03 season that included huge conference wins over rivals Purdue and Penn State, no victory had the lasting effect on the Minnesota program that the Gophers' nationally televised 68-56 NCAA Tournament second-round win over Stanford in Maples Pavilion has.
"It was such a big win for us in a lot in a lot of different ways," explained Borton, a Naismith National Women's Basketball Coach of the Year finalist. "That win on such a big stage helped us in our recruiting nationally. It helped people across the country identify with what our team is all about, watching us play, our effort and winning attitude. That win established our program as one of the elite in the country.
"That win made a statement, Minnesota is here and the Golden Gophers are here to stay."
Now it's time to back such statements up with hard work and determination, assuring that the amazing campaign of a year ago is a springboard to bigger and better things in 2003-04.
This Golden Gopher squad has already responded to the challenge and took the first step by coming into preseason drills in tip-top shape. The work ethic instilled by Borton and her coaching staff is firmly in place with the dividends expected to pay off early when the Gophers embark on a tough non-conference schedule.
All-American guard Lindsay Whalen spent her summer winning a gold medal with the USA Young Women's Team in Croatia. All-Big Ten center Janel McCarville earned her first international experience as part of the USA team that captured a silver medal at the Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic. The three incoming freshmen, Jamie Broback, Kelly Roysland and Liz Podominick, celebrated their summer with a national AAU title. Other Gophers worked basketball camps or summer jobs, but it's obvious that they all frequented two places often, the gym and the weight room.
With her name and the number 13 poised to join Laura Coenen and Carol Ann Shudlick as honored players with banners in Williams Arena, Whalen begins the final chapter of one of the best and storied careers in Minnesota women's basketball history. Whalen is coming off a junior season in which she earned Kodak/WBCA All-America First Team honors, was a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection and was a finalist for both the Wade Trophy and the Naismith Award.
The three-time Golden Gopher most valuable player has compiled 1,731 career points and is closing in on the all-time Minnesota record of 2,097 held by Shudlick. If Whalen averages the 20.1 points per game that she has throughout her career, Minnesota should be celebrating a new scoring champion midway through the Big Ten season. A tribute to Whalen's all-around play, the 5-9 guard is also 199 assists away from equaling Deb Hunter's career mark of 632.
Borton fully appreciates Whalen's talents and gives her star player her due. "Lindsay Whalen is a special player. When you have someone like that, someone who is a difference maker, she helps separate this team from the rest."
While Whalen may be the big name, the rather unassuming team captain, knows that she is only as good as the teammates around her. They in turn, realize that having Whalen in the lineup makes them better players.
Joining Whalen as returning starters for the Golden Gophers are the low-post tandem of Janel McCarville and Kadidja Andersson and point guard Shannon Schonrock.
McCarville is on her own quest in establishing herself as one of the premier post players in Minnesota history. The feisty 6-2 junior dominated the paint in averaging nearly a double-double (12.8 points and 9.0 rebounds), while finishing second in the nation in field goal percentage (.657). McCarville is a prime-time performer with her career averages swelling to 14.7 points and 9.5 rebounds against nationally ranked opponents. She garnered All-Big Ten honors a year ago, with the media placing her on the first team and the coaches picking her as a second-team selection. Coming into her junior season in the best playing shape of her career and with a complimentary cast of big and talented cohorts joining her in the post, watch for McCarville to make an even bigger impact this season.
Andersson, a 5-11 senior forward, has quietly been one of the most effective and efficient players for the Golden Gophers. Though undersized by Big Ten standards in the post, Andersson makes her presence known with her tenacious defensive play and work on the boards. She has averaged 8.2 points and 4.3 rebounds as a Gopher, and has earned the starting nod in 83 of her 89 career games. Andersson is a steady performer and one of those supporting cast talents that every successful team has on its roster.
The point guard position is in the capable hands of Schonrock, a spunky 5-6 sophomore. After earning her first start in early February, Schonrock was one of the shining stars of the Gophers' trek through the NCAA Tournament last season. A true warrior, Schonrock played 118 of the possible 120 minutes in Minnesota's three NCAA games. With Tulane and Stanford doubling her guard-mate Whalen and daring her to make the play, she made them pay with a pair of career-high 12-point performances. Schonrock fits the role of a true point guard perfectly, turning the ball over only once in every 16.4 minutes of action. Point guards are often court generals and Schonrock is no exception. A tribute to her leadership skills, on and off the court, Schonrock, along with seniors Andersson and Whalen were voted team captains for 2003-04.
While an experienced corps of veterans such as Whalen with 86 career starts, Andersson with 83 career starts and McCarville with 45 career starts will shoulder a lot of the expectations for this season, a breakdown of the team as a whole reveals a balance of experience and talented youth.
Outlooks of recent seasons found Golden Gopher squads loaded with guards and a precious few post players. The tide has changed for Minnesota, at least for the upcoming season. The 2003-04 Gopher roster is stocked with post players ready to battle in the physical inside game presented by Big Ten teams.
Andersson and McCarville are the veterans in the Gophers' front line but the first McDonald's High School All-American in Minnesota history, 6-2 freshman Liz Podominick, is expected to make an immediate impact. As perhaps the most highly touted recruit to ever choose Minnesota, Podominick has Minnesota coaches and fans anticipating the sight of two big, athletic posts wrecking havoc in the paint on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Sophomore center Christina Collison is vastly improved and looks to contend for playing time. Collison played sparingly in her rookie season, seeing action in 18 games.
In Pam Borton's system, the small forward is virtually a third guard. It is at this position, where the Gophers have the biggest shoes to fill. Last season, Corrin Von Wald played exceptionally well and earned third-team All-Big Ten honors. Von Wald was the Gophers' second-leading scorer but more importantly, was the defensive star in Borton's new defensive scheme.
Several players will make bids for this open position. Sophomore Shannon Bolden has the most experience coming in but due to the lack of bodies in the post last season, she saw most of her action at the power forward position instead of the perimeter. Bolden is a solid defender and an excellent rebounder and has worked diligently in the offseason to become an offensive threat at the position. Freshman Jamie Broback offers an intriguing aspect to the mix at small forward - size. Broback stands 6-3 and could play either forward position, but her ball-handling skills offer the Gophers the prospect of putting a tall and athletic player on the wing who could cause match-up problems galore for opposing defenses.
Senior Leslie Hill and freshman Kelly Roysland will also add competition to the No. 3 position. Hill has shown versatility playing at every position but center at some point of her Gopher career. Last season, Hill played a major role coming off the bench and sparking the Gophers with hustle and key plays.
Freshman Roysland is perhaps the player who will remind Gopher fans the most of the graduated Von Wald. Roysland has the ability to play either of the guard positions or small forward. She can shoot the pull-up jumper or drive to the basket and is a heady, intelligent player despite her youth.
The stable of guards on the Golden Gopher roster is not a deep one. What may be lost in numbers, however, is made up for with talent. Whalen and Schonrock are two durable guards who have proven records of playing well over 30 minutes an outing, game after game. Look for Roysland to spend more time at the guard than the small forward, as well as the option of Bolden and Hill handling minutes if necessary.
Relief is on the way as transfer guards April Calhoun and Katie Alsdurf join the Gophers this season but will have to sit out the 2003-04 season. Both are native Minnesotans who are returning to their home state to join the Gopher program. Calhoun transferred after two season at Iowa. She started all 33 games for the Hawkeyes a year ago. Alsdurf started 49 games in her two years at Marquette and led the Golden Eagles in scoring in Conference USA action last season. Calhoun and Alsdurf will have junior eligibility for the 2004-05 season.
When Borton took over the program a year ago, she brought a new defensive intensity to the program. Coupled with an already potent offense, the Golden Gophers made great strides during the 2002-03 season. While the offense continued to produce, ranking ninth in the nation and tops in the Big Ten averaging 77.8 points per game, the defense gradually improved throughout the season. By the season's end, Minnesota was allowing 64.5 points a game, a new school record.
We can expect to see the same philosophy this season.
"Watch for us to be more consistent this year," said Borton. "Last season, we didn't start playing well defensively until February. It took us until the last 13 games of the season to hold teams to 59 points a game. Our players understand the system, what we are teaching, what we want to do and they have developed a mentality defensively. They believe in our system, that's the most important thing."
The Golden Gophers will need the whole package to accomplish their lofty goals for the upcoming season. After tying for second place in the Big Ten the last two seasons, winning the conference title is at the top of their list.
"Every year going into a season, you want to be a team that is capable of winning the Big Ten championship. That's a goal every year," said Borton. "This is the toughest the Big Ten has been in over a decade. It's going to be tough every night. Winning the Big Ten has to be your focus as a team. Accomplishing that puts you in a great position for the NCAA Tournament."
The Gophers have the opportunity to prepare for Big Ten play with a tough non-conference schedule. Unlike last season's non-conference slate where the Gophers were seldom posed a stern challenge, the 2003-04 non-conference schedule is loaded with NCAA participants from a year ago.
Minnesota opens the season by hosting the Subway Basketball Classic, welcoming a talented field of Colorado, Harvard and Southern. A Thanksgiving week trip to the Bahamas for the Junkanoo Jam offers games against Texas A&M and either Seton Hall or Southern California. The Gophers final game before Christmas finds Wisconsin-Green Bay visiting Williams Arena. After the holiday, Minnesota joins Temple and Georgia State at Virginia for the Cavalier Classic. And to close their non-conference slate, the Gophers will play host to South Carolina on Jan. 3, in a nationally televised contest on CBS.
Minnesota opens its Big Ten schedule on Jan. 1, at home versus Michigan. Other home dates to circle on the calendar are clashes with Penn State on Feb. 8 and Ohio State on Feb. 26. In the 16-game schedule that makes up the conference regular-season slate, Minnesota will play Indiana, Michigan State, Purdue and Wisconsin once and the other Big Ten schools twice. Purdue and Wiscsonsin will not visit Williams Arena this season. The Big Ten Conference Tournament once again will be contested at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, on March 4-8.
"We have a good mix of non-conference games, a lot stronger schedule than last year," stated Borton. "We will get tested at home and on the road. A lot of our non-conference opponents played in the postseason last year. One of our top games could be Virginia on the road. They had the strongest schedule in the country a year ago. If we play Virginia, I think that could be the biggest non-conference test for us this season."
Adding fuel to the frenzy already created by this talented Golden Gopher ballclub, was word that Minnesota and Williams Arena were selected to host a first and second-round site for the 2004 NCAA Tournament on March 21 and 23. The tourney will be the first time Minnesota has hosted an NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament contest in Williams Arena and the first time overall since Minnesota played host to the 1995 Women's Final Four at the Target Center. A huge positive to hosting a women's first/second-round site, if Minnesota earns its third straight trip to the Big Dance, the Gophers will play on their home court in front of their own fans.
After going 11-0 in Williams Arena and leading the Big Ten and ranking seventh nationally with an average attendance of 7,800 a year ago, the Golden Gophers hope to use this extra momentum to get back to the Sweet 16 in 2003-04.
Bring on the season. The winning tradition of Golden Gopher women's basketball is a reality.
