University of Minnesota Athletics
Brittany McCoy Feature Story
12/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Senior guard Brittany McCoy is reaching all sorts of milestones this season. She recorded her 400th assist against Maryland on December 3rd. Her 200th steal came on December 7th against Penn State. On November 21st she started her 100th consecutive game for the Golden Gophers, but it doesn't end there. McCoy is quickly approaching the Minnesota women's basketball record for consecutive career starts. The record currently stands at 111 games and is held by Lindsay Whalen. McCoy could also become the first Gopher to start every game of her collegiate career.
Brittany joined the Gophers as a freshman in 2006 and was thrust into an unusual situation. The 2005-06 roster had sported six seniors. After their graduation Coach Pam Borton was looking for players to fill in the gaps.
"I was in a unique situation," McCoy said. "[The freshmen] were forced to play."
The 5-feet, 10-inch Lincolnwood, Illinois native wasn't expecting to be a starter in her freshman season.
"I was just hoping for some playing time, honestly," she said. "I know it's not really common for freshmen to start or even to get a lot of playing time, but the coaches told me the first summer I was here, "If you'll be able to play defense, you'll be able to see some playing time.""
And play defense she did. McCoy earned a place on the court as Minnesota's starting point guard, a spot on the 2007 All-Big Ten All-Freshman Team, and the Gophers' Defensive Player of the Year award.
"Defense has always been my strength," she said, but it's certainly not her only strength. Brittany also excels in the classroom.
"I think having good time management has always been my key," she said. "I've never been a procrastinator. It amazes me how some people can procrastinate. I'm all about getting work done ahead of time so you don't have that stress and when you get on the basketball floor it's all about basketball."
McCoy is a Speech-Language-Hearing Science major and has received Academic All-Big Ten honors for two years in a row. Brittany's brother inspired her choice of majors, but she hasn't always known where her academic interests lie.
"Not a lot interested me coming in, and I got to the point where I had all of my liberal education requirements out of the way, so I just had to pick something. I have a brother who's hard of hearing, so I grew up going to his speech pathology and audiology appointments. The field of Speech-Language-Hearing Science was somewhat familiar for me, so I just picked that, and I've enjoyed it so far."
McCoy has two options in mind for life after graduation.
"Ideally I'd love to go overseas and play ball over in Europe like [former Gophers] Leslie [Knight] and Emmy [Fox] do," she said. "It's either that for me or go to grad school, because I need two years of grad school for speech pathology. We'll see what happens."
For now McCoy is focused on her senior season, and she has some big goals for her team.
"Winning a Big Ten championship is a reachable goal for us. I think that would be huge for this program, and it's definitely attainable. And not only do we want to get back to the NCAA tournament, but to the Sweet Sixteen at least."
During her last season at the University of Minnesota, Brittany will be making the best of the time that she has with her teammates, on and off the court.
"We're each others' best friends. We're like a family. I think we have such great chemistry, and it shows on the floor. We're always hanging out with each other. All of us upperclassmen live in the same housing complex, so we're always in each others' rooms."
McCoy is also looking forward to playing in front of her hometown fans for the last time in her college career.
"I always enjoy going to Northwestern and playing there. I live 10 minutes from there, and my family's always able to come watch me play. All of my friends and family friends from home always come. We always have a big crowd there."
Even though this is a season of lasts for senior Brittany McCoy, it's also a season of record-breaking firsts. But in the end, the records aren't what Brittany will remember most.
When asked what the best part about being involved in Minnesota basketball was, she was quick to reply, "The relationships I've developed; relationships with coaches, relationships with girls that I've played with in the past and presently. I've developed some good ties that will definitely stick with me for a long time."
Article by Alli Johnson
