HuskerFan86

Yikes, I think that's a pretty huge underestimation of how important Lindsey was to this team. I can't imagine us being better without her than we were with her on the court... But if Sample, Theriot, Jeffrey, and Laudermill all improve and Havers contributes, we could contend for the Big Ten. Personally, I think Purdue has the upperhand since they return TWO starting senior point guards and a beast of a post player...

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130416/PREPZONE/704169874/1029#minden-s-kissinger-commits-to-illinois Towards the bottom of the page it says that Chatrice White has narrowed her schools down to Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Illinois, and Purdue, eliminating Iowa, ISU, and Notre Dame. Hopefully her and Kissinger weren't a package deal for Illinois!

Yeah I was thinking of Maddie Simon, the 6'1" sophomore point guard at Pius. But yes, Katie Simon was a pleasant surprise at the end of the season. Hopefully she can step up and absorb some of the back-up minutes that we will lose with the graduation of Meghin Williams.

I think Coach Yori has demonstrated pretty well that she knows how to use what talent is at her disposal. Over the course of her career at Nebraska we've seen players improve greatly from freshman to senior year, and she's clearly a very gifted strategist. Based on raw talent and # of McDonald's All-Americans, we should've been blown out by both aTm and Duke, but the combo of player development and strategy Connie's got working for her was a great equalizer. If she can just upgrade the raw materials a little bit with recruiting, we've all seen she can coach and develop players, so I think we could have something really special on our hands. As stated elsewhere, I'm pretty excited about the in-state players in the pipeline too. Really hope we can land White, because Shepard will be a beast and I'm hearing good things about Simon too.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130402/HUSKERS/704029890/1001#mckewon-husker-women-should-build-expand-upon-posts Bold, optimistic predictions from McKewon! Elite Eights and maybe even a Final Four ahead for Nebraska in the next decade?? Discuss.

Second straight year the Big Ten has not shown well in the tournament. I have to think that will affect how they seed B1G teams in the future. I'm really surprised Penn State lost. They seemed like such a balanced, athletic team.

Also look at what Creighton has done with a roster dominated by Nebraskans. NCAA's two years in a row, won a game this year, and gave Tennesssee a scare for a little while. Creighton has had a bunch of Nebraska players that may not have starred in the Big 12/10, but would've been solid contributers. I'm thinking of players like Christy Neneman, Angie Janis, Megan Neuvirth, Sam Schuett, Sarah Nelson, Kelsey Woodard, Chevelle Herring, McKenzie Fujan...not all would have been starters at Nebraska, but I think they all would've at the very least played 15-20 solids minutes/game for Connie. Nebraska is a fairly talent-rich state for girls basketball and it's reflected on the rosters of both CU and NU.

I would like to see the program take the next step as well. It's a hard thing to pull off and maintain in the Midwest though. Programs like Purdue and Iowa State have knocked on the door (especially Purdue, who won a national championship in the 90's I believe), but never truly reached equal footing with UConn, Tennessee, Stanford, Duke, Maryland, etc. Even a wonderful, consistent program like Oklahoma still struggles to keep up with the blue bloods on the women's side. There's such a disparity in talent between the 1/2 seeds and the rest of the country, with UConn, Stanford, Tennessee, Duke, and now Baylor stockpiling High School All-Americans who would rather sit the bench and win a championship than come to a place like Nebraska and be a star. That being said, I think there's a big enough talent base here in the state for Nebraska to be a consistent top 4 team in the B1G. The key to getting to the next level (i.e. perennial Sweet 16 fixture) is probably starting to win recruiting battles with schools like Purdue, Oklahoma, Penn State, etc.

Haha at least we got Shepard! She's going to be better than all of the former Knights anyways :-) I think these are the kinds of wins Connie can point to in recruiting to show what this program is capable of. So happy for this team! It makes it all the better when you know they are such great people off the court as well.

Wonderful post game show by Matt and Coach Smallwood. Loved the recognition they gave to Hallie Sample...she does so much for this team and played a huge part in winning this game. Offensive rebounds, setting screens, defending, finishing big plays at the end. Also fun to think about how far this program has come. Ten years ago, who could've even imagined a Nebraska team beating a top 10, national championship-level program on their home court to go to the Sweet 16 for the second time in four years? Connie Yori and her staff deserve SO much credit for what they've built and are building in Lincoln. If there are top level high school players in the Midwest looking for a program with the highest integrity, excellent player development, great fans, and increasingly better results in March, I think they'd be crazy not to look at Connie's program...

Anyone who can should listen to Matt Coatney right now! He's getting emotional talking about how great Lindsey is. Really amazing moment in Husker sports happening right now!

SWEET 16!!!!! WAY TO GO HUSKERS!!! UPSET OF THE TOURNAMENT SO FAR!

Phew two Moore assists to Hallie Sample and a pair of Lindsey free throws might have sealed it!!!

Ouch that was a fast 11-0 run for A&M :-(

Haven't scored in a couple minutes, mostly because we haven't gotten a shot up. I think that's 5 straight turnovers..

Turnovers are starting to kill us. KEEP the ball in Lindsey's hands!!

Hooper and Moore with back to back threes to extend the lead to 16. That was knockout punch #1...we're gonna need to land a few more of those. Two straight careless turnovers by Nebraska changes the momentum a bit though. Turnovers will be what lets the Aggies back in to this game...

Don't think we can play much better than this! Shooting the ball extremely well, only 3 turnovers, and outrebounding the Aggies! Huskers went on runs of 19-2 and 11-2 in the first half. Moore, Hooper, Cady, and Theriot all have at least 7 points. Not sure what will happen in the second half, but that first half was a thing of beauty. I like our chances with Lindsey on the floor and the supporting players all staying out of foul trouble. I think Moore could will us to what would be a major upset!

Anyone heard news regarding when Chatrice will announce her decision? I heard it was going to be some time after the girls state tournament...

You are probably right, it's been a while since I saw Robinette and forgot how much she played away from the basket. Maybe a better comparison is Carla Bennet from Westside (although it's been equally long since I watched her play at state). Either way, that's pretty rarefied company. Also the post from Bellevue West Liveringhouse is no slouch. I would expect she'll be 1st or 2nd team all-state for Class A. Add that to the fact that she only played half the game (because she split time with Szepaniak), and the fact that Shepard still put up the numbers she did is pretty amazing. Akin-Otiko made an impression on me too. I imagine Bell West will be the favorite to win the title next year, and she'll be a big reason why.

It seems like character and chemistry sometimes count for more than raw talent when it comes to Yori's recruiting. All of our teams since she got here have been built around a core of 2-3 really good players that contribute from day one in the program: Kiera Hardy, Vonnie Turner, Kelsey Griffin, Cory Montgomery, Danielle Page, Dominique Kelly, Moore, Hooper, Cady, and Theriot. Then she surrounds them with hard-working, intelligent role players and it's worked out pretty well. I think overall, the level of recruiting is trending up. The reason this year's team is so good is that Yori has strung together 4 straight classes with at least one difference-maker who starts from day one: Moore as a senior, Hooper as a junior, Cady (and to a degree Sample and Laudermill) as a sophomore, and Theriot as a freshman. If she keeps landing one high-end talent each year (and I'm hoping Havers, White, and Sheppard will be those players for the next three classes), Nebraska will stay in hunt for the NCAA's every year. What will set us a part and help us win games in the tournament, is when we start building depth of talent, so excellent players like Hooper and Moore don't have to play every minute of the season and wear down in March. R6: I've seen clips of Ibis but not a whole game. She seems like a good one, although I wish she was a couple inches taller!

I think that's a better comparison, although to be honest, I haven't seen Diamant play enough to know that much about her game. Seems like they have similar size, mobility, and polished skill set though. It's hard to compare Sheppard to past Huskers and project what position she will play in college. She's too skilled to be strictly a back-to-the-basket post on offense, but I think she'll have the strength to guard the opponent's 5 and get rebounds on defense. I think the comparison to Katie Robinette when she played for South Sioux City is pretty accurate, although Sheppard has put up better numbers against better competition. And Robinette was never the point guard for SSC. I think Jess is versatile enough that her position/role on offense can change based on who else we have playing with her. If we have Allie Havers and Chatrice White helping her inside, then I think she could almost be a point forward, distributing the ball, attacking opposing 4's with the dribble, and hitting outside shots. If she were on this year's team, I think she'd be playing the 5 to allow Jordan and Emily to spend more time on the perimeter.

Yeah, I gotcha. From what I've seen, I think she'll end up head and shoulders above Ashley Adams when she reaches that stage in her career. It's true that Shepard isn't super fast, but her mobility for a 16 year old with that much size and strength is pretty impressive in my opinion (as opposed to being a reason for concern). She'll probably never move as fast as Emily Cady, but I think she already plays at a faster, more athletic pace than Ashley Adams

And I agree on Chloe Akin-Otiko! She's definitely a player to keep an eye on. Maybe Connie can finally break Creighton's pipeline with Bellevue West? I didn't get to see Tvrdy play this year, but last year she seemed like she might grow into a Kaitlyn Burke "glue" type of player. Doesn't seem to have the high end potential of recruits like Moore, Laudermill, and Theriot, but I bet she'll contribute during her career. This is an exciting time for Nebraska Women's Basketball. We have some excellent, high-character players in our program and some great prospects in the queue with Allie Havers and Jess Shepard. If Connie can sign Shelby's Chatrice White (the best junior in the state) this spring, that will be a huge step towards staying at the top of the Big Ten. Then the class of 2015 could be a program changer with Shepard already inked and several other in-state players that project to be BCS caliber players. Namely, Maddie Simon at Pius, Jaycee Bradley at Norfolk, Kianna Ibis at Benson, and Allison Ahrens from Crofton. Things are looking good for the women's program!

Jess Shepard projects to be a way better player than Ashley Adams. She just broke Maurtice Ivy's 25-year old tournament scoring record for Class A as a sophomore (81 points in 3 games)! And thats after having already broken the season scoring record at a high school that has dominated girls basketball in Nebraska since the 80's. She's the best sophomore I've ever seen in Class A, and I think she's ahead of where Jordan Hooper and Katie Robinette were at this point in their careers. It's true she doesn't have blazing foot speed, but how many 6'3" 16-year olds are going to look fast playing on the perimeter in the Class A title game? The fact that she's the primary ballhandler at her size is incredible! Outside of Kastanek, Southeast's team was VERY limited in talent this year, and the fact that they won is a testament to how good Shepard is. She's their primary ballhandler, protects the paint, played all 32 minutes, and scored 26 points, 19 rebounds, probably 6-8 blocks, and 3-4 assists. That's probably the most dominant overall game I've seen in Class A, and Nebraska has produced some excellent girl's basketball players since I've been watching. She's a top 25 prospect in the class of 2015 and should go a long way towards easing the loss of Jordan Hooper in two years. Comparing her to Ashley Adams is a bit of a joke.