StarTrib: Back in the Barn: Whalen returns with Lynx

Ignatius L Hoops

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
10,173
Reaction score
3,115
Points
113
http://www.startribune.com/back-in-...urns-with-lynx-to-old-gophers-home/443482303/


It was 13 years ago, but she still remembers. Vividly. Sitting in the club room above the court in the old, empty Barn last week, Whalen smiled.

The Gophers women’s basketball team had just surged into the 2004 Sweet 16 by destroying second-seeded Kansas State in front of 13,425 fans, igniting a run that would end in the Final Four.

Less than six weeks prior, Whalen, who had led the Gophers from nowhere to this big stage, rerouting an entire program along the way, had broken two bones in her right hand in a loss at Ohio State. The fear was her season — and her college career — was over. But now with two practices behind her and a soft cast on her shooting hand, she’d returned, then lingered afterward to soak it in.

She’d been there for senior night. But in a cast. Not playing. And not the same. So, after the Kansas State victory, she got a senior night redo.

“I was so thankful to have been able to play in those two games,” she said of victories over UCLA and KSU. “On that court. I wanted to remember it. I remember waving to the crowd as I walked off. It was both happy and sad, because it was my last game there, ever. Until now, I guess.”

When news broke that the Lynx would have to move from Xcel Energy Center into Williams Arena for the WNBA playoffs, there was some consternation.

But Whalen was over the moon...

...Grit and leadership don’t show up on a scoresheet, and she has both in spades. Always has. When Gophers coach Brenda Frese left Minnesota for Maryland after one season, amid the hand-wringing, it was a teenage Whalen who sensed what was needed.

“I don’t think she played any minutes this year,” Whalen said to the press. “We’re the people who got her this contract, we’re the ones who got her all the rewards.”

Recalling that, Whalen said: “Had to calm the team down. Tell the fans we’d be OK.”
 




Top Bottom