Hi, Coach! Congratulations on your recent induction into The Des Moines Sunday Register Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.
The honor, of course, is well-deserved.
I’ve written many times that you and your friends and longtime assistants, Jan Jensen and Jenni Fitzgerald, are some of the finest people I’ve ever met.
I wanted to take a moment to tell you why.
We met when I was 19 years old, a sophomore at Drake University during the 1994-95 academic year.
I was the sports editor of the student newspaper. You were in your fifth year coaching the Bulldogs.
I picked the women’s basketball beat because it was the best show on campus. The men’s basketball team was mired in the same mediocrity that had hounded the team since Maury John left for Iowa State University.
Center Tricia Wakely shook off defenders on the way to inside baskets the way the rest of us shiver on a cold day. Left-handed guard Kiersten Miller had a way of snaking her arm around opposing ball handlers and popping the ball loose for steals and points.
Forward Kristi Kinne baffled defenders with her patented cross-over dribble, and guard Julie Rittgers swished three-pointers years before Steph Curry made it fashionable.
That team won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, beating Southwest Missouri State on their home floor in Springfield, Mo. They went on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
[For more of this story, written by Daniel P. Finney, go to http://www.desmoinesregister.c...n-you-knew/89621328/]
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