Yori Signs New Five-Year Agreement with Nebraska

Lincoln ? Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson announced Thursday that NU Head Women’s Basketball Coach Connie Yori has signed a new five-year contract that runs through June 30, 2012.

Yori, entering her sixth season as the head coach of the Huskers, had one year remaining on her original contract, which was set to expire on June 30, 2008. Her new contract replaces the final year of her original deal and is retroactive to July 1, 2007.

"Coach Yori has done an excellent job of re-establishing our women’s basketball program. She inherited this program at the most difficult time in our history of women’s basketball," Pederson said. "From the day she arrived, she immediately went to work building a program of which all Nebraskans can be proud. Not only has she re-established success on the court, but the successes of her student-athletes in the classroom and off the court have been superb. We are pleased that she has agreed to remain at Nebraska to build upon the success that she has already brought to this program."

In her first five seasons at Nebraska, Yori led the Nebraska women’s basketball program to four consecutive postseason tournament appearances, the longest stretch of postseason bids in school history. The Huskers earned their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2000 last season, finishing with a 22-10 overall record and a fourth-place finish in the Big 12. Nebraska finished just one win shy of a school-record total and earned a bye in the conference tournament for the first time since 1998.

“We believe we are doing the right things to grow a strong and lasting tradition for women’s basketball success here at the University of Nebraska,” Yori said. “Our administration, including (Chancellor) Harvey Perlman, (Athletic Director) Steve Pederson and (Executive Associate Athletic Director) Marc Boehm, have shown the highest levels of commitment to our program. We look forward to continuing the growth of our program over the next few years and setting even higher standards of success for our players.”

Before Yori’s arrival in late-July of 2002, Nebraska had struggled through three consecutive losing seasons. In her first season, the Huskers competed at times with only five healthy scholarship players and posted an 8-20 record and a 1-15 Big 12 mark.

Yori and her staff immediately improved Nebraska’s recruiting standards and their hard work paid off by earning a postseason trip to the WNIT in her second season in 2003-04. Yori’s second Husker team produced one of the biggest turnarounds in NCAA Division I basketball, finishing with an 18-14 overall record and a 7-9 conference mark. NU also won a postseason tournament game. That incremental improvement continued over the next two years with the highlight being a landmark victory over eventual national champion Baylor in Lincoln in 2004-05. The Huskers advanced to a third straight WNIT and produced a pair of postseason victories for the first time in school history in 2005-06.

Along with improved performances on the court, the women’s basketball program has also been one of Nebraska’s top-performing teams in the community. Yori’s Huskers captured NU’s first Life Skills Team Award in 2003-04, and became the first team to earn two Life Skills titles by winning again in 2005-06. The women’s basketball team has finished first or second in the final Life Skills standings all four years of the competition’s existence.