Huskers Show Potential for 2015-16

By Jeff Griesch
Nebraska Communications

Potential.

It is one of the best words in sports, and it is definitely echoing in the women's basketball gym at the Hendricks Training Complex this fall.

You could almost hear the whisper of "potential" with every swish of a net in the gym during the early summer. It grew louder with every squeak of a shoe and pounding of a ball on Nebraska's pristine floor at the Hendricks Complex.

During an excellent summer of training, the word "POTENTIAL" nearly screamed in the weight room with every ringing of a weight returning to a rack.

The Huskers got to see some of that potential first hand for themselves on their 12-day trip to Australia in early August. During the four-game tour, sophomore Natalie Romeo, who shot her way onto the Big Ten and national scene late last season, led the Huskers with 19.8 points per game. Fellow sophomore guard Jasmine Cincore, who spent her freshman season waiting in the wings while battling an ankle injury, added 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game against the quartet of Australian professional teams.

While those two sophomores shined, freshmen Rachel Blackburn and Maddie Simon made impressive statements of their own. Blackburn, the 6-3 forward out of Leavenworth, Kan., averaged 7.5 points and 6.8 rebounds while playing just over one half per game in Australia. She also shot 65 percent from the field.

Simon, a 6-2 guard and 2015 Nebraska High School Player of the Year at Lincoln Pius X, added 6.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in nearly 30 minutes per contest.

The Huskers also received incredible production inside on the Australian tour from Darrien Washington. The 6-2 redshirt freshman forward from Oakland, Calif., averaged 5.5 points and 7.3 rebounds in just 17.3 minutes per game in Australia. Washington's production translates to 12.8 points and 16.8 rebounds per 40 minutes.

As impressive as the production was from those five players, who have combined to play just 703 minutes of college basketball entering the 2015-16 season, the Huskers also got solid production from junior Allie Havers and senior Anya Kalenta.

Havers, a 6-5 center from Mattawan, Mich., averaged 7.0 points and a team-best 10.0 rebounds per game in Australia. Nebraska's most experienced post player, Havers showed her continued improvement while also providing leadership on and off the court for the Big Red during the summer.
Kalenta, a 6-3 senior forward from Minsk, Belarus who was an NJCAA All-American in 2013-14, pitched in 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game off the bench in Australia.

"We saw some really good things this summer," Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. "Our players did a great job of improving themselves, and I think we saw that on the floor in Australia. On the court, our players played hard and showed their competitiveness against some really good teams. Off the court, we did not have a single issue while spending every minute together for two weeks in a foreign country. Our team chemistry was really good. I'm excited about our potential this season, but I know we need to stay healthy."

While the seven Huskers previously mentioned provided promising contributions in Australia, the three players that give Husker faithful the biggest reasons to shout "POTENTIAL" from the rafters of Pinnacle Bank Arena this fall did not play.

Rachel Theriot, an All-America point guard and the 2014 Big Ten Tournament MVP, sat out while continuing to recover from ankle surgery in February.

Jessica Shepard, the No. 1 high school post player in the nation coming out of high school and a two-time Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year, continued her recovery from knee surgery in January.

Kyndal Clark, the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year who transferred to Nebraska after undergoing season-ending knee surgery early in her senior year at Drake, also continued her road back to the court this summer.

Those three players on their own have the potential to turn any good team into a great one. Together, they could form the nucleus of something special happening at Nebraska in 2015-16.
Theriot has proven her impact in three seasons as the starting point for three NCAA Tournament teams at Nebraska. The 6-0 senior from Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was one of five preseason All-Big Ten selections last season. She averaged 16.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and a team-best 5.2 assists through the first 21 games of 2014-15.

Theriot, who was a starter on Nebraska's 2013 NCAA Sweet 16 team, was shooting 40.8 percent from three-point range and 92.6 percent from the free throw line before suffering an ankle injury in practice on Feb. 3. At the time, Nebraska was 17-4 and ranked No. 15 in the nation after notching wins in seven of its previous eight Big Ten games.

Without Theriot, Nebraska's four senior starters who averaged 24 wins per season as the first class in Husker history to advance to four straight NCAA tournaments, dropped three straight close games to teams that combined to win seven NCAA Tournament games in 2015.

Theriot had proved her late-season leadership as a sophomore when she carried the Huskers to the first conference tournament title in school history as the 2014 Big Ten Tournament MVP. She averaged a record 10.0 assists per game at the tournament. She also helped the Big Red to a first-round NCAA Tournament win over Fresno State in Los Angeles. She finished with a school-record 234 assists on the year while earning first-team All-Big Ten and Associated Press Honorable-Mention All-America accolades.

A preseason candidate for the Wade, Naismith and Wooden awards, Theriot enters her senior season with 1,023 career points and 444 career assists.

"Rachel has done a great job in her rehab, and we are excited about helping her have a great senior season," Yori said. "We know how good Rachel has been in her career, and she wants to leave Nebraska with her best season yet."

While the impact of a healthy Theriot's return to the Husker lineup is undeniable, the potential long-term influence on Nebraska's success of Shepard's presence could be even greater.

The 6-4 forward from Fremont High School was a first-team Parade All-American as a senior in 2015, despite playing just nine games before suffering an ACL tear in her knee on Dec. 29, 2014.
A member of the USA Basketball U18 National Team and the No. 3 overall player in ESPN's recruit rankings in 2014, Shepard averaged 33.0 points and 14.3 rebounds in four games at the 2014 Nike Tournament of Champions. She poured in 36 points against national power Long Beach Poly.

In her nine games as a senior, Shepard shot 71 percent from the field, including 41 percent from three-point range. Despite missing at least 15 games at the end of her career, Shepard still finished with a Nebraska Class A all-time record 2,227 points. She needed just 16 rebounds to set the Class A record in that category as well, finishing with 1,031 in her career. The four-time first-team All-Nebraska and Super-State selection averaged 30.4 points, 15.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists to help 22-4 Fremont to a 2014 Class A state tournament appearance. The previous year without Shepard, Fremont went 8-16 and scored 803 points for the season. Shepard scored a Class A-record 780 points for the Tigers, breaking the record she set with 664 points the previous season while leading Lincoln Southeast to the Class A state title.

"Jess has a rare combination of size, skill, athleticism, versatility and a high basketball IQ," Yori said. "She is a skilled ball-handler who can take defenders to the basket. She has spent most of her high school career being double- and triple-teamed, so she has become an outstanding passer with both vision and poise. What I love most about Jess is that in spite of all of her accolades, she is very humble. She is never satisfied and she is determined to come back even stronger from her injury. That says a lot about her character and competitiveness."

The combined impact of Shepard and Theriot as one of the best post-point guard combinations in the country, could lead the Big Red to new heights.

Add in the ability of Clark and Romeo to light it up from long range, and Nebraska could put one of the most potent offenses in school history on the floor.

Clark, a 5-7 graduate student from Webb City, Mo., averaged 19.3 points per game while knocking down a Missouri Valley Conference record 116 three-pointers as a junior at Drake in 2013-14. She connected on 41.1 percent of her threes on the year, including a scorching 45.5 percent (78-172) in conference play alone.

Clark, who transferred to Nebraska after graduating from Drake in May of 2015, scored 1,418 points, while adding 422 rebounds and 270 assists in 98 career games.

"We are thrilled to add a player of Kyndal Clark's caliber to our program, even if it is just for one season," Yori said. "We recruited Kyndal out of Webb City High School, and we are excited to finally get a chance to coach her. She is coming off a pretty significant injury, but when she is healthy she is a talented player. She also can add a lot of leadership to our program."

Clark played both point and shooting guard at Drake and is an outstanding leader on and off the court, earning a spot on the WBCA All-State Good Works Team in 2015.

While Theriot and Clark both hit better than 40 percent of their three-pointers in their last seasons on the court, Romeo connected on 38.5 percent of her three-pointers in her 12 starts as a true freshman a year ago.

As a starter last season, Romeo averaged 13.7 points and connected on 3.3 threes per game for the Big Red, including a school-record-tying seven three-points in a second-round Big Ten Tournament victory over Illinois.

Romeo, who was one of the nation's top point guards coming out of Carondelet High School in California, joins Theriot and Clark in giving Nebraska three talented shooters and intelligent passers around Shepard - an extraordinarily talented passer in her own right.

It is easy to get caught up in Nebraska's potential, but the Huskers know they must temper their enthusiasm and expectations based on health.

Last season, Emily Cady, Tear'a Laudermill, Hailie Sample and Brandi Jeffery stayed healthy as seniors, but watched teammates struggle with injuries.

Theriot, Romeo, Cincore and Kalenta all missed significant playing time last season with injuries, while Clark and Shepard suffered season-ending injuries on their teams. The Huskers know keeping the 13 players on the roster healthy will be a priority.

Despite losing four-year starting forwards Cady and Sample from last year's team, the Huskers expect to be the deepest they have ever been inside in 2015-16.

Shepard, Blackburn and Washington give Nebraska three talented freshmen inside, while Kalenta, Havers and fifth-year senior Alicia Ostrander add age to Nebraska's youth movement.

Ostrander, a 6-3 forward, has spent five seasons on the Nebraska volleyball team. However, she is on basketball scholarship in 2015-16 and eager to supply the Huskers with depth inside.

As a high school player, Ostrander was a two-time Nebraska Class C-1 all-state pick at Gordon-Rushville. She grabbed 993 rebounds in her career, including 10 games with 20 or more boards. She set single-game school records with 43 points, 30 rebounds and 15 blocked shots during her career.
While Nebraska could be able to go six deep in the post, the Husker backcourt could provide some different looks around Theriot and Romeo.

Simon, a 6-2 guard who possesses the tremendous athleticism of a state champion hurdler, gives Nebraska height and length on the perimeter. Simon played all five positions in high school and showed tremendous improvement in all areas of her game throughout high school.

While Simon provides the Huskers with length on the perimeter, Cincore can give the Big Red both athleticism and power. A strong player and talented passer, Cincore and Simon will both likely need to grow into roles as defensive stoppers for the Huskers on the wings.

Junior guard Esther Ramacieri is a reliable defender and excellent leader and teammate, while sophomore Emily Wood gives the Huskers a steady option at guard. Wood, who joined Nebraska as a walk-on out of Salina Central High School in Kansas, earned a scholarship last season.

A heady player with an incredible work ethic and outstanding leadership qualities on and off the court, Wood earned the starting point guard job for the Huskers during their tour of Australia this summer. She averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 26 minutes per game for the Big Red in Australia.

"Emily is a mature young woman and we love what she brings to our program on and off the court every day," Yori said. "She is a smart, tough player who pushes all the other players in our program every day. She is a competitive person and completely understands all the roles she can fill to help our team succeed. She is the type of person that every coach loves to have in their program."

Nebraska's new-look roster will be challenged by a rugged 11-game non-conference schedule that includes road battles with defending national champion UConn in Hartford (Nov. 28), Pac-12 power California (Dec. 12) and a home clash in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge with NC State (Dec. 3). The Huskers must also overcome tough home tussles with Creighton (Dec. 6) and Arkansas State (Dec. 21) in preparation for an 18-game Big Ten schedule that is loaded from top to bottom.

The Big Red open Big Ten play at home against Iowa on Dec. 31. The Hawkeyes advanced to the 2015 NCAA Sweet 16. The Huskers then hit the road for back-to-back games at NCAA Tournament qualifier Northwestern (Jan. 3) and NCAA Women's Final Four participant Maryland (Jan. 7). The games with the Wildcats and Terrapins start a conference stretch where the Huskers play eight of 12 games on the road.

If the Big Red can survive the road battles, they will be rewarded by playing four of their final five games of the regular season at home.

The home stretch starts with a Valentine's Day clash with Michigan State at Pinnacle Bank Arena, before hitting the road for the last time against a talented Ohio State squad on Feb. 18.

Nebraska closes the season with consecutive home games against Purdue (Feb. 20 or 21), Indiana (Feb. 24) and Northwestern (Feb. 28). It will mark the first time in 20 years the Huskers have ended the season with three straight home games.