Husker Women's Basketball Just Getting Rolling
It’s early December and the weather is getting cold, but the college basketball season is already starting to heat up. And that includes the intensity of the Nebraska women’s basketball team, that have led off their Big Ten schedule by winning their first two games in conference play, despite losing an integral part of their backcourt in 5th-year senior Sam Haiby, who has been injured to start the season.
None of the Husker early season accomplishments are lost on Matt Coatney, who is in his 24th season of covering Nebraska women’s basketball as play-by-play announcer on the Husker Radio Network. Coatney spoke to the Executive Club on a past Monday, November 28th, at their weekly luncheon in downtown Lincoln at the Graduate Hotel.
At the time of Coatney’s presentation to the Club, the Huskers had a record of 5-2 with their two losses on the road at No. 20 Creighton in Omaha and in Des Moines, Iowa against Drake.
“We’ve got a great group of student athletes for women’s basketball this year and Nebraska is 5-2 and trying to learn to play without Sam Haiby. She has a knee injury and we got great news about it,” said Coatney.
“Originally, it was diagnosed as a completely clean tear of the ACL and when they went in to repair the ligament, it was found out to not be an ACL tear at all. There was some cartilage that had to be removed and she was cleared to come back and play against Tarleton last week and 6-8 minutes in it was discovered her leg could not do that. So, Sam (Haiby) probably came back a little too soon, but that does not mean she’s not going to come back in the near term.”
Heading into December, Nebraska was facing a couple of tough road challenges in a highly-ranked Virginia Tech out of the ACC and seemingly perennially ranked Maryland of which Coatney warned of caution towards their competition.
“Our schedule does not get any easier. We play in the ACC-Big Ten Tournament Challenge this Thursday (December 1st) against the Hokies, they’re ranked 11th. There’s a reason they’re ranked 11th that’s gonna be a very hard game,” Coatney said about the game that ended with Virginia Tech defeating the Huskers 85-54. “Then Nebraska starts Big 10 play with the Maryland Terrapins on Sunday afternoon. We’ve never beaten Maryland. They are one of the blue-blood programs in women’s basketball.”
So, what did Nebraska do with the formidable challenge of the blue-blooded Terrapins ranked 20th in the country? They spilled them at home in College Park, Maryland with a snapping 90-67 victory. Which made Coatney’s comments almost a week prior to the upset, all so omniscient.
“That’s why you love the Huskers, they’re always playing great competition when you’re in the Big 10. You’re not playing ‘Hobart Tech.’ You’re playing somebody good and it’s going to get really difficult for Nebraska pretty soon, but we have a team that can handle it.”
And, sure enough the Huskers just handled the Wisconsin Badgers this past Thursday night with an 82-54 win at Pinnacle Bank Arena that raised their record to 7-3 heading into Saturday’s home game against Samford.
“In terms of the Big 10, before the season started I thought we were going to be a top four team. Understanding that a top four team in the Big 10 would be equivalent to winning most leagues, our league is that good,” said Coatney, who pointed out that Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan were ranked in the Top 25 in the country. “Now without Sam (Haiby), it seems like some of our defensive teams communication breaks down. I would put an asterisk by that and say when we do get Sam (Haiby) back, if she is able to come back early in the conference season and she’s playing at the level she’s played throughout her career, I’ll stick with we can be a top four team in the Big 10.”
With Haiby, Coatney said Nebraska is a guard-centric team and included in the mix were Jaz Shelley and Izzy Bourne, a couple of juniors from Australia and two sophomores from Nebraska, Allison Weidner from Humphrey and Maddie Krull from Omaha. But, after stating the importance of the backcourt play to Nebraska’s success, Coatney pivoted right back to frontcourt and the impact of last year’s freshman of the year in the Big 10.
“When someone gets an award, I think to myself ‘was it obvious?’ That one was obvious. Whenever I went somewhere last year, all coaches and media members wanted to talk to me about was ‘who is that freshman you got in the middle,” he said about Alexis Markowski. “I was very proud of her when she was voted pre-season first-team All-Big 10 this year.”
Most everyone that listens to the radio broadcasts of Coatney covering Nebraska women’s basketball on the Husker Network are familiar with his signature phrase when a Husker 3-point shot goes through the hoop. It’s definitely indelible. He was asked how the “You Betcha!” came about on Monday and he answered as honestly as his on-air broadcast demeanor exemplifies.
“I stole it from my best friend Don West. He’s the Kevin Kugler of southwest Missouri. I’ve known Don (West) since 1985 when we used to be a play-by-play team for Southwest Missouri State Lady Bears women’s basketball and we had a great fan-following there,” Coatney said recalling his early broadcast days back in his native hometown of Springfield, Missouri.
He said West came up with “You Betcha” while commentating about a certain 3-point opportunity for Melody Young, a Lady Bear sharp-shooter, who had already made a record-tying 11 three’s in a single game and when he was asked if she had another one in her play that day, he said on-air, “You Betcha!”
Well, Coatney said he tried the phrase once for a Husker three made while he was covering Nebraska Women’s basketball and it caught some attention.
“And the next thing you know, signs start showing up at games with the “You Betcha!” on it at our games. So, I called Don (West) and said ‘I’m stealing this from you” and that’s exactly how it started.”