Although the fire of winning a National Championship was blown out Tuesday night when the MSU women's basketball team lost to Baylor in Indianapolis, the embers of a momentous season are still burning brightly.
The Lady Bears outplayed the Spartans the whole 40 minutes of the contest, beating them by more than 20 points (84-62), but they didn't steal their class. The women have a lot to be proud of this season.
Despite not capturing the crown jewel of college basketball, the women's season still garners them a treasure trove full of valuable records and titles. Among their rich stock is a Big Ten Championship, a Big Ten Tournament Championship and a laundry list of firsts.
They achieved the MSU women's team's first Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four and National Championship appearances, and the first time MSU has reached 30 victories in a season. The Spartans went 33-3 overall and 14-2 in the Big Ten. They had their longest winning streak at 17 games and tied for the biggest comeback in women's Final Four history (16 points) in their game against Tennessee.
MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie was named Co-Big Ten Coach of the Year and NCAA Coach of the Year by the media. Five Spartans players also were named to the All-Big Ten team.
The honors make sense considering the squad was deep with great players. Bottom line: The Spartans were about the team.
That teamwork wove together one of the tightest defenses in the nation. The season was an endless run of triumphs that choked opponents' possibilities to score. But that didn't stop the ladies from occasionally escalating the score to more than 100 points. In February, they crushed Northwestern 101-40, creating another MSU record - largest point margin for a win, 61.
These figures aren't surprising with the likes of senior guard Kristin Haynie leading the ladies. Haynie is MSU's all-time leader in steals and assists and helped to give the team an assist-to-turnover ratio that was best in the nation. The phenom has scored more than 1,000 points, made more than 500 assists and rebounds and more than 300 steals. Those are statistics few other players in the Big Ten can boast.
But Haynie wasn't the team's only star. This season, junior guard Lindsay Bowen was instrumental in making MSU the record holder in 3-point shooting. The Big Ten rebound record also was owned by the Spartans this season, thanks to junior forward Liz Shimek and 6-foot-4 senior center Kelli Roehrig.
Perhaps most important this season, the women drew more attention to their sport than it has ever received at MSU. Besides stellar attendance of games, Spartans fans went to great lengths to support their team. They drove hundreds of miles and paid hundreds of dollars to follow them through the tournament and give MSU a big presence at games.
This team established MSU as an institution with world-class basketball programs across the board. Looking toward the future, it's this sort of devotion that is sure to make next season one to remember.
All the honors, records and attention the ladies earned this year should be championship enough for Spartans fans. They have something new to take pride in when they sing the fight song - two Spartans teams who "play good ball." Or in the women's case, great ball.
