SE: Worst to First, Part 2 — An Oral History of the Road to K-State WBB’s 2007-08 Big 12 Championship
Jan 08, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
After a bittersweet ending to a 2006-07 season filled with adversity, K-State women's basketball entered the 2007-08 campaign with something to prove. The Wildcats returned the vast majority of their roster from the previous season, including a healthy Marlies Gipson. Expectations were high.
Considering how the Wildcats started the 2007-08 season, however, their historic finish as Big 12 champions looked more impossible than improbable in the early going.
In part two of this series, five Wildcats from the 2007-08 team, celebrating its 10-year anniversary, break down that season's early struggles and how they got everything turned around. (To read part one, click here.)
K-State guard Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz (2004-08): At the beginning of the (2007-08) season, it was not coming together at all. Those first few games, it was really, really hard because each game we couldn't figure out how it all fit. Every single one of us were good in our own right. We just weren't figuring out how to work together. The offense that we had just wasn't gelling.
K-State forward Marlies Gipson (2005-09): In non-conference, we started 5-5. It was horrible.
K-State forward Ashley (Miller) Sweat (2006-10): We played so poorly. The coaches were not happy. I don't think any of us were happy with our performances. We had been really, really up and down.
K-State guard Shalee Lehning (2005-09): Again, it was just a struggle. We had all kind of learned to fill roles the year before and now all of a sudden we've got somebody else back who's a major contributor in Marlies. We went right back into having to adjust and figure out, 'How do we make all of this work with these new pieces to the puzzle?' We were trying some new offenses and we were trying to figure out some things that would get us in a flow, and no matter what happened, we couldn't. It was really frustrating.
K-State guard/forward Danielle Zanotti (2005-09): It's hard to put my finger on one thing. In each game, it was kind of a different reason.
Ironically, K-State's first loss that season was at Wyoming, 56-44. It was followed by two more losses in a row to Tulane (60-57) and No. 18/19 Michigan State (68-65) in Cancun, Mexico. After a pair of home wins over Lipscomb and UTEP, the Wildcats dropped two of their next three battles, capped by a 69-62 letdown at Creighton right before Christmas break to even their record at 5-5.
Danielle Zanotti: We lost to a good Creighton team but we didn't bring our best that game. In that game, we were taking for granted that you can flip on a switch of competitiveness when you want and really not respecting the game and bringing your absolute best every single minute. That was the lesson that we learned.
Shalee Lehning: I personally had an awful game. It was just one of those off nights. Honestly, I would take a lot of the blame for that early season. I was trying to figure out new roles as a point guard in the first few games. When I was off, obviously it was difficult for our team to adjust. Creighton, I think, was a prime example. Any time that your point guard is not in the flow, it makes it difficult for the rest of the team. Creighton was just a terrible loss and brought a lot of emotions after the game. Everybody was just sitting there going, 'What is going on? We should be better.'
Danielle Zanotti: There was no doubt that we were in the locker room for at least an hour afterward. In my head it's four hours. I remember our coaches really, really challenging us and saying, 'When you put on that K-State jersey, you are embodying what our program stands for, and that is hard work, doing the small things, being relentless and overcoming athletic shortcomings, compared to a Baylor or a Texas A&M. And when you don't respect that identity, it's going to be really hard to win because that's who our team is.'
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: That one was the tip of the iceberg because it led up to Christmas break and we had to go home, be with our families, and we knew in the back of our minds that we weren't playing our best and we could be better. I remember the coaches yelling at us, telling us we better get our minds right going home for Christmas or our season was going to be over.
Marlies Gipson: After that game had ended, pretty much everyone felt like, 'God, I don't want to go home for Christmas.' We felt so small. I remember Ashley rode back with my parents and I, and we were just crying the whole time and thinking that the coaches hated us and we were so bad. We felt horrible.
Danielle Zanotti: I remember going home over those six days and talking to my teammates. There was always that question mark of, 'How are we going to turn this around?' And then we went to California.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: We were in California (for the Loyola Marymount/Hilton LAX Holiday Classic). After Christmas break, I was sick for the first few practices but I remember Coach P (Deb Patterson) and Coach (Kamie) Etheridge calling some of us up into their hotel room to talk about goals, kind of like a reset button for the rest of the year.
Marlies Gipson: Coach P had brought Dietz, Shalee, Ashley and I into her hotel room and kind of gave us a pep talk and said this is the point where we turn it around. That definitely lit a fire for us.
Danielle Zanotti: The coaches took a step back and constructed an offense that allowed us to play to our strengths in an offense that was unique. They recognized that for us to win we needed to do something different logistically.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: I'll never forget it. It was called Cougar.
Marlies Gipson: Cougar was a game-changer for us.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: It clicked right away. I remember even the first day Coach Ethridge put it in at practice. We all just looked at each other and were, like, 'We think this is going to work. This is going to be something special and amazing.'
Marlies Gipson: Kari (Kincaid) and Danielle would joke because they would just stand in the corners, and then we'd have a triangle (between the posts and the point guard). Shalee would bring the ball down. Ashley and I would start low, and we'd just read Shalee. We could screen down, or pop up and then Shalee would pass and she'd cut to the basket. It was just a triangle with two people in the corners. It was pretty much reading each other. Since I played with Ashley (at McPherson), her and I had played together forever, so we had no problem being on the same page. And Shalee, she's phenomenal. That play, that year, whatever it was, we bought into it.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: From an onlooker's perspective, it looks like the easiest offense known to man. I spent the second half the season just standing at the baseline corner. I think the thing that really made it work was Kari and I were really, really good 3-point shooters, so when Shalee, Marlies and Ashley were doing their screens in the middle, the defenders would sag in to help on them and it always left Kari or I open. If our defenders didn't sag in, they were wide open to go to the hole and get a foul, do a pick and roll, anything. It was really simple but it worked so well.
Shalee Lehning: I would give a lot of credit to our coaching staff because a lot of coaches will grind it in players, like, 'This is what we're going to do. Figure out a way to make it work or else.' But our coaching staff, they sat there and said, 'We have a point guard that can do this. We have these players that can do that. What works for them?' We literally created this whole new offense that nobody really new how to guard because they hadn't even scouted it.
In California, K-State beat Arkansas-Little Rock by 12 and Loyola Marymount by 23. The Wildcats closed out their non-conference schedule with a 15-point win over Western Illinois in Bramlage Coliseum, before starting Big 12 play with a brutal two-game stand at No. 13 Texas A&M and at No. 15 Texas. Behind "Cougar," the Wildcats would win both and eventually stretch their winning streak to 10 games.
Marlies Gipson: Before the game we always got together and usually we watched a movie clip or something. At A&M, Coach P had us watch 'Hamburger Hill,' a military movie. We were, like, 'What the heck is this?' She had shirts made for us. We had a hamburger on it and we still have it today. The message was, 'Take the hill and carry each other through whatever.' I think from that team chapel, you could definitely tell we all were on the same page. The fire was growing and growing with each win, each close game. And it wasn't a certain person every game that was doing it for us. It was all of us together.
Shalee Lehning: We threw in this new offense, which kind of gave us a little bit of freedom. When I was at my best as a point guard, I was just kind of allowed to play freely and make decisions and not really have specifically structured offense. That's just kind of the point guard I was. Then we go down there and we shock A&M. It was just a cool feeling. Once it started to click, it was no turning back for us because we had developed toughness, we had overcome adversity, we had learned how to fill roles we were uncomfortable with initially, but we just had matured.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: We went down to Texas A&M, and no one expected it, we really didn't expect it, but we came down there and won. Even the coaches after that game were, like, 'This team is going to be special because we just figured out what was going to work for us.' That offense honestly… it was night and day.
Shalee Lehning: It's hard to explain, but it clicked. We all got on the same page. Everybody felt really comfortable with what we were running. Then when we tasted a little bit of success, we just ran with it.
Marlies Gipson: Once we put that in, you could just tell everyone was excited and put those first 10 games behind us.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: Cougar won us the Big 12. No one could scout it because there was no set play. It won us the Big 12 that year.
To read Part 3, click here.
After a bittersweet ending to a 2006-07 season filled with adversity, K-State women's basketball entered the 2007-08 campaign with something to prove. The Wildcats returned the vast majority of their roster from the previous season, including a healthy Marlies Gipson. Expectations were high.
Considering how the Wildcats started the 2007-08 season, however, their historic finish as Big 12 champions looked more impossible than improbable in the early going.
In part two of this series, five Wildcats from the 2007-08 team, celebrating its 10-year anniversary, break down that season's early struggles and how they got everything turned around. (To read part one, click here.)
K-State guard Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz (2004-08): At the beginning of the (2007-08) season, it was not coming together at all. Those first few games, it was really, really hard because each game we couldn't figure out how it all fit. Every single one of us were good in our own right. We just weren't figuring out how to work together. The offense that we had just wasn't gelling.
K-State forward Marlies Gipson (2005-09): In non-conference, we started 5-5. It was horrible.
K-State forward Ashley (Miller) Sweat (2006-10): We played so poorly. The coaches were not happy. I don't think any of us were happy with our performances. We had been really, really up and down.
K-State guard Shalee Lehning (2005-09): Again, it was just a struggle. We had all kind of learned to fill roles the year before and now all of a sudden we've got somebody else back who's a major contributor in Marlies. We went right back into having to adjust and figure out, 'How do we make all of this work with these new pieces to the puzzle?' We were trying some new offenses and we were trying to figure out some things that would get us in a flow, and no matter what happened, we couldn't. It was really frustrating.
K-State guard/forward Danielle Zanotti (2005-09): It's hard to put my finger on one thing. In each game, it was kind of a different reason.
Ironically, K-State's first loss that season was at Wyoming, 56-44. It was followed by two more losses in a row to Tulane (60-57) and No. 18/19 Michigan State (68-65) in Cancun, Mexico. After a pair of home wins over Lipscomb and UTEP, the Wildcats dropped two of their next three battles, capped by a 69-62 letdown at Creighton right before Christmas break to even their record at 5-5.
Danielle Zanotti: We lost to a good Creighton team but we didn't bring our best that game. In that game, we were taking for granted that you can flip on a switch of competitiveness when you want and really not respecting the game and bringing your absolute best every single minute. That was the lesson that we learned.
Shalee Lehning: I personally had an awful game. It was just one of those off nights. Honestly, I would take a lot of the blame for that early season. I was trying to figure out new roles as a point guard in the first few games. When I was off, obviously it was difficult for our team to adjust. Creighton, I think, was a prime example. Any time that your point guard is not in the flow, it makes it difficult for the rest of the team. Creighton was just a terrible loss and brought a lot of emotions after the game. Everybody was just sitting there going, 'What is going on? We should be better.'
Danielle Zanotti: There was no doubt that we were in the locker room for at least an hour afterward. In my head it's four hours. I remember our coaches really, really challenging us and saying, 'When you put on that K-State jersey, you are embodying what our program stands for, and that is hard work, doing the small things, being relentless and overcoming athletic shortcomings, compared to a Baylor or a Texas A&M. And when you don't respect that identity, it's going to be really hard to win because that's who our team is.'
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: That one was the tip of the iceberg because it led up to Christmas break and we had to go home, be with our families, and we knew in the back of our minds that we weren't playing our best and we could be better. I remember the coaches yelling at us, telling us we better get our minds right going home for Christmas or our season was going to be over.
Marlies Gipson: After that game had ended, pretty much everyone felt like, 'God, I don't want to go home for Christmas.' We felt so small. I remember Ashley rode back with my parents and I, and we were just crying the whole time and thinking that the coaches hated us and we were so bad. We felt horrible.
Danielle Zanotti: I remember going home over those six days and talking to my teammates. There was always that question mark of, 'How are we going to turn this around?' And then we went to California.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: We were in California (for the Loyola Marymount/Hilton LAX Holiday Classic). After Christmas break, I was sick for the first few practices but I remember Coach P (Deb Patterson) and Coach (Kamie) Etheridge calling some of us up into their hotel room to talk about goals, kind of like a reset button for the rest of the year.
Marlies Gipson: Coach P had brought Dietz, Shalee, Ashley and I into her hotel room and kind of gave us a pep talk and said this is the point where we turn it around. That definitely lit a fire for us.
Danielle Zanotti: The coaches took a step back and constructed an offense that allowed us to play to our strengths in an offense that was unique. They recognized that for us to win we needed to do something different logistically.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: I'll never forget it. It was called Cougar.
Marlies Gipson: Cougar was a game-changer for us.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: It clicked right away. I remember even the first day Coach Ethridge put it in at practice. We all just looked at each other and were, like, 'We think this is going to work. This is going to be something special and amazing.'
Marlies Gipson: Kari (Kincaid) and Danielle would joke because they would just stand in the corners, and then we'd have a triangle (between the posts and the point guard). Shalee would bring the ball down. Ashley and I would start low, and we'd just read Shalee. We could screen down, or pop up and then Shalee would pass and she'd cut to the basket. It was just a triangle with two people in the corners. It was pretty much reading each other. Since I played with Ashley (at McPherson), her and I had played together forever, so we had no problem being on the same page. And Shalee, she's phenomenal. That play, that year, whatever it was, we bought into it.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: From an onlooker's perspective, it looks like the easiest offense known to man. I spent the second half the season just standing at the baseline corner. I think the thing that really made it work was Kari and I were really, really good 3-point shooters, so when Shalee, Marlies and Ashley were doing their screens in the middle, the defenders would sag in to help on them and it always left Kari or I open. If our defenders didn't sag in, they were wide open to go to the hole and get a foul, do a pick and roll, anything. It was really simple but it worked so well.
Shalee Lehning: I would give a lot of credit to our coaching staff because a lot of coaches will grind it in players, like, 'This is what we're going to do. Figure out a way to make it work or else.' But our coaching staff, they sat there and said, 'We have a point guard that can do this. We have these players that can do that. What works for them?' We literally created this whole new offense that nobody really new how to guard because they hadn't even scouted it.
In California, K-State beat Arkansas-Little Rock by 12 and Loyola Marymount by 23. The Wildcats closed out their non-conference schedule with a 15-point win over Western Illinois in Bramlage Coliseum, before starting Big 12 play with a brutal two-game stand at No. 13 Texas A&M and at No. 15 Texas. Behind "Cougar," the Wildcats would win both and eventually stretch their winning streak to 10 games.
Marlies Gipson: Before the game we always got together and usually we watched a movie clip or something. At A&M, Coach P had us watch 'Hamburger Hill,' a military movie. We were, like, 'What the heck is this?' She had shirts made for us. We had a hamburger on it and we still have it today. The message was, 'Take the hill and carry each other through whatever.' I think from that team chapel, you could definitely tell we all were on the same page. The fire was growing and growing with each win, each close game. And it wasn't a certain person every game that was doing it for us. It was all of us together.
Shalee Lehning: We threw in this new offense, which kind of gave us a little bit of freedom. When I was at my best as a point guard, I was just kind of allowed to play freely and make decisions and not really have specifically structured offense. That's just kind of the point guard I was. Then we go down there and we shock A&M. It was just a cool feeling. Once it started to click, it was no turning back for us because we had developed toughness, we had overcome adversity, we had learned how to fill roles we were uncomfortable with initially, but we just had matured.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: We went down to Texas A&M, and no one expected it, we really didn't expect it, but we came down there and won. Even the coaches after that game were, like, 'This team is going to be special because we just figured out what was going to work for us.' That offense honestly… it was night and day.
Shalee Lehning: It's hard to explain, but it clicked. We all got on the same page. Everybody felt really comfortable with what we were running. Then when we tasted a little bit of success, we just ran with it.
Marlies Gipson: Once we put that in, you could just tell everyone was excited and put those first 10 games behind us.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: Cougar won us the Big 12. No one could scout it because there was no set play. It won us the Big 12 that year.
To read Part 3, click here.
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