SE: Worst to First, Part 1 — An Oral History of the Road to K-State WBB’s 2007-08 Big 12 Championship
Jan 03, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Coming off a WNIT Championship to cap the 2005-06 season, K-State women's basketball continued in an upward trajectory the following season. The Wildcats started the 2006-07 season off with a 14-2 record, winning two of its first three Big 12 games that included a victory over No. 17 Texas A&M. Shortly after, they moved into the Associated Press Top 25.
This season would take a turn for the worse, however, when Marlies Gipson was forced to miss the final 18 games. All the ups and downs — and there were plenty of both, but more of the latter — helped set up K-State's historic run in 2007-08, as the Wildcats became the first Power Five basketball team, male or female, ever to win a regular season conference championship after finishing last the season before.
Five Wildcats from the 2007-08 team, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this season, spoke with K-State Sports Extra about both of those seasons, and how one would not have happened without the other. (Editor's Note: Married names are listed in parentheses.)
K-State guard/forward Danielle Zanotti (2005-09): We started out pretty strong (in 2006-07) and had just cracked the top 25. For us, that felt like we were naturally progressing from our freshman year, getting to go and win the WNIT and from how hard we worked that summer. That (2006) WNIT Championship propelled us into our sophomore year.
K-State forward Marlies Gipson (2005-09): That season was going pretty good, and we were feeling pretty good.
Danielle Zanotti: We were feeling like we were starting to click together at a higher level. We were all so excited of what that Big 12 season was going to look like with our squad. Then Marlies got hurt, and that was kind of the tale of that year for our team.
K-State guard Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz (2004-08): That season we were all trying to gel together and figure out all of our roles, but her getting hurt was such a tough part because she was such a key and I knew she was going to be a really, really good player, so when she went down that was a little devastating.
K-State forward Ashley (Miller) Sweat (2006-10): I was a freshman so that whole year is kind of a blur because I was trying to figure out how to be a college student and balance workouts and school. When Marlies got hurt, I kind of had to fill in for her. It was just a big learning curve because not only was I learning all of these new plays and defenses and things like that, but also I was trying to make up for a huge loss that we had.
K-State guard Shalee Lehning (2005-09): Any time anybody suffers an injury, it always gives somebody else an opportunity to step up. It was obviously a devastating loss to lose Marlies that season. As our record shows, we had a hard time adjusting (K-State lost 12 of its final 14 regular season games), but I think that's the beauty of some of those things is that Ashley stepped up as a really young player. We looked to her for production, and that was one of those things where she could've just been a freshman who was just getting through a freshman year, but she was a freshman in which we were really counting on to be productive, which I think obviously helped her grow and mature as a player.
Marlies Gipson: It definitely was a learning opportunity for me. As a sophomore, you don't know everything, so I think it definitely just opened my eyes, like, 'This isn't a guaranteed thing and anything can happen.' Playing with (Sweat) in high school (at McPherson), I knew she was going to hit that point where she just took off. That was definitely exciting to see. The team, they never quit fighting. Losing sucks, but we just kept going and doing the best we could.
Shalee Lehning: Adversity. That season was just full of that adversity, of having to overcome those challenges and learn from the pain of losing, which I do think really set us up for the following year of success. We showed up every day and continued working hard. It didn't change who we were as a team. We weren't quitting. We weren't giving up. We just continued to fight through adversity and tried to learn how to handle that in ways that would make us successful.
Danielle Zanotti: There was just that constant hope that we were going to get over that hump the next game, and then just that letdown of feeling like you were so close and there was just this one puzzle piece that was missing in Marlies. That was just a long season. I remember all the nights of not sleeping well and just wanting to figure out how to turn that season around.
Despite losing its final five games of the regular season and being ousted in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, K-State received a WNIT invitation to continue its season and have a chance to defend its WNIT title. The Wildcats accepted the invite and took off in the postseason. They beat Southern Illinois by 26, Illinois by 15 and Auburn by 13 to set up a semifinal battle with Wyoming in Laramie, where K-State had won a non-conference game the previous season.
This trip would not end as well on multiple fronts. Most notably, the Wildcats' season ended in a triple-overtime loss.
Shalee Lehning: I remember running out to a crowd full of a ton of people. Fans were yelling, 'You're not in Kansas anymore,' which was pretty funny. But I loved that. I fed off an environment like that.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: That game in particular was one of the games that I will never forget. I remember from the first or second call, I knew the refs were not going to be on our side (Wyoming converted 37-of-52 from the free throw line to K-State's 13-of-18 effort). It's one of the games you can't blame on the refs or anything, but you just knew they weren't going to be on your side, and in that game in particular I think at the very, very end it was so loud in there that my ears were ringing.
Danielle Zanotti: It was like we were competing against three opponents at once. There was this very talented Wyoming team; there were the referees, and then this crowd. Then there was the emotional letdown of every overtime thinking, 'This is where we're going to put it away.' And unfortunately we didn't.
Shalee Lehning: I was actually guarding the girl (Justina Podziemska) that made the game-tying shot in regulation with like three seconds to go. When she shot it, I remember yelling out loud, 'Off!' because it just looked so off. I was trying to warn my teammates, like, 'It's off, it's off, it's off! Rebound!' All we had to do was get the rebound and we win the game, and it banks in, ties the game, we go to overtime. It was just a whole game full of moments like that — extreme highs of, 'we're going to do this,' to extreme lows of, 'Now we have to fight to stay into overtime.' That game was a hard one to swallow.
Marlies Gipson: We all were so deflated after that.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: That night it was snowing and we were all just exhausted. We had gone out to dinner and were told there's no deicer for the plane so we're going to stay the night and leave in the morning.
Danielle Zanotti: We all wanted to get the heck out of Laramie, Wyoming, at that point because we were feeling pretty salty about that game. I don't think I even slept that night. I remember looking out the window at around 7 a.m., and there's like five-foot high snowdrifts. Our director of ops called and said you guys need to be on the bus in an hour, we're going to try and get out of here before the storm gets worse,' and I said, 'We can't fly in this. It's nuts outside.' She said, 'Oh no, honey. We're not flying. We're driving back.'
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: Honestly, we were so depressed.
Marlies Gipson: We had like an 11-hour bus ride home. That was like insult to injury. We still joke that, 'That's so Wyoming.' Anything that sucks, we say that.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: Not only were you emotionally and physically drained from playing triple overtime the night before, but then to have to come out of that and get on a bus and drive home was awful. So we kind of had a running joke the rest of my time at K-State that Wyoming was the worst place you could ever possibly want to go.
Shalee Lehning: What's funny is I now work at the University of Wyoming (as an academic coordinator), and there are still some deep wounds that we joke about often in our office. I actually was at the football game where that Wyoming women's basketball team was recognized for that season. They actually have been entered into the (Wyoming Athletics) Hall of Fame. I had to sit there and continue to deal with the emotions, but it was a little bit twisted because I was in Wyoming gear, having to feel all of this. We laugh about it. It's funny that I ended up out here now.
Marlies Gipson: We give her so much crap now that she went back to Wyoming, but watching that season and game all unfold, it was so hard.
Danielle Zanotti: It's funny because the first couple of hours on the bus were really quiet with all the different emotions of a season ending. By the middle we're laughing. I feel like it was almost like a healing bus ride, and I think that was super important because going into your offseason, you want determination. You want hope. You want enjoyment of what you're doing. I think that bus ride, instead of getting on a plane and then going our separate ways at our houses and apartments immediately after, we kind of got to process it and move on and start getting our heads right for that next season immediately. I think in some ways that was the silver lining about the drive from Laramie, Wyoming, to Manhattan, Kansas. I never want to do it again, but it was good for that purpose.
Shalee Lehning: That was a culmination of a really difficult season. Now I look back and go, 'I wouldn't expect it to end any differently' because that's the way the season went. But the way that game ended left a really sour taste in our mouths and I think that propelled us into the summer before our (Big 12 Championship) season and into that next season thinking, 'You know what? What do we have to do to get over this barrier? What do we have to do to be the ones winning triple overtime games?' I think it ignited a passion inside of us and a motivation that probably wouldn't have been able to be instilled in us had it not been just an adversity-packed season.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: Going into the next season, we just wanted to really prove ourselves and show that we were a legit team.
For Part 2, click here.
Coming off a WNIT Championship to cap the 2005-06 season, K-State women's basketball continued in an upward trajectory the following season. The Wildcats started the 2006-07 season off with a 14-2 record, winning two of its first three Big 12 games that included a victory over No. 17 Texas A&M. Shortly after, they moved into the Associated Press Top 25.
This season would take a turn for the worse, however, when Marlies Gipson was forced to miss the final 18 games. All the ups and downs — and there were plenty of both, but more of the latter — helped set up K-State's historic run in 2007-08, as the Wildcats became the first Power Five basketball team, male or female, ever to win a regular season conference championship after finishing last the season before.
Five Wildcats from the 2007-08 team, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this season, spoke with K-State Sports Extra about both of those seasons, and how one would not have happened without the other. (Editor's Note: Married names are listed in parentheses.)
K-State guard/forward Danielle Zanotti (2005-09): We started out pretty strong (in 2006-07) and had just cracked the top 25. For us, that felt like we were naturally progressing from our freshman year, getting to go and win the WNIT and from how hard we worked that summer. That (2006) WNIT Championship propelled us into our sophomore year.
K-State forward Marlies Gipson (2005-09): That season was going pretty good, and we were feeling pretty good.
Danielle Zanotti: We were feeling like we were starting to click together at a higher level. We were all so excited of what that Big 12 season was going to look like with our squad. Then Marlies got hurt, and that was kind of the tale of that year for our team.
K-State guard Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz (2004-08): That season we were all trying to gel together and figure out all of our roles, but her getting hurt was such a tough part because she was such a key and I knew she was going to be a really, really good player, so when she went down that was a little devastating.
K-State forward Ashley (Miller) Sweat (2006-10): I was a freshman so that whole year is kind of a blur because I was trying to figure out how to be a college student and balance workouts and school. When Marlies got hurt, I kind of had to fill in for her. It was just a big learning curve because not only was I learning all of these new plays and defenses and things like that, but also I was trying to make up for a huge loss that we had.
K-State guard Shalee Lehning (2005-09): Any time anybody suffers an injury, it always gives somebody else an opportunity to step up. It was obviously a devastating loss to lose Marlies that season. As our record shows, we had a hard time adjusting (K-State lost 12 of its final 14 regular season games), but I think that's the beauty of some of those things is that Ashley stepped up as a really young player. We looked to her for production, and that was one of those things where she could've just been a freshman who was just getting through a freshman year, but she was a freshman in which we were really counting on to be productive, which I think obviously helped her grow and mature as a player.
Marlies Gipson: It definitely was a learning opportunity for me. As a sophomore, you don't know everything, so I think it definitely just opened my eyes, like, 'This isn't a guaranteed thing and anything can happen.' Playing with (Sweat) in high school (at McPherson), I knew she was going to hit that point where she just took off. That was definitely exciting to see. The team, they never quit fighting. Losing sucks, but we just kept going and doing the best we could.
Shalee Lehning: Adversity. That season was just full of that adversity, of having to overcome those challenges and learn from the pain of losing, which I do think really set us up for the following year of success. We showed up every day and continued working hard. It didn't change who we were as a team. We weren't quitting. We weren't giving up. We just continued to fight through adversity and tried to learn how to handle that in ways that would make us successful.
Danielle Zanotti: There was just that constant hope that we were going to get over that hump the next game, and then just that letdown of feeling like you were so close and there was just this one puzzle piece that was missing in Marlies. That was just a long season. I remember all the nights of not sleeping well and just wanting to figure out how to turn that season around.
Despite losing its final five games of the regular season and being ousted in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, K-State received a WNIT invitation to continue its season and have a chance to defend its WNIT title. The Wildcats accepted the invite and took off in the postseason. They beat Southern Illinois by 26, Illinois by 15 and Auburn by 13 to set up a semifinal battle with Wyoming in Laramie, where K-State had won a non-conference game the previous season.
This trip would not end as well on multiple fronts. Most notably, the Wildcats' season ended in a triple-overtime loss.
Shalee Lehning: I remember running out to a crowd full of a ton of people. Fans were yelling, 'You're not in Kansas anymore,' which was pretty funny. But I loved that. I fed off an environment like that.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: That game in particular was one of the games that I will never forget. I remember from the first or second call, I knew the refs were not going to be on our side (Wyoming converted 37-of-52 from the free throw line to K-State's 13-of-18 effort). It's one of the games you can't blame on the refs or anything, but you just knew they weren't going to be on your side, and in that game in particular I think at the very, very end it was so loud in there that my ears were ringing.
Danielle Zanotti: It was like we were competing against three opponents at once. There was this very talented Wyoming team; there were the referees, and then this crowd. Then there was the emotional letdown of every overtime thinking, 'This is where we're going to put it away.' And unfortunately we didn't.
Shalee Lehning: I was actually guarding the girl (Justina Podziemska) that made the game-tying shot in regulation with like three seconds to go. When she shot it, I remember yelling out loud, 'Off!' because it just looked so off. I was trying to warn my teammates, like, 'It's off, it's off, it's off! Rebound!' All we had to do was get the rebound and we win the game, and it banks in, ties the game, we go to overtime. It was just a whole game full of moments like that — extreme highs of, 'we're going to do this,' to extreme lows of, 'Now we have to fight to stay into overtime.' That game was a hard one to swallow.
Marlies Gipson: We all were so deflated after that.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: That night it was snowing and we were all just exhausted. We had gone out to dinner and were told there's no deicer for the plane so we're going to stay the night and leave in the morning.
Danielle Zanotti: We all wanted to get the heck out of Laramie, Wyoming, at that point because we were feeling pretty salty about that game. I don't think I even slept that night. I remember looking out the window at around 7 a.m., and there's like five-foot high snowdrifts. Our director of ops called and said you guys need to be on the bus in an hour, we're going to try and get out of here before the storm gets worse,' and I said, 'We can't fly in this. It's nuts outside.' She said, 'Oh no, honey. We're not flying. We're driving back.'
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: Honestly, we were so depressed.
Marlies Gipson: We had like an 11-hour bus ride home. That was like insult to injury. We still joke that, 'That's so Wyoming.' Anything that sucks, we say that.
Ashley (Miller) Sweat: Not only were you emotionally and physically drained from playing triple overtime the night before, but then to have to come out of that and get on a bus and drive home was awful. So we kind of had a running joke the rest of my time at K-State that Wyoming was the worst place you could ever possibly want to go.
Shalee Lehning: What's funny is I now work at the University of Wyoming (as an academic coordinator), and there are still some deep wounds that we joke about often in our office. I actually was at the football game where that Wyoming women's basketball team was recognized for that season. They actually have been entered into the (Wyoming Athletics) Hall of Fame. I had to sit there and continue to deal with the emotions, but it was a little bit twisted because I was in Wyoming gear, having to feel all of this. We laugh about it. It's funny that I ended up out here now.
Marlies Gipson: We give her so much crap now that she went back to Wyoming, but watching that season and game all unfold, it was so hard.
Danielle Zanotti: It's funny because the first couple of hours on the bus were really quiet with all the different emotions of a season ending. By the middle we're laughing. I feel like it was almost like a healing bus ride, and I think that was super important because going into your offseason, you want determination. You want hope. You want enjoyment of what you're doing. I think that bus ride, instead of getting on a plane and then going our separate ways at our houses and apartments immediately after, we kind of got to process it and move on and start getting our heads right for that next season immediately. I think in some ways that was the silver lining about the drive from Laramie, Wyoming, to Manhattan, Kansas. I never want to do it again, but it was good for that purpose.
Shalee Lehning: That was a culmination of a really difficult season. Now I look back and go, 'I wouldn't expect it to end any differently' because that's the way the season went. But the way that game ended left a really sour taste in our mouths and I think that propelled us into the summer before our (Big 12 Championship) season and into that next season thinking, 'You know what? What do we have to do to get over this barrier? What do we have to do to be the ones winning triple overtime games?' I think it ignited a passion inside of us and a motivation that probably wouldn't have been able to be instilled in us had it not been just an adversity-packed season.
Kimberly (Sauber) Dietz: Going into the next season, we just wanted to really prove ourselves and show that we were a legit team.
For Part 2, click here.
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