Coach Connie Yori’s tough love pushes Huskers’ success

Nebraska women's basketball coach Connie Yori admitted she took it easy on last year's team.

With leading scorer and rebounder Kelsey Griffin lost to a foot injury before the season even began, the Huskers struggled, finishing 15-16 and losing in the first round of the National Invitational Tournament.

Yori could sense the players' fragile confidence and did her best to keep the team upbeat.

"Last year, when I knew it was going to be a struggle at times, I tried to be really positive," Yori said. "When you lose, if you start blowing a gasket every day in practice, that's just going to put it down the tube that much more."

But after NU's 67-51 victory over Missouri Saturday night, three days after the Huskers captured the school's first Big 12 regular season title, Yori told the sold-out crowd she was harder on this team than any other she's had.

"When you win, you can be harder on your kids because they're confident," Yori said. "This team can handle it. They can be great and we want to push them to be great. I've coached two very different styles the last two years."

The players sensed that change in philosophy as soon as NU's season ended last year.

"I think she knows our potential. After our last game last year at New Mexico, she told us that we have the ability to be great," Dominique Kelley said. "She's told us since the beginning that we could be a great team."

Kelsey Griffin said that the players caught on with Yori's style and worked hard to hold each other accountable, as well.

"I wouldn't say that she's yelling at us more or anything, but her expectations are high, and we're well-aware of them," Griffin said. "The great thing about it is we hold each other accountable. When she's hard on us, we're also hard on each other. That's really helped propel us to where we are today."

Yori is enjoying her best season as a college head coach this year. NU's 27 wins have already topped her previous season-high, with 24 at Creighton in '01-'02, and the Huskers' No. 3 ranking is the highest mark of her career.

"When we set foot on the floor, she wants us to know what we're doing," Yvonne Turner said. "She tells us once, and we're going to get it done. By being hard on us, she got us to where we are now, and it just makes us come together more as a team and focus on the little things we need to get done."

Yori insists she hasn't given much thought to anything beyond the Huskers' next two games, including seeding for the NCAA tournament. According to ESPN analyst Charlie Creme, the Huskers would be the No. 1 seed in the Kansas City regional if the tournament began today.

"We can't control what the committee does, so why worry about it?" Yori said. "We can control ourselves and how we practice."

And Yori insists she won't be taking a play from Jim Caldwell's playbook any time soon. Caldwell is the Indianapolis Colts coach who sat his starters the last two weeks of the NFL regular season to gear up for a Super Bowl run, but Indianapolis still lost in the title game to the Saints.

"Did it work for the Indianapolis Colts? I don't know," Yori said with a laugh. "It would be a nice luxury, but at this stage, we're trying to win."

danhoppen@dailynebraskan.com