Northwestern University Athletics
Leaving a Legacy: Northwestern's Senior Class One of the Best Ever
2/19/2017 8:28:00 AM | Women's Basketball
By Jasper Scherer, NUsports.com contributor
On Sunday, Northwestern seniors Nia Coffey, Ashley Deary, Christen Inman, Lauren Douglas and Allie Tuttle will step onto the court at Welsh-Ryan Arena for the penultimate home game of a Northwestern tenure defined by consistency and an assault on the program's record book across a remarkable range of statistical categories.
Along the way, the quintet led Northwestern to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 18 years.
Perhaps the best mark of the players' steadiness is that on Sunday, Deary will set a Northwestern record by playing in her 127th game, all of which she has started. Coffey will also surpass the current record of 126 games during the Big Ten tournament opener in March, while Inman and Douglas trail close behind with 117 and 116 career games, respectively.
Inman's answer, when asked how she wants to be remembered at Northwestern, reveals the mentality that has propelled her to a career of 1,400 points.
"Just as somebody who's steady, who day in and day out you knew what you're going to get from me," Inman said. "That consistency factor is something I've always prided myself on."
The trio of Coffey, Deary and Inman came to Northwestern in 2013, a year after the 'Cats went 14-17 and won just five games in the Big Ten. They each cited the school's academic reputation and the propitious timing of the program — one that was on the rise, led by an accomplished coach with a collection of promising talent — as the impetus for committing.
The three of them received playing time typically reserved for more established players from day one. During the 2013-14 season, they each played in more than 30 games while averaging more than 30 minutes a game. As with any first-year student athlete, the new environment required a period of acclimation.
"As a point guard, there's so much stuff you have to think about on the college level that I didn't think about in high school," Deary says. There's the shot clock. You've got to think about how to read plays, how to get people involved in the right spot."
Coffey's adjustment came in the form of slowing down
"I was very, just, one pace, fast-pace, that's it, get it and go," Coffey says. "Now I'm starting to understand the game in different ways. So it's not necessarily about speed all the time. You see the game differently so you start playing the game differently. I'm more strategic."
Now, Deary says, she, Coffey and Inman have learned to "read off each other," where Deary can tell when Inman or Coffey are "feeling it and want to be aggressive," or want to slow down.
"We just learned to read off each other," Deary says. "I can tell when Nia's really feeling it and wants to be aggressive. And I can tell sometimes when I'll need to slow down.
The three are inextricable inside Welsh-Ryan and in their apartments, where Coffey and Deary are third-year roommates and Inman lives one floor down with fellow senior Allie Tuttle. The three players share a bond outside Welsh-Ryan Arena — one that has strengthened their connection on the court.
"I just feel like Ashley, Christen, everyone in that class, we were just all kind of in the same position with playing [time]," Coffey says. "We grew a lot together, and within that relationship itself, I feel like we helped each other grow, both on and off the court."
That Coffey's career stands among the best in Northwestern history is unsurprising in hindsight. She came to NU as the top ranked recruit from her home state, Minnesota, and the No. 24 player nationally in her class. Even Coffey's freshman year at NU foreshadowed the legendary career she would compile: She ranked in the top 10 in points and rebounds in the Big Ten, the only player in the entire conference to do so.
Coffey may not surpass Anucha Browne, one of the most dominant NCAA women's basketball players of the 1980s, on Northwestern's all-time scoring list. (She is 139 points away.) Instead, Coffey may have to settle for the all-time rebounding mark, which she has surpassed Browne's previous record of 951 by a margin of nearly 200.
None of this seems to catch Coffey's attention. That she holds NU's all-time rebounding record is perhaps less important than her improving rebound numbers each year: 8.1 boards per game her freshman year to 10.8 a game — second in the Big Ten — in 2016-17.
"That wasn't the goal," Coffey says of establishing herself among Northwestern's elite. "I just told myself to work hard and do whatever I was told. And things just fell into place."
Deary will fall short of matching Nancy Kennelly of the early '90s NU squads on the career assists list, finishing second. But Deary's value on the other side of the court emerges through her 413 career steals, an all-time Big Ten record.
"My job is to make my teammates look good," Deary says. "So the more accolades they get, I feel like a better — that's been my goal here, to do whatever I can, whatever the team needs me to do, so that we can win and be successful."
Now, with their final season winding down, Inman, Deary, Coffey, Douglas and Tuttle understand that in some respects they took their situation for granted.
This realization that the group is down to its final moments together has further motivated them to finish strong, and leave Northwestern with an even greater sense of accomplishment. Their work continues Sunday.
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