2007-08 Fighting Sioux Women's Basketball - University of North ...

Women’s Basketball, Page 6 February 29, 2008
S i n c e
G e n e
Roebuck was
hired as the
University of
N o r t h
Dakota’s
women’s basketball
coach
in June 1987,
he has firmly
placed the Fighting Sioux program into
the upper echelon of Division II success.
But was it possible even for Roebuck, in
his 21st season at UND, to imagine what
has evolved during his tenure at UND,
including becoming the winningest
coach (.856 winning percentage) in
Division II women’s basketball history?
The 2006-07 season was another
memorable one, as Roebuck surpassed
500 victories at UND and led the
Fighting Sioux to a fifth NCAA Division
II Women’s Basketball Elite Eight in 10
years. Along the way the Sioux also captured
a third consecutive North Central
Conference title (11th overall), a seventh
straight NCC playoff tournament championship
and an NCAA North Central
Region crown, the latter two coming on
UND’s home court. It was UND’s 19th
NCAA appearance under Roebuck, who
collected his 10th NCC Coach of the
Year award.
The 2005-06 Sioux rolled to a 34-1
record last season that included a perfect
12-0 mark in North Central Conference
play. Roebuck capped the season by
being named the 2006 Russell
Athletic/WBCA Division II Region
Coach of the Year.
During his time behind the UND
bench, Roebuck has instilled an uptempo
pace in a Fighting Sioux program
that amasses wins nearly as frequently as
it tallies transition baskets.
Roebuck’s teams have become accustomed
to bringing home hardware. After
national championships in 1997, 1998
and 1999, Roebuck guided the 2001
team to within a basket of the Sioux’s
fourth national title in five seasons. In
UND Head Coach Gene Roebuck (21st year)
that season, UND took home its first
NCC Wells Fargo Finals championship
and have won it every year since (seven
straight).
Since 1990, UND has gone 489-73
and has won 11 North Central
Conference championships. He has produced
the WBCA Player of the Year four
times since 1995 and has had seven NCC
MVPs. He has also had 17 players be
named All-American and 50 players
become All-NCC.
Had Roebuck come into a program
that was already producing similar
results, continuing such success would
have been remarkable in itself, but prior
to Roebuck’s arrival, UND had had 13
seasons of basketball in which the Sioux
teams went 177-161. Seven seasons
above .500, six seasons below. The 1987
team that he inherited had gone 7-20.
The seven wins were five fewer than the
12 UND won in 1986, which was down
from 23 wins in 1985.
The program had played in a grand
total of two NCAA tournament games,
losing both. The program seemed to be
spiraling downward, but Roebuck, who
had gone 87-14 in three seasons at UND-
Lake Region, got to work establishing
the program he thought UND could be.
The results were immediate and they
were impressive.
The 1988 team opened up winning its
first 15 games, including a 61-59 win at
Division I Arizona. The Sioux took that
perfect record into Fargo for Roebuck’s
first matchup with North Dakota State,
the program that had already achieved
the level of success Roebuck thought
UND could achieve and even surpass.
Though the Sioux lost, 77-70, it was
clear to Roebuck and followers of UND
women’s basketball that the program
was on its way to bigger and better
things.
The 1988 team went on to win 22
games and advance to the NCAA regionals
for just the third time in the program’s
history. Roebuck and the Sioux
were off and running.
The 1989 team posted a 19-9 record.
Roebuck’s Coaching Record
UND - Lake Region
Year Overall Pct.
1984-85 28- 4 (.875)
1985-86 29- 4 (.878)
1986-87 30- 6 (.833)
Totals 87- 14 (.861)
North Dakota
Year Overall Pct. NCC Place
1987-88 22- 6 (.786) 9- 5 3rd
1988-89 19- 9 (.679) 6- 8 5th
1989-90 ^ 27- 4 (.871) 16- 2 1st
1990-91 ^ 28- 2 (.933) 17- 1 1st
1991-92 24- 7 (.774) 13- 5 3rd
1992-93 23- 5 (.821) 16- 2 T-1st
1993-94 ^ 26- 2 (.929) 18- 0 1st
1994-95 23- 5 (.821) 15- 3 2nd
1995-96 26- 6 (.813) 14- 4 3rd
1996-97 * 28- 4 (.875) 14- 4 3rd
1997-98 *^ 31- 1 (.969) 18- 0 1st
1998-99 *^ 31- 1 (.969) 17- 1 1st
1999-00 25- 5 (.833) 15- 3 2nd
2000-01 ^ 29- 4 (.879) 15- 3 1st
2001-02 ^ 24- 5 (.828) 14- 4 1st
2002-03 26- 6 (.813) 12- 4 T-3rd
2003-04 27- 6 (.818) 10- 4 3rd
2004-05 ^ 25- 6 (.806) 10- 2 1st
2005-06 ^ 34- 1 (.971) 12- 0 1st
2006-07 ^ 32- 4 (.889) 10- 2 1st
2007-08 24- 2 (.923) 9- 2 2nd
Totals 554- 91 (.859) 280- 59 (.826)
Overall 641- 105 (.859)
^ indicates NCC Coach of the Year
* indicates NCAA Division II national champions
NCAA Division II tournament appearances: 1988,
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006 & 2007
Though the 19 wins would be Roebuck’s only
time not reaching at least 20 wins, it was still a
mark that had only been reached by the 1980
(19-8), 1984 (22-7) and 1985 (23-6) UND
teams.
The first of two watershed breakthroughs
for the program occurred during the 1990 season.
That team finished 27-4, Durene Heisler
would become UND’s first NCC MVP and
first All-American, Roebuck won the first of
his seven NCC Coach of the Year awards and
UND returned to the NCAA tournament, to
which it has advanced every year since. A 93-
78 victory over Augustana in the first round
was the program’s first postseason victory,
which was followed by a 90-58 defeat of North
Dakota State. Though the Sioux lost to Cal
Poly Pomona in the national quarterfinals,
UND had reached a new level of expectation.