
A championship run involves not just that season but a goal that began the season before.
The 2011 Texas A&M womenâs national championship team celebrated its historic feat on Sunday, recognized during a home game against Georgia.
They went 33-5, knocking off No. 1 seeds Baylorâwho finished ahead of the Aggies to win the Big 12âand Stanford, en route to a 76-70 victory over Notre Dame in the title game.
âWe were not a Cinderella. We had a team that came of ageâa senior point guard (Sydney Colson) and a senior scoring machine (Danielle Adams). We felt we could play with anybody in the country,â Coach Gary Blair said of his first national title as HC.
It all came together after a disappointing finish the previous season, remembered Sydney Carter, a senior guard. âThe Gonzaga game did something to us,â she told reporters, including the MSR. âWe had fallen so short of the goals that we had.â
âMy lowest moment as a coach,â TAMU Associate HC Kelly Bond-White recalled. âYou want to have answers for your players. We thought we were the better team . . .â
Carter, now the teamâs video coordinator after several WNBA seasons, said she and her mates came back hungry for bear, committed as ever that summer leading into the 2010-11 season.
âIt didnât just happen, this was a process,â Carter explained. âWe took a week or two off and we got back to work. We started in June and July with our strength coach.
âDanielle dedicated herself to lose weight and getting in shape to be able to play 40 minutes. We had a lot of good pieces ⌠It came around that summer.â
Adams, the schoolâs first WBB All-American and Colsonâwho is among TAMUâs all-time assists leadersâCarter, and their teammates, put together a memorable run in so many ways, Blair said.
Womenâs college hoops at the time had gotten too top-heavy, and the annual NCAAs were âgetting very boring to see the same people go to the Final Four,â Blair recalled. âIt was time for a change.
âIt was good for coaches that were coaching teams similar to us developing talent. [They] might not have all the 5-stars [recruits] but they are developing the 4-stars,â he continued. âIt gave hope for the rest of the country that they could be that team.â
Carter said it wasnât her goal to win a national championship when she came to TAMU. âI knew that we were going to be good. Winning a national championship is not something a lot of people can say, âI am going to play my last game of my college career and win a national championship.â It will be surreal for the rest of my life.â
It was more than winning games, added Bond-White of the 2011 champions, who was later honored at the White House by former President Barack Obama. âIt was one of those things that you donât appreciate in the moment as an assistant [coach] because you are caught up sometimes in the grind of the job.â
As the team was recognized last Sunday, âIt became about the journey and ⌠about the moments that led to that,â she said.
Blair, Bond-White, and Carter are daily reminders of that 2011 squad for the current 2020-21 squadâa top-10 team all seasonâwith hopes to replicate this spring.
âThey appreciate whatâs been done before them,â Carter said. âThey want to do the same thing. To this day, itâs hard to talk about everything I experienced that year because it was just that special.â