« Women’s Basketball 2009-10

Kelsey Griffin

School
University of Nebraska
Position
Forward
Major
Biological Sciences
PPG
20.3
RPG
10.4
APG
1.8

Classroom

Griffin is a two-time first-team academic All-Big 12 selection as a biological sciences major. An eight-time Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection, Griffin will qualify as a CoSIDA Academic All-America nominee in 2009-10. She owns nearly a 3.5 GPA and is on track to graduate in May of 2010.

Character

Griffin is not only a hard-nosed and hard-working competitor, she has also shown her toughness throughout her Nebraska career. She started every game of her freshman campaign despite battling mononucleosis this past winter. She was named to the Big 12’s All-Rookie Team and was the Dallas Morning News Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2006. As a sophomore, she battled a breathing condition similar to asthma that affected her playing time but still earned first-team All-Big 12 honors. As a junior, she played the entire season with a broken rib but again earned first-team All-Big 12 honors and led Nebraska to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Throughout the season she kept in almost constant contact with her father in Alaska as he battled cancer. She missed the 2008-09 season with a foot injury that required a pair of surgeries, but will return for her fifth year in 2009-10 as one of the best returning players in the Big 12. Nebraska head coach Connie Yori calls Griffin ‘the toughest player I have ever coached.”

Community

Griffin represented the women’s basketball team on the 2006-07 Nebraska Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was named the Big 12 Good Works Team in 2007. She has been a part of Nebraska’s School is Cool Jam, which reaches out to thousands of middle school children in Lincoln each year. She also regularly serves as a volunteer at Belmont Elementary School. The Nebraska women’s basketball team has twice earned Nebraska’s Life Skills Team Award as the school’s most dedicated program to all aspects of life skills programming.

Competition

One of the top all-around players in Nebraska women’s basketball history, Griffin is a two-time first-team All-Big 12 selection (2007, 2008). She was also a member of the league’s All-Rookie Team in 2006 and was named the Dallas Morning News Big 12 Freshman of the Year that same season. Griffin ranks No. 10 in school history with her 14.5 points per game career scoring average, while ranking 11th in the NU record book with 1,348 career points. She ranks seventh on the Nebraska list with 665 career rebounds, while ranking eighth with 68 career blocked shots. She also ranks No. 5 with 373 career free throws made, including freshman and sophomore single-season school record totals. Griffin owns 20 career double-doubles. She has been named the Big 12 Player of the Week on three occasions and earned All-Tournament honors three times in her Husker career. She led Nebraska to just its second NCAA Tournament win in school history in 2008, scoring 26 points to power the Huskers past Xavier.