Hello fellow basketball nerds!
Welcome back for another edition of Inbox-and-One! Sorry for the late send. I got home from a work trip to New York last night and am a bit under the weather, but I couldn’t leave you all hanging!
I was lucky enough to spend a few days with the New York University women’s basketball team in order to learn about its incredible 76-game winning streak. The Violets haven’t lost in 2 1/2 years, a streak that includes back-to-back Division III national titles. If you haven’t read the article yet, please do! I promise you’ll fall in love with this team and its incredible story!
One of the hardest things about writing in-depth features like this is deciding what to cut. It’s easy to get attached to every little anecdote when you are the one writing something. Thank goodness for editors or every one of my stories would be 10,000 words long!
But since all of you (like me) can’t get enough women’s basketball, I thought I’d share a few things I loved, but didn’t end up making the final cut.
NYU’s pregame ritual
Before every game the Violets have a routine. One player starts by asking a teammate if they are ready to play. That teammate responds and then asks another. The chain continues until everyone has made her proclamation. It started out as a relatively mundane but sweet way to spark pregame hype. But last season, Chloe Teeter, who has since graduated, took it to another level. The Violets were playing Gettysburg and Teeter gave a speech about how they needed to fight like it was the Battle of Gettysburg. It culminated with her screaming in a teammate’s face “ARE YOU READY TO DESTROY GETTYSBURG?” Since then the ritual has become more and more extreme. It’s equal parts intensity and insanity. You need a little of both to win 76 games in a row.
Coach Meg Barber can’t get away from winning streaks
This is the third lengthy winning streak to which Barber has been connected. Fellow University Athletic Association conference member Washington University in St. Louis holds the second-longest streak in women’s college basketball, winning 81 games in a row. That took place while Barber was playing for NYU. Then, she was a Temple assistant, competing in the Big East with UConn, when the Huskies won 111 straight games — the longest winning streak in NCAA women’s basketball history.
“Being on the winning side is a lot more fun,” Barber said with a laugh.
Freshman Aila Kaibara was destined to attend NYU
Long before college basketball was on her radar, Kaibara knew about NYU. She’s always been artsy, drawing, painting, playing multiple instruments and spending her free time crocheting. Her older sister once made an offhand remark about how NYU would be the perfect school for Kaibara.
Growing up in Arizona, New York City seemed far away and unattainable. But as soon as the Violets started recruiting Kaibara as a sophomore in high school, she remembered the conversation. From then on, Kaibara didn’t consider any other schools. Now, when she tells people back home where she goes to school, they all answer the same way: “That is so perfect for you.”