Coach Legette-Jack’s first recruiting class says goodbye to Hoosier basketball

Assembly Hall’s lights reflected off the glass encasing four crimson jerseys.

Numbers 32, 10, 20 and 14 stood behind the seniors and beside their families.

The scoreboard had long been turned off since the final buzzer sounded. It previously reflected a final score of Iowa: 93, Indiana: 79.

But for the IU women’s basketball team’s seniors, the day was not about the final score capping off a 9-19 regular season.

It was about four women — three of whom made up IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s first recruiting class — and their final game in Bloomington before going separate ways
after college.

From the moment guards Jori Davis, Andrea McGuirt and Whitney Lindsay stepped onto campus there were obvious regional differences. Davis, a native of Rochester, N.Y., came to IU after playing in Greece and England, while McGuirt came by way of Atlanta and Lindsay from Mansfield, Ohio.

The trio of freshmen represented half of Legette-Jack’s first recruiting class and were the only ones from that inaugural year to stay at IU for all four years.

“I just know that when we inherited this program the academics were in shambles and the character wasn’t as high as it needed to be,” Legette-Jack said after the Senior Day game Feb. 27. “And we went after six kids and three of them you roll the dice on and it didn’t work out. But the three that stayed and sustained have created such a foundation for all to be proud of.”

As upperclassmen like Whitney Thomas, Kim Roberson and Jamie Braun led the Hoosiers to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in 2008, Davis, Lindsay and McGuirt mainly watched from the sidelines. Combined, the trio started in 12 of 33 games.

Following a second-straight WNIT appearance in their sophomore year, the three Hoosiers welcomed a fourth member to the class of 2011.

Forward Hope Elam, who played her freshman year at St. Louis University and her sophomore year at Vincennes, transferred to IU for her junior year. Elam said there was an immediate connection thanks to her outgoing personality that matched the rest of the group.

“I didn’t come in with them,” she said. “But when I did come in, I fell right in with the team and I took them on as my sisters, and they took me on as their sister pretty early.”

On the court, though, the maturity of Legette-Jack’s first recruiting class was clear as they played into their upperclassman years.

Lindsay went from dishing out 55 assists her first two seasons to 93 and 103 in her junior and senior years, respectively.

Davis, who scored 142 points her freshman year and 378 in her sophomore year, finished her collegiate career with the eighth highest scoring total in IU history with 1,565 points. This came after back-to-back seasons with more than 500 points in her junior and senior years.

McGuirt has progressively increased her point, rebound and steal total every year at IU. She said her time in Bloomington has taught her more than just basketball.

“I think we’ve just grown into women,” she said. “When we came here as freshmen, we were just wide-eyed and new and just taking everything in. Now it’s kind of like we’re ready for the real world where we’ve been exposed to so many different things and we’re just ready to go out there and be leaders in society.”

Following school, each young lady has different ideas of what they would like to do.
Legette-Jack said although each of her players has different aspirations for the future, she thinks each will excel.

“Jori should play pro somewhere. I think that she has a lot of basketball to play,” Legette-Jack said. “Little Whitney wants to go to graduate school or play overseas. Andrea McGuirt is just going to be making more money than I’d ever dreamt of. I hope I haven’t yelled at her too much. Hope wants to be a commentator and maybe play overseas.”

For now though, the programs’ departing captains said they will miss the close-knit relationship that they have formed with each other.

“Whitney and (An)’Drea from the start, from freshman year, we had to come together and find our way around campus and just by doing things like that we became close,” Davis said. “Obviously, the college life, going out with each other, we always had each other’s back. We never went anywhere without each other and I think over time it was just expected, ‘If you’re going somewhere, let me know.’

“And then Hope came along and we showed her, ‘This is how it is,’ and she fit in with our personalities automatically. So I think it’s just something that we’ve been blessed with.”

Elam said her last season with the Hoosiers has been a memorable one, but she is ready to move on.

“I think it’s bittersweet for all of us,” she said. “The bitter side is that we won’t have this camaraderie that we’re used to and playing in front of all these fans and having our teammates and our coaches.

“But I think the sweet side of it is that we’re moving on to another part of our life, whether it’s basketball or not, we’re all moving on to a new chapter.”

As Legette-Jack sat between Lindsay and Davis following their final home game against Iowa, she said the culmination of her seniors’ final season could not be found on a box score.

“The basketball went up, down and all around, but if you’re going to be just a great basketball player and not have the other attributes, the ball stops bouncing eventually,” Legette-Jack said. “No one is going to remember this record. What they’re going to remember is Jori Davis, Hope Elam, Andrea McGuirt and Whitney Lindsay, the character and what they left us with – the ability to want to be better people.”