Southern Conference’s newfound gem, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G) Spartans completely turned around its program in a year’s span to gain national attention.
Head coach Trina Patterson transformed a fully defeated (in conference) team to one advancing to the championship round of the WBI tournament in her debut ’16-’17 season. The ’15-’16 Spartans had a record of 8-22, 0-14 in conference. Coach Patterson arrived the following season and led the Blue and Gold to 20-15 overall, 7-7 in conference.
20 wins was the most a UNC-G team has notched since ’06-’07. They reached the semifinals after entering the conference tournament in the fourth seed.
Patterson’s players then made their first trip to the post-season since ’01-’02. Beating Charleston Southern, Brown and Milwaukee in the first few rounds, the women ended their run in the final round against Rice University.
The Spartans have the youngest team in the country with 12 out of the 14 players in their first or second year. A spot in the roster of those young players belongs to Nadine Soliman. Soliman averaged 16.2 points per game last year and led the country in scoring as a freshman.
Other leaders include sophomore captain, Te’ja Twitty, who was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman team and concluded her first year with 7.9 rebounds per game, good for fourth in the conference.
Check out the 2017-18 @uncgwbb schedule poster!
— UNCG Athletics (@uncgspartans) October 23, 2017
Season is less than three weeks away! #letsgoG pic.twitter.com/5GtlQxclkO
This year, UNC-G plans to keep rising. With a pre-season schedule stacked with an early December match-up against top-ranked Duke and Virginia within a week, the Spartans will be challenged. Coach Patterson insists the key to success for her young team is to continue playing “Spartan basketball.”
The Summitt talked with Soliman, Twitty and Coach Patterson about goals, pressures and the future of the program. Despite being a mid-major school, UNC-G explained the significance of their presence in the NCAA world among the other D1 schools. Click the link below to have an inside look at the Blue and Gold: