A little friendly advice never hurt anybody, did it?

Well, in the case of Huskie women’s basketball coach Jane Albright, an open ear led the Huskie-to-be west on I-88 to the cornfields of DeKalb.

Five years ago, former NIU Women’s Athletic Director Susie Pembroke-Jones contacted Albright when she was an assistant coach at Cincinnati. Pembroke-Jones urged Albright to interview for NIU’s head-coaching position. However, the Bearcat assistant said she was not interested.

Later, someone told Albright that an interview should always be honored.

“I called her (Pembroke-Jones) up and I said, ‘Look, I’m not really interested, but I’ll come look,'” Albright said. “She really had a clear vision in her mind of wanting a Top 20 program. Whereas a lot of people say that, she showed me money, she showed me a staff and the other things I felt you needed to have.”

Needless to say, Albright was on her way to orchestrating a winning program on the campus of NIU.

When the new Huskie arrived, Albright viewed the women’s basketball program as being inconsistent. The team was getting its fourth coach in five seasons of play.

“We wanted to be consistent and establish some long-term goals and strive for them, rather than ‘here’s one year and here’s another year’ and that sort of thing,” Albright said.

In her inaugural season at the Huskie helm, Albright led her team to a respectable 15-13 record. However, she knew that the teams her squad played were not earth-shaking.

“The teams on our schedule were not the type of teams you get fired up about if you’re a great player,” Albright said. “There wasn’t a Tennessee or an Iowa or a team like that that would make your blood stir. That was one of the first things I did—was upgrade the schedule.”

In addition to her quest to add top programs to the Huskies’ schedule, Albright was busy recruiting players for her young program.

Two of the recruits Albright landed in her first year were Carol Owens and Gena Stubbs. Neither player was headline-type material, but each only needed time to blossom.

Albright easily recalls the tips she received about the two basketball standouts.

“When I took the job (at NIU) a gentleman by the name of Jim Dudley put a copy of the Sun Times on my desk (at Cincinnati) with the All-Area players, and there were three juniors. One of them was Carol Owens, and as soon as I got here, that’s who we recruited.

“Someone else in Indianapolis had told me there’s a kid (Gena Stubbs) in the city that nobody knows about, and she’s going to be a better player than Cheryl Cooke who was an All-American at Cincinnati. I immediately got in on her early. So those were two key tips.”

Albright went on to recruit top talent from the midwest in the next couple of years. Names like Lisa Foss, Tammy Hinchee, Toby Meeks, Denise Dove, Kris Weis, Tracy Mondek and Dee Dee Jeske all attest to Albright’s eye for talent and commitment to attaining national recognition as a top women’s basketball program.

In the next two years, the Huskies suffered some major defeats on a much-strengthened schedule. Albright saw the team’s record drop to 8-19 in her second season, then increase by three wins the next season (11-16) and finally level out at 14-14 last season.

With the Huskies’ success this season (14-3 record to date), the light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter these days for Albright.

“I have a watch on my left arm here from the NCAA. It was when I was an assistant at Tennessee, and I wear it every day of my life. When I look at it it reminds me that I want a watch—one that is for my own program. That’s definitely what we want to do and where we want to be. And that’s hard because before we’d talk about that and people laughed at us. But that’s what I want for Northern.”

It would be hard to argue against the progress the NIU women’s team is making. The Huskies have the ability to square up against nationally ranked teams and win. A 78-72 victory over North Carolina State is evidence of that. Also, capturing two tournament titles, one being NIU’s own Fastbreak Fest, is supportive. And a 86-82 victory over National Invitational Tournament champion DePaul rounds out the tell-tale signs that NIU women’s basketball is for real.

“This is the type of organization that you want at your university,” said Associate Athletic Director Clarence Hudson. “You want a coach like Jane Albright with her integrity and her abilities. She’s been here five years, and that’s the length of time it normally takes to establish a program on the national scene.

“We, as administrators, look down the road at a 25-3, 24-4 record as a good chance of being recognized and going somewhere (in postseason play).”

If the Huskies keep their pace of play as intense as it has been, NIU stands a good chance of taking first place in the North Star Conference and receiving a bid to a postseason tournament.