Blue White Illustrated

| W hen she was hired in April 2019 to revive a struggling Penn State women's basketball program, Carolyn Kieger knew that it wouldn't be a quick fix. That was OK. She had been a part of rebuilding projects as an assistant coach at Miami and as head coach at Marquette, her alma mater. Both projects ended successfully, but both took time. So as she began working to engineer a similar transformation in University Park, one thing Kieger always kept in mind was the need for everyone to display patience. "You're not going to turn around a pro- gram overnight and win a national cham- pionship in one year," she said. "Rome wasn't built in a day. I've now had the ex- perience of being an assistant at Miami and returning that program from worst to first, and we did it at Mar- quette, we went from worst to first, and that's what we're planning on doing here at Penn State. It's about habits, it's about culture, it's about getting the right team and the right staff to do the task and to care more about the mission than emotion, and more about we than me. I think we've done a great job of lining up the pieces to the puzzle that we need here. Now we start chipping away one day at a time. The results will come, but patience is key, and [it's a mat- ter of focusing on] process over outcome as you're rebuilding." Kieger's first season was a struggle, as the Lady Lions went 7-23, including a 1- 17 Big Ten finish and a first-round exit from the conference tournament. Since then, the roster has undergone a near- total overhaul. Kieger referred to Penn State's 2020-21 edition as "our new team," and that's indeed the case in a very literal sense. Of the 16 players on the pre- season roster, only three appeared on the court for the Lady Lions last season: guards Makenna Marisa and Shay Hagans and forward Anna Camden. All are soph- omores. Penn State also welcomes back a W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L REBUILDING BOOM Carolyn Kieger has overhauled the roster heading into her second season at PSU NO NAME POS YR HT HOME SCHOOL/PREVIOUS COLLEGE 0 Nyam Thornton G Fr. 5-7 Columbus, Ohio Columbus Africentric 1 Niya Beverley G Sr. 5-7 Laurel, Md. St. John's College High School/Wisconsin 2 Mekkena Boyd G Fr. 5-8 Williston, Vt. Champlain Valley Union 3 Nia Staples G Sr. 5-8 Cincinnati, Ohio Lakota West/West Virginia 4 Constance Thomas G Fr. 5-9 Plant City, Fla. Camp Jewell Academy 5 Leilani Kapinus G Fr. 5-10 Madison, Wis. James Madison Memorial High School 10 Tova Sabel G Fr. 5-10 Stockholm, Sweden Bromma Gymnasium 11 Anna Camden F So. 6-3 Downingtown, Pa. The Shipley School 14 Britnay Gore F Jr. 6-2 Antigua, Caribbean Princess Margaret/Cleveland State CC 15 Maddie Burke G Fr. 6-0 Doylestown, Pa. Central Bucks West 20 Makenna Marisa G So. 5-11 McMurray, Pa. Peters Township 22 Kaci Donovan G Fr. 6-1 Owego, N.Y. Owego Free Academy 23 Shay Hagans G So. 5-6 Manassas, Va. Osbourn Park 24 Nan Garcia G Fr. 6-0 Je

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