St. Louis — If not for a good night's rest, the nation might have heard about Jackie Stiles long before the Bears' run to the Final Four.
Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma and his high-profile program recruited Stiles, who considered the Huskies along with Kansas State before picking Southwest Missouri State. Stiles even had her letter of intent to Auriemma signed and sealed. It just never made it into her Claflin mailbox.
Stiles' father told her to send the letter only after signing it, sleeping on it, and waking up feeling good about it.
"And you know, something just didn't feel right the next day," Stiles said. "SMS was in my heart, and you know, they started recruiting me when I was 12. I just felt I was truly meant to be a Lady Bear."
Auriemma said the choice to play for SMS cost Stiles some of the spotlight she deserved.
"She's been a great player all along, but until you win, win in a national tournament, win in the NCAA Tournament, people tend not to pay all that much attention to you," he said. "It's unfair, but that's the way it is."
Stiles will have a new look this weekend. Making 1,000 shots a day was so tough on her preferred shoes Nike's 1997 Cynthia Cooper model Stiles wore out every pair in known existence. Nike was forced to pull a pair out of its archive for Stiles to wear after the first and second rounds. The only problem: they're black.
"So, I've never worn black shoes before, but I'll wear black because they are my coveted Cynthia Cooper shoes," Stiles said.
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Milestone: Back in 1982, when Tennessee coach Pat Summitt took the Vols to the first Women's Final Four, 37 members of the media showed up to watch along with the 9,531 fans who paid $7 to get in. This year, the 20th anniversary of that first Final Four weekend, there are more than 600 media members in St. Louis, and tickets are hard to come by.
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