Every once in a while someone will ask me, “Why are you a fan of USD?” The answers to that question are many, but when it comes to Women’s basketball in Vermillion, one of the answers is the unique access you have to the team and coaches. It’s just not a huge town where the stars can disappear in. You bump into them at the grocery store or Walmart. Pre pandemic, if you attended the weekly coaches show enough, the coach of the #11 ranked team in the country would even remember your name. That kind of stuff simply isn’t happening everywhere.
It was along this vein that a most unnecessary campaign was taken up. It was shortly after the sports world came to a screeching halt last March. Desperate for any sort of a sports fix, I was looking at stats at goyotes.com. Trying to figure out what milestones awaited when we got basketball back. Hannah Sjerven was sure to reach 1,000 career points, as was Stanley Umude on the men’s side. Chloe Lamb was going to get there too. It was then, for whatever reason, I noticed it. 8 career blocks. It’d be shame to end a career with thousands of points, hundreds of rebounds and assists, a oh so close to double digits block total. So, I made my silly observation public with tweet wondering if she could get to the magic number 10 career blocks. It was then, in what makes being a Yote fan so great, teammates and parents of players and even Chloe herself liked and retweeted my complete silliness.
Then, in a non conference game against Lipscomb, she got block number 9. And the movement began to get legs. A couple of regional Summit accounts gave her stats after a game as “Lamb had 22 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, no blocks though”. It was all in good fun, but in truth I began to worry it had gotten too big. What if she felt pressure to get it. What if she started fouling in order to try and get me to shut up about it? The team never stopped liking the pregame posts wondering if this was the game it would happen.
Then Friday. At Western Illinois. Lamb led the Yotes with 25 points. But it was late 4th quarter, with Western trying to get off a shot late in the shot clock. A Western player attempted a 3, but Chloe was there and it happened. Number 10. The camera didn’t follow her, but Chloe was seen running towards her bench both arms raised. Carter Woodiel made note on the broadcast she had a huge smile on her face as did her teammates waiting for her on the bench. Perhaps all glad they didn’t have to hear of it ever again. It was great fun, and I am appreciative of Chloe and everyone else who stayed (as far as I know) good natured about the quest. It’s part of what makes being a Yote fan great.
The replay of 10 is on my twitter, complete with Titanic music until the Twitter cops take it down. Congrats again to Chloe. I wonder if she knows she’s just one block away from tying her roommate Liv Kornagable at 11? Hmmmm…….