By Kim Doss, Her Hoop Stats
 
COVID-19 put a damper on just about everything last year. College sports were no different. The Bradley Braves were able to find a silver lining in a difficult season, breaking through with the first trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history. For sixth-year head coach and Bradley alumna Andrea Gorski, it was both an achievement and a building block.
 
“To represent the school on the national stage, it really meant the world to me,” Gorski said.
 
For fifth-year star Gabi Haack, it was the fulfillment of a goal she had since she was a freshman. The Braves won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in a tumultuous year, making it even more special for Haack and her teammates.
 
“That's every athlete’s goal is to make it to the Big Dance and to be a part of the NCAA Tournament,” Haack said. “On my visit, I looked in the gym, and we're looking around the gym and [former assistant coach Christena Hamilton] ...was looking around and was like, ‘What are we missing here?’ And we were looking around the gym, and she's like, ‘A banner. We don't have any banners here.’ And she said, ‘Our goal is to hang banners.’ So, to finally be able to do that just was an awesome feeling.”
 
The team isn’t satisfied with one trip to the tournament, though. Gorski sees it as just one more tool to motivate her players. She has already led the team on a steady uphill swing. The Braves increased their win total in each of her first five seasons. Without the pandemic, they might have made it six in a row. The MVC title and trip to San Antonio were good consolations for that shortened season.
 
“I want to use it to rebuild that great, great tradition,” Gorski said.
 
The players are buying into that vision even if they weren’t there for the initial breakthrough. Half of the roster consists of newcomers. Right now, the staff is trying to determine who will be in the group of the top eight to ten players.
 
“We've got eight newcomers--five freshmen, three transfers,” Gorski said. “We have kids that really want to win and do things the right way. It's a lot of fun, but we need a little bit of separation.”
 
Gorski believes that “any one of the eight” has the chance to announce herself by making a big impact this season. The Braves could use it, too, since the team lost a lot of production off last year’s roster.
 
Most of the loss came in the form of a single transfer. Wing Lasha Petree departed for Rutgers taking her team-high 18 points and 2.17 blocks per game with her. The senior was a two-time All-MVC first-team honoree.
 
Lasha’s sister Mahri Petree also left, eventually landing at UTEP. The sophomore was a member of the 2020 MVC All-Freshman team. She played in 20 games last season, starting six. Her 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game were fifth on the team in each category.
 
There was also good news for Bradley from the transfer portal. Gorski brought in juniors Sierra Morrow and Diamond Cannon from the junior college ranks where they both had impressive careers.
 
Morrow, who played for Seward Community College, was last season’s Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Player of the Year. She contributed 18.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game in 23 games. The forward was an NJCAA All-America honorable mention honoree in 2020-21 after landing on the NJCAA All-America second team the previous season.
 
Cannon was the 2020-21 Player of the Year for the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association as a sophomore at Columbia State. She averaged nearly a double-double as a sophomore with 19.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. After appearing on the TCCAA second team at the end of her freshman year, the guard was recognized as a first-teamer last season. She was also named to the NJCAA All-America third team after her sophomore season.
 
Gorski also found help with Division I experience. Sophomore Daija Powell spent one season at Texas Tech. The forward played six minutes per game in 19 appearances, primarily in Big XII play. Her coach expects her presence inside to make a difference for the Braves, especially on the boards where Haack led the team last season with 6.8 rebounds per game.
 
As for the vision, it starts with defense. Gorski and Haack agree that defense is the cornerstone because it’s always under a player’s control. Even if shots aren’t falling, she can control her effort on the defensive end of the floor and on the boards.
 
Gorski has specific goals set. One target is holding the opponent’s shooting percentage below 38 percent.
 
“Being a great defensive team, that’s kind of always been a standard we’ve set in our program,” Gorski said. “I think we’re a much better rebounding team than we were a year ago.”
 
Both the newcomers and returners are doing what they can to reach those standards.
 
“I cannot express how much they put in extra time,” Gorski said. “They want to go to the gym on their own. They want to watch film, just put in the extra work. We kind of use [last season] as a springboard, just leveling everything up in practice.”
 
Haack is doing some leveling up of her own. Last year’s MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player is rewriting Bradley’s record book. She has already made more 3-point buckets than anyone in program history and is just 12 short of becoming the all-time leader for the conference. Her first made free throw of the season will tie her for first in program history for that stat. Her 3,808 minutes played top the career leaderboard for the Braves. With three more starts, she will tie Bradley career leader Jen Brown in that category. And last but not least, she needs just 40 points to become the school’s career scoring queen and overtake a record that has stood since 1983.
 
“I think that's really special,” Haack said. “But I'm not too worried about it, because I know it will come with time. It’s not something I'm stressing about. [I’m] not really thinking about it, but it is special to be able to do that for my school.”
 
When she’s not on her way to breaking records, Haack is student teaching. She’s working to complete her elementary education undergraduate degree before taking an internship in strength and conditioning after she graduates.
 
“I had a lot of teachers growing up that I had as role models,” Haack said. “I do like working with kids, and I like being a role model to others. So I knew [with] teaching, you're kind of doing exactly that. You're a role model to those kids helping them grow and develop.”
 
She and her 14 teammates can be role models for a lot of people as they try to repeat as champions of the Missouri Valley Conference.
 
“I think it’s one of the best mid-major conferences in the country,” Gorski said.
 
With a more normal season, the players will get extra time to rest between games this season and they will have the opportunity to prepare with a real non-conference season. Once they get to conference play, they will have a tall task in front of them.
 
“Just over time since I've been here as a freshman, I've noticed how much the Valley has grown,” Haack said. “There's teams getting in the Top 25. There are teams that are getting [at-large] bids. To see how much better the MVC has gotten over time and we start to get more respect. Our name’s getting out there.”