Northwestern women's basketball will break in newly renovated arena against Duke

Duke is the first regular season opponent on the home portion of the 2018-19 schedule for the Northwestern women's basketball team.

It seems appropriate.

On Nov. 11, the Blue Devils will help the Northwestern women break in a newly renovated Welsh-Ryan Arena, which has a look that Duke should be familiar with.

When Northwestern women's coach Joe McKeown, who participated in a preseason teleconference with all the other Big Ten coaches on Friday, talks about the renovations with men's coach Chris Collins, a former player at assistant coach at Duke, the two conclude that the atmosphere in the new Welsh-Ryan feels a bit like Duke's iconic Cameron Indoor Stadium. Very intimate, with the fans bearing down right on the court.

"I'm excited to get into our new arena," said McKeown, whose team had to play at Evanston Township High School last season while the renovations were in full swing. "It's going to be fun. There are a lot of similarities to Cameron."

Of course, the Northwestern renovation, which had a price tag of $110 million, will leave Welsh-Ryan much more shiny, modern and functional than Cameron.

Northwestern actually decreased capacity of old Welsh Ryan, which was slightly under 9,000, in order to create wider aisles and provide padded, chair-back seating throughout the entire stadium. Unlike the old Welsh-Ryan, or Cameron for that matter, there is no longer any wooden bench seating.

There are also bigger and swankier lounge and lobby areas, new concession areas and new locker rooms for both the men's and women's teams.

"It's going to be an incredible place," McKeown said. "We're excited to welcome the Big 10 to our new arena."

The Wildcats struggled while away from Welsh-Ryan last year, to the tune of a 12-20 overall record and a 12th place finish in the brutally tough Big Ten.

But McKeown is convinced that the energy of the new stadium, as well as the return of eight starters, will be a catalyst for a much more successful season for Northwestern.

The Wildcats' top three scorers from last year return in guard Lindsey Pulliam (15 ppg), forward Abi Scheid (12 ppg) and Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah (11.3 ppg).

"We can score," McKeown said. "We have the chance to be good if we stay healthy."

Like a Hawk: One of the best players in the country plays in the Big Ten Conference.

Iowa senior forward Megan Gustafson, a native of Port Wing, Wisconsin and the preseason Big Ten player of the year, led the nation in scoring last year at 25.7 points per game while also being the most efficient shooter in the country with a 67.1 field goal percentage.

But Gustafson's numbers might not be the most impressive thing about her.

"I really appreciate that Megan is being recognized for the special player she is," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "But she is also one of the best players I've ever seen with no ego. That makes Megan a really great teammate as well."

Bluder says that Gustafson, a tough-to-stop left-handed post player, is also one of the hardest workers on her team.

"When Megan came in as a left-handed post player, everyone knew she was going left," Bluder said. "But she wanted (to be versatile) so every time she would do 50 drop steps with her left hand, she'd do 100 with her right. If you give her something to work on, she will do that and you would think that you could expect that out of every player, but it doesn't always happen that way."

Third is a charm: Three wins is all legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer needs to hit the 1,000-win mark.

Stringer, a Big Ten veteran who piled up many of those wins at Iowa before heading to Rutgers, where she is set to begin a new season, has a career mark of 997-402 over 47 seasons.

Stringer was the seventh coach, in either the women's game or the men's game, to reach the 900-win mark and will be one of a handful of coaches to reach the 1,000-win mark.

While honored, Stringer would rather talk about her team than her coaching milestone.

"When you really love something, you don't even recognize how time goes by and I really thank everyone who has been involved in this," Stringer said of all the wins. "But I can't wait until (all the talk about 1,000 wins) is over. I will thank goodness when it is."

New kids: Newly retired WNBA star Lindsay Whalen is beginning the newest phase of her basketball career: Division I head basketball coach.

Whalen, a WNBA champion and all-star who retired from the Minnesota Lynx this summer and went straight into her first year of coaching at the University of Minnesota, is one of three Big Ten coaches to be coaching at her alma mater. Sharon Versyp of Purdue and Amy Williams of Nebraska are the others.

"It's been really fun transitioning from being a player to a coach," Whalen said. "I've enjoyed getting to know our team and putting in a system. I've already learned a lot, that's for sure."

I'll have more about Whalen and second-year Illinois head coach Nancy Fahey, who has an interesting connection to the far northwest suburbs, next week in Women's Watch.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

Follow Patricia on Twitter: @babcockmcgraw