Griffin powers through troubles
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By CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It’s a second-round NCAA Tournament game on the home court of top-seeded and fifth-ranked Maryland, a star-studded team with four players who started in the Terrapins’ 2006 national championship game victory.
Indeed, this will be the best opportunity for Nebraska’s Kelsey Griffin to receive the kind of national attention her coach believes she deserves.
“I don’t think she’s a household name in Lincoln, and she should be because she’s a great player,” Connie Yori said. “I’ve been a head coach for 18 years at the college level and I don’t know if I’ve coached a player with more toughness. She’s just very, very determined and she’s got the skill level to do what she did (in the Huskers’ 61-58 first-round win against Xavier).”
It’s become habit for the 6-foot-2 junior forward from Eagle River, Alaska, a two-time first-team All-Big 12 Conference selection, to come through in the clutch. Sunday, she scored 26 points — the third-highest total by a player in 32 NCAA Tournament opening-round games.
The last time Griffin didn’t reach double figures was 16 games ago, on Jan. 16 against then 11th-ranked Oklahoma.
What she’s done since is what Yori really means by toughness. Griffin cracked a rib during a Nov. 5 exhibition and still came back four days later with a 15-point, eight-rebound effort against NCAA qualifier Texas-El Paso.
“Griffin is a great player, a really hard matchup for anybody because she’s so good around the basket, (and) she can also step away and put the ball on the floor and drive it at you,” Xavier coach Kevin McGuff said.
Rewind to the game against the Sooners back in January.
Griffin, while dealing with OU’s behemoth center and 2007 national player of the year Courtney Paris, finished with just seven points on 2-for-9 shooting. But the most difficult thing for her that day was dealing with the emotions of knowing her father was beginning chemotherapy for tongue cancer.
Not even a sport you love can provide refuge from being scared when a loved one has been thrust into a battle for his life.
“I’m always thinking about him,” Griffin said of her dad, Jim, who wraps up his first round of treatment in Illinois on Thursday and then plans to return to Alaska.
And while it’s been impossible for her to get used to his medical condition, Griffin did agree to a deal that she’s been able to uphold.
“My dad told me, ‘I can’t tell you not to worry about me,’ but he’s like, ‘I do ask one thing. Whenever you step on the hardwood, put it aside, then you can pick it right back up afterward,’” she said.
Jim Griffin has been doing well enough that he was able to attend Nebraska’s regular-season finale against Iowa State, and also the Huskers’ Big 12 Tournament game against Kansas in Kansas City, Mo.
For Kelsey, it provided perfect therapy.
“I thought that was really important. I felt like before the Iowa State game she was really struggling more, and after he came to that game that really perked her up,” Yori said. “She hadn’t seen him since Christmas and so she saw that he’s going through it, but he’s still got his personality.”
Griffin recalled how her dad had made a movie for her of when he shaved off his hair in preparation for treatment.
“But just to be able to see him, feel him in the flesh, give him a hug, let him know I love him, is that much better,” she said. “To actually see he’s doing OK, because someone can tell you they’re doing OK, and you know they’re really not ... it was just great.”
Although the tumor on Jim Griffin’s tongue is shrinking, doctors also are treating one on his neck.
No doubt, it’ll help in the coming days for dad to be like daughter — as tough as they come.
“I pray before every game during the national anthem and I say, ‘God, lift this off my shoulders and I’ll pick it up right as soon as the buzzer ends,’” Kelsey said. “He does a great job of listening.”
If there’s a just reward, Griffin will have another monster game tonight under the national spotlight — and there will be even better news to come on the home front.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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