Whalen, Gophers ready for season opener Friday night

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (KMSP) - Deep down, Lindsay Whalen always thought this moment would come.

“This is where I’ve had so many great memories and this feels like home so I feel like at some point I’d work my way back here, I just didn't know when so yeah it's worked out really well,” Whalen said.

Friday night, the former Gophers Basketball star will make her head coaching debut as she leads her alma mater against New Hampshire.

Whalen's relentless effort and brilliant playmaking ability made her a fan favorite during her playing days and she's hoping some of that bulldog mentality of hers will rub off on her players, too.

“When I played, I was never going to be the fastest one or was going to have the best jump shot but I knew I was always going to be one of the toughest players in the gym,” Whalen said. “I knew, no matter what, I was going to do pretty much anything I could do for my team to win and so I want our team to have that edge and that toughness where we're all in this together and we're going to figure out a way to get it done."

The players say it's been easy to relate to their new coach.

“I wasn't expecting her to actually be able to practice with us sometimes. If she needs to show us something, she's willing to get on the court and do it,” Kenisha Bell said of her new coach.

Whalen has hyped herself up for games for decades but that was as a player. Friday, she'll view the game through a different set of eyes. According to Whalen, there's no nervousness or second guessing.

The players will be ready, Whalen said, and apparently so will the coach.

“You’re always going to say, ‘I wish we would've done this or we should've put that in or we should've worked on this more,’ but it's going to happen at 8 o-clock tomorrow whether we're ready or not so we just do what we can and have a good last practice today and shoot around tomorrow and we'll come out here and we'll be ready to play,” Whalen said.

Tip is at 8 p.m. Friday night at Williams Arena.