In her first year as Ball State Women’s Basketball head coach during the 2008-09 season, Kelly Packard found herself with a handful of talent and a Mid-American Conference Tournament title.
Heading into the NCAA Tournament, it was no question the team's opponent, the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, would present a challenge in the first round. But the outcome was anything but predictable.
The fifth-seeded Lady Volunteers, led by beloved and seasoned head coach Pat Summitt, had never lost in the first or second round of the big dance. The Cardinals, on the other hand, were appearing in their first-ever NCAA Tournament.
The Lady Volunteers were no stranger to victory. They had won eight national titles and, entering the 2009 tournament, they were the only team to make the tournament every year since its conception in 1982.
While it was a year of rebuilding for Tennessee, having lost superstar Candace Parker to the WNBA draft the season prior, the team managed a record of 22-11. However, failure to win the Southeastern Conference hindered the usual fear the team typically instilled in its opponents.
The ultimate stunner came when the Lady Volunteers met the Cardinals in Bowling Green, Kentucky. In a game labeled “the greatest upset in tournament history” by ESPN, then-senior Porchia Green led the Cardinals’ efforts with 23 points and eight rebounds to guide them past one of the premier teams in NCAA women’s basketball.
“The win over a Pat Summitt-coached team, given the legacy of her success at Tennessee, put more emphasis on the victory without a doubt,” Packard said. “However, we savored and celebrated an NCAA win and the opportunity to continue playing in the tournament.”
With a season record of 26-9 and a mark of 14-2 in MAC play, Packard said it took a number of small moments to position the team for the major win.
“The initial feeling was joy. Joy not just limited to the victory over Tennessee, but joy created by the entire journey of the season with that particular group of young women and that coaching staff,” Packard said.
Audrey McDonald-Spencer, then-player and now-assistant coach for Ball State Women’s Basketball, has seen firsthand the impact the historic victory has had on the program.
“After that win, the biggest thing you saw was that Ball State was being talked about,” McDonald-Spencer said. “Whether you were hearing that Tennessee had lost in the first round or that Ball State had made it to the tournament. It was a boost for us and for the Mid-American Conference as well.”
After her senior year, McDonald-Spencer became the director of operations for the women’s basketball team. At the start of the 2015-16 season, she took on the title of assistant coach. As a part of the program since 2006, McDonald-Spencer has made her mark on women’s basketball at Ball State.
“I don’t know if there is anyone who has put more into the Ball State Women’s Basketball program than Audrey,” current head coach Brady Sallee said. “From being a player, to director of operations, to a coach, she has shown her love for this place and this program in all that she does.”
Three years after the historic win, the Cardinals were taken under new leadership with Sallee. Since the 2012-13 season, he has led the team to six straight WNIT appearances, making it to the 16th round in his first year as head coach.
Reminiscing on the 10-year anniversary of the Tennessee upset, Sallee said the win is still talked about and remains the best thing that has happened to the program.
“We talk about it every year,” Sallee said. “This year we celebrated it. It’s something we’re not going to let go away, at least in my time here. Even though none of us, other than [McDonald-Spencer], had anything to do with it, we still take a ton of pride in the fact that this program made the team that accomplished that.”
At the start of the 2018-19 season in November, the Cardinals made a day of recognizing the victory over Tennessee with players and Packard being recognized at halftime and various clips of the game being shown throughout the day.
While it has been 10 years since the Cardinal’s historic victory, and the MAC has seen great changes since, the legacy the team created and left behind remains prevalent in the MAC.
“With [Sallee] being the head coach for seven seasons now and seeing us go to the postseason the last six, that’s really saying something,” McDonald-Spencer said. “You’ve seen the MAC turn into the seventh-best league in the country with extremely top-notch competition, and it raises the bar even more.”
The Cardinal victory over Tennessee will live on not only as one of the biggest upsets in women’s basketball, but a defining moment for the university as a whole. A key component of the foundation of Ball State Women’s Basketball, the win serves as a memory, a continued goal to strive for and a historic moment in Cardinal history.
Contact Gabi Glass with any comments at grglass@bsu.edu or on Twitter @gabiglassbsu.
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