June Olkowski remained outside the locker room at the Conseco Field House. The Northwestern women’s basketball coach sat on the ground slumped against the wall. She used her hands to shield her face. She couldn’t hold back the tears that poured from her eyes after the loss in the Big Ten Tournament.

This was the 2001-2002 season.

But last week started a new year — and a new season for Olkowski and the Wildcats.

Everything changed with one game. It was a monumental win built on defense and determination.

It was a Big Ten win. Not a national championship, not a conference championship, just a single game.

There weren’t 80,000 people at Welsh-Ryan Arena; there weren’t even 800 people, just the usual fans in their usual seats. But this wasn’t just another game.

The 52-46 victory over Michigan State last Thursday snapped a 43-game Big Ten regular-season losing streak dating back to January 23, 2000 — a span of 1,075 days.

And the team and their coach have long deserved the win.

Last year the team’s best and most experienced player, guard Emily Butler, suffered a season-ending knee injury before conference play began. Neither team nor coach made excuses as Butler was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch with frustration as four freshman started for a team that struggled to a 4-24 and 0-17 Big Ten record.

The freshman didn’t play poorly; they played like freshman. Center Sarah Kwasinski attacked school record books, but lacked the experience to carry the team on her back while guards Melissa Culver and Samantha McComb struggled with turnovers.

Olkowski once joked Culver should be called ‘Velcro’ because of her inability to shake off mistakes, but it was the coach that stuck with Culver and the other freshman like Velcro — lecturing, praising and teaching them.

Olkowski, a three-time Midwestern Collegiate Conference coach of the year at Butler, never quit. At practice, the former All-American at Rutgers would throw down her clipboard, sprint into the key and join a scrimmage to teach her players how to box-out or run the offense properly. Sweat dripping from her face, she would plead with her young team to do it right.

And they started doing it right. The Cats took then-No. 5 Wisconsin to the final whistle before Nicole Daniels collapsed on the ground in agony after calling a timeout the team didn’t have.

All season long, Olkowski answered the same old questions about turnovers, poor shooting and the streak that seemed like it would forever haunt her.

Olkowski didn’t dodge the questions. She addressed the problems before anyone raised them. The players followed their coach’s lead and handled themselves with class no matter how big the blowout.

Then came the conference tournament and a chance to start with a clean slate in a rematch with the Badgers. As Natalie Will launched a last-second, game-tying jumper, the Cinderella story seemed inevitable.

But the shot rolled out.

Will, Olkowski and the team cried after the game. But they didn’t quit.

Olkowski didn’t bolt to another school. The blind-sided freshman didn’t transfer. And the upperclassmen who hadn’t won a game since their freshman year didn’t leave the team.

Even though they probably won’t win the Big Ten this year, Olkowski and her team took the biggest step to turning around the program.

Last week Ohio State upset Miami in one of the greatest championship games in college football history. The game was incredible, but the beauty of sports doesn’t always have to take place center stage.

Just ask Olkowski.

David Sterrett is a Medill sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected].