Rachel Theriot didn’t get to win an NCAA championship with the Nebraska Cornhuskers (2012-16), despite some impressive individual seasons. She averaged more than seven assists per game twice. But nowadays, she prefers a big shot to a big pass.
As a pro, however, she has won four championships, three in Belarus and one in Lithuania. Currently in Bulgaria, she reminisced with Swish Appeal about her years in Lincoln and Minsk. Here are some highlights from the conversation:
On winning the 2014 Big Ten Tournament MVP award:
It was just feeling the game out. I can’t be anything without my teammates or the coaches. So as much as someone wants to take credit for it, I’m not going to. That’s never been me, and I think a lot of it just plays into the coaches and the teammates around you, trusting you and believing in you. Just letting the game, you know, feel its way in.
On spending six years in total as a pro in Minsk, the capital of Belarus:
It was a good fit for me in general. My first two years, my first year, I did really well and I re-signed there and their goal, at this point, was to go to EuroCup and you want to play in the EuroCup when you go overseas. So for me it was, “Okay, I’ll stay, I’ll help continue building it,” and then I ended up having surgery after that season, or I got it halfway through, had surgery, so I had to go home halfway through my second season. Then I went back because they were in EuroCup after that. So the third season, I went back because they played EuroCup again. They were honestly nothing but good to me. I have great things to say about them, obviously. I think every year, you know, you go somewhere and are like, “I don’t want to come back. I’m not coming back here,” and every year I came back, and it was like a running joke. It’s still a running joke, even after the last year, they were like, “Are you coming?” And they’re laughing. I’m like, “I don’t know. I’m not going to say ‘no’ because I’ve been back now for five times.” I think it was just a place of comfort, especially once I left…I love the city of Minsk, honestly.
Thank you to Gherdan Sports for arranging the interview.
