Five Gophers women's basketball seniors ready for their Williams Arena farewell

Thursday night at Williams Arena, for the first time in two years, the Gophers women's basketball team will have a full-fledged senior night.

The class will be a big one:

Gadiva Hubbard, Laura Bagwell-Katalinich, Kayla Mershon, Bailey Helgren and Deja Winters.

Hubbard has spent her whole career here, six years' worth, the product of a redshirt season due to injury and the extra season of eligibility given by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That's the reason there were no fans at games last year and, thus, no senior night in 2021.

Bagwell-Katalinich, Mershon and Helgren, all native Minnesotans, came back home. Bagwell-Katalinich from Cornell, Mershon from Nebraska, Helgren from Kansas. Winters came from North Carolina A&T in large part out of a desire to see if she could play at a power-conference school. (She could).

Helgren, Bagwell-Katalinich, Hubbard, Helgren and Winters are all graduate players. They will leave the U with a combined six master's degrees. This class, combined, will have 11 total degrees — five undergraduate. When the Gophers host Illinois on Thursday in the final home game of the season, the school and head coach Lindsay Whalen will be honoring what is likely the most learned group of seniors ever at senior night.

And that's the joke among these players. Or, at least, part of it. This is a venerable group. Or, may we suggest: old.

"The jokes are plentiful,'' said Bagwell-Katalinich. "But what it's more about is our experience. With the exception of Diva, we've all been somewhere else. We've all taken pretty crazy roads to get here and be a part of this class. We respect that about each other.''

Thursday, three of this group will start: Hubbard and Winters in the backcourt along with Sara Scalia and Bagwell-Katalinich at forward. Helgren and Mershon are the next two bigs off the bench.

Winters will leave Minnesota high on career lists. She is third in program history in three-pointers made (248) and attempted (713) and 13^th in career scoring (1,418). She is third on the team in scoring this season. Mershon and Bagwell-Katalinich played two seasons with Minnesota, Helgren and Winters one.

"It is bittersweet,'' Hubbard said. "I've made a lot of memories here, and it feels good to be with these people and have one last ride.''

At home, in front of family and fans. "Growing up I came to the games a lot,'' Mershon said. "So to have the surreal moment of doing that now, here, for young girls? It was a really great experience.''

It has been an up-and-down season. The Gophers (12-16 overall, 5-11 Big Ten) play last-place Illinois on Thursday, then finish the regular season Sunday at Penn State. The Nittany Lions are also 5-11 in conference play. That means Sunday's game will be for the right to a first-round bye in next week's conference tournament.

For the seniors, it's an opportunity to end the season on a high note. "We've told our team and coaches that there is no option,'' Bagwell-Katalinich said. "We're going to go out and win our games. It [would be] a nice way to cap off everything this class has worked for.''

Said Helgren: "I've only been here one year, but I think we all have taken the responsibility of adding to this program in a positive way. Leaving it better than we found it.''

It has been an up-and-down year, but the seniors have persevered. As a group, they led a players-only meeting after a one-sided loss to Iowa. They helped the team through Jasmine Powell's decision to leave the team.

"They all had a big impact on our program,'' Whalen said. "And on the team this year. I know it's a bit of an emotional time. We want to go and send these seniors out the right way.''

The team will look very different next season. All five seniors will be gone. There is a highly rated incoming recruiting class, all four Minnesotans, who will be expected to have a quick impact. This season hasn't gone as well as anyone would have liked. Wednesday, Whalen talked about games the team was in but couldn't finish, including losses to North Carolina, Michigan State, Nebraska earlier in the season and at Indiana.

"There is a lot of evaluation to be done, work to be done,'' Whalen said. "What I can do to continue to get better, how we can all be better.''

But that's for later. Right now, Whalen and her team are in the moment. The goal is to send the seniors out right. Win the final two regular season games, play well at the conference tournament.

"Playing with this group of girls, and playing at the Barn?'' Winters said. "It's ben something. It's hard to explain, but it feels so good playing here. That's something I'm going to miss.''