Women's Basketball Shows Dramatic Improvement in 2005-2006

For first-year head coach , the challenge for the Oregon State University women’s basketball program in 2005-2006 was to change the culture. The team was coming off a 6-23 season, had won just a single Pac-10 Conference game and had lost eight consecutive contests to end the year.

Wagner quickly assembled an outstanding coaching staff and made the team belief in itself. The results were phenomenal. The Beavers improved to 16-15, won seven Pac-10 games, including victories over Oregon, USC and sweeps of Arizona and Washington State. The club opened the season by winning six of its first seven games and ended the year by winning an opening round contest in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

The 10-win improvement from the previous season ranked tied for fifth in the NCAA and tied with Missouri as the best improvement in one season by a BCS Conference program.

“This team gave 100 percent, and that’s all I could ask,” Wagner said. “We had a lot of challenges this season and I could not have asked a team to respond any better than this one. I’m proud of the foundation this group of young women built for the future and I will always have fond memories of the 2005-06 season.”

Following the season senior forward earned Pac-10 Conference Honorable Mention honors and senior guard and senior forward earned conference academic acclaim.

Butler and Close also recently were rewarded for their outstanding play by participating in the free agent camp of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.