One sweet prediction

ALBANY — You’re probably aware by now that the UB women’s basketball team is playing defending national champion South Carolina in the Sweet 16 this weekend.

But did you know that Bulls head coach Felisha Legette-Jack predicted this moment two years ago?

She sure did.

Legette-Jack gave an interview to At Buffalo, UB’s quarterly alumni magazine, just before the start of the 2015-16 season, in which she was asked about a promising contingent of international players whom she and her staff recruited to UB. The group included then-sophomores Stephanie Reid, Courtney Wilkins, Katherine Ups and Liisa Ups, who are all Australian.

“They have size. They have swagger. They’re mentally tough. If they stay, if they keep believing, this team will be in the Sweet 16 in a few years,” Legette-Jack said at the time.

And now, here they are, two years later, in the Aussies’ senior year, an 11th seed about to play No. 2 South Carolina in the Sweet 16. How’s that for a prediction?

“Wow, that’s really cool. I didn’t know that. She’s always believed, ever since the day I first got here,” Reid said here Thursday after being shown the story, which ran in the Winter 2016 issue of At Buffalo.

“I think she knew with this group that we all bought in from the start. She knew success was going to come,” added Reid, the program’s record holder in career assists. “Her expectations for us have always been high.”

Coach Jack knew she had something special in that particular group. She saw commitment, resilience and intelligence. “I don’t say anything I don’t mean. These players bought into what we were trying to create, and my staff was locked in and committed to moving the program forward,” Legette-Jack said Thursday.

“I thought it was a good formula, and I thought we had a chance with these young ladies,” she said.

While it’s pretty cool to be able to predict such a special moment — this is the farthest UB has advanced in the NCAA Tournament, and it’s only their second time in — Legette-Jack and the Bulls aren’t stopping at the Sweet 16.

“Once you get past the first round, you can do anything,” Reid said. “Seeing St. Bonaventure and other teams that we played go to the Sweet 16 last year gave us that confidence and that hope that if they can do it, why can’t we?”

Added Legette-Jack: “We’re excited, but we’re not satisfied because our ultimate goal is to win the national championship. We’ve talked about the Sweet 16 and we saw it come to pass. Now we’ve changed the dream and made it grander. It’s only four more games. Why not us, and why not now?”

Tipoff for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at the Times Union Center. The winner of this game will play the winner of the No. 1 Connecticut-No. 5 Duke contest on Monday night.

Information on tickets for Saturday’s game, as well as official watch parties, is available on the UB Athletics Tournament Central webpage.

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