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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21. 2011
OBITUARY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this March 20, 2010 file photo, Oklahoma State women's basketball coach Kurt Budke, a Salina native, reacts during the first half of an NCAA first-round college basketball game against Chattanooga, in Tempe, Ariz. Oklahoma State University says Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed in a plane crash in central Arkansas. The university said in a news release on Friday that the two were on a recruiting trip to Arkansas when the plane crashed near Perrillo, about 45 miles west of Little Rock.
Deceased Cowgirls coaches remembered
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A growing memorial to Oklahoma State women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna is pictured in Stillwater, Okla., Friday. Budke and Serna were killed in a plane crash Thursday in Arkansas.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
STILLWATER, Okla. — Kurt Budke believed in Oklahoma State when no one else did, and he wasn't afraid to show it.
Less than two years after his Cowgirls failed to win any of their 16 conference games, Budke led them up against powerhouse Oklahoma and reigning national player of the year Courtney Paris. He supported his upstart team with quite the fashion statement: the brightest orange blazer he could find.
Behind a scintillating 45-point game from Andrea Riley, the Cowgirls upset the sixth-ranked Sooners for the first time in nine years.
Wherever Budke went, he won.
The charismatic coach who turned the Cowgirls into an NCAA tournament regular was killed along with assistant coach Miranda Serna and two other people in a plane crash in Arkansas late Thursday. The two coaches, who first united as player and coach 16 years ago, had been on a recruiting trip.
Budke frequently offered his players encouragement from the sidelines, but he also could be firm, raising his deep voice. And on more than one occasion, he grabbed a microphone to speak to the Gallagher-Iba Arena crowd after a win.
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"Coach Budke was a ball coach. What he did to turn this program around was unbelievable but that's not important right now," said Jim Littell, Budke's assistant who will replace him on an interim basis.
ley (Texas) and was his assistant at Louisiana Tech for the last of three straight trips to the NCAA tournament.
"What's important is he was a father figure for these kids. He had a tremendous knack of taking kids that maybe were struggling in some part of their life and making it better for them. That was his strongest trait."
The Guadalupita, N.M., native was his recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma State, which has been to the postseason the past five years. University President Burns Hargis said Serna was the first in her family to go to college.
Budke played basketball for Barton County Junior College and graduated from Washburn in 1984 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. After some early small-college jobs, he built the JUCO powerhouse at Trinity Valley before hooking up with Louisiana Tech, once one of the top programs in the women's game.
A Salina, Kan., native, Budke was a married father of three, including a daughter currently at Oklahoma State.
"I looked at him almost as a mentor," Ford said. "I can't tell you how many times I would pick up the phone and ask him how he ran his zone offense. He'd come down to the office or I'd go up to his and we would sit and talk."
Serna, 36, was one of his top helpers along the way. Before spending the last seven seasons at OSU, she played on one of his four teams that won the junior-college national title at Trinity Val-
"I loved her energy for the game," Oklahoma State men's basketball coach Travis Ford said. "She had a great enthusiasm for the game. She enjoyed recruiting and she enjoyed the process of that and just had a warm heart."
When Budke took over the program, the Cowgirls had finished with a losing record in five of their previous seven seasons and never finished more than a game over .500 during that span.
The Cowgirls went 0-16 in Big 12 play in his first season, then secured their first bid to the NCAA tournament in 11 years. The next year brought a trip to the round of 16.
"You learn how to lose, and that's a bad habit," he once said of those early struggles. "Sometimes, it's easier to lose than to fight back, so we had to change habits and expectations."
Budke had little to sell but a dream, but it was enough to convince the WNBA-bound Riley to come make her mark. She left as the program's career scoring leader.
"I came to this league because I wanted to coach against the best, night in and night out," he once said. "These players that want to come play for us want to play against the best. That's how we go out and recruit."
"When I first went there and got into the gym office, I saw eight players in the outer office hanging around, enjoyting themselves and relaxing," said Leon Barmore, who made nine Final Four trips with the Lady Techsters and also hired Budke.
"This was a player's coach. The players loved to play for him. He presented an environment which was relaxing. He made you feel warm and at ease, that always stood out to me."
FOOTBALL
Associated Press Top 25 Football Poll (first place votes in parentheses)
Football Poll
(first place votes
in parentheses)
1. LSU (60), 11-0
2. Alabama, 10-1
3. Arkansas, 10-1
4. Stanford, 10-1
5. Oklahoma State, 10-1
6. Virginia Tech, 10-1
7. Boise State, 9-1
8. Houston, 11-0
9. Oregon, 9-2
10. USC, 9-2
11. Michigan State, 9-2
12. Oklahoma, 8-2
13. Georgia, 9-2
14. South Carolina, 9-2
15. Wisconsin, 9-2
16. Kansas State, 9-2
17. Michigan, 9-2
18. Clemson, 9-2
19. TCU, 9-2
20. Penn State, 9-2
21. Baylor, 7-3
22. Nebraska, 8-3
23. Notre Dame, 8-3
24. Virginia, 8-3
25. Georgia Tech, 8-3
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