Glenn Connelly / Assistant Photo Editor

In 2006, Jené Morris was playing in her first year at Cal, having one of the best freshman seasons in the entire Pac-10 Conference. Morris started the majority of the games for the Golden Bears and helped them earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, their first appearance since 1993. She was one of the most promising players on a rapidly improving team in a well-respected conference. On the surface, things couldn’t have been going better for Morris.

In that same year, things were very different on the opposite end of California, as the San Diego State women’s basketball team was wrapping up one of the toughest seasons in program history. In head coach Beth Burns’ first year back at Montezuma Mesa, SDSU went 3-24, including a 0-16 record in the Mountain West Conference. Although it was clear Burns was brought in to completely rebuild the program, even the most devout Aztec fan had to cringe at the sight of their record in the 2005-06 campaign.

On the surface, Morris and SDSU were on completely different wavelengths, and it was more than just basketball that brought the two together.

Despite leading her team in steals and averaging nearly nine points a game, Morris was not satisfied in Berkeley.

“I decided to transfer before I found SDSU. It just wasn’t a good fit for me,” Morris said. “It was a combination of a couple different things: mainly coaching and a lot of team stuff off the court.”

Meanwhile, despite failing to win a single conference game in 2006, Burns’ reputation as a coach and recruiter had everyone close to the women’s basketball program excited and optimistic about the not-too-distant future.
“I was familiar with a lot of assistant coaches and coach Burns,” Morris said. “I met some of them through basketball camps at Stanford and around the Bay Area, and I also knew some of the players like Quenese Davis, who I’ve been playing against since the fourth grade.

“Once I talked to coach Burns about the program, she really presented it in a way where I knew this team would be good, and I wanted to be a part of something big.”

Because of NCAA regulations, Morris was unable to play in the 2006-07 season in which the Aztecs went 12-16 (5-11 in MWC play) and finished the year as the 11th-most improved team in the nation in terms of wins. This was even more encouraging for Burns’ squad knowing it had Morris waiting in the wings.

“(The redshirt season) really gives you the opportunity, if someone has good work ethic, to develop their game,” Burns said. “And what separates Jené from a lot of people is her work. Everybody wants to be great, but being great is a grind. It takes six days a week, three hours a day, and she goes hard every rep, even during her redshirt season she had that dedication.”

The year spent away from the game didn’t leave Morris rusty, as last season, in her first year back, she led the team in points per game (14.1), steals (92) and 3-pointers (46). Morris led the team in scoring in 14 of 31 games and was a large part of her team’s surprising run in last year’s MWC Tournament, in which SDSU upset Wyoming in the first round and then shocked TCU in the semi-finals with a last-second inbound-play by then-sophomore Quenese Davis. In the championship round, the Aztecs fell three points short of knocking off New Mexico for the conference title and earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

That performance in Las Vegas is a big reason why SDSU has been picked to finish second in the Mountain West this season. In a program that won just three games three years ago, this type of preseason hype is unfamiliar territory, but something the team will use to their advantage.

“Many people have been asking if higher expectations have put some pressure to the team,” Burns said. “But I have to say, unequivocally, no. Because when you’re building a program, success and confidence go hand in hand, but they’re hard to come by. Now that we have that respect and attention, as we say here on the team, it’s on us to get it done.”

As for Morris, who has now completed the first two years of her eligibility, her focus is on reaching that next level.

“Last year was good, we really improved and we finished second (in the MWC Tournament),” Morris said. “But there is still a lot of room for improvement. Second is good, but we’re going for first.”