Please help us in wishing a very Happy Birthday to @rachelbanham15! pic.twitter.com/EHr5zcOJgl
— Minnesota Women's Basketball (@GopherWBB) July 15, 2015
Gophers women’s basketball player Rachel Banham has a goal in mind.
She told the Pioneer Press Thursday that she doesn’t want to break Lindsay Whalen’s all-time scoring record at the University of Minnesota, she wants to destroy it.
Banham is working hard to recover from a devastating knee injury she suffered last year in a game at North Dakota. She tore her ACL in the December game, throwing a major monkey wrench into what was supposed to be a promising and historic season with the Gophers.
The season showed so much promise for the Lakeville-native and her teammates, after she was named the Big Ten preseason Player of the Year and well as being a Naismith Award nominee.
Before she was injured, Banham was averaging 18.8 points per game and was among the nation’s leaders in three-point field goals.
The injury left her just 107 points short of Whalen’s scoring record of 2,285 points and unsure of how her time in Minnesota would end. But the NCAA gave her another year of eligibility and now the Lakeville-native has her eyes set on that goal.
According to the Pioneer Press, she showed enough progress last month to participate in no-contact drills.
It was @rachelbanham15's 22nd birthday today. Being ahead of schedule with her recovery from a knee injury is a pretty nice gift. #Gophers
— Marcus R. Fuller (@Marcus_R_Fuller) July 16, 2015
Now she is on the comeback trail and her return to the court doesn’t appear to be too far off.
“I got cleared to start cutting and shifting two weeks ago,” Banham told the newspaper. “I’ve been doing agility drills, working on cutting and layups. A lot of one-legged stuff, just getting my confidence back and my quickness back, as well. Every day I’m getting better and more confident, actually starting to look like a basketball player again.”
The Gophers hope Banham will be back in time for their 2015-16 opener on Nov. 13 against Wofford at Williams Arena.
