CU coach Lappe returns near her roots

IOWA CITY - The longer Linda Lappe coaches, the more she cherishes the athletic memories of her own youth.

'There are a lot of kids I've met that didn't have the kind of high-school experiences I was blessed with,” said the women's basketball coach at the University of Colorado. 'A lot of them didn't have the success, or didn't have the coaching.

'I can say this: I never thought to myself, 'I can't wait to get out of here.'”

Sunday, she's coming back.

A native of Morning Sun in southeast Iowa and a two-time state-champion at Winfield-Mount Union High School, Lappe brings the Buffaloes (7-1) to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday for a battle with 19th-ranked Iowa (6-2).

Tipoff is 2 p.m.

A 2009 inductee into the IGHSAU girls' basketball Hall of Fame, Lappe ranks 18th among Iowa five-player scorers with 1,987 points. She led Winfield-Mount Union to Class 1A state titles in 1995 and 1996. The Wolves amassed an 80-game winning streak before losing to Lynnville-Sully in the 1997 state semifinals.

Lynnville-Sully edged W-MU for the title in 1998.

'In one way, yeah, it seems like 20 years (since the first title), because of all the things that have happened since,” Lappe said. 'On the other hand, I remember all the people I played with, all the fun times we had. So it's gone fast.”

After playing at Colorado, Lappe began her coaching career as an assistant at Drake, then Colorado State. She was a head coach at Metro State for three years before taking the head spot at Colorado.

At the time, at age 30, she was the youngest head coach at a BCS-conference school.

In her first four-plus years back in Boulder, Lappe has amassed an 89-53 record. The Buffaloes reached the NCAA tournament in 2013, the WNIT in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

Last year's team went 19-15, including a 90-87 win over the Hawkeyes in Boulder.

'We hope to repay them for what they did to us last year,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'This is an important stretch for us to prepare for our Big Ten schedule, to get better and hopefully get some quality wins that will help with the selection committee as well.”

The Hawkeyes took a beating at Louisville on Thursday, 86-52. Colorado outlasted San Jose State, 97-89, Friday in overtime.

Lappe considers the Hawkeyes and the Buffaloes 'two very similar teams.

'We're probably not the most athletic teams out there, but we play hard,” Lappe said. 'Iowa is very skilled. (Samantha) Logic is a great playmaker.

'They're going to test our defense, and they're going to take away some things that maybe other teams haven't been able to.”

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