‘K.K.’ UNI’s sparkplug off the bench

When Tanya Warren set out to build a winning program at Northern Iowa in 2007, her first look was south at Cedar Rapids Washington's K.K. Armstrong.

“K.K. was the first girl I actually recruited,” said Warren, whose Panthers are headed to their second consecutive NCAA tournament this weekend. “Recruiting your home state is so important, and we loved what she brought to the table.”

Knowing that Warren built her program around her gives Armstrong a sense of accomplishment.

“She completely sold me on what we were going to do, where the program was going to go,” Armstrong said. “She said I could change the program with my athleticism, and she was the only one who told me that.”

Warren may have hit the jackpot with Armstrong, whose 13.6 points per game during the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Charles, Mo., landed her on the all-tournament team. The award was the culmination of a solid junior campaign for the guard, who is averaging 8.5 points and 22.5 minutes. She's averaged 8.46 points throughout her career, with almost all of those points coming off the bench.

Armstrong said not being on the court to start the game doesn't bother her.

“I'm just trying to help the team in any way I can,” she said. ‘I know I'm going to get in the game and make a difference and make the team better, and that's all that really matters.”

When her name is called, she answers - even if that name is a little bit false. K.K. originated when her sister, Ashley, had trouble pronouncing her real name, Kaitlin. Ashley pronounced it “K.K.,” a nickname Kaitlin fought for years - mostly, she said, because her middle name doesn't begin with a K.

“I didn't really like it at first because it didn't make sense,” Armstrong said. “I guess in the end, it's easier to yell out on the court, so it just kind of stuck.”

By the age of 10 or 11, Armstrong said, K.K. was commonplace, and she found herself signing her school papers with her new nickname.

“My friends would hear it when they were around my family,” she said. “I just went with it.”

K.K., it turned out, was also easier for the boys she played basketball with at a young age to remember.

“We had a half court basketball court in the back yard,” Armstrong said. “I used to have a bunch of boys come over and try to play me and K.O. (Katelin Oney, another Washington graduate) in 21,”. We would always school them, but it made me pretty tough.”

The No. 13-Seed Panthers (27-5) will need that toughness if they plan on upsetting No. 4 seed Big Ten champion Michigan State (26-5) in the first round Sunday in Wichita, Kan.

“They're a good team,” Armstrong said. “We've made it a point to be good defensively and shut down the Big Ten Player of the Year (Kalisha Keane).”

Armstrong said the team would be ready for this year's test, follwing a first-round loss last year.

“Last year, we kind of went in awe,” she said. “This year, our goal is to win the first game and then just see how far we can get.”

Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

- By Mike Stout, Correspondent