Fond memories of Final Four

The postseason was a blur.

It started innocently, a sixth-seed beating an 11-seed handily, 93-62.

Then the six shocked the three-seed 86-83 to get the first Sweet 16 berth in school history.

At the regional in Columbia, S.C., came a surprisingly easy 87-71 win over the two-seed.

The regional final was a 62-52 win over the five-seed, which had upended the No. 1 seed.

Then it was on to the Final Four.

That’s where everything slowed down for Kari Hutchinson Mueller, a B legend from St. George’s and then a junior reserve at Notre Dame.

Recalling her college career, which ended in 1998 with a Sweet 16 loss to Purdue, a lot blurred together, making it difficult to sort out the details – until the Final Four.

“That was 10 years ago,” Mueller said. “There were a lot of highlights.

“The Final Four wasn’t a blur. It was big-time, getting escorted by police motorcycles through the streets of Cincinnati. The commotion around the whole event, it happened so fast. It was kind of surreal being there.”

As Mueller said, the Final Four appearance didn’t turn out too well with Tennessee winning 80-66 on the way to its second of three straight national championships.

Mueller wasn’t the first Spokane native to play in the Final Four.

Stanford was at the end of three straight trips to the grand finale in 1997 when Mead graduate Reagan Freuen Drew was an injured, redshirting junior for the Cardinal in Cincinnati. As a freshman in 1995 she got into the semifinal, a blowout loss to Connecticut, but didn’t get to play in the 1996 semifinal loss to Georgia.

And of course, University graduate Angie Bjorklund, a freshman at Tennessee, is in Tampa, Fla., this weekend playing a major role as the first player off the bench for the Lady Volunteers.

She became the first Spokane player to score at the Final Four, knocking down a first-half jumper in Sunday night’s 47-46 win over Louisiana State, and advanced to the championship game tonight against Spokane Region winner Stanford.

Mueller was a role player during her Notre Dame career, averaging about 18 minutes as the first or second player off the bench her last two seasons.

“I have some pride in this,” she said. “I was a role player, that’s important. Practice was kind of for gearing up the first string for the competition. I liked that. It fit me for some reason.”

It’s not a role she accepted immediately, however.

“My first year was rough because of the transition,” she said. “I was young, physically and emotionally. …

“You feel good about the sport, but in college it is a business. You have expectations, but expectations of you change when you go from high school to college. But the maturity didn’t change. You have to go through that. By my junior year I understood that.”

The Irish did play in the WNIT her first two seasons so Mueller experienced four years of postseason basketball. Now she understands how blessed she was to play in the Final Four.

“I know luck plays a role in that sort of achievement,” she said. “We had eight players on the team because of a significant number of injuries. Getting there with so little depth says something about how special that team was.

“The stars were aligned.”

After graduating with a sociology degree she returned to Spokane, worked in her parents’ coffee shop and enrolled in a masters program at Gonzaga. She became a graduate assistant in Kellee Barney’s last season at GU and stayed through Kelly Graves’ first season as head coach.

“It was a lot of fun,” Mueller said. “Now I think I’d be a better coach. I wasn’t really focused.”

Tired of a long-distance romance with Alex Mueller, an Irish football player, she moved to Baltimore and was a PE teacher at a private school. They both got jobs in Boise and were married five years ago.

Kari works at University of Phoenix and Alex is at Microsoft Boise. Daughter Anja was born six months ago.

Mueller’s ties to the Northwest are strong – she was not heartbroken at all when Washington State beat Notre Dame in the NCAA men’s tournament, an emotion not shared by the other side of the family.

The Muellers are content in Boise, especially since Kari’s recreation league basketball team has become somewhat competitive.

“I missed the camaraderie,” she said. “You have a built-in family with a team sport. Since it was such a major part of my life growing up, it just feels weird to have it abruptly stop. I put together a rec league team and we were terrible.”

She had to teach players who were wearing Capri-style pants how to make layups. Along the way she ran into some old Class B rivals.

“It feels like a small world,” she said. “We finally got a team with a winning record.”

It’s not the Final Four, but it does have its memories.