Jan. 31, 2005
By W. Alan Wiederhold
SAN MARCOS, Texas - Three team Most Valuable Player awards, two Southland Conference First Team selections, the Southland Conference Player of the Year award and post-season tournament MVP award would usually be enough accolades to satisfy any collegiate basketball player.
However, an unparalleled devotion to team and an intense will to succeed and improve is what makes Texas State's Tori Talbert a truly exceptional player.
Talbert, a center from Boerne, Texas, has played a big role in the Lady Bobcats' 6-0 start in Southland Conference play. The senior Exercise and Sports Science major leads the conference in scoring with 20.6 points per game, and is second in the conference in rebounding, pulling down 9.3 caroms per contest.
Even with all the individual accomplishments and feats, Talbert is quick to credit her fellow Lady Bobcats for her success and the success of the Texas State this season.
"I wouldn't have accomplished anything without my teammates," she says. "My success is a tribute to them. As a post, they have to find me in the offense, and our guards have done such a great job this season."
Entering her senior season with the Bobcats, Talbert had already established herself as one of the elite players in the 39-year history of the Texas State University women's basketball program. She is averaging a double-double through 102 career games, and has been a premier player since she arrived at the school three seasons ago.
"I wanted to come to Texas State from the beginning," Talbert says. "I wanted to be able to make an impact right away."
To say Talbert has made an impact on the program is a slight understatement. In her first two years in a Lady Bobcat uniform, Talbert was a First Team Southland Conference selection. She was the Southland Conference Player of the Year and post-season tournament MVP during the 2002-2003 season, her sophomore year in which the Lady Bobcats advanced to the NCAA tournament.
"Winning the conference tournament, representing the conference in the NCAA tournament and getting to play on ESPN have been my proudest moments thus far," Talbert says of her sophomore season. "Winning the conference Player of the Year award and the tournament MVP that season was such a proud moment since I was so young."
Earlier this season, Talbert set the university's career rebounding record, bypassing the previous mark of 1,005 held by Linda Muelker, the only women's basketball player to have her uniform number retired by the Bobcats. Talbert to date has registered 1,065 career rebounds.
"[The career rebounding record] is a tribute to me being mean and tough," Talbert says with a smile. "I am even more proud [of the record] because rebounding is not something that is fun to do. Scoring is more fun."
Talbert has had plenty of fun scoring points in her career. If she continues the pace at which she has scored points throughout the season, she will finish as the second all-time scorer in the school's history if the Lady Bobcats advance to the Southland Conference Championship game, a goal that she and her team hopes to accomplish.
"I love this season's team more than any other basketball team that I have ever played on," Talbert says. "We've work really hard and are really driven. I'm proud of what we can and hope to accomplish, and I want to win the conference championship. This team deserves it."
