Jordan Hooper remembers watching former Nebraska star Kelsey Griffin's press conferences as a senior at Alliance High School. She recalls being particularly taken with one sentiment that Griffin repeated often: The Huskers wanted to be the hardest-working team in the Big 12.

Hooper took that idea to heart. It came in handy when coach Connie Yori approached the sophomore after last season with a list of things she needed to work on to achieve her potential.

"It was pretty much offense, defense, everything," Hooper said at Tuesday's press conference. "Everything you can think of, I pretty much needed to work on."

So she went to work. Hooper had dominated at Alliance by pumping in a steady stream of jump shots each night, not needing to manufacture points in any other manner.

One season of Division I basketball taught her that approach wasn't going to fly.

So she spent the offseason working on the list. She practiced shooting off the dribble, driving to the basket more and finishing with contact. She also hit the weight room to improve her rebounding and defense.

Her improvement has been obvious this year. Hooper is averaging 21.2 points per game — up from 14.6 last year — on 45 percent shooting, and NU is 12-1. On Monday, she was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the third time this season.

"She's got a lot to her game right now and she can score in a variety of ways," Yori said. "You go through all the ways you can score on a basketball court, and there's not one way she can't score. She's developed her skills as more than just a stand-still shooter."

Hooper's widened array of ability seems to correlate well with NU's win total. The Huskers struggled last season, going 13-18 overall and 3-13 in league play.

This year, NU has just one blemish and is coming off a win in its Big Ten opener, an upset of then-No. 16 Penn State on the road.

Hooper has played a key role, scoring 30 or more points in three of NU's past four games. She had 31 against the Nittany Lions.

It's gotten to the point, Yori said, that it's almost a shock when one of Hooper's shots doesn't fall through the net.

"If she misses a shot, sometimes I think, 'Why are you missing that shot?'" Yori said. "You expect her to make every shot. It's rare that I've ever felt that way, but when she shoots it, you expect it's going in."

A noted perfectionist, Hooper said she feels more anger than surprise when one of her attempts is off target.

And she spent a good deal of last season angry after her shots. NU watched more than 65 percent of its scoring graduate after its historic 2009-10 season, and injuries limited leading scorer Dominique Kelley to 13 games last year.

That often left Hooper, the much-ballyhooed freshman, as one of the Huskers' top options, a role she may not have been quite ready to handle. She shot 36.2 percent last season, a figure that dipped to 31.4 percent in Big 12 play.

There was another factor in play. Hooper, an in-state player tabbed as the program's savior, admitted Tuesday that the pressure got to her.

"Everyone did know me and everyone from Alliance wanted me to do so good," Hooper said. "I didn't want to tell anybody I did (feel the pressure), but now I can say it. Every game I wanted to impress people."

Point guard Lindsey Moore could see the hope of the state weighing heavily on the freshman's shoulders.

"Being from Nebraska, I think everyone had high expectations for her, and I think it's hard being a freshman and coming in with such a huge load to carry," Moore said. "That was a huge responsibility for her."

This offseason, Hooper took a new approach. Instead of shying away from the expectations, she used them as fuel. Spectators outside of Alliance weren't sure if the small-town girl could lead the team.

"I still carry some of the pressure with me to this day because it's helped me grow," Hooper said. "People in Alliance thought I could play, but I don't think anyone else did. It's cool to be able to show people that I can."

Hooper spent the summer refining her game. Her teammates helped challenge her. Moore said the Huskers would have different players guard Hooper during summer games. When defended by a smaller player, Hooper would take to the block and use her 6-foot-2 frame. If guarded by a taller opponent, she would move to the perimeter and beat the opposition with her quickness.

"I just love playing with Hooper," Moore said. "She is playing with a lot of confidence right now, and that's huge. If we need a big shot or a rebound or a steal or something, I know that we can usually count on Hooper and she can help us out with that."

Hooper's hot start to the season has inevitably started drawing comparisons to Griffin, who was an All-American at Hooper's position two years ago. Yori said they are different players in many ways, but they share at least one similarity.

"Kelsey was a kid who got better and better as her career went on, and I think Jordan has done that as well," Yori said.

"But Kelsey wasn't scoring 30 her sophomore year on a regular basis."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1201, sports@owh.com

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