Some fun anecdotes emerged from the University of Minnesota campus Tuesday. Rachel Banham, two days removed from an NCAA-record-tying 60-point game against Northwestern, was taping an interview with play-by-play man Mike Grimm when he asked if she felt a bit like Kobe Bryant.
That was fitting, because about that time Bryant took to social media to congratulate Banham.
Our Rachel Blount picks it up from there:
Someone from the Gophers who monitors social media was with her at the interview, spotted the tweet at that moment and said to Banham: Look at this. Banham said she "freaked out," could barely finish the interview and then went "running around all over Bierman showing everybody." She also forwarded the tweet to "everybody in my phone book."
Banham then thanked the NBA great, who was kind enough to send a reply back.
"I was literally shaking. I thought I was going to start crying, I was so happy," Banham said. "I didn't even know what to say. I was freaking out. I couldn't even tweet back right away, because I didn't want to say anything dumb and be embarrassing. So I left myself calm down. I was really happy."
Added coach Marlene Stollings: "She came running in the office. We were in a staff meeting, figuring out how to beat Nebraska, and I get this knock on the door that was pretty anxious, and it was Rachel. We said 'Come in,' and she was like, 'Coach! Coach! I just got a tweet from Kobe, and it changed my life! This is the best day of my life!' So it was a special moment. I was so glad she stopped by and shared it with us. It was really classy of him to do."
