Anna Cole has been a Wildcat her entire collegiate career, just with a different team. This six-foot, five-inch sophomore transferred from Kentucky (also known as the Wildcats) and will take on the center position after the loss of All-Big Ten center Amy Jaeschke. Cole was injured with a stress fracture for the majority of the season last year but is healthy and ready to take the court for the first time as a Northwestern Wildcat.
What motivated the transfer from Kentucky to Northwestern?
The offense here is more of a post oriented offense and there it was more guard. I just really wanted to play in an offense where I could make more of a difference and really contribute to the game.
While playing at Kentucky you experienced an injury in your foot. What was the degree of that?
I had two stress fractures in my right foot at Kentucky. Really, it was just coming from high school to college; there is so much more running and my feet just couldn’t handle it. I have never had any injuries before though.
Did you and Amy Jaeschke ever have one-on-one practices or sessions together?
When we did individual workouts for the post players. There were four of us in a group and she was always in my group, and they encouraged me to guard her a lot. It was a good experience for me.
Strength and weakness wise, what are you working on in your post-specific workouts?
We are trying to work on getting low; getting low on the block and getting low physically, meaning bending my knees and being able to push other people out. In high school I thought I didn’t have to box out [because I'm] I’m huge. Then I came to college and I thought, "Oh my God, everyone can jump."
What is it like coming from a small town like Mondovi, Wisc. to a suburb right outside of Chicago?
It is so different. My town has 2000 people, no stoplights, none of that. I remember coming here and talking to my teammates and telling them, “Oh yeah I live on a farm,” and everyone freaked out and asked me if I had animals and cows and what not. Coming here is so different but so awesome though. I love living so close to Chicago and being able to go downtown. It’s different, but I like it.
I’m so sorry to go into the height questions, but when did you stop growing?
Actually I grew an inch and a half at Kentucky. So as far as I know, I stopped growing a year ago. It was crazy. I was 6'3'' when I was a freshman in high school and I have gown four inches since then. I was 6’5'' going into Kentucky.
That being said, where do you find clothes considering your height?
The only place I can find jeans is The Buckle. It’s absolutely the only place. There is only one brand that goes long enough for me, so I have to stick with that. And for basketball here, I wear the guy’s sweatpants. My teammates sometimes get cute ones and I am like, “Oh yeah, those won’t fit.” Like I can’t wear Lululemon pants because they are too short. It’s depressing really because I love them.
Going back to your red shirt year, what did you do with that time? How did you capitalize on that time? What did you work on?
It was really different coming here as far as academics go because of course this is a really challenging school, so I had to learn to deal with that and that was a big change, but also we had our team workouts and we specifically had extra workouts and extra lifting sessions for us two girls that were red shirts. The team would lift two times a week while we lifted three or four times. It was a lot of working out.
Now that you are finally eligible to play and suite up what are you looking forward to in your first game?
I’m super excited. Of course I’m nervous, but really I’m super excited to be able to get on the court with my teammates and just play the game. I feel like its been forever.
Do you have any concerns or worries for this year?
Playing in the Big Ten. The Big Ten is a lot different than the SEC, the SEC is a lot more up and down while the Big Ten is a lot more physical and I definitely noticed that when I came here. So I am just going to have to learn to play more physical.
I have to ask, can you dunk?
I can’t. Everyone always ask me that, they really do. I get it all the time.
What do you think of the coincidence that Kentucky is the Wildcats and now you play for the Northwestern Wildcats? Are University of Arizona or Kansas State in your future?
All I can say is once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.