March 2009 — To say the ASU women’s basketball team limped into the 2009 NCAA Tournament would be an understatement.

After losing leading scorer and starting point guard Dymond Simon to her second anterior cruciate ligament injury in three years on the last day of the regular season, the Sun Devils were upset by USC in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament and were then dealt the No. 6 seed in the Trenton Regional.

But from there, ASU went on an unexpected tear during the Big Dance and became one of the Cinderella teams of the tournament.

The Sun Devils, behind outstanding performances from all-everything guard Briann January, rallied from nine points down to beat No. 3-seed Florida State 63-58 to reach the Sweet 16 and then put on an offensive show in an 84-69 victory over No. 2-seed Texas A&M to advance to the Elite Eight.

“The way they’ve pulled together, stepped up and just played incredible team basketball through the NCAA Tournament has been more than impressive,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said following the win over A&M.

The Sun Devils fell short of the Final Four when it lost to eventual national champion Connecticut, but the Sun Devils’ second Regional Final appearance in three years officially elevated the ASU program to elite status under Turner Thorne.