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Starting over, CU's Mullaney eager to face former team

Ex-Ram has 'grown up' since ill-advised prank changed course of athletic career

By Paul Willis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 18, 2008 at 4:01 p.m.

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Mullaney is helped up by teammates Brittany Spears, left, and Hannah Skildum in a game against Central Florida.

Photo by Joshua Duplechian / Special To The Rocky

Mullaney is helped up by teammates Brittany Spears, left, and Hannah Skildum in a game against Central Florida.

Colorado State women at Colorado

* When: 7 tonight.

* Where: Coors Events Center (11,064 capacity), Boulder.

* Records: CSU, 0-1; CU, 1-0

* TV/radio: FSN; KKZN-AM (760) and KIIX-AM 1410 in Fort Collins.

* Leaders: CSU - Britney Minor and Bonnie Barbee, 16 points; Juanise Cornell, 9 rebounds; Barbee, 4 assists. CU - Brittany Spears, 23 points, 8 rebounds; Hannah Skildum, 5 assists.

* Stat that matters: CU has won five of the past six in this series, including an 82-47 triumph in Fort Collins last season.

They said it

* Hannah Skildum, CU senior guard, on having Kelly Jo Mullaney as a teammate: "I've played against her for many years, and ever since AAU basketball, I remembered she was the girl I wanted to guard. We've always guarded each other, so it's great having her a part of this team now."

* Kathy McConnell-Miller, CU coach, on Mullaney facing her former team tonight: "For her, it's really a unique situation to move from one school in state to another school. So, yeah, I think there's going to be some excitement on her part that most of the other kids won't feel."

* Mullaney, on father Mark's reaction to her transfer from CSU to CU (Mark Mullaney is a former CSU defensive end who played with the Minnesota Vikings): "CSU was his alma mater, so he was really excited when I went there. But just with everything that's happened there, he agreed that it was a good decision to move on. Boulder is a great place for a school and people dream about going to school here, so he was supportive of my decision."

* Lynette Mullaney, Kelly Jo's mother: "It was a good decision (to transfer). We supported her throughout this whole process because there were some disappointing things that happened for her at CSU, and we're thrilled for her now."

Kelly Jo Mullaney will be the starting point guard for CU tonight when the Buffs take on Colorado State, the team she played for two years ago as a freshman.

Photo by Joshua Duplechian/Special to the Rocky

Kelly Jo Mullaney will be the starting point guard for CU tonight when the Buffs take on Colorado State, the team she played for two years ago as a freshman.

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BOULDER — She left Colorado State, but not the state of Colorado.

Kelly Jo Mullaney, now playing for the University of Colorado, will take on her former team tonight (7, FSN Rocky Mountain) at the Coors Events Center.

But this is much more than a routine tale of a player transferring to a rival. The odd circumstances that interrupted a stellar freshman campaign and ultimately led to Mullaney's exit from the CSU program make her a more compelling figure.

The Eden Prairie, Minn., native was involved in the now infamous homemade-bomb incident at CSU in December 2006, an occurrence some loosely associate with the overall downfall of the program during the Jen Warden era.

"It was a learning experience," a contrite Mullaney said. "I think everything happens for a reason."

Had the incident not occurred, Mullaney might still be with the Rams, a junior amid a rebuilding process that surely wouldn't fully take hold until after her graduation. Instead, she's on the other side of the rivalry.

"There are no hard feelings or anything, and I know I'll see her when we play," said CSU forward Juanise Cornell, the only remaining teammate of Mullaney's from 2006-07. "She's a talented kid, so she'll probably be starting or playing a lot of minutes."

Prank goes awry

During Christmas break in 2006, Mullaney and CSU teammates Emily Neal, Raysha Ritter and Brittney Stirling went to the home of a Mullaney family friend for dinner.

Afterward, the players decided to play a prank on teammate Kelly Rae Finley, who, like Mullaney and Neal, was from Minnesota. The players crafted a homemade bomb, partly consisting of dry ice and a plastic soda bottle, and placed it near Finley's apartment in hopes of startling her with a loud bang.

The device exploded with greater ferocity than expected and caused minor property damage (no structural damage or injuries).

The four players fled, later admitting to the deed when confronted by Warden, then the coach.

They were suspended from the team and faced legal repercussions, with a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment (all charges were dropped after the players made good on a one-year probationary period). Negative publicity followed.

"I was young," said Mullaney, whose father, Mark, was a CSU defensive end who went on to play for the Minnesota Vikings from 1975-86. "All four girls involved were young and we were just having fun. It was very innocent and I think it did get blown out of proportion, but you've got to be smart with something like that. You've got to know your surroundings and know that it was not a good decision to do."

About a month later, Stirling and Neal were reinstated, but Mullaney and Ritter were not.

This put to end a freshman season that had gotten off to a sizzling start, as Mullaney started 12 of the 13 games she played in, averaging 14.6 points.

Soon, she was en route to Boulder.

Fresh start

When Mullaney made it known she was transferring, offers began to roll in.

"She had a lot of schools calling her, and I encouraged a few," said Mullaney's mother, Lynette. "But she loved Colorado so much that the choice was easy for her."

Mullaney sat out last season at CU under the NCAA transfer rule but practiced with the team. It admittedly was a bit odd putting her career on hold.

"It does feel kind of like I'm starting over because I haven't gone a full season without playing basketball since I was in second or third grade," Mullaney said. "It's definitely been a transitional phase for me."

That makes it easy to see why Mullaney is perhaps more eager than most to get the season into gear.

"I think anytime you take a year off, you come back hungrier and stronger, better and smarter, with a better grasp of things," CU coach Kathy McConnell-Miller said. "I think that year off really helped her. It gave her an opportunity to see us coach, see what our team is all about, see the philosophy of the program, and I think she's really responded."

The year off also gave Mullaney time to distance herself from the tumultuous year in Fort Collins.

"I've grown up a lot from that, and the transformation from there to here has helped me grow up," she said.

New position

When starting point guard Whitney Houston went down with a

season-ending knee injury,

McConnell-Miller opened the search for a replacement. Virtually every player on the roster, save for true post players such as Kara Richards, was a candidate.

"She just really emerged as someone who has the grasp of the offense and has a grasp of what we're trying to do," McConnell-Miller said of Mullaney. "She can handle the ball and she can score with the ball, so she provides a different dynamic for a point guard, and I think her role in that spot is ever- evolving."

Mullaney scored only two points in Sunday's 86-59 season-opening win against Central Florida but proved she belonged when she made 5-of-6 shots and scored 16 points in an exhibition win against Regis on Nov. 9.

"She has a versatile game," teammate Hannah Skildum said. "She can definitely hit the outside jumper, but something she's real good at is driving it in. She's a little brute in there. She'll go against a big girl. She's not scared of anybody."

But like Mullaney's transition to Boulder as a whole, the new position is a work in progress.

"It's something I have to get used to because my experience is more a shooting guard," Mullaney said. "At CSU, that's what I was, and in high school (Breck School in Minneapolis), that's what I was, but I played a little point guard in high school, so I had some experience. "I like the position, but I just need to get a little more comfortable with that."

But will Mullaney be comfortable with the razzing she could receive from the visitors representing her former school?

"I don't know, to be honest," she said. "What's good for me is I get to be home, so that'll make it easier because the fans will be supportive here. There's always the rivalry anyway, and this makes it bigger. It's exciting is all I can say. Really exciting, and I can't wait to play that game."

Fast break with Kelly Jo Mullaney

Being from Minnesota, you must be a Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves and Wild fan, right?

"Yeah, I'm definitely a fan. Probably more of the 'Wolves, but they traded away Kevin Garnett to the Celtics, so maybe not as much now. And, of course, my dad played for the Vikings, so I've always liked them."

What do you miss most about your home state?

"Definitely, the lakes. I think if Colorado had all those lakes in addition to the mountains, it'd be perfect."

What is more overblown: Sunday NFL coverage or election coverage?

"I'd have to say the Sunday NFL. The election was pretty important."

Male and female pro hoopsters you most admire?

"There are so many of each, but I'd have to say Kevin Garnett on the men's side. On the women's side, Ann Strother (a former Connecticut player and former CU women's basketball director of operations who is playing professionally overseas), just because I've met her and respect her so much as a person."

What about Boulder is cooler than Fort Collins?

"Probably just the town in general. There's a lot of culture in Boulder and it's close to the mountains, which is great because I ride my bike everywhere and there are a lot of trails."