Now that the Big 12 Championship is secured, ISU sophomore center Angie Welle simply wants to move on.

“That’s just the first step,” Welle said. “Coach Fennelly teaches us you can never be satisfied.”

Welle has taken that lesson to heart. The second team All-Big 12 performer averages 15.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. She’s also shooting a heady 65 percent from the field.

Welle’s basketball odyssey began in the North Dakota metropolis of Fargo, playing Y-ball on Saturday mornings in the third grade.

“I think I was just brought up to play,” Welle said. “You’re tall, you’re going to play basketball—that’s what it was. I just got hooked on it.”

As Welle matured, so did her skills, earning her local reknown and placing her in a position to evince interests from up-and-coming programs such as Iowa State.

“We saw her the summer before her junior year and really liked her game,” ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. “We heard a lot of good things about her.”

Welle was named 1997 Class A player of the year at Shanley high school in Fargo. The transition from high school to college, she said, presented numerous challenges and forced her to upgrade the quality of her game.

The hardest part about college ball is the level of physical play, she said.

“With how physical it is, it’s bad to say, but it’s basically you do what you can get away with,” Welle said. “That’s how it is. Whoever can get away with the most on the post is going to win.”

Welle points to improved versatility and the ability to use both hands as keys to her development.

“Last year I would not know what to do with [the ball] if they would not let me go to my left,” Welle said. “I’ve just tried to do different things—go to my right, drive from the high post—just to make myself harder to guard.”

During one stretch, Welle converted 20 of 21 field goals, helping to guide the Cyclones through some cold outside shooting spells and to the pinnacle of the Big 12.

“She’s had a phenomenal year,” Fennelly said. “A big reason we’re in the position we’re in is because of how well Angie’s played.”

Welle’s trademark move—a spinning, elbows-flared lay-up—presents problems for opposing defenses.

“My one move that I have,” Welle joked, but it’s been difficult to contain.

“It works,” senior Monica Huelman said.

Faced with the potential loss of senior Desiree Francis, Welle’s contributions become increasingly vital to the team’s success.

“Each person has to do one little extra thing,” Welle said. “You just know you’ve got to step up.”

The Cyclones will have to step up collectively if they are to match up well in the NCAA Tournament with heavyweights such as Connecticut, who Welle tabs as the most impressive team in the game.

“They’ve been No. 1 from start to finish,” Welle said.

Welle has no doubt that Iowa State can compete with anyone. Anything short of a national title would be a disappointment, she said.

“Every team in the nation’s goal is to win a national championship,” Welle said. “But I think it could honestly be a realistic goal [for Iowa State].”

Why not? Welle’s own meteoric rise can only serve to heighten the team’s expectations and cause the desire for preeminence to burn white hot.

“This year, in my opinion, she’s been the best post player in the conference,” Fennelly said.