Brady Sallee had a hard time putting into words the significance of Tuesday night’s Ohio Valley Conference quarterfinal win against Tennessee State.

Which is saying something for the usually quick-witted Eastern women’s basketball head coach.

But he is right in saying the Panthers’ 65-51 win was a “huge first for our program.”

Huge firsts are a growing occurrence in the last four years of Eastern’s women’s basketball. Both Sallee’s program and Friday’s semifinal game against Southeast Missouri in Nashville, Tenn., are new chances for Eastern to experience another first under Sallee.

Sallee came to Charleston four years ago with the program in despair. Linda Wunder had compiled a horrendous 36-101 overall record in five years prior to Sallee’s arrival.

Much work needed to be done to restore Eastern’s women’s basketball to the prominence it had when it started Division I play in 1982.

Every year from its Division I inception, until 1991, all the program knew was winning.

Then losing seasons for 15 of the next 16 years followed.

By the time Sallee arrived on Eastern’s campus in April 2004, the women’s basketball program hadn’t had a winning season in a decade.

Then athletic director Rich McDuffie said the hiring of Sallee was easier “because he promised success right away.”

Well, that success didn’t come right away. It didn’t even come his second or third year at Eastern.

Granted, Sallee’s teams won 10 games each of his first three years, a notable accomplishment considering the program hadn’t won 10 or more games three years in a row since the mid-to-late ’90s.

But Sallee’s first team, which put together a 10-17 record, had a lightweight non-conference schedule that didn’t fully prepare them for OVC play. That was evident with the Panthers’ 3-13 league record his first year.

Sallee didn’t put together that non-conference schedule. His predecessor, Wunder, developed it instead. His second year opened up with a game against No. 22 Southern California in a tournament in Hawaii. Talk about a drastic difference compared to the 2004 opener at home against NAIA opponent Saint Francis.

The 2005-06 team struggled initially, losing its first six games. However, the more difficult non-conference schedule had a different effect once OVC play started, and those losses soon turned into wins.

But the team, which featured a core of six freshmen taking up a majority of the minutes, faded late in the season, losing their last sox regular season games and barely sneaking into the OVC tournament as the eighth seed. They then had to travel seven hours to Cookeville, Tenn., and take on a more experienced Tennessee Tech team. Cookeville was where Sallee experienced his first conference tournament loss at Eastern at the hands of legendary Tech head coach Bill Worrell.

The learning curve was supposed to be near completion entering Sallee’s third year. The program had expectations for the first time in years. Combine that with the return of OVC Freshman of the Year Rachel Galligan entering her sophomore year, plus a talented freshman guard in Jessica Huffman, the team had the makings to finish in the top four of the league.

For whatever reason, the team never established itself as a legitimate contender in the OVC. The loss of guard Megan Edwards to a season-ending torn ACL in the team’s second exhibition game surely had an effect. Huffman was thrust into the point guard role, a role not necessarily suited for the shoot-first, pass-second mentality Huffman had as a freshman.

Galligan also had to deal with being the focal point on every team’s scouting report, and – with no other real inside post presence – had to single-handedly score 20 points every game for the Panthers to have a chance.

The team started a swoon shortly before Christmas that didn’t end until mid-January with seven straight losses, including six OVC defeats.

Then inconsistent play hit Sallee’s team the remainder of the ’06-07 season and the Panthers did not qualify for the OVC tournament.

Questions are abound heading into this season. Will the talented junior class finally play as a cohesive unit? How will Edwards play after missing a year because of her knee injury? Who will complement Galligan in the post? What will the athletic department do with Sallee’s contract, which expires at the end of this season?

And at the start of this year, those questions weren’t answered with the Panthers’ 0-7 start. But once OVC play started, and ironically after Galligan and Huffman were out with injuries, Eastern found its niche, winning six of their first seven league games.

Suddenly, the season wasn’t lost and the Panthers continued on a roll for the rest of the season. Galligan became healthy, Edwards regained her freshman form and Huffman kept from shooting Eastern out of games.

The contribution of sophomore Maggie Kloak in establishing a second post presence for the Panthers can’t be overlooked either.

And neither can this team, when three months ago fans were preparing for another long winter of losing.

But not now.

Winning – and contending for NCAA tournament berths- are the only words Eastern currently knows.

Matt Daniels can be reached at 581-7936 or at mwdaniels@eiu.edu.