CHICAGO — Bob Hallberg recorded an NAIA coaching milestone Tuesday.
Hallberg's Saint Xavier University women's basketball team was ranked No. 1 in Tuesday's NAIA Division II poll. Hallberg became the first coach ever to lead an NAIA women's and men's basketball team to the top spot in the rankings. Hallberg guided his alma mater Chicago State to the men's top spot in an NAIA poll when he was head coach in 1983.
"It's not like landing on the moon, but to be the first person to do anything would be a thrill," Hallberg, a Leo Catholic High School graduate who's also Saint Xavier's athletic director, said Monday. "I would be really pleased to be in that position to say I've done something no one else has done. That would be quite an honor."
Hallberg became Saint Xavier's first women's basketball head coach in 1999. He also has coached the boys and men's teams at Kennedy High School, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Saint Xavier.
Saint Xavier is 10-0 this season and was ranked No. 2 until taking over the top spot Tuesday. The previously top-ranked team, Morningside College (Iowa), suffered its first loss last week, which boosted Saint Xavier into the No. 1 spot.
"It would be a thrill for the players to be ranked that way, and for the university," Hallberg said Monday.
One of Saint Xavier's top players is junior guard Mikayla Leyden of Norwood Park. Leyden is averaging 12.5 points a game and is the team leader in assists (4.7) and steals (2.5) per game. She also averages 5.4 rebounds a game (third on the team).
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