University of Minnesota head women's basketball coach Pam Borton has prided herself on making contributions to the University community and communities throughout the state of Minnesota during her time as head coach, and this week Borton will not only give back to the community, but will also be honored for her community service efforts.

Borton's week begins tonight at the Ann Bancroft Foundation's 2013 dreamXchange at the McNamara Alumni Center starting at 5:30, where she will be paired with a past grant winner to partake in a Q&A session. It is the 16th annual benefit celebration of the Ann Bancroft Foundation, whose mission is to create a world where every girl has a chance to live her wild dream and reach her full potential.

Borton was a recipient of the Ann Bancroft Foundation's Dream Maker Award in 2011, which paid tribute to her leadership and contributions in the effort to encourage the achievements of girls and women.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to AnnBancroftFoundation.org.

Borton will also be honored by Minnesota Business Magazine Thursday night as one of the publication's "The (Real) Power 50," a list of the 50 most important people to know if you wish to conduct business in the state of Minnesota. Borton and the additional 49 award winners will be showcased in the event at The Westin Edina Galleria and will also be featured in the magazine's May 2013 issue.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to MinnesotaBusiness.com/mnbizpower50.

The head coach concludes her busy week on Thursday, May 2, when she will serve as the keynote speaker for the Third Annual Wellness Rocks event at Seven in Minneapolis. All proceeds from the event go to the Cancer Survivor Wellness Fund.

The Cancer Survivors Wellness Fund is a charitable fund administered by the Fairview Foundation. The purpose of the Cancer Survivor Wellness Fund is to help survivors transitioning from treatment to post-treatment by providing funding to support exercise and wellness programs.  

For those living with a cancer diagnosis, exercise and wellness have measurable improvements on cognitive and physical function, as well as reduced recurrence of disease. Exercise and wellness programs for survivors are an important step in preventative wellness and launch survivors on a lifelong journey of empowerment.

For more information or to purchase tickets, go to CancerSurvivorWellnessFund.org.

University of Minnesota women's basketball head coach Pam Borton is scheduled to speak at the TeamWomenMN Leadership Conference on Friday, April 12 at Golden Valley Country Club. The theme of the conference is "Empowering Leadership" and will feature a keynote address from Martha Nevanen, VP of the Pohlad Companies.

Borton, who is the President and co-founder of TeamWomenMN, will open the event at 10:00 a.m. with a "pregame talk", before participating in the remainder of the event schedule.

Also scheduled to participate in the event are Grayce Belvedere Young, Margaret Murphy, Cheryl Reeve, Joy Frestedt, Hannah Ubl, Tammie Follett, Colleen Needles Steward, Sara Beatty Ratner, Lindsey Bruber, Roshini Rajkumar and Janee Harteau.

Complete Schedule of Events
9:00 AM               Registration
10:00 AM             "Pre-Game Talk"
Pam Borton & Keynote Speaker Martha Nevanen, Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Communications, Pohlad Companies
10:45 AM             Networking "Time-Out"
11:00 AM             "Charting Your Career Path"
Grayce Belvedere Young, President of the Prouty Project & Margaret Murphy, President and COO of Olson
12:30 PM             "Half-Time Talk"
Lunch with Cheryl Reeve, Head Coach, Minnesota Lynx
1:30 PM                TeamWomenMN Mentoring and Teaching Programs
Moderated by Joy Frestedt, President, Alimentix
2:15 PM                Networking "Time-Out"
2:30 PM                "Leading Across Generations"
Workshop by Hannah Ubl, Generations Expert & Millenial Speaker, BridgeWorks
3:20 PM                Leadership Panel
Moderated by Tammie Follett, Sr. Account Manager & Business Development Specialist, Thomson Reuters
Panelists:
Colleen Needles Steward, President & CEO, Tremendous Entertainment; Former WCCO Anchor
Sara Beatty Ratner, President, NeoPath
Lindsey Bruber, President & Owner, Simek's
Roshini Rajkumar, Communication Coach & Radio Host

4:00 PM                "Post-Game Talk"
Networking Happy Hour, Kickoff remarks by Janeé Harteau, Chief of Police, Minneapolis

The University of Minnesota women's basketball staff is set to attend the Fast Break Club Coach's Club Reception tonight at Jax Cafe in Northeast Minneapolis. The event will get underway at 6:30 p.m. and conclude at 8:30 p.m.

The reception is for members of the Fast Break Club who give at a level of $150 or higher, which includes the Coaches Club, Elite Eight and Final Four levels.

Special guest and former Gopher standout Lindsay Whalen and her husband Ben Greve are expected to attend the event.

The Minnesota women's basketball team filmed numerous videos during the 2012-13 season that were used during home games, on Gophersports.com and on Twitter and Facebook. The end products used the best shots and were always professionally produced, but the Gophers had a lot more fun with the videos than their fans were able to see.

With 2012-13 coming to a close, Gophersports.com gives fans an inside look at some of the best bloopers from the year. Check out all of the fun that the team experiences behind the scenes!

Friday, March 8 - 3:00 p.m.

Minnesota suffered a tough loss to Ohio State on Thursday night, but the Big Ten Tournament still provided a chance for the team, fans and former players to connect. Some former Gophers traveled to Hoffman Estates to see their old team play. Zoe Harper, Kristen Dockery and China Antoine all met up to watch some basketball and spend the weekend together. Brittany McCoy was also in attendance.

	Antoine was one of the former Gophers in attendance.

Harper plays professional basketball in Australia and works for a logistics company, Dockery works at a fitness club, and Antoine works in corporate fitness. All three visited our hotel after the game on Thursday.

Before they had an opportunity to reconnect with former Gophers, the current Gophers had a game to play. It was pretty quiet when we returned to Sears Centre, as the arena had cleared out after the second game of the day. It started getting louder as tipoff approached.

The Minnesota pep band, cheerleaders and Goldy all traveled to the tournament to help encourage the Gophers. Family, friends and loyal fans formed a loud cheering section behind the Minnesota bench. A Gopher pep band member even won the halftime "Simon says" competition.

After the Buckeyes had won the game, we all had dinner back at the hotel. It was nice to be able to sleep another night in Hoffman Estates and fly back to Minneapolis in the morning. We got back safely on Friday afternoon. Thanks to everyone who supported the team on this road trip.

Thursday, March 7 - 1:15 p.m.

Game day has arrived for the Gophers at the Big Ten Tournament. After a delicious breakfast this morning, the Gophers had a walk-through to go over some last preparations for Ohio State. Overall, it was a relaxing morning at the hotel.

	Loberg is ready for her final Big Ten Tournament.

Most of the travel party loaded the bus to take a first look at the inside of the Sears Centre. We arrived before the first game, Iowa vs. Northwestern, tipped off. The Sears Centre is a relatively new multi-purpose facility. Its other uses include indoor football and soccer. Based on our walk to our seats for the first game, it seemed like the concourses were nice and wide for the fans.

We watched most of the first half of the game before heading back out to the bus. Iowa's pep band and mascot, who were close to where we sat, also provided some entertainment.

This will be the last Big Ten Tournament in a Gopher uniform for Minnesota seniors Katie Loberg and Leah Cotton. Loberg has liked her stay in Hoffman Estates so far, and is ready to get on the court.

"I'm pretty excited for this," Loberg said. "You kind of get this new spark of energy whenever the Big Ten Tournament rolls around. I'm wide awake and ready to win."

The Gophers have beaten Ohio State twice this season and will try to make it a three-peat tonight in the 8-seed vs. 9-seed game. The winner will face 1-seed Penn State tomorrow. Tonight's game will appear on BTN at 6 p.m. CT.

Wednesday, March 6 - 9:30 p.m.

As the Big Ten Tournament slogan says, "March is on." One of the most fun sports months of the year has begun. The Minnesota women's basketball team is part of the excitement, with its first conference tournament game against Ohio State at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

	Banham and the Gophers arrived in Hoffman Estates today.

The Golden Gophers arrived in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Wednesday evening. A travel party of players, coaches and team and department staff (including athletics director Norwood Teague) caught a chartered flight to Midway Airport this afternoon. After a nice short plane trip, we bused to our hotel. We passed the Sears Centre, which is hosting the tournament, on the way.

A few other teams are staying in the same hotel, and Big Ten school balloons and banners adorn the lobby area. Our room keys even have the Big Ten Tournament logo on them.

After the team meal and film session, Rachel Banham had a chance to reunite with one of her former teammates from Lakeville North High School, Cassie Rochel. Rochel is a junior for the Wisconsin Badgers, who are staying in the same hotel. The two met in the lobby to catch up.

"I'm glad that we're able to be with them, especially because there are only three teams here," Banham said. "We were texting all day wanting to meet up. I think it's fun that she's in this tournament so I can watch her and hope she does well, and just be around her again."

Wisconsin is on the opposite side of the bracket from Minnesota, so the high school teammates would both need to make the title game to face each other again this season. Right now, the Gophers' focus is on tomorrow night's game against Ohio State.

"I think we're all really pumped," Banham. "It's going to be a big game tomorrow. We've beaten them twice. It's hard to beat a team three times. They know what to expect, and we know how they play. I think we're all really prepared and we're ready just to get out there tomorrow and play."

Photo Gallery

Can you believe it?! March Madness is already upon us, and with the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament just days away, Minnesota women's basketball head coach Pam Borton found a special way to get her team into the spirit of the season. She brought two people into practice that not only know what it takes to make it to the NCAA Final Four, but did so in a Golden Gopher uniform - Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville.

The two former Minnesota standouts will be reunited as teammates on the hardwood this summer for the Minnesota Lynx, but on Tuesday afternoon they were back together on the court at Williams Arena. The pair shared some words of wisdom with the Gophers prior to the start of practice, before giving them a few lessons on the court. The day's practice came to a close with Whalen and McCarville each sharing their most memorable experiences from their college days at Minnesota.  

Not only was it great for the Gophers to have two of the top WNBA players in the country face-off with them in practice, but it motivated them knowing that Whalen and McCarville were in their same shoes just a few short years ago and changed the landscape of the Minnesota women's basketball program forever.    

@ellariche you can be a beast when you want! Good practice!!! If you need anything, let me know. Keep working at do it @ B10 tourney!!!!

-- Janel McCarville (@JanelMcCarville) March 5, 2013

How much do the Golden Gopher women's basketball players really know about each other? Find out in Gophersports.com's weekly series, Gopher Teammate Trivia!

Hosted by Matt Nelson, this week's edition of Gopher Teammate Trivia has junior Micaëlla Riché answering questions about Kionna Kellogg. Enjoy!

University of Minnesota head women's basketball coach Pam Borton and her staff, in conjunction with the Fast Break Club, will hold their Coaches Social on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at Campus Pizza in Stadium Village. The event is set to get underway at 6:30 p.m.

The Coaches Social is the final event of a series of Coaches Luncheons hosted by the Fast Break Club. The events serve as a great way for Golden Gopher women's basketball supporters to discuss the season and enjoy great company throughout the year.

Cost to attend the Coaches Social is $25 for Fast Break Club members and $30 for non-members. Fans can access the registration form on the Fast Break Club website at fastbreakclub.net.

How much do the Golden Gopher women's basketball players really know about each other? Find out in Gophersports.com's weekly series, Gopher Teammate Trivia!

Hosted by Matt Nelson, this week's edition of Gopher Teammate Trivia has freshman Jackie Johnson answering questions about fellow freshman, and roommate, Shayne Mullaney. Enjoy!

How much do the Golden Gopher women's basketball players really know about each other? Find out in Gophersports.com's weekly series, Gopher Teammate Trivia!

Hosted by Matt Nelson, this week's edition of Gopher Teammate Trivia has junior Kionna Kellogg answering questions about Micaella Riche. Enjoy!