TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? Indiana State head women's basketball coach Jim Wiedie announced this afternoon (Dec. 12) the addition of former Sycamore All-American Melanie Boeglin to the program as a graduate assistant.
"Melanie Boeglin is synonymous with Indiana State women's basketball," Wiedie said in making the announcement. "She has had a major impact on our program since the first day she arrived on campus. Our program and this community are extremely excited about Mel's return. We look forward to the positive impact she will have on the program as a member of our basketball family."
Boeglin recently completed the first half of her second professional season with a team in Zamarat, Spain. She started all but two games this season, but will be leaving the international professional ranks to return to her alma mater.
She spent the previous season competing in Sweden for Jamtland Basketball. With Jamtland, she averaged 18.8 points, 6.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals. Boeglin led her team to a 12-10 regular-season record and a No. 6 seed in the playoffs.
Boeglin is expected to begin her duties with the Sycamores upon her return to the United States after Christmas.
She finished a legendary collegiate career with the Sycamores during the 2005-06 season, helping ISU to a school-record 18-game winning streak and an impressive 27-6 final record. Boeglin led the Sycamores to the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship Game in three of her four seasons in the program.
The school's third all-time leading scorer with a final tally of 1,800 career points, Boeglin captured the school and Missouri Valley records for steals (444) and assists (685) while also setting the school standard for free throws made (576). Her final steals total of 444 was ranked in the Top 20 of the NCAA Division I women's basketball record books when her career was over.
Decorated individually as a player, Boeglin was the first athlete in the Valley to earn both the Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year and Prairie Farms MVC Scholar Athlete of the Year Awards in the same season. She also earned MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors as a junior and was the first-ever Indiana State women's player to earn both MVC All-Defensive as well as All-MVC honors in each of her four years with the program.
In addition, Boeglin was a member of the MVC All-Freshman team in 2002-03 as she led the Sycamores to the first of two MVC Regular Season Championships under her watch. Boeglin also was a three-time First Team member of the Valley's All-Scholar-Athlete team. She was named Valley Player of the Week a total of eight times, second-most in the history of the league behind only Stiles.
The biggest honors for Boeglin nationally came as a senior on her way to being named an ESPN The Magazine First Team Academic All-American and was an academic all-district selection as both a junior and senior. She was a member of three separate All-American teams, including Kodak/WBCA, The Associated Press and The Sports Network.
Other honors for Boeglin during her career included being the first Indiana State women's basketball player to receive an invitation to attend the WNBA Pre-Draft Camp in 2006; being named to the All-Valley Tournament Team twice; appearing in the Postseason WNIT three times; scoring a career-high 46 points in a double-overtime victory at Drake as a senior, which represented the most points scored by a single-player in one game in the entire nation during the 2005-06 season; dishing out a school-record 19 assists during the same season at Eastern Kentucky, which tied a Valley record and set the NCAA single-game high for that season; and being part of a six-member senior class that drew a school record 6,836 fans to Hulman Center for their final regular-season home contest against Evansville on March 4, 2006.
