ROSEMONT, Ill. — Natalie Potts isn’t entirely sure where her constant energy on the basketball court comes from. She’s always loved running, always wanted to win badly enough to do anything to make it happen. She did it with a motor that never stops humming.
“Growing up, I was top of the press the whole game, running with my head chopped off,” she said. “I was a chicken.”
It was with that motor that the 6-foot-2 forward forced herself into Nebraska’s starting lineup as a freshman, then quickly became one of the Huskers’ go-to players. Potts started 35 games in 2023-24, averaging 10.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game en route to being selected Big Ten freshman of the year by league coaches. It wasn’t the season she anticipated, but it set her up to be a major contributor as NU tries to make back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since 2015.
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“I just learned how to compete,” Potts said. “It’s a big learning experience going into college. So you learn a lot along the way, but you just adjust as you go as well.”
When Nebraska coach Amy Williams was recruiting Potts out of Incarnate Word Academy in Normandy, Missouri, Potts’ mother Sharon had a concern. Her daughter wasn’t as big or strong as most of the Huskers’ current roster.
Potts had her own concerns. After arriving on campus, she intentionally kept her expectations low, figuring she wouldn’t get significant playing time right away. When she began the season in the starting lineup, she was nervous.
Williams wasn’t. She had seen enough of Potts to know how many different ways she could impact a game with her energy and hustle, regardless of any physical limitations. While watching her in high school, Williams lost track of how many deflections Potts came away with on the defensive end.
“We don’t recruit anybody into our program if we don’t believe that they have that ability to have a positive impact for us, and she was no different,” Williams said. “We believed in her from the moment she signed those papers, and we started to see some really good flashes early in her career that she was gaining confidence as well.”
It translated to college basketball. The nerves faded after a few games, and Potts consistently provided Nebraska with a spark. She excelled as an offensive rebounder and made an impact in areas that don’t show up in the box score, like as a second defender hounding the opposing point guard to shorten the shot clock.
Now she wants to smooth out the rougher edges of her game ahead of her sophomore year. Nebraska lost perimeter scoring with Jaz Shelley’s departure, and Potts wants to improve on her 25.4% mark from 3-point range. It led to late nights over the offseason, alone in the gym, hoisting up shot after shot as she tried to become a greater threat from distance and a more well-rounded player.
“She’s been working really hard and looking good from behind the arc,” Williams said. “Her ball handling skills have just continued to get better.”
The Huskers bring back much of the personnel that took them to the Big Ten championship game and the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. The next step, Williams said, is hosting the first weekend of the Big Dance.
Potts’ development will be a factor in NU moving forward, the contributions of a player who has always had a specific skill set and is no longer surprised by her own impact.
“Natalie, you can just trust her,” senior forward Alexis Markowski said. “She has this just very calming presence about her. When she came in as a freshman, I just knew right away that she was gonna do big, great things.”