Griffin, 22, seems to be guided by an internal navigation system, coming across as someone in need of no direction. A biological sciences major, Griffin is a three-time, first-team Big 12 academic honoree. She is also a three-time all-Big 12 first-team selection and the first Cornhusker to be named the conference player of the year.  For all her drive to succeed, she is not unlike a lot of college students in sometimes feeling lost.  “Most people think 18- to 22-year-olds, because they’re on this stage, they have it all figured out,” Nebraska Coach Connie Yori said. “A lot of them have challenges and a lot of doubts.”  She added, “You name it, Kelsey’s fought through it.”  Griffin averaged 13.3 points in 32 starts as a freshman in 2005-6 despite playing the last month of the season with mononucleosis. Her mother, Jan, remembered Griffin’s many tearful calls home.  Griffin said, “My freshman year I was excited coming out of high school to play in college, and it got to be a grind.”  As a sophomore, she overcame a season-long breathing problem that was never diagnosed to lead the Cornhuskers to their first N.C.A.A. tournament since 2000. She had help from a freshman class that formed its own team: center Nikki Bober, forward Cory Montgomery and guards Kala Kuhlmann, Nicole Neals and Yvonne Turner.  A year later, the Cornhuskers were on their way to another N.C.A.A. tournament, but Griffin, who started 29 games, felt no joy, only ceaseless, searing pain from a cracked rib she sustained in the preseason.  “It was super hard my junior year,” she said. “It really made me question my priorities.”  In conversations with her mother after her father’s cancer, Griffin said, “I wanted her to say, ‘Kelsey you need to come home,’ but she’s not like that.”  An academic scholarship to Alaska-Anchorage was waiting if she went home. But every time Griffin pictured herself leaving, she thought of her teammates, and everything they had overcome collectively and individually, and she could not go.  “I committed to play here,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave my teammates, to just bail on them. I’m proud of my word.”  Her father, Jim, is cancer free, but Griffin’s trials were not over. She hurt her ankle in a pickup game in August 2008, had surgery and was sidelined for the season.  She got by with a lot of help from her teammates, especially the class of 2010. When people talk about Nebraska’s quick turnaround from a sub-500 season, it makes Yori laugh because this season was actually seven long years in the making.  “When these guys were sophomores in high school, I said that it would be our most important recruiting class,” Yori said, “and that it was very important that we get the right people.”  She plucked Kuhlmann out of Charter Oak, an Iowa town with about 508 residents. Montgomery, from Minnesota, was ranked No. 1 academically in her 110-student Cannon Falls graduating class. Yvonne Turner, the Big 12 co-defensive player of the year, is from Omaha; Neals is from Chandler, Ariz.  Bober, a Lincoln native, has been limited to 54 career games because of a torn ligament in each knee but has been responsible for more assists, owing to her upbeat personality, than anybody can keep track of.  “What Nikki gives to me is the reminder not to take anything for granted and to go out there and enjoy every minute I’m on the floor,” said Griffin, who averaged 20.5 points and 10.4 rebounds in the regular season.  Jan Griffin said of her daughter: “Watching her play this year, you think about what her career would have been like if she hadn’t had the injuries. But you can’t think like that. It’s just so great to see her healthy and happy and excited about basketball again.”  After the Cornhuskers’ 30th victory, which propelled them into their first Big 12 tournament semifinal since 2000, Griffin and Montgomery were walking stride for stride toward the locker room. They were so giddy, they were tripping over each other’s sentences, the rest of the world falling away until Montgomery stumbled into a large cardboard sign propped up by an easel.  Then, rounding a corner, Montgomery bobbled her water bottle and it fell, sending Griffin into hysterics. After she caught her breath, she teased Montgomery about picking up a charge and a turnover after the game.  The next day, the Cornhuskers were tripped up by Texas A&M and tumbled from the ranks of the unbeaten. The 80-70 loss to the Aggies, who went on to win the conference tournament title, was easier to swallow than the questions afterward.  Griffin was asked, essentially, if the defeat was catnip for the critics who view Nebraska as an accidental top seed.  “I really haven’t paid much attention to our record,” she said, “because the thing that’s been so amazing this year has been the experience and the fun I’ve been having with my teammates.”  She added: “Yeah, we are sad and disappointed we lost, but it hasn’t changed our memories, our friendships. One of the things that Coach mentioned is the most exciting part of our season is about to start.”  This week is the beginning of the end for Nebraska’s six seniors. After everything they have been through together, can they be blamed for wanting their tournament run to last forever?  A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2010, on page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: Sticking by Her Teammates. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Homesick and fighting injuries, Kelsey Griffin considered leaving school. Instead she is the Big 12 Player of the Year and the Cornhuskers are a N.C.A.A. No. 1 seed.