{"id":550880,"date":"2026-01-21T11:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/550880\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:39:25","slug":"how-nyu-womens-basketball-quietly-became-diiis-no-1-team-no-nil-little-attention-just-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/550880\/","title":{"rendered":"How NYU women\u2019s basketball quietly became DIII\u2019s No.1 team. No NIL, little attention, just winning"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Something sinister happened to the NYU women\u2019s basketball team on March 11, 2023. At least, that\u2019s the rumor.<\/p>\n

The Violets played Transylvania in the Elite Eight of the DIII tournament, and legend has it that NYU lost.<\/p>\n

Among current players, only senior Caroline Peper knows for sure. Everyone else has only experienced winning. This mythical, terrifying beast they call \u201closing\u201d isn\u2019t something that happens to them. It happens to their opponents.<\/p>\n

The Violets have won 76 games in a row, a streak that includes back-to-back Division III national titles and spans over 1,047 days. That\u2019s the longest active streak in women\u2019s college basketball and the third longest in the sport\u2019s history \u2014 behind only UConn\u2019s streak of 111 in Division I and Washington University\u2019s (St. Louis) 81 wins as a fellow DIII program.<\/p>\n

The No. 1 Violets are poised for yet another championship run. They\u2019re a small group in a big city, doing something that is typically reserved for giants of the sport. UConn\u2019s streak, which took place from 2014-2017 and included three titles, has been written about to excess. The Violets are forging on with little recognition.<\/p>\n

That loss in 2023 is enough motivation to keep them going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually watched it the other day,\u201d coach Meg Barber says. \u201cI ended up having to turn it off. It still eats at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

No wonder they haven\u2019t lost since.<\/p>\n

A few blocks from Washington Square Park and a half mile from \u201cThe Cage,\u201d a famous pickup court in the heart of Greenwich Village, sits another basketball facility. The Paulson Center, a multi-use facility constructed in 2023, houses NYU\u2019s basketball courts. Among the school\u2019s varsity athletes, the women\u2019s basketball team is a source of inspiration.<\/p>\n

Last season, the men\u2019s team advanced to the Division III championship game before falling to Trinity College by just four points. It was the team\u2019s second loss of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had this incredible season, but then you see what the women\u2019s team is accomplishing,\u201d senior guard Bryan Moussako said. \u201cIt really motivates us because we want to do what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the moment the Violets step outside the Paulson Center\u2019s glass doors, they fade into anonymity. Nearly 9 million people live in New York City. Sixty-one thousand students attend NYU, a school renowned for its Tisch School of the Arts and its numerous celebrity alumni.<\/p>\n

When junior Eden Williamson was a freshman, she remembers proudly telling her classmates that she was on the basketball team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sports?\u201d they wondered. Over time, as the Violets continued to win, interest has grown. Spike Lee, more famous for his sideline seats at Knicks games, came for a team meet-and-greet, and highlights from the Violets\u2019 win over Rochester appeared on SportsCenter<\/a>. Barber\u2019s wife jokingly called her a D-list celebrity, but last season, people occasionally recognized Barber when she went out for coffee. Since then, she\u2019s been updated to C-list status.<\/p>\n

Still, most Violets games only have a smattering of fans in attendance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n NYU\u2019s 2025 national championship team had a special visitor: Spike Lee.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no glory in being a DIII athlete. NYU doesn\u2019t offer athletic scholarships, so players often pay upwards of $90,000 for tuition, room and board.<\/p>\n

They come to their gym every day between their rigorous class schedules and other extracurricular commitments. They watch film, learn scouting reports and perform dribbling drills with half-moon goggles to limit their vision. They put up shots, learn plays and work on conditioning just like any other team. There are no summer workouts, yet every season, the Violets return to campus in better shape than when they left.<\/p>\n

There is a purity to this level of basketball. No pro dreams clouding minds. No bank accounts overflowing with NIL money. No scholarships tying players to the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther levels are transactional,\u201d associate head coach Nettie Respondek said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing holding these girls here. They can walk away at any time. But they play because they love their team, they love the game and they love the work. There\u2019s nothing holding them here except the culture and the experience, because there is nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before their games, the Violets sit on the sideline and cheer on the men\u2019s team. They style each other\u2019s hair, snack on pretzels and drink Red Bulls. Coaches hug friends and family in the stands. The accessibility to the team and the camaraderie between the men\u2019s and women\u2019s squads feel like high school.<\/p>\n

The basketball does not.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t look like the stereotype of Division III, either. After watching the Violets, the idea that anyone can play DIII basketball, or that it\u2019s the sad, unskilled little sibling of DI and DII is comical.<\/p>\n

Over the last 2 1\/2 seasons, NYU has defeated its opponents by an average of 38.8 points. This season, the Violets are averaging 25.1 assists per game to their opponents\u2019 10.4. They force 19.4 turnovers per game and score 42.5 points off of those miscues. Everything NYU does is marked with dominance.<\/p>\n

If doubts remain, assistant coach Annie Barrett has a solution: \u201cCome see us play.\u201d<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t players who were spurned by better divisions. Almost every Violets player received DI interest, including scholarship offers. Instead, they wanted to come to NYU for the athletic-academic balance. Players don\u2019t report in the summer, so players can work or get internships.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love a lot of other things besides basketball,\u201d said freshman Aila Kaibara, who is considering a future in law school or an artistic career. \u201cI have so many aspirations, and I get opportunities here. And after my four years, I\u2019ll be set up for a great future.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one on this team is just a basketball player. For Barber, it\u2019s the foundation of how she built the program.<\/p>\n

After playing at NYU, Barber was an assistant coach at two Division I programs, William & Mary and Temple. She also coached in the national team system. Respondek played at Vanderbilt and was an assistant on four Division I teams. They know high-level basketball<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I even took the job, I called Nettie and said, \u2018Listen, I know one thing about this place, and it\u2019s that we can win a national championship,\u2019\u201d Barber said. \u201c\u2018But I want to do it with people that I want to be around every day. And I want it to be a really fun, but competitive and uplifting experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYU\u2019s strong academics and NYC\u2019s career opportunities are obvious selling points in recruiting. But Barber and Respondek convince players with a simple question: Do you want to play at a DI midmajor and win single-digit games, or do you want to compete for a championship every season?<\/p>\n

\u201cBasketball is basketball,\u201d Barber said. \u201cDivision III does not mean third-rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The national landscape is starting to wise up to what the Violets have already figured out. Earlier this season, DIII Scranton defeated DI Pittsburgh. Carnegie Mellon defeated St. Francis, and Johns Hopkins bested Morgan State. NYU will likely never get the chance to join that club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t play us,\u201d Respondek said of potential matchups against DI teams. \u201cIt\u2019s a no-win situation for them. Losing is too much of a risk, and they get nothing if they win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tear It Up had a little extra bling this time around<\/p>\n

New ring, new banner, new jerseys but same @nyuwomenshoops<\/a> handling business pic.twitter.com\/EvqmJrNsk7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NYU Athletics (@NYUAthletics) November 25, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always like this. The stack of wins, the ascension to becoming a DIII powerhouse, the No. 1 ranking, the shiny new arena with purple bleacher seats and a fancy digital scoreboard. That all happened in the last few seasons.<\/p>\n

NYU offers 23 varsity athletic teams. Funding for athletics is done largely through the alumni base of former athletes and their families. The better teams do, the more people want to donate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t overstate the impact of the women\u2019s basketball team,\u201d athletic director Jake Olkkola said. \u201cWe are working on building a championship culture, and we want all of our teams to compete. They are showing that this is a place for elite athletes at the DIII level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s basketball dynasty started with a speech. Barber \u2014 who played at NYU from 1998 to 2002 and returned to the program in 2018 to become its head coach \u2014 stood in a circle with her players, none of whom she had recruited.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want every team in this league to hate us,\u201d she said. \u201cI want that target on our backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was hard to picture. Barber and her coaching staff worked out of a dorm basement.<\/p>\n

Before 2023, NYU bounced around, playing at Hunter College, St. Francis College and the Brooklyn Athletic Center, a gym that sat only 180 people. The team traveled to games by subway, dressed in Violets gear and carrying their equipment up and down the steps. They made their commute like many New Yorkers, navigating multiple lines and dealing with inevitable delays. Former players remember showering after games as cockroaches scuttled past their feet.<\/p>\n

Even then, the good outweighed the bad. After going 17-10 during Barber\u2019s first season at the helm, NYU started building its reputation as a winning program, eventually leading to back-to-back titles and the start of its winning streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis streak means we are being talked about in the same breath as UConn,\u201d Olkkola said. \u201cI mean, that is just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But before any of that could happen, NYU had to lose that 2023 game to Transylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo this day, if I bring that game up to parents or players, the blood pressure goes through the roof,\u201d Barber said. \u201cI really felt like that year we had a team that could win it all. It felt like our flame was put out a little bit too early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing the Violets is like being a sugar cube in a steaming cup of tea. Opponents can survive in the short term, but eventually the heat becomes too much, and they lose all sense of structure before completely dissolving.<\/p>\n

Rochester found that out on Friday. NYU led by 12 at halftime, a seemingly manageable deficit, especially considering that the Violets had won their previous games by an average of 53 points. \u201cThey are dead tired,\u201d Williamson said in the locker room with a hint of a smile.<\/p>\n

Williamson was right. Within minutes of the second half starting, the lead ballooned to 22 \u2014 an insurmountable advantage when it comes to NYU.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Williamson, a staunch defender tasked with guarding the opponent\u2019s best ballhandler. Forward Yasmene Clark has a nose for offensive rebounds. Kaibara is a swaggy ballhandler who plays with a bounce to her step. Zahra Alexander drives to the rim like it\u2019s her sole mission in life. There\u2019s dependable Brooke Batchelor, who plays with seemingly unlimited energy.<\/p>\n

And of course, the team\u2019s steady leader, Peper, affectionately called \u201cPep.\u201d Every shot is a good shot for Peper, who averages more than 10 3-point attempts per game, making 38 percent of them.<\/p>\n

She knows better than anyone what it takes to win, especially in a top-10 matchup, like the one the Violets played against No. 9 Emory on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Every game with Emory is heated. It\u2019s the team captain\u2019s job to make sure the young Violets understand the rivalry.<\/p>\n

Peper, the team\u2019s lone senior, is a math major, a self-described nerd and a soft-spoken introvert with an extensive vocabulary. Yet when her teammates turn to her before tip-off, she commands the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team\u201d she says of Emory as her eyelashes flutter while she collects her thoughts. \u201cI cannot stress this enough.\u201d Then, her heterochromatic eyes snap open. \u201cThis team f\u2014ing hates us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tension lifts as the Violets laugh at Peper\u2019s frankness, but the giggles don\u2019t last. They know she means it.<\/p>\n

Every opponent wants to be the one to break NYU\u2019s streak. Emory wants that more than most.<\/p>\n

When freshman Sofia Corral, an Illinois native, signed with the Violets, friends were shocked to discover NYU had gone two years without losing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to make it three?\u201d they asked.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the goal, but it\u2019s not the focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know what the streak is,\u201d Peper said. \u201cThe streak is something we will look back on, not something to think about now. We are too competitive for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

With their eyes trained on Emory, the Violets cruised to a 93-66 victory. The streak lives on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Caroline Peper is NYU\u2019s 3-point leader who is eyeing a third-straight national title. (Vinny Dusovic \/ NYU Athletics)<\/p>\n

Barber knows this moment is fleeting. The Violets could go on to break WashU\u2019s record this season. They could break UConn\u2019s next season. Or they could lose their next game. Living in New York makes that feel all the more real.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hottest restaurant in town today can be out in the next month,\u201d Barber said. \u201cThen it\u2019s on to the next new thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon these Violets will be on to their next new things, too. Peper will graduate and take her high IQ from the hardwood to the workplace. Alexander wants to study law. Kaibara is an artist who draws, paints and plays guitar. Peper plays the saxophone, too. Corral loves photography. Clark will pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Every day in New York provides new experiences and new opportunities.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re dominant basketball players, but they won\u2019t go on to play in the WNBA. They won\u2019t secure signature shoes or sports drink endorsements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we\u2019ve won back-to-back national championships is amazing, but honestly, in this city and in this sports landscape, it\u2019s not enough,\u201d Olkkola said. \u201cThe fact that we\u2019ve done that and had this incredible winning streak is something unique because it goes beyond DI, DII, DIII.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that for a sliver of recognition. For Williamson to finally be asked by classmates what time her games are. But to this team, none of that matters \u2014 which is probably why the streak continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are so insanely talented at other things,\u201d Barber said. \u201cBut right now, at this moment in time, they see themselves as basketball players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not just basketball players, but Violets basketball players.<\/p>\n

And that means everything.<\/p>\n