Diana Spencer

Position:
Forward
Height:
5-11
Class:
Freshman
Hometown:
Manlius, N.Y.
High School:
Fayetteville Manlius

Barry on Spencer: "Di is as athletic as any player on our team. We need for her to step up and show leadership this season. Di will help us score around the basket."

This Season: Spencer will be the most athletic player CU has on the floor, and Ceal Barry's most aggressive player on the boards. Her leaping ability is remarkable, and she spent the offseason improving that as well as getting stronger in the weight room. With three years in the triangle offense as well as CU's help side defense, Spencer is slated for big contributions in 2002-03.

2001-02 (Junior): Spencer played in 18 of Colorado's 34 games as one of three juniors on the team. She played 15 minutes - two minutes short of her career high - in the first game of the season against Oral Roberts, but it was against Bowling Green when she made her presence known scoring eight points in nine minutes on 4 of 6 shooting. The next day she collected three offensive rebounds and passed along two assists in the championship game of the Coors Classic against Houston. In a defensive role against Air Force, Spencer swatted a career high two shots and pulled down two rebounds. She played seven minutes and hit one field goal in her final game of the season against Missouri before she caught the injury bug. She has played in 55 games in her career, all off the bench, and she is in the top 100 for all-time scoring at Colorado. In the classroom Spencer was a Second Team Academic All-Big 12 member joining nine of her teammates.

2000-01 (Sophomore): Spencer spent much of 2000-01 still adapting to her role as Colorado's athletic weapon off the bench. She saw action in 13 games, with her best effort of the season coming when she came off the bench for eight minutes against Oklahoma, scoring eight points and grabbing one offensive board. Spencer continued to display her unparalleled athletic ability all season long, often coming into the game to defend some of the Big 12's more athletic players, such as Jaynetta Saunders of Texas A&M. Spencer saw action in each of CU?s NCAA tournament games, and came off the bench against Vanderbilt to defend VU power forward Zuzi Klimesova underneath the basket. She had season highs of eight points (vs. OU), three rebounds (vs. Howard and Sam Houston) and also recorded a blocked shot and an assist against Albany in the season opener. Spencer recorded two steals on the year, with one each coming against UCLA and Oklahoma.

1999-2000 (Freshman): Ceal Barry found out early that Spencer had the ability to change the pace of the game, as in CU's first exhibition game, Spencer contributed 13 points while grabbing seven rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. Spencer's playing time varied over the course of the season, with the freshman earning 17 minutes against Loyola Marymount on Dec. 30 as her career-high. She had a career-high seven boards a week before that in CU's upset win over No. 17 Illinois. Spencer would score a career-high nine points in just seven minutes in a loss at Nebraska, going 3 of 4 from the floor and 3 of 5 from the charity stripe. During the next week of practice, and just six games into the Big 12 season, Spencer became the second CU player to be diagnosed with a stress fracture during the season. The stress fracture in her foot was discovered on Jan. 28, prior to the team's date with Oklahoma State. Spencer would sit out the next five games of the conference season, returning to the court in a loss to Kansas State on February 16. After her return, Spencer played sporadically over the course of the next seven games, sitting out against the win over Texas, but averaged 12 minutes per game over the last three games of the year. In the second go round with K-State, Spencer had a rough night of shooting but contributed six boards in the losing effort. In her first career postseason action, she scored nine points and pulled down four boards at the Big 12 Tournament, going three for five against Missouri.

High School: Only the second player in Fayetteville Manlius girls' basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, Spencer brought a school record 1,860 (17.4) career points and a school record 1,223 (11.4) career rebounds into Boulder. As an eighth-grader on varsity, she averaged 7.6 ppg and 8.0 rebounds in a 6-13 season. A freshman on the 1996 Onondaga League Championship team, she exploded to average a double-double 17.6 points and 13.3 boards a night. She missed eight games due to a knee injury her sophomore season, but managed 13.7 ppg and 7.4 rpg en route to being named a second team Onondaga League All-Star. Fayetteville Manlius went 14-7 in 1998, and Spencer exploded for another double-double season averaging 23.9 points and 14.8 rebounds a game. As a junior she was a 1998 Herald Journal All-Central New York First-Team All-Star, First Team Onondaga League selection and a New York State Fair All-Star (one of top 20 players in New York State). Her senior year culminated in a 22-1 record and Spencer picking up her third straight first-team all-star recognition as well as being named the OHSL American Division Player of the Year. She graduated holding Fayetteville Manlius' single-game scoring record (47 points) vs. Cicero North Syracuse, Dec. 16, 1997 as well as single season scoring record (590 during the 1998-99 season).

Off The Court: Spencer is the daughter of Patricia and Robert Spencer and the older sister of Robert, the starting defensive end for the Fayetteville Manlius football team. Born June 6, 1981, she is a huge fan of Elvis and James Dean, as well as an avid watcher of Scooby Doo cartoons and Golden Girls. Her father, a native of Jamaica, influenced her choice to play basketball as he used to play with her all the time. She is a fine arts major and designed and painted the cover of the 2002-03 media guide.