It's a few days old news by now, but Lady Lion basketball coach Dale Neal recently picked up his 400th win with the program on Friday, Dec. 11, when FHU hammered Lane, 76-37.  You can read the story from that game here, and be on the lookout for a short-ish feature on the 400th win coming later today.

But the beauty of a blog, as opposed to the "regular" stories, is that I get to editorialize.  So editorialize I will.

I was lucky enough to be behind the microphone for the radio broadcast on FM91 of both Neal's 200th win (on 11/21/02) and the 400th win, as well as two of the three TranSouth Conference championships in 2004 and 2005.  For those who don't remember (and most of you surely won't), I was the play-by-play broadcaster for FHU basketball from 2001-2005, which meant I got to see a lot of Lady Lion basketball when the program was taking a big step forward.  It was fun to watch and really was an exciting time as players like Jessica Woodard, Ashlee Robertson and Stacy Myers all came through the program and made impacts from the start of their four years at Freed-Hardeman.  Woodard is already in the FHU Athletics Hall of Fame, and the other two are certainly locks to join her when they become eligible.

By the time I moved into the play-by-play chair, Neal had already established the Lady Lions on the national scene thanks in part to their Cinderella run to the Fab Four in 1999.  Though I worked at FHU at the time (in Human Resources), I never took the chance to go watch the team play before becoming the broadcaster.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  I did broadcast one game during his first season while I was a student here.  All I remember is that a) we won, and b) Stacey Montgomery hit what was nearly a half-court shot at the first half closed.

What I, and probably anyone else for that matter, didn't realize is that we were witnessing the beginning of something special.

Neal arrived in Henderson in 1994 and immediately turned things around, going 21-9 in his first season with a team comprised of players that went 9-21 the previous year and swept the season series with Lambuth for the first time since the 1981-82 season.  The following season didn't turn out to be quite as good with a 15-16 record on the heels of the unexpected loss of the team's leading scorer before the season.  From that point on, however, the Lady Lions have been among the top programs in the NAIA.

In his third season, FHU surprised everyone by going 26-11 and making the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in school history.  During that season, the Lady Lions beat Lipscomb for the first time since 1987.  Two years later, FHU made a Cinderella run to the NAIA Fab Four before bowing out to eventual national champion Oklahoma City.  Then came the conference championships in 2004, 2005, and 2006 that were part of a four-year stretch where FHU won an amazing 123 games, followed by a return trip to the Fab Four in 2008.

Last week, despite having an 8-1 record, the Lady Lions went from No. 6 to No. 7 in the first in-season NAIA poll.  Having a conversation with my friend and avid FHU follower Kirk Dauksch right around that time, we were somewhat bemoaning the fact that we were going to fall a spot despite a very good start.  And that's when I realized how far this program has come since Neal's arrival.

There we were, actually a bit upset by the fact that we were going to be ranked No. 7 in the country.  Not the conference.  The country.  Fifteen years ago, the thought of being ranked - much less being in the top 10 - wasn't something that crossed the minds of anyone, perhaps outside of Neal and the players he was building around.  Now, after 26 straight polls where FHU has been ranked in the top 10, it's become old hat, almost expected for us to be there.

Here's hoping that none of us end up taking that for granted.