Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2015
- Class:
- 2004
Desire Almind was a three-time All-Patriot League forward with the Bison women's basketball team. She had a magnificent senior year, when she averaged 17.3 points per game and ranked second nationally in rebounding at 13.1 per contest. Almind broke Bucknell and Patriot League rebounding records with 390 that season, and she also produced a school-record 19 double-doubles.
Almind graduated with 1,581 points and 873 rebounds, both of which ranked third in Bucknell history at the time. She also ranked fourth in career scoring average (14.5), fourth in blocked shots (108) and sixth in steals (213).
A prized recruit out of Blairstown, N.J., Almind was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2000-01, while helping the Bison to their very first 20-win season. A year later she helped lead Bucknell to its first Patriot League championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. Almind scored 15 points in the league title game at Holy Cross. Â
Bucknell’s heated rivalry with Holy Cross was in full force by Almind's senior year in 2004, and her game at the Hart Center that year was one of the most remarkable in school history. Going up against the Crusaders’ formidable front line, she recorded 30 points, 18 rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots, and eight steals in an 85-82 victory. A few weeks later, she torched them again with 24 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and six steals in a win in the Patriot League Tournament. That helped lead to her second Patriot League All-Tournament Team and third All-Patriot League citation.
Almind played most of her final two seasons despite severe shin splints, but she still became one of the program's all-time leading rebounders while playing in 109 of a possible 116 games. She graduated with the winningest class in school history at the time. After graduation, she continued her basketball career at the professional level in Germany and Hungary.Â
