Jessica Keller

Jessica Keller joined the Nebraska women's basketball staff as an assistant coach on June 6, 2022. Keller came to Nebraska after spending five seasons as an assistant at Illinois State, including two seasons as associate head coach.

In her first two seasons at Nebraska, Keller has helped the Huskers to a pair of postseason appearances including a trip to the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

The Big Red captured a first-round NCAA Tournament win over Texas A&M after claiming a No. 6 seed in March Madness. The victory followed Nebraska's run to its first Big Ten Championship Game appearance since 2014.

The tough Huskers secured a win over Purdue before notching double-digit wins over NCAA Tournament-bound Michigan State and Maryland to set up a third showdown with No. 3 Iowa in the title game. The Huskers controlled the action in much of the contest and took the Hawkeyes to overtime before falling 94-89 in the championship. Despite the setback, the Huskers booked their second NCAA Tournament ticket in the past three seasons while making their fourth consecutive postseason tournament appearance.

Nebraska finished with a 23-12 overall record that included an 11-7 Big Ten mark to take fifth in the final conference regular-season standings. Nebraska's regular season was highlighted by an 82-79 win over then-No. 2 Iowa in front of a sellout crowd of more than 15,000 at Pinnacle Bank Arena (Feb. 11). The victory over the Hawkeyes matched the highest-ranked team the Huskers have ever defeated. It was one of five wins over NCAA Tournament teams the Huskers notched from Feb. 6 through the end of the season, as Nebraska went 9-4 down the stretch with road losses to No. 2 Ohio State and No. 12 Oregon State, along with a loss to No. 3 Iowa in Minneapolis. Nebraska's only other setback was a one-point loss at Illinois, which advanced to the WBIT Championship Game.

During Nebraska's late-season surge, the Huskers completed a season sweep of NCAA Tournament-bound Michigan (Feb. 6) and their first-ever sweep of NCAA-bound Maryland (March 9) in the Big Ten Tournament. The Huskers also locked up a season sweep of NCAA Tournament-bound Michigan State (March 8), and a three-game season sweep of WNIT Great Eight participant Purdue (Feb. 17, March 7). The Big Red added a 19-point home win over WNIT semifinalist Minnesota (Feb. 24).

The Huskers finished No. 25 in the regular-season NET rankings with 17 of their 23 victories coming against postseason tournament qualifiers, including eight wins over NCAA Tournament teams, three over WBIT qualifiers and six over WNIT teams.

Nebraska's success in 2023-24 came despite losing projected starting guard Allison Weidner to a season-ending injury in mid-October, and an injury to returning starter and graduate guard Maddie Krull prior to the start of the season. Krull's injury not only kept her out of the first three games, it limited her contributions throughout the season.

Despite the challenges, Nebraska continued to improve throughout the season in large part to the consistency of first-team All-Big Ten center Alexis Markowski and the leadership of second-team All-Big Ten guard Jaz Shelley. Two of the top players at their positions in the country, Markowski and Shelley both claimed All-Big Ten honors for the third consecutive seasons before earning spots on the Big Ten All-Tournament Team.

Nebraska also got help from a pair of award-winning freshmen. Natalie Potts emerged as the Big Ten Freshman of the Year after capturing eight Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Week awards. She added honorable-mention All-Big Ten accolades from the conference media while being joined on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team by Logan Nissley.

Nebraska's success also came out in the record book, including a school-record 292 threes while ranking second in school history with a plus-7.8 rebound margin. The 2023-24 Huskers also ranked fifth in school history with 2,533 points, fourth in total rebounds (1,431) and third in assists (580).

Nebraska continued to be one of the biggest draws in women's college basketball with an average home attendance of 6,088 to rank 15th in NCAA Division I. It marked the 14th consecutive season the Huskers have ranked in the top 25 nationally in average home attendance. Every game in the 2024 Big Ten Tournament drew more than 18,000 fans at the Target Center in Minneapolis, while NU's Big Ten Tournament Championship Game appearance attracted 4.77 million viewers on CBS - the highest TV ratings for a women's basketball game on the network in well over two decades.

Keller came to Nebraska from Illinois State. In her final season with the Redbirds, Keller helped lead Illinois State to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title and a bid to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Before serving five seasons as an assistant at ISU, Keller spent three successful seasons as the head coach at Columbia College in Missouri.

Keller compiled a 75-24 overall record in three seasons at the NAIA level, including a 55-17 mark in the American Midwest Conference. She coached the Cougars to a pair of NAIA Tournament appearances. Columbia opened her second season as head coach with a school-record 19 consecutive wins and achieved the highest ranking in school history at No. 3 in the NAIA Division I Coaches' Poll. Her Cougar teams were ranked in 31 out of 34 polls during her tenure.

Keller's teams played tough defense at Columbia, holding opponents to a school-record 56.6 points per game in her final season in 2016-17. It broke the previous record set by her 2015-16 Cougar squad.

Keller was named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) 30 Under 30 Inaugural Class.

She coached 10 all-conference and five All-America selections in three seasons at Columbia. She was aided by the 2016-17 NAIA Assistant Coach of the Year.

Academically, Keller implemented standards to achieve NAIA Scholar Team recognition (3.0 team grade-point average) each season, which were the first and only times the program achieved the award. She also incorporated a variety of service activities for team engagement, as the Cougars led the athletic department in team service hours for the 2016-17 academic year.

Prior to her time at Columbia, Keller served as the assistant coach at Minnesota State University in Mankato from 2011 to 2014.

Her final two seasons as an assistant at Minnesota State were spent under Head Coach Emilee (Gusso) Thiesse, the sister of Nebraska Head Coach Amy (Gusso) Williams.

In two seasons working with Thiesse in Mankato, Minnesota rolled to a combined 49-12 record and advanced to the second round of the 2013 NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament.

Overall, in three seasons at Minnesota State, Keller helped the Mavericks to 67 victories. She served as the team academic coordinator and helped the Mavericks rank among the top-25 teams in GPA for NCAA Division II. She also served as the athletics liaison to the admissions office at Minnesota State.

Before coaching at Minnesota State, Keller was a two-year graduate assistant coach at Quincy University in Illinois, where she completed her master's degree in business administration.

The Belle, Missouri, native played collegiately at Quincy from 2005 to 2009. She capped her career as an honorable-mention WBCA All-American and a second-team CSC Academic All-American in 2009.

Keller was a three-time All-Great Lakes Valley Conference performer, and was named the GLVC Player of the Year as a senior in 2009. She graduated as the school's career leader in points (1,823), steals (324), free throws made (487) and free throws attempted (652).

A double-major in accounting and finance, Keller graduated with honors and earned the GLVC's Richard F. Sharf Paragon Award, which combines academics, athletics, leadership and character.