Where does the time go? Arrived at work bent on getting the news out and got involved writing a story. Mix in spin class and suddenly I'm behind again.

Today's women's basketball notebook focused on another Eastern Washington senior, Nicole Scott (pictured above battling Gonzaga's Heather Bowman), as the Eagles close in on their first berth in the Big Sky Tournament since her arrival. We also checked in with Montana freshman Katie Baker (Lake City), who was making a bid for Big Sky Freshman of the Year when she blew out a knee - at EWU early last month.

We ran out of room so we saved our update on Tennessee junior Angie Bjorklund (U-Hi) for tomorrow (if space allows), posted below, along with some other notes.

Thought we'd check out another bracketology, since the thought of ESPN's prediction of Gonzaga and Big Sky leader Eastern heading to Stanford was too depressing. This one has Gonzaga in Louisville as a No. 2 vs. No. 7 Maryland (the same matchup as ESPN). A second round opponent would be Oklahoma (by the way, it's UConn's bracket). Eastern would be in Tempe as a No. 15 against Notre Dame. Gonzaga's RPI in this is 32, with one one team (Hartford, 21-3) ranked higher with a lower strength of schedule than the Zags' 108 - and that may not be factoring in Gonzaga's final four games, which will only hurt them.

If you want to take any of this seriously - don't. Another RPI has Gonzaga 22 with a SOS of 103 while Hartford is 33 with a SOS of 151.

Besides, the only one the NCAA selection committee looks at is the NCAA's. The Bulldogs jumped up from 45 to 35 after beating St. Mary's but again, that's the end of the challenges so it's likely to slip back down - and Hartford is at No. 32.

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Angie Bjorklund was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week, which never came up in a Tuesday telephone conference.

But that’s hardly surprising, until last week the Tennessee junior out of University High School had no idea she was on the verge of reaching the 1,000-point plateau.

“I didn’t even know until I had a recent interview and someone told me,” she said. “Here’s it all about the team.”

Draining a game-winner is completely different.

Bjorkland’s first 3-pointer at Mississippi last Thursday gave her 1,001 points, her fourth, with one second left, gave the fifth-ranked Lady Vols a  hard-fought 61-58 win.

“Any time you can hit a game winner it’s exciting,” said Bjorklund, who beat Florida earlier with a closing seconds reverse layup. “It comes down to basketball is a team sport. I never keep track of points. My role here is to shoot and score and I’m going to do that to the best of my ability. It’s just the same as someone’s role to get rebounds or get stops.”

And Bjorklund takes her roles seriously.

After she shot poorly but defended worse in a loss at then No. 8 Georgia last month, coach Pat Summitt made her leading scorer (14.9 ppg) come off the bench in the next game at No. 18 LSU.

Bjorklund cheered hard and promptly drained a 3 when she hit the court, finishing with 10 points in the 12-point win.

“I was just trying to be an example of coming hard off the bench, set a positive tone,” Bjorklund said. “You always have to be ready.”

Though scoring is what she does, it’s not what she’s about.

“My goal was just to come to Tennessee and win a championship,” Bjorklund said. “I’ve done that. Now my goal is to win a championship with a completely different team. I’ve never thought about milestones.”

No heroics were needed when the Vols played Florida on Sunday. Bjorklund had 24 points in the 39-point win that improved Tennessee’s record to 23-2 (the other loss at No. 2 Stanford) and opened a two-game over No. 16 Kentucky (21-4). The Lady Vols play at Alabama tonight and has a home rematch Sunday with LSU, now ranked 23rd, before a showdown with Kentucky next Thursday in Knoxville.

Bjorklund is averaging a team-high 14.9 points. Her shooting from 3-point range (46 percent) is seventh in the nation and higher than her overall average (44.4). Her 3.2 treys a game is 10th nationally.

 

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