I was a little remiss yesterday in posting my weekly women's basketball notebook, which appeared in today's paper, along with the standings. Today's subject was former U-Hi player Emily Kuipers, now a fifth-year senior at Regis University in Denver.
I can't link the standings and weekend schedule, but those appear below with the area leaders and any other notes I stumble discover before I resume figure skating research.
There is Graham Hays story on ESPN.com about scheduling that is spot-on. Read it, it's a great jumping off story for a discussion on this blog by you reluctant posters. Also, a heads up, ESPN is taking its Game Day show to a women's game for the first day, Saturday's No. 1 UConn vs. No. 3 Notre Dame Big East matchup.
LeftCoastHoops moved Gonzaga up to No. 2 in its rankings. ... The Bulldogs conclude a five-game homestand this weekend against the two teams that opened WCC play 2-0 while the Zags were playing their travel partner. Thursday's game features Louella Tomlinson of St. Mary's, who leads the nation in blocked shots and had a monster opening weekend to garner Player of the Week honors, plus GU coach Kelly Graves' birthday. Saturday it's San Diego and there are all kinds of things to report. There's a book drive (press release posted below), Heather Bowman is 37 points shy of the WCC record entering the weekend and Courtney Vandersloot, the national leader in assists (and fourthin steals), is 22 dimes shy of the school career record (and yours truly is covering figure skating.)
On Saturday, January 16th, Gonzaga Student Athlete Advisory Committee
(SAAC) will host their 5th annual book drive at the Gonzaga women's basketball
game against San Diego. Fans who bring a new children's book to the game or make
a donation will be entered into a raffle to win Gonzaga memorabilia, including
signed basketballs, autographed jerseys, and ticket packages. Fans will receive
one raffle ticket for every book donated and every donation made!
No doubt some of you wonder why I don't go into such detail for every team and the answer is simple, I don't have time. Home games and area girls coming "back home" get first consideration. Gonzaga is the five-time defending league champion and has all their games on radio and home games on TV and draws enough fans to push them to the top of the list.
That said, Eastern Washington is tied for the lead in the Big Sky Conference going into road games at Northern Arizona (with local product Jenna Galloway, Ferris) and Northern Colorado. It's a big weekend for the Eagles to get back into the league tournament. Don't forget you can watch EWU games on your computer by going to Big Sky TV.
SportsLink is your portal into sports news around the Inland Northwest and beyond. You'll find updates, notes and opinions, and plenty of reader feedback.
Looking for a Grip on Sports?
Vince Grippi's daily take on all things regional sports has been moved to our main sports section online.
You can find a collection of these columns here.
