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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bulldogs Search For New Identity Gu Women Adjust To Basketball Under Knowles’ Direction

Before the start of the 1994-95 basketball season, the Gonzaga University women’s team was expected to challenge for the West Coast Conference championship.

The WCC coaches predicted the team would win the crown.

Now, with 10 games remaining, GU (1-3 WCC, 6-9) is fighting for a .500 record.

GU star Ivy Safranski attributes much of the sluggish play to the departure of former coach Julie Holt.

When Holt left for Moscow to take the women’s basketball job there, she apparently took more than son Nick Jr. and their personal belongings to be with Nick Sr., the defensive coordinator for the Idaho football team.

“Julie was more than our coach,” Safranski said. “She was our motivator. It’s a special quality that she has.”

Life under new coach Kellee Knowles has forced the team to re-examine the way it plays and relates to her as coach.

“I can only speak for myself,” Safranski said. “I respect Kellee, and I think the team gets along well with her. But the relationship is different. It’s distant.”

Knowles said she has let her players know that she can come to them if something is bothering them, or if they just want to talk.

But as far as the motivational factor is concerned …

“As a coach, I believe that your players must motivate themselves,” Knowles said. “I think I’m patient with the team. I try and deal with my players the way I want them to deal with me. We’re all adults.”

GU lost last weekend’s contests to Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s, and has lost three straight. The Bulldogs are at home against Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara tonight and Saturday, with each tipoff scheduled for 7 at the Martin Centre.

After last weekend’s losses, in which Safranski didn’t play because of a torn ligament in her right thumb, the Bulldogs got together for a players-only meeting.

Said Safranski, “One of the things that a few of the younger players said was that we (the older players) sometimes make remarks like, ‘Julie would have done this, or Julie would have done that.’

“We came away from the meeting realizing that we all have to depend on ourselves,” she added.

One of the angles Knowles took was to roundly criticize her team in the media after a lackluster 67-54 win against Whitworth.

“I really couldn’t believe it (Knowles’ comments after the Whitworth game),” Safranski said. “In all the years I’ve played, I never had a coach do that. I don’t think it caused a lot of hard feelings, but I think it got to some people.”

Although Knowles sent that message just days before GU went to Seattle for a game against Washington, it was never received. GU was bombed 88-59.

“We just gave up,” Safranski said. “Since I’ve been here, that was the first time I’d ever seen that happen. We trailed by 15 at the half. They beat us by 30, but they could have beat us by 40.”

Knowles acknowledges the change, but says there’s more to it.

“Granted, any program goes through a major change that we went through, you’re going to be dealing with a transition period there,” Knowles said. “It’s not that they’re resisting the change. It’s that they’re not responding well.

“But the bottom line is, we’ve just got to start playing basketball.”

Unlike previous years in which only the top four WCC teams went to the postseason tournament, this year, all eight go to the tournament March 3-6 at Santa Clara, Calif.

Before Monday’s practice, Knowles, her staff and the team redefined some of their goals for the remainder of the season.

“We can still accomplish those goals (the conference title and an NCAA berth),” Knowles said. “But we’ve got to stay focused on the goal. And that starts by doing the fundamental things that we haven’t been doing.”