Experience matters
STANFORD, Calif. – In their first appearance in the NCAA tournament the Gonzaga Bulldogs played like it was their first appearance in the NCAA tournament.
They were tentative in an 85-46 loss to Middle Tennessee State and shellshocked afterwards.
About the only good thing to come out of the game was the way the younger Bulldogs talked about what experience they gained for their next appearance.
“Where do I start?” freshman Heather Bowman said. “I learned you have to come out intense from the beginning. They’re definitely very good (but) we’ve played teams like this before. Next time we’ll remember this game, prepare better and come out more intense.”
Sophomore Sasha Polischuck added, “It was so amazing, I realize experience does matter. When we come back next year, we’re going to know what it takes, we’re going to know details really do matter. … We learned you can’t play scared, you have to be confident. When you’re scared they can see it in your eyes.”
At halftime, when the 17th-ranked and fifth-seeded Blue Raiders were leading 44-20, Gonzaga had more turnovers, 21, than shots attempted, 17. By the end of the game the Zags had 37 turnovers and 39 shots.
“They are a great basketball team that we made look a lot better,” GU coach Kelly Graves said.
He, too, expects this game is the first of many.
“This has been coming,” he said. “We’ve been building it. We’ve put ourselves in a position now to dictate our success year in and year out. People forget that experience matters. This is our first time here and we played like it.
“Our recruiting has certainly been excellent. … I anticipate that this isn’t going to be the last people see of Gonzaga. I’m proud of us, this is just a stepping stone.”
From the Graves
Graves has his name in the Final Four record book, as coach for Saint Mary’s in the 1999 tournament. Saint Mary’s went back two years later, the year Graves started at Gonzaga, and won a game under Michelle Jacoby. That was the last win for a WCC team in the tournament.
Graves’ team was a No. 12 seed and lost to Notre Dame, 61-57. Jacoby’s team, a No. 9 seed, beat Texas 68-64 and lost to Tennessee 92-75.
The Zags went 0-14 in the WCC in Graves’ first season and his losses to the team he recruited at Saint Mary’s were 62-36 and 63-50, plus 84-59 in the league tournament.
Graves also went to the tournament four straight years as an assistant at Portland.
Gonzaga had never played at Stanford before Saturday, but Graves has coached at Maples Pavilion. In the 1999-00 season St. Mary’s lost 77-65.
Local ties
The Bulldogs are the most recent area team to make the women’s tournament. Idaho went in 1985, Eastern Washington went in 1987 and Washington State in 1991. The Vandals, under Pat Dobratz, lost to USC, lost 74-51; the Eagles, under Bill Smithpeters, lost to Oregon 77-56; and the Cougars, under Harold Rhodes, lost to Northwestern, 82-62. All the games were at the winners’ school.
A regional tournament – that’s the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight – is scheduled for Spokane next year. The dates are March 29-31 or March 30-April 1. The other three regionals are Greensboro, N.C., New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
Spokane, with the seating capacity listed at 12,000, is ranked seventh in all-time attendance for a regional with 22,092 attending the West Regional in 2001. That regional included a championship game of Washington against Missouri State, which included All-American Jackie Stiles. The Huskies lost 104-87. The other two teams were Duke and Oklahoma.
The six sites with higher attendance, with only two coming after 2001, are Nashville, Tenn.; Hartford, Conn.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Greensboro, N.C.; , Knoxville, Tenn.; and Austin, Texas.
Tip-ins
Boise State, with former GU assistants J.R. Payne and Toriano Towns on the staff, reached the tournament for the second time in school history. The Broncos are coached by Graves’ good friend Gordy Presnell. Their first appearance came in 1994 under current University of Washington coach June Daugherty. BSU lost that game 89-61 – to the Huskies in Seattle. BSU lost 76-67 to 14th-ranked George Washington in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday. … Big Sky Conference champion Idaho State had the difficult task of facing host Stanford, losing 96-58. Pullman grad Christa Brossman, a former Bengals player, is an assistant for ISU. … That puts two PHS grads here with GU assistant ticket manager Alison Keck accompanying the Bulldogs. … Former Brewster and North Idaho College player Jeni Boesel ended her career at ISU with nine points. … Another connection is Stanford senior Clare Bodensteiner from Ruppert, Idaho. She played a tournament with the Spokane Stars and was reported to be headed to Gonzaga before the Cardinal grabbed her late in the recruiting process.