Back winning

SEATTLE – Sherri Murrell’s smile negated the need for television lighting at Hec Edmundson Pavilion on Friday.

The Portland State coach was enjoying every second of the school’s first NCAA women’s basketball tournament berth.

What makes the 15th-seeded Vikings’ (18-14) 5 p.m. game today against second-seeded Texas A&M (25-7) so sweet is how close Murrell came to not being here.

“Personally, I was very successful out the gate of my career,” she said before PSU’s practice. “Obviously, I hit a tough patch with Washington State.”

Murrell never had a losing season in three seasons at George Fox and three more at Pacific. It was enough to get her a job in the Pac-10, where she spent five frustrating seasons, going 27-114 before resigning.

“Any time you go through something like that, you really have to ask questions,” she said. “For me it was, ‘Hey, am I a good coach? Am I in the right place?’ There are a lot of things I asked myself going through that.”

Fortunate timing led her to Portland State, which is a block from where she went to high school. She erased most of her frustrations with back-to-back 20-win seasons before this. Then came the trip every team dreams of, which momentarily dredged up bad memories.

“I hate this place, I was a Cougar,” Murrell quipped about being at UW. “I don’t have many good memories here.

“The nice thing about it is I have a lot of good memories with the team I have right now. So walking off that bus, looking at all this purple, I said, ‘You know what, it’s all behind me.’ This is wonderful, it’s exciting. It means a lot to me. I’m savoring every minute of it.”

Recall

President Barack Obama didn’t make any friends picking 10th-seeded North Carolina to upset seventh-seeded Gonzaga in tonight’s second game.

“Yeah, we noticed that,” GU forward Vivian Frieson said. “We figured he was more of a men’s basketball buff than he is women’s. And he tends to favor UNC, he did last year. We’re not really too worried about it.”

Sounds familiar

Just like the Gonzaga men a decade ago, the Gonzaga women aren’t too fond of the labels they get.

“I don’t think we’re particularly fond of the term midmajor, especially once we get to this tournament,” senior Heather Bowman said. “Once you get here, it doesn’t matter if you’re a big school or a small school, all that counts is how you play in the tournament.”

She had support from North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell.

“Midmajor, I’ve never liked that,” she said. “If you’re in the NCAA you’re a Division I school. Any school making it into the NCAA tournament is capable of winning.”

Upset ammo

Texas A&M coach Gary Blair is using the men’s tournament to keep his team from overlooking PSU, but he may have become a little carried away.

“After what happened yesterday on the men’s side of the tournament, I have plenty of ammunition to go into my practices before the game,” he said. “We have to treat every game like a Big 12 game. … By the time we play Portland State, they will be the Los Angeles Lakers and Claire (Faucher) will be Kobe Bryant.”

Faucher wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Wow,” she said. “Kobe and I. Going head-to-head, pretty similar I think. I’m not even sure what to say.”

Enjoy the show

Murrell said the Vikings were a live-in-the-moment team and her two junior players from Spokane were trying to do just that.

“It just kind of sunk in on the ride up,” Mead graduate Kelli Valentine said. “Instead of watching games on TV, we’re there. It’s cool to see what it’s actually like on the inside.”

Monday’s selection show almost overwhelmed Lexi Bishop.

“I couldn’t even take everything all in,” the Shadle grad said. “Spokane was the most exciting part. I thought that just my mom was going to be able to go. Now the whole family gets to come. … It’s so exciting. I can’t put it into words. It’s all a dream right now. I’m waiting for it to still sink in.”