Bulldogs stepping into spotlight
The focus in women's basketball this week is going to be on the weekend tournament in Las Vegas where No. 6 Baylor, No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 14 Arizona Stat and Gonzaga meet.
Here's what the Zags are looking at: Baylor’s Brittney Griner was named the Big 12 Player of the Week, her second such honor and third for the Bears. Shanay Washington was the Nov. 23 recipient. Griner scored 25 points, had seven rebounds, a steal and three blocked shots to help Baylor beat Boston College 68-55 on Sunday in the Maggie Dixon Classic in Madison Square Garden. The 6-8 post led the Lady Bears in both scoring and rebounding. She was 12-of-24 from the floor and 1-for-3 from the charity stripe. Griner raised her season blocks total to 50 and continues to rank No. 2 nationally in blocks per game. She leads the Lady Bears in scoring at 17.0 points a game, averaging 24.3 over the last three outings. Griner’s 50 blocks, nine games into the season, places her No. 8 on Baylor’s single-season block list. She needs 37 more blocks to break former Lady Bear Danielle Wilson’s single season record of 86.
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Gonzaga prepared for its trip with an impressive come from behind win at Portland State; Portland won at Washington State and Idaho fell at Montana.
You don’t often read stories like this in women’s basketball.
There was a lot of coverage of the Maggie Dixon Classic, starting with Baylor's win over BC and a claim the Bears aren't a one-woman team. The gathering, which included Tennessee and Rutgers with their legendary coaches, provided some historical musing.
Meanwhile, Texas Christian handed A&M its first loss.
The Portland win was the 501st for Pilots coach Jim Sollars, 102 coming while Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves was his assistant.
"I’m happy for him," Graves said. "He’s a great guy. He’s done it right. He has his priorities right. He’s a great man. I’m glad to see him get his milestone. I enjoyed my time there with him. He taught me a lot."
The AP poll is out, and here's my vote.