A Season Not To Remember

Women’s college basketball

Washington State is on pace to have its worst record - both overall and in conference play - since the Pacific-10 Conference added women’s basketball 14 seasons ago.

Standing in the way of the Cougars’ ill-fated season is the 2-16 conference record of 1986-87 and the 7-20 overall collapse of 1992-93.

Sure, there have been other clinckers, but nothing quite like the current 4-21, 1-14 crash of 1999-2000 with three games remaining.

“I’ll say the same thing I’ve been saying all year,” said first-year coach Jenny Przekwas. “I am disappointed in the four wins. I think we’re capable of more, but adjustments are difficult.

“I think as a coach you always want more and you always want them faster than maybe you’re capable of getting.”

Przekwas has never lost this many games in a season. As coach at Saint Francis (Pa.) for eight years, her worst team was 8-18.

“But it’s not like we’ve had a bad year in support and team problems,” Przekwas added. “This has been a good year in team attitude. They care about being successful and those things help you get through it on a day-to-day basis with very few wins.”

Things could pick up if the Cougars do something they haven’t done since 1995, and only twice in the ‘90s - beat the Washington Huskies on Saturday.

They had a chance earlier this year in Seattle, but blew an 18-point first-half lead. And now’s as good a time as ever since Washington is having a miserable season and finds itself in ninth place at 7-20, 3-12.

“That’s the one we want to get and the one we should have gotten last time,” Przekwas said.

Eight is not good enough

If it’s the first week of March, it must be the time Gonzaga hopes it can pull off a first-round upset at the West Coast Conferece Tournament.

This year, the Bulldogs (9-18) are ranked last at No. 8, following three straight years in seventh. They’ll play No. 1 Pepperdine (19-9) Thursday at noon, a team they have not defeated since the 1994-95 season.

But it was all so promising for Gonzaga this season, getting off to a 7-3 non-conference start and 2-3 after five conference games.

“At the beginning of the year I would never believe in a heartbeat that we would be an eighth seed,” GU coach Kellee Barney said. GU has lost nine straight and Pepperdine has won nine in a row.

Two of those GU losses were to the Waves - by 22 points on the road and by six 2-1/2 weeks ago at home.

“We’ve probably played our best basketball our last five games,” said Barney, whose team’s margin of defeat has averaged 9.4 points during that time. “We’ve been competitive and we’re playing well. We just haven’t won.”

Big Sky scenario

Oh, what a tangled web they’ve weaved in the Big Sky Conference.

Montana, Idaho State, Cal State Northridge and Weber State have qualified for the six-team conference tournament. Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona and Portland State are all 6-8 in conference games and fighting for the final two spots.

All three contenders play their last two games on the road this weekend with EWU (10-14) at last-place Montana State (6-19, 2-12) and first-place Montana (18-7, 11-3).

Judging by the RPI rankings, the Eagles should beat the Bobcats, ranked 312th out of a possible 315th. But wait. EWU is ranked 303rd and just lost to Sac State, which moved up to 299th.

Eastern’s leading rebounder, Allie Bailey, suffered a left elbow dislocation in the game against Cal State Northridge and will not play.

Vandals struggle at wrong time

With two games left in the regular season, the Idaho Vandals (13-12, 6-6) find themselves in third place in the Big West Conference. They finish the regular season at fourth-place Boise State (13-12, 6-6) Thursday and are home against Long Beach State (16-9, 10-3) Saturday.

It looks as though the Vandals still are a safe bet to qualify for the Big West Conference Tournament, but they could go in as low as the East Division fourth seed. They’ve lost five of their last seven games with two tough ones ahead.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CCS moves on

The Community Colleges of Spokane (26-3) open the NWAACC Tournament against old friend Clark College (23-6) Thursday night at 8.

The two met five times in past opening rounds, with the Penguins up 3-2.

Last year, CCS won a loser-out, second-round game against Clark. This year’s game will be played on the Penguins’ home court, but CCS coach Bruce Johnson has to like his chances. South Puget Sound already proved the Penguins are vulnerable at home, defeating Clark in the first round of the West regional last week.