Idaho Slumps At Wrong Time
Women’s college basketball
Hilary Recknor, the articulate, talkative coach of the University of Idaho women’s basketball team, is running out of words to describe her Vandals’ latest setback: An ugly 67-40 loss to North Texas where UI shot 29.5 percent and turned over the ball 31 times.
With two games left in the regular season, the 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.
“I think we’re struggling for an identity in some ways offensively,” Recknor said. “(Senior forward) Alli Nieman is certainly doing her job and has elevated her game, but we need more consistency from other players. We need to take better care of the basketball and that’s been a concern all year long. When we don’t have that, there’s high turnovers.”
Enough said.
A season not to rememebr
Washington State is on pace to have its worst overall and conference records 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. “I really feel like we’re going to go into this game with a lot of motivation to get back that loss. We did ourselves in at Seattle and we’re going to get something back.”
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 rank 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.
This sidebar appeared with the story: Postseason under way for two-year schools
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.
In the Scenic West Athletic Conference, North Idaho College cut cost by staying in Utah after its final regular-season game in Colorado. The Region 18 Tournament opens Wednesday in Ephraim, Utah. The No. 6 Cardinals (17-13) open against No. 3 Utah Valley State (21-8). NIC has lost twice to UVSC during the regular season and five out of seven times.