Area schools have it tough

No sense waiting around to find out if they’re good.

The four area Division I women’s basketball teams start their seasons with a bang in high-powered Thanksgiving tournaments next week. Among the schools on the schedule are top-10 teams Georgia and Stanford.

The locals get a chance to work out the kinks first with Washington State and Idaho starting the season at home Friday and Eastern Washington opening on the road. Gonzaga tips off at home Saturday.

Eastern heads south to Cal-Northridge and then goes to Anchorage for the Great Alaska Shoot-out. The Eagles play No. 7 Stanford next Tuesday. The other two teams in the tournament are Anchorage and Louisiana-Lafayette.

Washington State faces Boise State on Friday and plays at Nebraska on Monday before going to Moraga, Calif., for a tournament at Saint Mary’s. The Cougars will play the Gaels the day after Thanksgiving. The other game is Tennessee-Chattanooga, which received votes to be 28th, and Northwestern State.

Idaho plays Utah Valley State at 7 p.m. Friday in a game that has been moved to Memorial Gym and plays Boise State on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Cowan Spectrum. Then the Vandals head to Hawaii and a date with No. 5 Georgia in the Rainbow Wahine Classic. Other teams include No. 15 Michigan State, potential Top 25 teams Texas Christian and Utah, plus Cal, Santa Clara and Hawaii.

Gonzaga plays its first official game in the new McCarthey Athletic Center on Saturday against Utah Valley State. The Bulldogs then head to Albuquerque for the New Mexico tourney, where they play Providence before taking on the host school — another team that’s often a poll vote-getter — or Missouri.

Courtney Lynn, a Ferris graduate, is a captain for Utah Valley State, which is starting its second season in Division I. In two exhibition games, Lynn, a point guard, had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Interesting games

Eastern is the only team that managed to get the other three area teams on the schedule.

Gonzaga is the opponent for the Eagles’ home opener Nov. 30. The Eagles play Idaho in Tri-Cities on Dec. 5 and go to WSU on Dec. 18.

Idaho plays at GU Dec. 18 and the 3 p.m. game will be televised.

Other home games of note include Irvine, with senior guard Courtney Ferguson from Mead, at EWU on Dec. 13; Utah visiting Gonzaga Dec. 29 and WSU’s Pac-10 opener against Arizona State on Dec. 27. ASU’s visit marks the annual return of local players Emily Westerberg and Regan Pariseau from Central Valley and Aubree Johnson from Post Falls.

Irvine is at Idaho on Feb. 24. Pullman grad Christa Brossman and Idaho State are at EWU on Jan. 20. Brossman, incidentally, is writing a diary on the ISU website.

Scheduling news

There was some wailing last year when Idaho was left out of the NCAA Tournament despite a 22-7 record, a second-place finish in the Big West Conference and a spot in the conference tournament championship game.

The main reason was strength of schedule.

Outside of traditional power Santa Barbara, the Big West isn’t exactly tough. The bottom eight teams combined for 12 non-conference wins last year. The Vandals are trying to rectify that, but there is only so much that can be done.

In preseason rankings of strength of schedule, the Vandals are 113th, but factor in the Big West Conference games and that falls to 286 overall. And that’s with Santa Barbara on the schedule.

The Gauchos have the sixth toughest non-league schedule, but are 193rd overall.

The WCC is No. 17 among conferences, which is about 10 spots higher than last year.

The Pac 10 is the second-ranked conference behind the Big Ten.

Tip-ins

Former Mead standout Leah Gonnella has transferred from Toledo to Eastern but has to sit out this year. … A key reserve for Idaho, Emily Halliday, is going to miss most, if not all, of the preseason with a foot injury. … Among the newcomers at Idaho is freshman Brittany O’Neill, who played at Rogers and Lewis and Clark. … Ferris grad Brynn Kelly, a sophomore at Davidson, got to open the season at No. 6 Duke. The Wildcats lost by 20. … ASU has played two games, including a 65-54 loss at No. 3 LSU. Westerberg, a starter, had 11 points and eight rebounds. Johnson, in a 60-50 win over Virginia in the tourney at LSU, had 10 points and six rebounds. Pariseau, a true freshman, played 21 minutes in each game and has scored 12 points.