College women: GU’s Graves stays positive
Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves struck out scrounging for food late one night when the Bulldogs were at a tournament in the Virgin Islands two years ago.
He met Tennessee coach Pat Summit on an elevator and upon hearing his plight, she shared her pizza.
When they meet again Sunday on Summit Court, Graves hopes her top-ranked defending national champions are more inclined to be generous rather than slicing up his Bulldogs.
He didn’t talk about Sunday’s game at the “mecca” of women’s basketball as being a negative for his program, although he acknowledged there is always that possibility.
“I think it can only do positives,” Graves said. “It helps us in recruiting and it will help us a team. We’re not going to play in a more hostile environment.”
The Lady Vols return four starters from last year’s lineup and have already beaten the Nos. 3, 9, 13, 20 and 25 teams this season.
The teams played in the Virgin Islands in 2005-06, with the Vols beating the Bulldogs 79-65 in between games against Michigan State and Maryland, both ranked, in a round-robin tournament. That set the groundwork for this game because Angie Bjorklund had just committed to UT and Jami Bjorklund was a freshman at Gonzaga.
It turns out this game is a bonus for the GU program, but local fans get the payoff next season when the Lady Vols play in The Kennel.
“We try to take all of our players back to their hometown if possible, or within a relatively short distance,” Summit said. “With Jami playing for Gonzaga … we thought it would be neat if we could make that happen.”
“Pat’s really terrific, really nice,” said Graves.
“Obviously, she’s the standard by which everyone else is judged in women’s basketball and she’s respected in men’s basketball as well. You can’t look at that record and not be impressed.”
“They won’t play just anybody,” added Graves. “You see very few ‘dogs’ on their schedule. It’s an honor. They schedule like no one else.”
Catching up
Arizona State senior Regan Pariseau (Central Valley) is day-to-day and has already missed two games after injuring an ankle against Gonzaga. … Leilani Mitchell, who left Idaho with one year of eligibility, leads 6-3 Utah with averages of 16 points and seven assists. … Liz Witte, who played one year with Idaho after transferring from a junior college, is averaging nine points for D-II Pittsburg State. She has started three games for the 5-2 school in Kansas. … Azusa Pacific, ranked 10th, handed No. 7 Carroll College its first loss. Senior forward Abby Johnson (Clarkston), who played her first two seasons at Eastern, leads the 6-1 Cougars in scoring (15.3) and rebounds (7.4). … Johnson’s former high school teammate Misty Atkinson is redshirting at Montana. … Caitlin Courchaine (CV) is a senior starter for Carroll (12-1).
Tip-ins
It’s a quiet week locally because of finals. … Eastern Washington has a home game against Great Falls (NAIA) on Saturday afternoon and Washington State is home on Sunday afternoon against San Jose State. Idaho is at Montana on Saturday and hosts Colorado State on Tuesday. … WSU’s seven-player recruiting class was ranked 16th nationally by Blue Star basketball and 24th by HoopGurlz.com. Blue Star had the Cougars second in the Pac-10 behind USC, which came in at No. 10. … GU senior Michelle Elliott was name co-WCC Player of the Week with San Francisco’s Dominique Carter. Elliott averaged 25 points a game, including a career-high 31 as the Zags defeated UC Davis and Sacramento State. She had a school record nine 3-pointers at Davis and hit 14 of 22 3-pointerss for the week.