Cougars have high hopes

Before June Daugherty ever coached a women’s basketball game for Washington State, the veteran coach’s arrival was heralded as “the new championship era.”

The first step in making that a reality didn’t materialize on the court, where the Cougars went 5-25, 2-16 in the Pac-10. The real progress was made in recruiting.

A year later a class of seven that drew national attention to the woebegone program is ready to hit the floor.

“Why we’ll be better is we were fortunate to recruit a talented freshman class,” Daugherty said. “They have unbelievable talent and athleticism.”

Mix in four hungry seniors and optimism abounds where it has been eight years since the last 10-win season and 13 since the last winning season.

“We have a chance to have a special team this year,” said Daugherty, who is 319-238 in 19 seasons, seven at Boise State and 11 at Washington. “We’re blessed with some very good talent and some depth. If we stay healthy and keep maturing as a team, the wins will take care of themselves.”

In exhibition games three freshmen started twice, 5-foot-8 guard April Cook (Carson, Calif.), 5-10 guard Jazmine Perkins (Berkeley, Calif.,) and 6-1 wing Rosie Tarnowski (Philadelphia). Senior Ebonee Coates also started, along with senior guard Katie Appleton in the first game and 5-6 freshman Danielle LeNoir (Los Angeles) in the second when Appleton was out.

Appleton is a four-year starter who led the team in scoring last year at 12 points per game. Coates, a 6-4 post who struggled with injuries last year, averaged 7.1 points and 6.8 rebounds.

“The issue for me isn’t who is going to start, the issue is finding out who is going to finish, especially when it’s a tough opponent, tough game,” Daugherty said. “Who’s going to be out there in crunch time?

“We started (multiple freshmen), I have no qualms about that. What I care about is finishing the game out right.”

Daugherty expects her team to be relentless, always attacking on offense and pressuring full court on defense.

Bulldogs have lofty goals

Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves hasn’t spent any time reminding his team what it didn’t accomplish last year.

“I don’t think that helps,” he said. “They’re smart. They know what lies ahead of them. They’ve set lofty goals.”

One can assume it’s the same goals they had last year: win the West Coast Conference, which they did for the fourth straight season and advance to the NCAA tournament for the second time in school history, which they missed when they lost in the championship game of the WCC tournament.

Still, GU finished 25-9, 13-1 in the WCC and went to the WNIT, the fourth time in Graves’ eight-year tenure they made post-season play after making it just once before.

The Zags have gone 51-5 in conference play the past four seasons and are riding the best three, four, five and six-year runs in league history.

“No one has ever won five (straight league titles),” Graves said. “I think we have the team to do it. But I tell people we need the trifecta – good chemistry, good health and good luck. You can’t count on that every year, or any year. So regardless of talent, you have to have those three as well.”

The talent is there. There is the league MVP in 6-2 junior Heather Bowman (20.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg), when she gets back from preseason elbow surgery, Defender of the Year in 5-11 senior Jami (Bjorklund) Schaefer (9.2 ppg) and Freshman of the Year in point guard Courtney Vandersloot (10.6 ppg, 191 assists).

Also, junior forward Vivian Frieson (8.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg), sophomore wing Janelle Bekkering and guard Tiffanie Shives all contributed some huge games.

“When you look at the firepower we have coming back, it’s significant,” Graves said.

The Bulldogs averaged 77.2 points a game, top 10 nationally, which is unusual for a team that does not play pressure defense.

Eagles regrouping

Eastern Washington had its worst season in Wendy Schuller’s seven seasons, going 4-25 overall and finishing last in the Big Sky Conference with a 1-15 record.

To improve on that at least several freshmen are going to have to make significant contributions.

“We’re still changing diapers, making a lot of formula for our six babies, but it’s going well,” Schuller said. “We’re excited about the young kids.”

The Eagles return plenty of starting experience but will miss Sydney Benson (11.5 ppg, 7.4 rpg), who called it a career with a year of eligibility left because of a bad back.

The top returning scorer is sophomore sharp-shooter Kayla Evans, who averaged 11.3 points but missed 11 games with a foot injury. Experienced 6-plus-footers – junior Nichole Scott (10.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Tetjana Sparavalo (9.4 ppg), Amy Bratvold (7.3) and Julie Piper (6.2) – should help young players adjust along with veteran point guard Jessica Huntington, who had 150 assists.

Plus 6-foot senior Ashley Knight returns after redshirting for personal reasons.

The Eagles made the Big Sky Conference tournament in Schuller’s first six seasons.

“Our biggest thing is we’re going to play hard,” she said. “We spent spring and summer evaluating ourselves. … We got away from being a team that is about toughness. We’ve been doing a lot of things to bring that back. We’re going to get back to defending, which we haven’t done very well last two years.”

Schuller knows there is a lot on the line.

“There’s always pressure,” she said. “After last year, that win total wasn’t acceptable. There’s always pressure after a season like that.”

Vandals’ new direction

Despite facing a major rebuilding project, Jon Newlee isn’t second guessing his decision to leave Idaho State for Idaho because he knows rebuilding the Vandals is possible.

“I love it, it’s quite a change from southern Idaho,” said the veteran coach, a long-time assistant, including stops at Hawaii, Southern Methodist and St. Mary’s. “It was a hard decision. I put my whole blood, sweat and tears in that program. We went from the ashes to the NCAA, so it was hard in that aspect. I had great players, I loved coaching them.”

Newlee, 93-82 in six seasons at Idaho State with one NCAA tournament berth as Big Sky champions, takes over a team that was 4-25 last season, 3-13 in the Western Athletic Conference for an 11-37 record in three seasons in the WAC.

“It will be harder, the league is so much harder,” he said. “I don’t know if we can turn it around as quickly, going from six wins the first year to 20. That’s the plan, we’re not shying away from it. We’ve going to have to put a few more bricks in the wall.”

That’s because his depleted 10-player roster, including a walk-on, has only five veterans.

“What we told the players is it’s a good opportunity to start fresh,” said Newlee, who believes in up-tempo basketball. “What we tell the fans is it’s a building process. To me it’s a journey. You have to start with small steps but we know the direction we need to go. We’re going to have to get the right kind of players in here.”

A pair of All-Freshman picks, junior point guard Charlotte Otero and sophomore post Yinka Olorunnife, and sophomore guards Alana Curtis (18 starts) and Rachele Kloke (16 starts) are the most experienced Vandals.

A shallow team took a hit when highly-regarded freshman Jessica Graham blew out a knee the third day of practice.

“Conventional wisdom says with only eight players we should slow it down and milk the clock, but I just can’t play that way,” Newlee said. “We’ll put the system in and do the best we can with the players in place.”

New path for Pirates

Before the first whistle blew it was an unusual season at Whitworth.

Veteran coach Helen Higgs has no freshmen, a handful of junior college transfers and an all-Washington roster.

“We had two players commit and put their deposit in,” Higgs said of the two freshmen who ended up not coming. “In Division III, with no scholarships and no letter-of-intent, that’s going to happen, but it’s the first time in 15 years for me.”

That led to the four junior college transfers joining the Pirates, who are picked to finish second in the Northwest Conference after going 13-12 last year, 8-8 in league.

“Usually we get one every couple of years,” said Higgs, who is 214-140 in 14 seasons. “You have to look for the right pieces, we don’t recruit them unless there is a gap (in the roster). It’s hard for them to be on the bench when they’ve been starting for two years. This year we needed some power players. They bring more physicality, more understanding of the game, areas we needed.”

The fact that she has all Washington players is a coincidence.

“Local kids are starting to figure out it’s not so bad to stay in Spokane,” Higgs said.

Still, the Pirates are not tall, which isn’t unusual, though they have decent size at guard and good depth.

“I think we’re talented,” Higgs said. “We won’t lose a lot when we sub. I think we can stay productive at both ends. Right now people are playing both ends of court.”

The returning starters are 5-9 senior all-conference forward Alida Bower (13.5 ppg, 6.1 rpg) and honorable mention 5-8 guard Natalie Orrell (12.6 ppg). Tiffany Corigliano, a 5-10 senior, and Liz Horiatis, a 5-11 sophomore, split time at the post, combed for 14.2 points and 9.7 rebounds.