Gonzaga women look forward to many possible NCAA tournament destinations
LAS VEGAS – The Gonzaga women won a lot more than a basketball game Tuesday afternoon.
Knocking off 15th-ranked Brigham Young comes with plenty of tangible rewards: the West Coast Conference Tournament title, of course, and a sure spot to the NCAA Tournament.
“And I think this means we won’t have to be in a play-in game,” coach Lisa Fortier said after the Zags beat BYU at the Orleans Arena.
That’s right, no more hand-wringing about this team’s postseason fate – only high-fives, because the ticket’s been punched.
The only question now is the destination. Considering that GU figures to be a No. 10 or 11 seed, there are many possibilities, though none in the West.
On Wednesday morning, Charlie Crème of ESPN weighed in with a new bracket that sends the Zags to Michigan as a No. 11 seed to face North Carolina.
Other possible destinations include Iowa, Iowa State, UConn, Tennessee, Baylor and most intriguing of all, Texas and LSU. That’s because those brackets feed into the Spokane Regional.
If you dare to dream – and who doesn’t in March? – imagine the Zags back home for the Sweet 16 on March 25 and 27.
The Zags flew out of Vegas on Wednesday with a jackpot of intangibles, but the biggest was the confidence booster for a squad that hadn’t risen to the big moment.
The Zags blew leads against Stanford, Washington State, UC Davis and BYU. Barely two weeks ago in Provo, Utah, they suffered the program’s worst loss (63-39) in 21 years.
“It had been a long time since we had a game like that, where we really didn’t compete,” Fortier said.
Written off by many at that point, the Zags regrouped and put together three strong games to finish the regular season.
The loss in Provo ultimately cost them the WCC regular-season title, but Fortier and her team tried to focus on “what we can control, winning the WCC Tournament.”
In the postgame news conference, neither Kayleigh Truong nor Melody Kempton admitted to any self-doubt going into the BYU game.
That’s easy enough to claim after the fact, and Kempton seemed to sense the doubts as she surveyed the room.
“Coming in, we were trying to stay calm and collected,” Kempton said. “We knew we could win, it wasn’t like we were coming in here scared.”
The blowout in Provo also offered plenty of motivation.
“They probably didn’t like that we smacked them on Senior Night,” BYU senior Paisley Harding said after the game. “They probably wanted to come in show us what was up. They did that.
“Their whole team produced, which was a downfall for us, I think.”
That’s been a contentious issue all season for the armchair coaches on social media.
“I’ve been chastised throughout the year for my starting lineup, because some people think it should be something different,” Fortier said.
Tuesday’s stat sheet offered the most compelling refutation of those doubts. Working with a seven-player rotation, Fortier saw four players score in double figures.
Two of the critics’ biggest targets came up big against BYU. Abby O’Connor had 10 rebounds and three steals, while Anamaria Virjoghe had six points and four blocks.
In the semifinals against USF, Virjoghe and O’Connor combined for 19 points and 14 boards.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that O’Connor was the hero of GU’s only other Quad 1 win. In a holiday tournament in Hawaii, she scored 21 points against Utah.
So much for not rising to the occasion.