Lauren Whittaker’s debut season should yield plenty of WCC accolades | Women’s basketball

I admit I’m not an expert. But I trust my eyes.

To that end, I offer my take on West Coast Conference women’s basketball end-of-season awards that will be announced a couple days before the postseason tournament begins.

One freshman has won Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year the same season. And that happened the first year the WCC existed, in 1985-86.

In fact, Sonya Carter of U.S. International, a school based in San Diego, was named the POY, Freshman of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year that season.

A second freshman is about to sweep at least the POY and Freshman of the Year honors. Gonzaga 6-foot-3 forward Lauren Whittaker will take both those awards in a landslide. And she could also be named Newcomer of the Year.

Take note of that WCC coaches. There’s precedent for it. But the WCC coaches don’t need precedent. They, too, can trust their eyes.

No other player in the WCC has come close to putting up numbers comparable to what Whittaker has done in her debut season. And she’s done it coming off knee surgery.

Whittaker will be the third straight Gonzaga player to garner the POY honor. Kaylynne Truong did it in 2022-23 and Yvonne Ejim was the overwhelming selection the past three seasons. Ejim was also named the Defensive Player of the Year.

I wouldn’t go that far with Whittaker. She’s certainly been a presence in the middle for the Zags, but not to the level Ejim was the past two seasons.

Whittaker’s defensive presence will increase in the years to come.

She wasn’t even on the WCC radar back in October when the coaches voted for their preseason team.

I’d use some space to throw out some eye-popping statistics. But the fact that Whittaker ranks nationally in most statistics is enough evidence to support her dominating conference honors.

Some of the other honors may not be as clear cut, though. My All-WCC first team includes Gonzaga sophomore guard Allie Turner, the 2024-25 Freshman of the Year.

Washington State junior guard Eleonora Villa also makes my team. Former WSU wing Jenna Villa (no relation), who transferred to Oregon State last spring, has led the Beavers in scoring and rebounding. I have her on my team.

Rounding out my team are Candy Edokpaigbe (San Francisco), Maia Jones (Santa Clara), Maya Hernandez (Loyola Marymount), Elli Guiney (Pepperdine), Jess Lawson (LMU) and Kylie Ray (San Diego).

My Defensive Player of the Year would be Oregon State junior guard Kennedie Shuler. She’s been a pure menace.

I turned to a first-year Gonzaga player as my Sixth Woman of the Year: sophomore transfer guard Teryn Gardner from Boise State by way of Mead High School.

Gardner has consistently been one of coach Lisa Fortier’s first two players off the bench. She’s averaged 6.8 points and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 46.3% from 3-point range.

Gonzaga freshman forward Jaiden Haile should be picked to the All-Freshman Team. She’s had three double-doubles, averaging 6.8 points and 6.4 rebounds. Most of the season she’s had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds, and that’s where she primarily has hurt opponents.

I see four candidates for Coach of the Year: Fortier, Loree Payne of Santa Clara, Aarika Hughes of LMU and Katie Faulkner of Pepperdine.

My pick is Faulkner. Just an incredible job in her second season in Malibu. She took over a team last year that lost every player. Faulkner had to rebuild the team fast, and she added eight new players through the transfer portal. She clinched the honor when her team upset Santa Clara 80-63 last Saturday.

Faulkner, who had a spectacular career at nearby Lake City High and was a three-time All-Big Sky Conference first-team pick at Montana, coached most of the season pregnant. She gave birth to her third child earlier this month.

If my pulse on the WCC is correct, I’ll be close to most of the awards when they’re announced next week.

Still a race

The WCC has reached the final week of the regular season, and the chase for the league championship has yet to be decided.

This much is true – if Gonzaga wins its final two games it clinches no worse than a triple-bye into the conference tournament.

The Zags have a small Senior Night on Thursday when they welcome Saint Mary’s – the last WCC team Gonzaga has yet to play under the unbalanced schedule. The Bulldogs close out the regular season Saturday at Portland in a game that will be televised on ESPNU.

Gonzaga (21-8, 13-3) is tied for first place with Loyola Marymount (19-8, 13-3). A half game back is Oregon State (20-9, 12-4), and Santa Clara (21-8, 11-5) remains alive for the title.

Of the two teams, LMU has the most challenging finish. The Lions travel to San Francisco (16-11, 9-7) on Thursday before going to Oregon State on Saturday.

Oregon State and Santa Clara need help to win the league title, and most scenarios have them ending in some sort of tie. OSU faces next-to-last San Diego on Thursday, and Santa Clara is at home to end with Pacific and San Francisco.

The WCC plans to release winners of potential ties for tournament seeding on Friday.

It’s an important week for Washington State (5-24, 4-12) – if for no other reason than a chance to reverse its course. The Cougars are in 10th and can’t avoid a bottom-four finish and a first-round game in the WCC Tournament.

The Cougars finish the regular season at home. WSU takes on last-place Seattle (5-22, 1-15) on Thursday and Saint Mary’s on Saturday.

“We really want to simplify things for our players, really want a tight game plan going into the weekend,” WSU coach Kamie Ethridge said. “We need to play better than we have at home. We’re just dying to get a win and find some success.”

It’s the final home stand for transfers Jean Chiu and Lauren Glazier.

Around the Big Sky

Idaho is riding a 12-game winning streak as it steps closer to clinching the Big Sky championship.

The Vandals hit the road for two games this week before concluding at home Monday against Eastern Washington.

Idaho (23-5, 14-1) goes to Northern Arizona (10-18, 6-9) on Thursday and is at Northern Colorado (20-8, 11-4) on Saturday. EWU (13-15, 6-9) is at Northern Colorado on Thursday and visits Northern Arizona on Saturday.

Montana State (20-6, 13-2) sits a game behind Idaho.

Weekly honors

Whittaker matched a WCC record for most Freshman of the Week honors when she was accorded a 12th honor this week.

The conference began recognizing a Freshman of the Week in 2020-21. Tess Heal of Santa Clara earned the honor 12 times in 2022-23.

Whittaker, from Canterbury, New Zealand, led Gonzaga to a sweep over WSU and Pacific last week. She added to her school mark of double-doubles with two more (15) – first among freshmen nationally and 13th overall.

She had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes against WSU and followed that with 20 points and 11 rebounds against Pacific.

• EWU senior Ella Gallatin was named Big Sky Player of the Week.

In the Eagles’ 87-78 win over Portland State, Gallatin scored 25 points and had 10 assists for her second career double-double along with five rebounds. Against Sacramento State, she had 19 points, six assists and six rebounds.