Successful all around

Good, but not good enough; good and getting better.

It’s a testament to the improving quality of college women’s basketball in this area that every coach is pleased with the progress of their team but is disappointed with the results.

Gonzaga got its first Division I national ranking and postseason win. But at best, the WNIT appearance was a consolation prize after a loss in the West Coast Conference tournament kept the Bulldogs out of the NCAA despite a 27-3 record. GU finished 28-4, matching the school record for wins from back in the NAIA days two decades ago.

Idaho reached the finals of the Big West Conference tournament but couldn’t beat perennial power Santa Barbara a third straight time and the Vandals were ignored again by the NIT despite a 19-11 record. Still, UI finished with back-to-back seasons better than .500 for the first time since 1990 and Emily Faurholt, the nation’s leading scorer last year, finished second at 23.2 points a game.

Eastern Washington bounced back from a losing record to go 16-12, challenging for the Big Sky Conference lead before fading down the stretch. Two winning seasons in three years is progress since it was 14 years between winning seasons before that and the Eagles lose only one senior.

Then there is Washington State. The Cougars were more competitive than a year ago despite an identical 6-22 record, 2-16 in the Pac-10, but instead of losing by an average of double figures they got that number down to about eight. And truth be told, showing improvement by wins and losses is hard to do in a conference where teams went 5-0 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and sent two teams to the Sweet 16.

Three winning programs in the same season is a first since all four schools have been in Division I. And all total, the four programs lose just eight seniors, four at Gonzaga. Fans can expect the good times to get better.

Gonzaga

There’s not a whole lot more can be said about a season that included a 23-game winning streak, a perfect record in the WCC, a league-record crowd of 5,825 and a first-round WNIT win over Brigham Young before a loss at Southwest Missouri State.

“I’m very pleased,” Kelly Graves said of his fifth season. “Obviously, not with the way it ended but you know we got a lot of people in Spokane excited about women’s basketball and our program. When all is said and done this is a year people are going to remember. I’m really proud.”

The Bulldogs lose four seniors, including all-leaguers and starters Ashley Burke, Shannon Mathews and Raeanna Jewell.

“I think we have good recruits coming in and I’m really pleased with how some of our young players played, the last half of the year especially.”

The Bulldogs should be deep and strong on the front line, “So much so that we’re going to have to change what we do, so it’s a bigger lineup on a more regular basis,” Graves said.

The question mark is at point guard. Rachel Kane is in line to replace Mathews, the school’s all-time assist leader, but could have off-season knee surgery.

Starter Ashley Anderson returns from injury and joins three newcomers, including University High School’s Jami Bjorklund.

“I think we have everything in place to kind of keep things going the way they’ve been going,” Graves said. “Now it’s a matter of getting a little luck and taking that next step.”

Strength of schedule was the reasoning for leaving the Zags out of the NCAA Tournament and Graves intends to do something about that.

“I’m going to do what the committee said and show we’re trying to schedule better,” he said. “I thought we did this year; hopefully our conference will be better. I’ll make some phone calls and try to upgade it as much as we can with the little time we have left.

“We might not have as good of record but I think we have a chance to be as good of team.”

Idaho

When the Vandals didn’t get into the WNIT a year ago with a 22-7 record, head coach Mike Divilbiss beefed up the schedule for his fourth season.

Idaho went just as far this year – the championship game of the Big West Conference – but this time the loss produced a 19-11 record and again the WNIT failed to call.

“We’re very disappointed, very disappointed,” Divilbiss said. “I can guarantee you nobody wanted to be on that bus with us … when we found out we weren’t going any further. That was a very, very disappointing moment, but a very motivating one as well. I think our kids have responded very well to that. I think we’ll react the right way.”

That doesn’t mean the coach was disappointed with anything else about the season.

“I thought it was a great year. I think with the schedule we played and the number of young kids we had working into the mix and the challenges we faced losing three of our top seven kids from the year before, I think we overcame a great deal.”

Only one senior leaves the program, 1,000-point scorer Heather Thoelke, and two first-team all-league picks return. Leading the way is Faurholt, but sophomore point guard Leilani Mitchell was just as prolific, finishing third and 11th nationally in steals and assists. Top rebounder, 6-foot-1 Jessica Summers, was only a freshman.

Adding three redshirts and two new freshmen is also going to make a big difference.

“Now not only do you have some depth, you get some wars in practice, people competing for playing time and positions,” Divilbiss said. “Once you have that, your program really starts to go to another level. Hopefully that’s where we’ll be.”

The schedule will again be tougher with preseason tournaments at New Mexico and East Carolina plus Montana, Gonzaga and EWU on the schedule.

The Vandals move into the Western Athletic Conference, which is much tougher top to bottom than the BWC.

“It will be a learning curve both ways so it will be even for everybody,” Divilbiss said. “Our focus will just be on playing and hopefully having the motivation we have right now, the feeling we have right now.”

Eastern Washington

Back on Jan. 29, the Eagles took a 5-0 conference record to Montana and took the Grizzlies to the wire before losing 72-65. From there they stumbled down the stretch to finish 8-6 in league, making the Big Sky Conference tournament for the sixth straight year but losing in the first round for the first time in three years.

“I think in a lot of ways it was a season of growth for our program. We learned a lot about each other,” fourth-year coach Wendy Schuller said. “I think we took a step in terms of expectations, people in the community expecting more and us expecting more of ourselves. With that came some disappointments. We set our sights high. In terms of reaching goals we’re obviously disappointed.”

The Eagles haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons since 1988, but the pieces are in place to fix that.

Record-breaking 3-point shooter Stephanie Ulmer graduates, but among those capable of stepping in is former Mead standout Leah Gonnella, who sat out after transferring from Toledo.

The front court is solid, led by all-leaguer Felice Moore, the leading scorer, and leading rebounder Julie Page, who was honorable mention All-BSC.

“Now we have to shore up a couple of areas,” Schuller said. “We’ve got to be able to score on a more consistent basis. We’ll evaluate what we’re doing. Our post play is solid, if we can get the perimeter play to match. We did at times and when we did, we were pretty good.

“We’ve got to get better in terms of the turnover aspect. That’s been an Achilles’ heel for us the last couple of years. The guard corps can improve and overall as a team get better with the ball.”

The Eagles have signed two front court players out of Snohomish County and a guard from Boise.

The Eagles are the only team to play all the other area teams. They also are going to face Washington and go to the Ohio State tournament.

Washington State

Wins don’t always measure success, though they certainly are the most important standard.

“Competitively we progressed. We just still didn’t get over the hump with wins,” third-year coach Sherri Murrell said. “I’m pleased with our competitiveness; we had 11 games we lost by eight points or less… . It came down to the lack of depth. We need more players.

“I had so many colleagues, say, ‘Sherri, we prepared extremely hard for you guys because you’re competitive now.’ In the past, that hasn’t happened.”

The Cougars lose forward Emma Joneby and guard Jessica Perry, two players that blossomed as seniors, but overall have a solid nucleus that is gaining valuable experience.

Though Murrell said, “The thing I’m excited about is we got better as the year went on. They didn’t go south on us.”

She also said her undersized front line was worn out down the stretch. That should change next year with three of four new players 6-foot-3 or better. That should help the Cougs’ first-ever league rebounding champ Kate Benz.

The other incoming freshman is a point guard. The Cougars are also looking for a pure shooter.

“I’m so pleased that defensively we finally got the system down,” Murrell said. “We have to put the ball in the hole. We were in games because of defense.”

The Pac-10 should be even stronger next year. The Cougars will also have Pepperdine, Saint Mary’s and Indiana at home and go to a traditionally difficult Hawaii tournament.