Gonzaga women have sights set on high NCAA Tournament seed as West Coast Conference play opens
For Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier, a postgame pep talk last weekend from astronaut Anne McClain couldn’t have come at a better time.
Moments after the Zags closed their nonconference season with a win over Missouri State, they got some advice on expectations – specifically – live by your own and not everyone else’s.
“She said that people think what you’re doing is easy – but it’s not, so it was pretty applicable advice,” Fortier said.
Timely, too, as the 17th-ranked Zags (11-1) go into West Coast Conference play on Sunday. GU has won 14 of the last 15 regular-season titles, so expectations are again sky-high.
For the second straight year, the Zags have a shot at hosting first- and second-round games in the NCAA Tournament.
Experts have the same expectations. This week, ESPN bracketologist Charley Crème has GU penciled in as a No. 4 seed.
GU has done nothing to damper the enthusiasm, putting together a nonconference resume that blows the rest of the conference out of the water.
Going into Sunday’s WCC opener against Portland, the Zags were ranked seventh out of 349 schools in the rating percentage index, on the strength of an 11-1 record against a schedule ranked 35th.
GU also owns wins over Power 5 schools Purdue and Washington State.
In the WCC, no one else comes close. Pacific, 80th in RPI, has put together a surprising 6-4 record that includes respectable losses at current No. 4 Oregon State (by 12) and No. 10 UCLA (by 11).
The Tigers, however, have no quality wins comparable to GU’s 64-52 shutdown of No. 20 Missouri State on Friday.
No other WCC team is in the top 100 in RPI. Santa Clara (5-5) checks in at 100th thanks to a solid schedule that includes decent performances at Arizona and Cal. But like Pacific, the Broncos don’t have a big win.
With a 7-5 record and four wins in its last five, San Francisco might be the second-biggest surprise in the conference. The Dons have wins over Houston and Bowling Green; on the other hand, they lost by 19 at Washington, which finished last in the Pac-12 last season.
The biggest surprise – and not in a pleasant way – is BYU, which was a close second to the Zags in the WCC preseason coaches’ poll but is only 5-5. The Cougars have no quality wins and some ugly losses, the most glaring a 67-50 beatdown last month at Washington State – a team GU dominated 76-53 in Pullman two weeks ago.
BYU also has losses to Boise State, Utah, Arizona State and most recently No. 4 Oregon State on Thursday night. The Cougars led early 11-4, but were shut down the rest of the way in a 65-34 loss.
Of course, this is much the same team – starring 6-foot-7 post Sara Hamson – that beat the Zags three times last year.
A chance for payback is around the corner, Thursday in Provo, Utah.
The rest of the WCC is struggling. Saint Mary’s, which took Gonzaga to the limit in the WCC semifinals last year, is 5-6 with zero quality wins.
San Diego (5-5) played respectably in a four-point loss at Texas Tech on Nov. 30. Two days later, the Toreros fell by 33 at Idaho.
Pepperdine (6-4) is coming off an encouraging two-point loss last week at Boise State, but the Waves crashed at Washington State (85-48) and won by just one point at Eastern Washington.
Portland, the Zags’ first WCC opponent, went 5-13 in the conference last year. The Pilots are off to a 7-4 start, thanks in part a conference-leading 18.4 points per game from freshman forward Alex Fowler.
Gonzaga has beaten Portland 21 consecutive times, dating to 2009.