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Women: news and notes

Posted by Dave Trimmer at 9:19 PM on Mar 17    Comments (0)
Filed under: Zags

Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves has his name in the Final Four record book, as coach for St. Mary’s in the 1999 tournament. The record book lists all appearances. St. Mary’s went back two years later, the year Graves started at Gonzaga, and won a game under Michelle Jacoby. That was the last win for a WCC team in the tournament.
Graves’ team was a 12 seed and lost to Notre Dame, 61-57. Jacoby’s team, a nine seed, beat Texas 68-64 and lost to Tennessee 92-75.
The Zags went 0-14 in the WCC in Graves’ first season and his losses to the team he recruited at St. Mary’s were 62-36 and 63-50, plus 84-59 in the league tournament.
Graves also went to the tournament four straight years as an assistant at Portland.
Gonzaga had never played at Stanford before Saturday but Graves has coached at Maples Pavilion. In the 1999-00 season St. Mary’s lost 77-65.
Local ties
The Bulldogs are the last area team to make the dance. Idaho went in 1985, Eastern Washington went in 1987 and Washington State in 1991. The Vandals, under Pat Dobratz, lost to USC, lost 74-51; the Eagles, under Bill Smithpeters, lost to Oregon 77-56; and the Cougars, under Harold Rhodes, lost to Northwestern, 82-62. All the games were at the winners’ school.
A regional tournament – that’s the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight – is scheduled for Spokane next year. The dates are March 29-31 or March 30-April 1. The other three regionals are Greensboro, N.C., New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
Spokane, with the seating capacity listed at 12,000, is ranked seventh in all-time attendance for a regional with 22,092 attending the West Regional in 2001. That regional included a championship game of Washington against Missouri State, which included All-American Jackie Stiles. The Huskies lost 104-87. The other two teams were Duke and Oklahoma.
The six sites with higher attendance, with only two coming after 2001, are Nashville, Hartford, Albuquerque, Greensboro, Knoxville and Austin.
Tip ins
Boise State, with former GU assistants J.R. Payne and Toriano Towns on the staff,
reached the tournament for the second time in school history. The Broncos are coached by Graves’ good friend Gordy Presnell. Their first appearance came in 1994 under current Husky coach June Daugherty. BSU lost that game 89-61 – to the Huskies in Seattle. BSU lost 76-67 to 14th-ranked George Washington in Greensboro, N.C., on Saturday. … Big Sky Conference champion Idaho State had the difficult task of facing home-standing Stanford, losing 96-58. Pullman grad Christa Brossman, a former Bengal player, is an assistant for ISU. … That puts two PHS grads here with GU assistant ticket manager Alison Keck accompanying the Bulldogs. … Former Brewster and North Idaho College player Jeni Boesel ended her career at ISU with nine points. … Another connection is Stanford senior Clare Bodensteiner from Ruppert, Idaho. She played a tournament with the Spokane Stars and was reported to be headed to Gonzaga before the Cardinal grabbed her late in the recruiting process.

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