In my last blog piece I mentioned previewing our six "toughest" preseason opponents. Bear this in mind, I sure don't want to be a party to any underestimating of our other preseason opponents.
Three years ago we went up to a packed arena in Spokane ranked in the top ten and lost to an unranked Gonzaga team. Our fifth game is against an unranked Bulldog team that will be feeding big-time off their great fans. Our team is not used to being defending national champs and we've all got to realize the size of the bullseye we're wearing this year. We certainly don't want to go into any game flat and make some hungry team's year. The Zags arena will be rocking and its a great opportunity for the Cardinal go into Spokane and play like national champions.
This season will be a re-building year for the Bulldogs, as their three leading scorers are gone - Jill Townsend, and the Wirth twins. But re-building at Gonzaga is different than at most other schools. As you know, their men's program is fantastic and for years their women's program has been at the top of the West Coast Conference and a tough "out" in the NCAA Tournament. As mentioned above, their fan base is voracious and their games are packed - especially when Stanford comes to Spokane.
So, even with mostly new players in 2021, the Zags will be a strong opponent. For instance, Bree Salenbien a 6'-2" freshman guard is their highest ranked recruit in program history. She's the 7th ranked guard in the 2021 Class nationwide. She was the Gatorade Player of the Year for Michigan for her last season in high school and averaged 25.6 points, 11 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 3.6 steals. (See what I mean?)
Esther Little is another 6'-2" freshman guard from Ipswich, England who has had 50 games of international experience. Last season she averaged 15.5 points, 19.5 rebounds (no, that's not a misprint), and 6.8 assists in the Women's Elite Academy League.(I wonder if Hannah Jump has come across Esther in her English national age-group experience?)
Payton Muma is a 5'-8" freshman guard who was the #2 ranked high school player in Colorado last season. (I would hazard a wild guess that Lauren Betts was #1.)
Maud Huijbens is a 6'-3" freshman forward and a long-time member of the Netherland's national age-group teams. Last year she averaged 12 points and 6.5 rebounds in the European U18 Championships.
Anamaria Virjoghe is a 6'-5" senior transfer from Targoviste, Romania. She was the MVP of the Romanian national team in the U18 European Championships.
Melody Kempton is a 6'-1" senior forward. She was the program's first WCC 6th woman of the year last season on Gonzaga's conference championship team.
Calli Stokes is a 5'-11" freshman guard who averaged 21 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals, and 3 assists per game as a senior and league MVP at Redondo Beach High last season.
And I can't omit their current set of twins, Kayleigh and Kaylynne Truong. Kayleigh was a starter and solid contributor for the Zags last season. So, you can see, Lisa Fortier - who replaced Kelly Graves as head coach - and her staff are great recruiters. Re-building at Gonzaga is not a multi-year process full of angst and disappointment. No, the Zags will come out smokin and you take them lightly at your peril.
Our fourth game is against the Portland University Pilots in Maples. Eight of their players are from Australia and one is from New Zealand. I have no idea what we'll be up against that night, but one of their Aussies is 6'-8" and another is 6'-6". They had a so-so year last season, but many of their players are freshmen or transfers. Once again, our mentality has to be that of a powerful highly prepared defending champion with 12 of our 13 players returning from our team last season. Let's control this game from the opening tip - no letups and no coasting.
The message of this piece is the absolute need to be mentally ready for every game and play 100 percent every minute, especially if our four freshmen get in late. Each game is our chance to show the nation that the eastern pundits have very little understanding of what this program is all about. It's an insult that they've ranked us #3 in this preseason and we need to play every minute of each game as the defending national champions. We're not running up the score. We're just that good from top to the bottom - and we're not letting up.
TO PARAPHRASE MR. CHURCHILL, IF THIS PROGRAM LASTS 1000 YEARS - IT SHOULD BE AGREED THAT THIS WAS OUR FINEST SEASON.
In our last two games against the Zags (up there and here), we had difficulty against their aggressive perimeter defense. In those games, however, they didn't have to face Cameron Brink. I say, Let Haley & Lexi drive to the basket and if the Zags try to collapse on them, throw the ball up to Brink and make them pay. We must be offensively aggressive like we were in the Tourney.
ReplyDelete