Preview:
Stanford hosts Gonzaga on Sunday at noon. This is also the occasion that the court gets named for Tara, so I expect a big crowd on hand.
Gonzaga, like Stanford, is getting votes but falls just outside the top 25 in both polls. They have a superb team with excellent returners, a Uconn transfer, and a freshman sensation.
Evonne Ejim is back for a 5th year and is on a bunch of national award lists. She is a 6’1” forward who has given us fits in the past. Last year she scored 27 points against us. A little undersized, she is nevertheless nimble, strong, and accurate from both long range and close in. One of those players who perhaps can be contained but never shut down.
Ines Bettencourt may be a familiar name to you. This 5’9” Portuguese guard transferred in to Gonzaga from Uconn. Maybe she could not be a starter at Uconn given a certain other player there, but she is Gonzaga’s starting point guard and had 16 points and 5 assists for them in their opener vs. Montana. Gonzaga graduated the Truong twins and Bettencourt is taking up a lot of that slack.
Maud Huijbens is a 6’3” grad student forward with loads of experience (Dutch), and 6’2” guard Ester Little (English) adds to a relatively tall and very, very experienced team.
Gonzaga has been giving 6 players double digit minutes, but perhaps the most notable one not yet mentioned is freshman guard, 5’8” Allie Turner. In her college debut, Turner led the team in scoring (off the bench) with 18 points, including 5/8 from three point range.
In short, Gonzaga has experience, height, a disciplined offense, and now has a supercharged Uconn transfer and a freshman phenom to throw into the mix. They are always extremely well prepared, and given that they beat us quite easily last year they will come into Maples with confidence. I fully expect Gonzaga to be a ranked team and an NCAA tournament team this year. This will be a true test to see how much progress we have made at the beginning of the Kate Paye era.
Stanford hosts Gonzaga on Sunday at noon. This is also the occasion that the court gets named for Tara, so I expect a big crowd on hand.
Gonzaga, like Stanford, is getting votes but falls just outside the top 25 in both polls. They have a superb team with excellent returners, a Uconn transfer, and a freshman sensation.
Evonne Ejim is back for a 5th year and is on a bunch of national award lists. She is a 6’1” forward who has given us fits in the past. Last year she scored 27 points against us. A little undersized, she is nevertheless nimble, strong, and accurate from both long range and close in. One of those players who perhaps can be contained but never shut down.
Ines Bettencourt may be a familiar name to you. This 5’9” Portuguese guard transferred in to Gonzaga from Uconn. Maybe she could not be a starter at Uconn given a certain other player there, but she is Gonzaga’s starting point guard and had 16 points and 5 assists for them in their opener vs. Montana. Gonzaga graduated the Truong twins and Bettencourt is taking up a lot of that slack.
Maud Huijbens is a 6’3” grad student forward with loads of experience (Dutch), and 6’2” guard Ester Little (English) adds to a relatively tall and very, very experienced team.
Gonzaga has been giving 6 players double digit minutes, but perhaps the most notable one not yet mentioned is freshman guard, 5’8” Allie Turner. In her college debut, Turner led the team in scoring (off the bench) with 18 points, including 5/8 from three point range.
In short, Gonzaga has experience, height, a disciplined offense, and now has a supercharged Uconn transfer and a freshman phenom to throw into the mix. They are always extremely well prepared, and given that they beat us quite easily last year they will come into Maples with confidence. I fully expect Gonzaga to be a ranked team and an NCAA tournament team this year. This will be a true test to see how much progress we have made at the beginning of the Kate Paye era.