BOISE STATE AND NEVADA HEAD TO POSTSEASON ACTION
? Boise State will face the #14/13 George Washington Colonials of the Atlantic 10 Conference in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. The Nevada women’s basketball team earned its first-ever postseason bid. Nevada will take on Wyoming in Laramie on Thursday, March 15.
The Broncos are scheduled to start 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game which tips-off at 11:00 a.m. PT in Los Angeles, California at the Galen Center on the University of Southern California campus. Tickets go on sale Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. at the Boise State Athletic Ticket Office. They are $20 dollars for the Boise State session only.
The Broncos’ opponent on Saturday is George Washington. They enter the tournament ranked #14 and 13 in the nation. They are currently 26-3 overall and were awarded a five-seed in the Dallas Bracket. GW, which is making its fifth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and 14th overall, is 14-13 in 27 tourney games. The Colonials are 11- 2 in first-round games, including an 87-72 victory at 10th-seeded Old Dominion last March.
Nevada will take on Wyoming at 7:00 p.m. MT on March 15. The Wolf Pack, which finished the season with a 17-14 record, will not host a first-round game. The WNIT expanded its field to 48 teams this year and, as part of the expansion, is giving an automatic bid to each Division I conference in the country.
PACKING THE HOUSE ? The 2007 WAC Women’s Basketball Tournament was one of the most attended. There was a total of 13,129 fans that attended the tournament which averaged 2,626 for the five sessions. It was the third-best attendance in WAC history. The highest-attended women’s tournament was the 1996 tournament held at the Pit in Albuquerque where a total of 26,058 fans attended the seven sessions. In 1998 in Las Vegas, a total of 17,684 attended the tournament.
WAC TOURNAMENT RECORD ? For the second-straight season, New Mexico State tied the record for upset based on seed when the seventhseeded Aggies defeated second-seeded Louisiana Tech. Last season, No. 7 New Mexico State stopped No. 2 Fresno State. In 2003, seventhseeded SMU beat second-seeded Rice. The only other record broken at the 2007 WAC Tournament was the record for shots attempted. Boise State’s 84 shots attempted against San Jose State in the quarterfinals broke the record of 83 shots attempted
WAC TOURNAMENT RECAP ? Boise State won its first conference tournament title in history with a 49-46 come-from-behind win over host New Mexico State at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The win in front of 5,905 fans earned the Broncos an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament as the WAC’s representative. The victory
also completed a sweep of the WAC’s regular season and tournament titles for Boise State as they set a new school record for most wins in a season improving to 24-8 overall.
2007 WAC WOMEN’S ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Jessica Thompson, Boise State (MVP)
Dellena Criner, Nevada
Cecilia Russell-Nava, New Mexico State
Sherell Neal, New Mexico State
Tasha Harris, Boise State
BOISE STATE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT ? Boise State is making its second trip to the NCAA Tournament, having also earned a bid during the 1993-94 season while members of the Big Sky Conference. The Broncos traveled to Seattle, Wash. where they fell to Washington in the first round, 89-61. This year in the first round, Boise State will face
fifth-seeded George Washington.
Joining Boise State and George Washington in the Los Angeles sub-regional is fourth-seeded Texas A&M and 13th-seeded Texas-Arlington. The winner of the GW-Boise State game will meet the winner of the Texas A&M versus Texas-Arlington game in the second round on Monday in Los Angeles. Boise State has never played GW or Texas A&M before, however, they are 0-1 against UT-Arlington. The Broncos are 1-3 against current members of the Atlantic-10 Conference, 0-4 against
the Big 12 Conference, and 0-3 against the members of the Southland Conference.
NEVADA MAKES FIRST POSTSEASON TRIP ? Nevada will face Wyoming in the first round of the newly-expanded Women’s National Invitational Tournament. This marks the first postseason appearance for Nevada, which finished 17-14 and in third place in the WAC. The Wolf Pack will face the Cowgirls at 7:00 p.m. The game is a rematch of an 80-71 Wyoming win when the teams met on Nov. 25 at the Coors Classic hosted by Colorado. Traci Graham and Dellena Criner each scored 15 points in that game while Jessica Preslar added 10 points.
PRESNELL EARNS COACHING HONOR ? Boise State’s head women’s basketball coach Gordy Presnell has been named the 2007 Russell Athletic/Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s (WBCA) Region 7 Coach of the Year. It is Presnell’s second honor this year after being named the Western Athletic Conference’s Coach of the Year last week. He joins seven other regional coaches of the year including such names as Geno Auriemma of Connecticut, Pat Summitt of Tennessee, and Tara VanDerveer of Stanford.
This award is the 15th coach of the year honor for Presnell in 20 years as a collegiate head coach. He has been named conference coach of the year eight times, WBCA regional coach of the year 5 times, and WBCA national coach of the year twice.
This year, Presnell led his team to a school-record 24 wins (24-8) heading into this week’s NCAA National Tournament, the WAC regular season co-championship, and the program’s first ever conference tournament title with the Broncos’ 49-46 win last Saturday over New Mexico State in the WAC championship game in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Below are the Russell Athletic/WBCA Regional Coaches of the Year winners listed by division:
NCAA Division I
Region Coach Institution
1. Geno Auriemma, University of Connecticut
2. Gail Goestenkors, Duke University
3. Pat Summitt, University of Tennessee
4. Curt Miller, Bowling Green State
5. Rick Insell, Middle Tennessee State
6. Sharon Versyp, Purdue University
7. Gordy Presnell, Boise State University
8. Tara VanDerveer, Stanford University
LOUISIANA TECH PASSES ON WNIT BID ? Louisiana Tech head coach Chris Long announced
Saturday that his women’s basketball program would not be playing in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament this year. Long’s announcement came three days after Tech fell 63-57 to New Mexico State in the Quarterfinals of the 2007 WAC Tournament, ending the Lady Techsters’ hopes for a 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
MAKING HISTORY ? Boise State’s Jessica Thompson and Michelle Hessing became the first Broncos to be named to all-WAC first or second teams since the school joined the league in 2001. Coincidentally, both were members of their respective WAC all-freshman teams. In addition, second-year head coach Gordy Presnell was named the 2007 WAC
Coach of the Year after guiding his team to a league regular season co-championship with a 12-4 record.
FRESNO STATE TO HOST REGIONALS ? Fresno State has been selected to host a 2007 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Regional at the Save Mart Center, the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee announced. The Administrative Committee of the NCAA Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet approved the sites.
The Save Mart Center, which hosted its first sporting event in November 2003, experienced March Madness for the first time when Fresno State hosted the first and second rounds of the 2005 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. Arizona State and Stanford won first and second-round contests to advance to the regional round.
The first and second rounds of the 2007 NCAA Championship will be conducted at eight pre-determined sites, with two teams advancing into the regional round of 16.
LOUISIANA TECH AND BOISE STATE SHARE WAC TITLE ? Boise State earned a share of its first WAC regular season title with a 66-56 win against Hawai?i. This is the second time in three years that the Lady Techsters have
had to share the regular season title. The win gives Boise State their first regular-season conference title since the 1993-
94 team shared the Big Sky title and only their third league title ever. The Broncos also have two league divisional titles in 1978 and 1998. The Broncos finish the regular season at 21-8 overall and 12-4 in WAC play, tied with Louisiana Tech for first place.
BRONCOS LEAD IN WAC TOURNAMENT ? Boise State’s sophomore guard tandem of Jessica Thompson and Tasha Harris were both named to the WAC all-tournament team for their performances at the 2007 WAC Championship
Tournament. Thompson was also named the tournament’s MVP averaging 16.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.7 steals in 27.3 minutes of action per game. She recorded 22 second-half points in the WAC semifinal game against Fresno State to lead the Broncos from eight down in the first half to the victory. Harris led the Broncos’ rally in the championship game scoring 10 second-half points to lead Boise State to the title. She averaged 10.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 2.3 steals in 27.3 minutes of action per game.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE LEADER ? Junior forward Sherell Neal paces the Aggies with 20 doubledouble performances this season and had a five-game streak that began at San Jose State, Jan. 6, and ended against the Spartans, Jan. 27. Neal had four consecutive double-doubles that began against Texas-San Antonio and ended with UTEP. Junior forward Anikia Jawara has seven double-doubles and recorded her first double-double in a NMSU uniform against Utah Valley State.
DOUBLE DIGITS ? Seven of the nine WAC teams have reached double digits in wins. Boise State leads the WAC with 24. The Broncos are the only 20-win team in the WAC. Fresno State has 18 wins. Louisiana Tech and Nevada both have 17 wins. New Mexico State Hawai?i has 15 wins, while New Mexico State ended the season with 13 after its WAC Tournament run. Utah State ended the season with 11.
BOLLA TAKES MEDICAL LEAVE ? Jim Bolla underwent a medical procedure on Monday, Feb. 5, and will be taking a leave of absence to recuperate. Associate coach Pat Charity will serve as interim head coach. Bolla is in his third year as head coach of the Rainbow Wahine. He has a 38-37 mark at Hawai?i and a 338-157 career record. The Rainbow Wahine
currently are 9-12 overall and seventh in the WAC with a 3-6 mark. Last season, the Rainbow Wahine enjoyed their best season in four years, finishing with an 18-10 record and a third-place finish in the WAC. Charity was the first assistant to join Bolla’s staff after he was hired in July, 2004.
TOURNAMENT FACTS UTAH STATE’S PEBLEY DELIVERS BABY GIRL ? Utah State women’s basketball head coach Raegan Pebley gave birth to an 8-pound, 9-ounce, 21-inch baby girl, Harper Susan Jane Pebley, on Jan. 30 at 4:30 p.m. at Logan Regional Hospital. Harper is the second child for Pebley and husband Keith, as she joins three year
old brother Joe in the Pebley family.
LIKE THIEVES IN THE NIGHT ? Nevada is averaging 12.19 steals per contest and is ranked seventh in the country. The Wolf Pack has three players ranked in the top 10 in the WAC in steals per game, led by sophomore guard Dellena Criner who leads the WAC and is 28th in the country at 2.8 steals per game. Traci Graham and Brandi Fitzgerald are third
and sixth, respectively. The Pack’s proficiency in recording steals and forcing turnovers has the team ranked second in the WAC in turnover margin per game at plus-3.88.
2006 WAC TOURNAMENT RECAP ? Louisiana Tech captured its fourth WAC Tournament title in five years with a dominating 63-39 win over red-hot New Mexico State. Senior Tasha Williams scored a team-high 19 points to lead the Lady Techsters. Louisiana Tech has won WAC titles over four different schools (Hawai?i, 2002; Fresno State, 2003; Rice, 2004; New Mexico State, 2006). New Mexico State advanced to its first ever conference tournament final. The Aggies captured wins over Boise State and second-seeded Fresno State. Tasha Williams earned MVP honors. She is the fourth
Lady Techster to earn the honor, following Ayana Walker (2002), Cheryl Ford (2003) and Amisha Carter (2004).
2006 WAC All-Tournament Team
Leilani Mitchell, Idaho
Dellena Criner, Nevada
Shan Moore, Louisiana Tech
Jenean Ford, New Mexico State
Tasha Williams, Louisiana Tech, MVP