The Front Row with Joel Donofrio March 21., 2011
Fans who stuck around for both NCAA first-round games Saturday at Gonzaga's McCarthey Center probably had one main question:
Am I watching the same sport?
The fast-paced, run-and-gun opener between Gonzaga and Iowa saw a combined 48 points scored in the first eight minutes. The buzzer for the 30-second shot clock used in women's college basketball was silent the entire game.
On the other hand, UCLA and Montana waged a defensive battle, with UCLA's three-quarter-court pressure forcing the Lady Griz to either turn the ball over or struggle to hoist a shot before the shot clock ran out. The Bruins didn't do much better against Montana's tough zone defense, and both teams struggled to combine for 43 points in the first 20 minutes.
So when Gonzaga hosts UCLA in a second-round matchup at 6:30 tonight, the pace of the game should play a huge role in which team advances to the Spokane Regional next weekend.
"It will be a battle of styles," said Montana coach Robin Selvig, whose team hosted Gonzaga early in the season. "You've got (Gonzaga) going up and down the floor, shoot the heck out of it, and UCLA relying on not letting anybody get up and down the floor and shoot the heck out of it."
Having just endured 40 minutes of seeing his guards trapped by two or sometimes three Bruins, Selvig predicted what UCLA's strategy might be tonight: Take the ball out of Bulldog point guard Courtney Vandersloot's hands.
Vandersloot, the nation's leader in assists with more than 10 per game, had a career-high performance against Iowa, scoring 34 points and dishing out seven assists in the Zags' 92-86 win.
"One person really makes Gonzaga go," Selvig said. "They've got a lot of good players, but Vandersloot's a unique player. She makes everybody better and things rest in her hands.
"I think the fact that UCLA does some zone things, they can basically get the ball out of her hands and maybe that'll help."
The Bruins, ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press women's poll entering the tournament, allowed opponents to score an average of 54.5 points per game and forced an average of 22 turnovers with its pressure defense.
But UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell and her players know their offense will have to execute much better tonight if they want to advance to the Sweet 16.
"This team understands they have a tough opponent ahead of them (in Gonzaga) and they cannot come out and play flat," Caldwell said. "We have to not only be hungry, but starving to advance."
Of course, the Bruins have seen fast-paced basketball before, especially in a conference with high-scoring teams like Stanford and Oregon.
"There are some things we do defensively to counteract that because we definitely don't want to have our opponents running the ball right at us," Caldwell added. "Against an opponent like Gonzaga ... you have to have ball security. You don't want to give them the opportunities to run the ball (off turnovers)."
One thing the Bruins can't counteract is home-court advantage. The atmosphere for Saturday's game against Iowa was truly electric, with Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves saying it was the loudest he's ever heard the McCarthey Center for any game, men's or women's.
The prediction here is that atmosphere should bring out the best in both the Zags and UCLA, just like it did in Saturday's opener.
"I think our players will be fine," Bruins assistant coach Tasha Butts said Saturday. "We've played in some hostile environments, going to Notre Dame and Stanford ... If anything we're excited about playing in front of this crowd and just taking care of business and doing what we have to do."
Home court advantage or not, the Bulldogs are carving a place for themselves among the nation's elite, and they'll have another chance to prove it tonight.
Joel Donofrio is a copy editor for the Coeur d'Alene Press who has followed and covered women's basketball since his days at The Daily Iowan, the University of Iowa's student newspaper. Contact him at jdonofrio@cdapress.com.