The Gonzaga women's basketball team have played 10 of their last 11 NCAA Tournament games in the state of Washington. On Sunday they will head to Kingston, Rhode Island to play the 2 seed Kentucky Wildcats in a Sweet Sixteen match-up. These two teams play a fast paced style with lots of offense as a result.
Kentucky plays that up tempo style on defense as well. Full court pressure that generates turnovers allow them to score points in transition. They lead the nation in turnovers forced. However the Zags don't cough the ball up all that often, ranking seventh nationally in assists to turnovers ratio.
While the Wildcats force a lot of turnovers they've been committing an extremely high number of them so far in the tournament. They had 34 turnovers in their last game, against Green Bay, including 20 in the second half. Somehow the Wildcats escaped with a win despite that outrageous number.
Kentucky is able to play their fast paced, turnover inducing style thanks to their guards, a position that they rely on to carry the team. That is easy to see when you look at their starters, four of whom are under 5' 10". That gives Gonzaga an advantage in the interior.
That inside advantage for the Zags is more than just being bigger. 6' 3" senior forward Kayla Standish has been a beast in the tournament, scoring 23 and 19 points in two games and pulling down 15 total rebounds. She's set to have another big game if the Zags' guards can get the ball to her.
Courtney Vandersloot comes up in just about every article about this year's Gonzaga team. Yes, she was a great point guard and the only person in men's or women's NCAA basketball to score 2,000 points and have 1,000 assists. Yes, she would be really helpful to have playing against Kentucky's pressure. But, she's in the WNBA now so that burden falls on Gonzaga's backcourt of Kansas State transfer Taelor Karr and Oregon State transfer Haiden Palmer.
They'll have their hands full with Kentucky's guards who love to play almost in your jersey defense. If those two hold their own and take care of the basketball this will be a close and exciting game.
11 Gonzaga vs 2 Kentucky
Kingston, Rhode Island
NCAA Sweet Sixteen
Sunday, 3/25/2012, 3:30pm PDT
TV: ESPN 2 (streaming online at www.espn3.com)
Radio: KEYF 1050 AM in the Inland Northwest
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