Countdown 9/27

42 days remain.

Gonzaga Guards Kevin Pangos, Kyle Dranginis, Drew Barham and Rem Bakamus along with PGA tour golfer Kyle Stanley show off some pretty impressive trick shots.

Here's a bonus: Former Zag Kelly Bowen's kickball/basketball hybrid.

Kayla Standish and Katelan Redmon Head to the WNBA

The number of Zags in the WNBA has just doubled. Before today Courtney Vandersloot and Vivian Frieson were the only Zags to be drafted. Now that the 2012 WNBA draft has happened, the number of Zags is up to four. Kayla Standish and Katelan Redmon go from former teammates to future adversaries.

Kayla Standish, who was invited to the event, went as the 7th pick in the second round. Her new team, the Minnesota Lynx, is coming off winning the WNBA championship last season. Katelan Redmon heads across the country to play in the big apple for the New York Liberty. While neither of them landed with Vandersloot's Chicago Sky as I was hoping, they will get reunions soon enough. By May 22nd their three teams will have all have played each other. Vandersloot will get to see both Redmon and Standish in preseason games while Redmon and Standish will face off in New York in a regular season game. While they will be reunited very soon, but I won't get to see either of them play in Chicago until July.

This is great news for these players, obviously, but also for the Gonzaga basketball program. Having players drafted in three straight years, on top of selling out home games, making the sweet sixteen on the regular, and almost always being ranked in the top 25... what more does a recruit want?

Best of luck to Katelan Redmon and Kayla Standish in the WNBA. They are already two of the all time great Zags, now they have a chance to earn that honor on their professional teams. I can't wait until the Sky host the Lynx and Liberty. I'll be rocking my Zags gear at the game because it's not often that two former Zags will be playing professional basketball in the same building.

Zag Star Kayla Standish Invited to WNBA Draft

For the second year in a row the Gonzaga women's basketball program will be represented at the WNBA Draft. 15 of the top WNBA prospects are invited to the event which is held at the headquarters of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut. There will be 36 players drafted. The 15 that are invited to the event are essentially guaranteed to be selected. Last year Courtney Vandersloot represented Gonzaga at the draft. She was selected 3rd by the Chicago Sky. Vivian Frieson, while not invited to the event, is the only other Zag who has been drafted. She was taken with the 31st pick by the Tulsa Shock in 2010.

The WNBA draft has three rounds of 12 picks, one for each team. Though like most drafts teams can trade for better position. Standish is expected to go late in the first round or early in the second.

The 6' 2'' forward had a solid junior year putting up 617 points, second only to Vandersloot, for an average of 17.1 points per game while playing in all 36 games. Standish also led the team with 59 blocks and rebounds with 304.

Bittersweet Sixteen: Gonzaga 62, Kentucky 79

The Gonzaga women's team's season came to an end today with a loss in the Sweet Sixteen to Kentucky. Gonzaga is 28-6 on the year, as is Kentucky. The Zags made their 4th straight NCAA tournament appearance, 6th straight postseason appearance and 8th under current head coach Kelly Graves.

Zag starters Kayla Standish, Katelan Redmon and Kelly Bowen played their last game for Gonzaga in the loss. Shannon Reader also played her last game as a Zag, though she receives limited minutes off the bench. Last year the Zags lost one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball, WNBA All-Star Courtney Vandersloot, but recovered this season with a 3rd straight sweet sixteen. Next season will be interesting as the Zags aren't losing an all time great, but will have to replace three solid veterans.

Recap of the game after the jump.

Sweet Sixteen: 11 Gonzaga vs 2 Kentucky

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.

Gonzaga Women to 3rd Straight Sweet Sixteen

Since 1999 a lot has changed. I gained another digit in my name for one (it was that number too). Gonzaga followed up it's Cinderella run to the elite eight with two straight sweet sixteens. Enrollment shot up at the small school thanks to the publicity. The West Coast Conference became more competitive in Men's basketball, which manifested itself this year in the addition of BYU, two WCC teams ranked in the top 25, three bids to the NCAA tournament, five teams with 20+ wins and a multi-year big time TV deal with ESPN.

It has also resulted in the elevation of the women's game in the conference, particularly at Gonzaga. It's no longer just a team that makes the postseason yearly, which they've done 6 straight times and 8 of the last 9, it's now a team that makes the tournament and advances. Four the fourth straight year they've won at least one game and for the third straight they're going to the sweet sixteen.

This year the Zags, an 11 seed, have upset 6 seed Rutgers in their first game and last night upset the 3rd seeded Miami Hurricanes. Granted both of those games were played in the Kennel (just as last year's sweet 16 and elite 8 games), but the Zags got the job done over teams that were supposed to be better. Next up for Gonzaga is 2 seed Kentucky in Kingston, Rhode Island on March 25th.

Fans of Rutgers or Miami will find it extremely unfair that their higher seeded teams had to play at the home gym of the lower seed, which it is. It speaks volumes to the level that this program has risen to. Women's basketball is a sport that doesn't draw much of an audience. Gonzaga has sold out the 6000 seat McCarthey Athletic Center 5 times this season, and almost all of the other home games had attendance over over 5000. Last season in 7 WCC home games the Zags average attendance was 4,136. Average attendance in their 7 road games was 561. I was able to watch them play against Portland last season and it was just as exciting an environment as any given Men's game.

As a Spokane native I am extremely proud of the Gonzaga basketball program. The original darlings of March haven't gone away and haven't changed with the fame (except by getting better). I'm also extremely proud of the way the community has supported the Zags. It's a symbiotic relationship and it is great.

I'll be doing a preview of the Gonzaga vs. Kentucky game in a day or two. I should have been doing them from the beginning but my rookie season of covering an entire conference has been overwhelming. Regretfully the women's team has been left out except for the occasional tweet. They deserve better.