Coach Lisa Fortier Brimming With Confidence as Gonzaga Women Open Practice

[ZagDad84]

From the Spokesman-Review:

Coach Lisa Fortier Brimming With Confidence as Gonzaga Women Open Practice
By Jim Allen
jima@spokesman.com
(509) 459-5437
UPDATED: Fri., Oct. 16, 2020

Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier is a reflection of her team – confident but not cocky, especially in the face of a pandemic.

She even wore a mask during a recent news conference, even though it was conducted on Zoom.

Fortier opened a phone interview Wednesday with a cautionary tale from the University of Florida, where earlier this week, football coach Dan Mullen urged fans to pack the stadium for Saturday’s game against archrival Florida State.

Two days later, the game was postponed by a COVID-19 outbreak among Mullen’s players.

Fortier found no humor in that – COVID has been hitting GU basketball since March, when one of the best teams in program history lost out on a near-certain chance to host first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games.

That opportunity lost, the Zags are ready to seize the next one.

Fortier and her staff – unchanged since she took over in 2014 – opened practice Thursday with a group that looks capable of winning another West Coast Conference title.

The WCC hasn’t released its preseason poll, but Gonzaga (28-3 overall, 17-1 WCC last year) will almost certainly be picked to repeat as regular-season champs. The Zags open WCC action on Dec. 28 at Loyola Marymount.

The nonconference schedule is still being cobbled together. Teams are allowed to start play Nov. 25.

GU just got some good news on that front: Washington State will be coming to the Kennel after all – with the date to be announced – following a decision by the Pac-12 Conference to allow its teams to play before New Year’s Day.

No such luck with Stanford, a perennial power and originally scheduled to visit Spokane this year as part of the schools’ ongoing arrangement.

“Not this year, unfortunately, but the series is going to continue next year,” said Fortier, whose team will also play in a Christmas week event in Las Vegas.

The rest of the schedule is expected to be finalized in another week or so, but there’s been little guidance from the NCAA on how many fans – if any – will be allowed to attend.

Asked to pick her candidates for most impactful freshmen, Fortier named Yvonne Ejim, a 6-1 forward from Edmonton, Alberta; and Makayla Williams, who’s also 6-1 but listed as a guard.

You can read the entire article here: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/20...idence-as-gon/

ZagDad

[SkipZag]

I hope that with what looks to be a season without fans in the stands, that at least GU looks at a group like SWX to carry all the home games. It would also be nice if they could partner with other networks in other cities to carry GU away games.

I really feel sorry for our players... they really enjoy playing in front of their home town fans. When you listen to their interviews after the games, they always talk about the crowd and how much they mean to them.

Hopefully for the kids, we can get life back....

Go Zags!!