Minnesota Ready for NCAA First Round Battle Versus Washington

March 18, 2006 -

25/- MINNESOTA GOPHERS (19-9, 11-5 Big Ten)
vs.
Washington Huskies (18-10, 11-7 Pac-10)

LOCATION Nashville, Tenn. / Memorial Gymnasium (14,107)
DATE / TIME: Saturday, March 18 / 11 a.m. CT
TELEVISION: ESPN2
Dave O’Brien (play-by-play), Ann Meyers (analyst)
RADIO / WEBCAST: BOB FM 106.1 / KBEM-FM-88.5, WLKX 95.9 / KRDS 95.5 / gophersports.com / wccoradio.com Rita Maloney (play-by-play), Lynnette Sjoquist (analyst)

Golden Gopher Watch List NCAA Tournament
Gophers Enter NCAA Tournament With No. 8 Seed - No. 25/- Minnesota heads to the 2006 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship with the No. 8 seed in the San Antonio Region. The Golden Gopher will face Washington, the No. 9 seed, on Saturday, March 18, in the first round. Tipoff is at 11 a.m. CT.

ESPN/ESPN2 Televises Entire NCAA Women’s Tournament - All 63 games of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament will be televised by ESPN/ESPN2. The network will provide uninterrupted action of games within a team’s home market, while at other times will feature whip-around coverage of the other games.

Broback, Bolden Earn Big Ten Honors - Junior Jamie Broback was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team by both the Conference coaches and media. Shannon Bolden was selected to the All-Defensive Team.

Chasing Win No. 20 - A Minnesota win on Saturday would give the Golden Gophers their fifth consecutive season with 20 or more victories. Overall it would be the eighth 20-plus win season for the program.

Minnesota Tops Big Ten in Attendance, Fifth Nationally - Minnesota captured the Big Ten attendance crown for the second straight year by averaging 8,329 fans per game this season, an average that ranks fifth nationally. The average is the third-highest in Minnesota history. During the Big Ten season, Minnesota averaged a league-best 9,357 fans per game, the seventh-highest single-season average for conference games in Big Ten history.

Gophers in the National Polls - Minnesota is ranked No. 25 in the Associated Press Poll dated March 13. The Gophers have been ranked in the last 83 AP polls, the longest stretch in school history and the longest active streak in the Big Ten. Minnesota received votes in the March 13 USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll failing to make the poll’s top 25 for the first time in over three years.

Gophers Head Into NCAA Tourney as No. 8 Seed No. 25/- Minnesota, the No. 8 seed in the San Antonio Region, will kick off NCAA Tournament play by facing No. 9 seed Washington in a first-round game on Saturday, March 18 in Nashville, Tenn. Tipoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT. The Golden Gophers, making their fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and sixth overall, own a record of 19-9. The Huskies own a record of 18-10 overall, after finishing in a fourth-place tie with USC in the Pac-10 standings.

ESPN/ESPN2 To Televise Every NCAA Game
ESPN/ESPN2 will televise all 63 games of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. The commentators at the Nashville site for the NCAA First and Second Rounds are Dave O’Brien with the play-by-play, Ann Meyers with the color commentary and Jimmy Dykes with the sideline reports. The Golden Gophers’ First Round game versus Washington will be televised live on ESPN2.

Not the Best Seed but Still Dancing
Minnesota’s No. 8 seed this season, is the second-lowest NCAA seed the Golden Gophers have been awarded. The Gophers were the No. 10 seed in 1994, their first NCAA appearance, and served up an upset of No. 7 seed Notre Dame. The Gophers are a perfect 5-0 in first-round NCAA Tournament games.

Gophers Take to the Road For First Rounds
Minnesota has enjoyed the luxury of playing at home for the NCAA Tournament’s first two rounds in each of the last two seasons. The Gophers will once again play host to the Tournament’s First and Second Rounds in 2007.

Gophers Tabbed No. 25/- in National Polls
The Golden Gophers are ranked No. 25 in the March 13 Associated Press (AP) National Poll, but fell out of the top 25 in the March 13 USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll for the first time in over three years.

Minnesota Continues to Build on Rankings Streak
Minnesota has been ranked in the AP National Poll’s top 25 for the last 83 polls, dating back to Jan. 21, 2002, and is building upon the longest streak in Golden Gopher history. The streak of 83 straight polls is also the longest active streak in the Big Ten Conference.

Minnesota at the NCAA Tournament
Minnesota is making its sixth trip to the Big Dance and a school-best fifth consecutively. The Golden Gophers have a 10-5 mark in NCAA Tournament play.

Last season (2005), Minnesota earned a school-best No. 3 seed and once again played host to the NCAA First and Second Rounds in Williams Arena. The Gophers crushed No. 14 seed St. Francis (Pa.), 64-33, allowing the second-lowest scoring total in NCAA Tournament history. Minnesota then downed No. 6 seed Virginia, 73-58, to earn the Gophers’ third consecutive trip to the NCAA Sweet 16. Minnesota traveled to Tempe, Ariz., where the Gophers’ season was ended by a 64-57 loss to eventual national champion Baylor.

Minnesota advanced to its first Final Four in 2004. The Gophers, assigned the No. 7 seed in the Mideast Region defeated No. 10-seed UCLA and No. 2-seed Kansas State in Minneapolis, then No. 3-seed Boston College and No. 1-seed and top-ranked Duke in Norfolk, Va., to earn a spot in the Final Four in New Orleans. The Gophers’ dream season was ended by eventual national champion Connecticut.

In 2002-03, Minnesota entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed in the West Region. The Golden Gophers advanced to their first Sweet 16 after wins over Tulane and Stanford but lost to No. 2 seed Texas in the West Regional semifinal.

In Minnesota’s first two trips to the NCAAs in 1994 and 2002, the Gophers advanced to the second round. In 1994, the Golden Gophers entered the tournament with the No. 10 seed in the East Region. Minnesota upset No. 7-seed Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., but lost to No. 2-seed Vanderbilt in Nashville in the second round. Former Gopher great Carol Ann Shudlick, the 1994 Big Ten Player of the Year, was the force behind Minnesota’s first team to capture an NCAA invitation. In 2002, Minnesota earned the No. 5 seed in the Midwest Region. The Gophers defeated UNLV in the first round, then lost to host North Carolina in the second round.

Minnesota Seeks to Continue Madness March
Minnesota has advanced to at least the round of the Sweet 16 in each of the last three seasons, coinciding with Pam Borton’s coaching reign with the Gophers. Minnesota joins an elite list of just six schools with an active streak of three or more consecutive trips to the Sweet 16. Tennessee has advanced to the Sweet 16 in all 24 years of the NCAA Tournament. Connecticut owns a streak of 12 straight trips to the Sweet 16, while Duke stands at eight and Minnesota, Georgia and LSU check in with three.

The Gophers are the fifth Big Ten team to accomplish a string of three straight Sweet 16 appearances. Ohio State holds the longest streak (5) from 1985 to 1989. Iowa advanced from 1987 to 1989 and Purdue from 1990 to 1992. The last Big Ten team to go to the Sweet 16 three straight times was Penn State in 2002 to 2004.

The Big Ten Represented by Five Teams in NCAAs
The Big Ten Conference will be represented by five teams in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship for the second year in a row. The most Big Ten teams in a single season to advance to the NCAAs was six in 1996, 2002, 2003 and 2004. The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East Conference have the most teams in the 2006 field with seven, followed by the Southeastern Conference and the Pac.-10 with six teams and the Big Ten, with five. Ohio State earned the Big Ten’s automatic bid and is joined by Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Purdue in the NCAA field.

Chasing Another 20-Win Season
A Minnesota victory in the NCAA First Round would give the Golden Gophers their 20th win of the season and tally the program’s fifth consecutive 20-plus win season. Overall, Minnesota would celebrate its eighth season with 20 or more wins.

First NCAA Trip Without An All-American
The Golden Gophers have made five previous trips to the NCAA Tournament. In each of those seasons, Minnesota had an All-America player to lead the way. In 1994, it was Carol Ann Shudlick, while from 2002-05, the Gophers featured the play of either Lindsay Whalen or Janel McCarville.

The Other Raised Court in College Basketball
Minnesota and Vanderbilt both play in unique arenas. What Minnesota’s Williams Arena (built in 1928) and Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium (built in 1952) have in common is the raised playing surface. What makes Memorial Gymnasium different, from not only Williams Arena but everywhere else, is that the team benches are situated on the endline.

Career Dance Card Full With Fourth Appearance
Three Golden Gophers Shannon Schonrock, Shannon Bolden and Christina Collison will all be celebrating their fourth trip to the Big Dance. Minnesota’s trio of four-year seniors have experienced the most successful postseason success in school history with a trip to the 2004 Final Four and three NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in their collegiate careers. Janel McCarville (2002-05) is the only other Gopher with four career NCAA appearances.

Tourney Savvy Schonrock Ready for Last Go-Around
Senior Shannon Schonrock has started every NCAA Tournament game the Gophers have played over the past three years. In fact over her 11 starts, she has played 388 of the possible 440 minutes for an average of 35.3 minutes per game. Minnesota’s all-time leader in three-point shooting, Schonrock has converted of an impressive 41.4 percent of her triples in NCAA Tournament play.

Bolden Turns Up the Intensity in NCAA Play
Senior Shannon Bolden also brings plenty of NCAA experience to the table for the Golden Gophers. Bolden, who has started eight NCAA games and played in all 11 during her career, has contributed several of the finest individual defensive performances in Minnesota history under the bright lights of the Big Dance. In the Gophers’ march to the 2004 Final Four, Bolden defended two national players of the year in Duke’s Alana Beard and Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi. Beard was held to just 10 points, while Taurasi struggled to a 6-for17 shooting effort from the field. Last season, Bolden stifled Baylor’s long range threat Emily Niemann to just five points and an 0-for-3 evening from three-point range. Niemann went on to All-Final Four honors, making five treys and scoring 19 points in the national championship game.

Bolden Does More Than Defend in NCAA Play
Shannon Bolden’s biggest responsibilities do come on the defensive end of the floor in NCAA play, but she has also contributed some of her best offensive games in the postseason as well. Bolden has scored in double figures in 14 games as a Golden Gopher but four of those outing were during the NCAA Tournament. During NCAA play, Bolden has been deadly from three-point range, converting on 47.8 percent (11-23) from three-point range.

Broback Joins 1,000 Career Points Club
Junior Jamie Broback became the 16th player in Minnesota women’s basketball history to score 1,000 points in a career. Broback scored her 1,000th point in the Feb. 23 win over Indiana She currently owns 1,017 points in her Minnesota career to rank 15th all-time.

Schonrock Nears 1,000 Career Points As Well
Senior Shannon Schonrock looks to become the second Gopher to enter the 1,000 career points club this season. Schonrock has 955 and needs 45 points to hit 1,000. Interestingly enough, 687 of Schonrock’s 955 career points have come off her record number of three-point field goals (229).

Schonrock Moving Up Big Ten Three-Pointer List
Senior Shannon Schonrock is now the Minnesota career record holder for three-point field goals made with 229. Schonrock set the record during a four-trey outing at Michigan State on Feb. 9. She surpassed the old record of 216 held by Lindsay Lieser (1999-03). Schonrock owns 36 career games with three or more triples.

Schonrock is now working her way up the Big Ten’s list of top three-point shooters.

Big Ten Conference Top 10 Three-Point Field Goals 1. 357 Kelly Mazzante, PSU 2001-04 2. 289 Lindsay Bowen, MSU 2003-c 3. 270 Caity Matter, OSU 2001-05 4. 261 Lindsey Meder, IOWA 1998-02 5. 244 Michele Ratay, NU 1992-97 6. 234 Katie Voigt, WIS 1993-98 7. 230 Lisa Shepherd , PSU 1998-01 8. 229 Shannon Schonrock, MN 2003-c 9. 220 Kristina Divjak, NU 1995-00 10. 218 Katie Smith, OSU 1993-96

Schonrock Hits Triple Digits for Consecutive Starts
Shannon Schonrock started her 100th consecutive game in Minnesota’s regular-season finale against Northwestern and will make her 102nd consecutive (107th overall) start in the NCAA First Round contest. Only one other player has started more straight games than Schonrock during the NCAA era, that being Lindsay Whalen who started 106 consecutive games before breaking her hand late in her senior season. There are several pre-NCAA Golden Gophers (such as Debbie Hunter and Linda Roberts) who likely started a triple-number of consecutive games, but unfortunately there isn’t statistical proof available.

Scouting Washington
Washington is making its 15th NCAA Tournament appearance but first since 2003. The Huskies own a 14-14 record in NCAA play. In 2005-06, Washington has posted an 18-10 overall record and tied for fourth in the Pac-10 with an 11-7 mark. Like the Gophers, the Huskies struggled down the home stretch, losing their final three games, including a 70-67 loss to Southern Cal in the Pac-10 Tournament. Washington did face one Big Ten team this season, defeating Michigan (82-60) in early December.

The Huskies are led by All-Pac-10 First Team guard, junior Cameo Hicks. Hicks averages 15.1 points per game and takes an average of over 12 field goal attempts, or nearly one-fifth of the Huskies’ total, per game. She also pulled down a team-high 5.5 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward Andrea Plouffe is the second Huskie player in double figures averaging 10.8 points per game.

Washington looks to fuel its offense with its defense. The Huskies grab an average of 10.1 steals per game, while their opponents average an unforgiving 21.0 turnovers an outing. This has helped the Huskies take 257 more shots than their opposition, or a count of 9.2 extra attempts per game.

The Minnesota/Washington Series
Washington holds a 3-1 lead in the series with Minnesota after defeating the Gophers, 72-67 in overtime, in last season’s WBCA Classic in Seattle. Before that, however, it had been 16 years since the Golden Gophers had faced the Huskies. The Huskies won that game, 74-59, on Dec. 31, 1988 in Minneapolis. Minnesota won the series’ first meeting, on Feb. 26, 1982 (80-79) at the Northern Lights Tournament in Anchorage, Alaska.

Upcoming Events