STANFORD, Calif. – The FGCU women's basketball team is seeded 12th and will open NCAA Tournament play on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN2 against No. 5 Missouri in a first-round matchup at Maples Pavilion on the campus of Stanford University.
The meeting will be the first-ever between the Eagles (30-4) and Missouri (24-7), who earned an at-large bid after falling in the SEC quarterfinals.
"They have one of the best players in the nation in Sophie Cunningham," FGCU head coach
Karl Smesko said. "Other than that, we're going to have to do a lot of studying over the next couple of days to get ourselves ready."
The winner of the first-round matchup will face the winner of No. 4 Stanford and No. 13 Gonzaga on Monday in the second round. The Stanford/Gonzaga game will take place following the conclusion of the FGCU contest. The games are part of the Lexington Regional that has Louisville as the No. 1 seed.
FGCU earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament via Sunday's 68-58 win over Jacksonville in the ASUN tournament final. This is the fifth tournament appearance for the Eagles over the past seven seasons. They are 1-4 in their previous four appearances and nearly upset No. 4 Miami last year before falling 62-60 as a No. 13 seed.
"I think everybody is going to be extremely confident just because we'll know the team inside and out by the time the game comes around," sixth-year senior
Taylor Gradinjan said following the selection show. "(Coach) Smesko is always good about giving us an amazing game plan - just something to exploit their weaknesses and our strengths. So, yeah, confidence is high."
The postseason berth for FGCU is the program's 11th straight since joining the Division-I ranks in 2007-08.
Much more information about the matchup will be released over the next few days on FGCUAthletics.com.
FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the women's basketball program, follow @FGCU_WBB on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook at /FGCUWBB.
COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko rallied the 2016-17 Eagles to their seventh-straight 25-win campaign, which culminated in the team's fourth NCAA tournament appearance in six seasons of eligibility. The now eight-time ASUN Coach of the Year was named the espnW Mid-Major Coach of the Year in 2015-16 following a run that witnessed the Eagles finish a Division-I best-ever 33-6. Over a five-year stretch starting in 2011-12, FGCU racked up four ASUN seasons with a perfect record and capped the run with back-to-back 30 plus win seasons. In 2014-15, the team earned its first top-25 ranking and another NCAA Tournament trip as a seven seed, where FGCU won its first ever NCAA Division-I Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. Including this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 14-straight 20-win seasons. He maintains a record of 434-86 (.835) at FGCU, including a 170-16 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past six + seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 105-4 (.963) record in conference play with four undefeated seasons. Smesko earned his 400th career coaching win in 2014-15 in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma. He holds a career head coaching record of 495-113 (.814). Smesko ranks among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher, joining Auriemma, Baylor's Kim Mulkey and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the esteemed group.
SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.
