FGCU (32-5) vs Michigan (21-13)
FGCU Head Coach: Karl Smesko | Kent State '93 | 14^th Season at FGCU: 376-72 (83.9%) | 17^th Season as Head Coach: 438-99 (81.5%)
Michigan Head Coach: Kim Barnes Arico | Montclair State '93 | Fourth Season at Michigan:  83-53 (61%) | 19^th Season as Head Coach: 353-258 (57.7%)
When: Thursday, March 31 | 8 p.m.
Where: Alico Arena | Fort Myers, Fla.
Watch: ESPN3 with David Moulton and J. Webb Horton
Stats: via StatBroadcast.com
All-Time Series: First-Ever Meeting
WNIT Bracket: available here
 
FORT MYERS, Fla. – With a trip to the 2016 WNIT Championship on the line, the FGCU women's basketball team will host the University of Michigan Thursday, Mar. 31 at Alico Arena. Tipoff against the Wolverines in the semifinal contest is scheduled for 8 p.m.
 
Monday's quarterfinal win over Hofstra gave FGCU its 32nd victory of the season to set a new Division I program record for wins and extended the Green and Blue's second-straight 30-win season.
 
With a win Thursday night, the Eagles would advance to the WNIT Championship against the University of South Dakota Coyotes. South Dakota defeated Oregon 88-54 Wednesday night in front of a home crowd of 5,080 fans and will host the championship on Saturday, April 2.
 
A limited number of general-admission tickets to see the Eagles take on Michigan in the final home game of the 2015-16 season are available via FGCUTickets.com or through the FGCU Ticket Office. The box office will be open at 9 a.m. Thursday through the start of the game. FGCU students with a valid Eagle ID are admitted free of charge, while students from other institutions are $5. Complete information can be found at FGCUTickets.com.
 
Fans in attendance are encouraged to wear green to Thursday's contest for a 'Green Out' atmosphere. Those who cannot be in attendance can watch the game live on ESPN3 with David Moulton and J. Webb Horton on the call. Live stats will be available through FGCUStats.com, while fans can also find live, in-game updates on Twitter by following @FGCU_WBB.
 
QUICK HITS:
-RAINING THREES: FGCU's 354 total 3-pointers made this season ranks third nationally and sets a new FGCU single-season record, while the 9.6 makes per game ranks sixth among the nation's best.
-The Eagles have held opponents to just 49.1 points per game this season for the nation's second-best defensive mark. The team also ranks among the top-20 in field goal percentage defense by holding foes to a 35.3 percent clip and third overall in 3-point percentage defense as opponents shoot just 25 percent from long-range against FGCU.
-The Green and Blue is the nation's only team to rank among the top-10 in 3-point shooting and the top-50 in team defense.
-FGCU is 7-5 all-time in WNIT games with previous wins over Drexel, GW and USF and now Bethune-Cookman, Wake Forest, Tulane and Hofstra. Thursday marks the team's first WNIT Semifinal appearance.
- The Eagles are one of just six DI teams with 32 + wins this season, joining Connecticut, Baylor, South Carolina, Notre Dame and Oregon State.
-With a 14-0 mark in A-Sun play, FGCU is one of just six Division I teams to finish conference play without a loss, joining Connecticut, South Carolina, Colorado State, UC Riverside and Notre Dame.
-In the final espnW ranking of the year, FGCU stood as the nation's No. 1 Mid-Major team.
-Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School) became the seventh player in A-Sun to repeat as Player of the Year when she picked up the league's top honor last week.
-The Eagles also picked up the league's highest academic honor this season with Stephanie Haas (Avon Lake, Ohio/Magnificat High School) earning her second-straight Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
 
The Eagles entered the 2016 WNIT with a record of 28-5 on the season and moved to 32-5 Monday with a 61-46 win over Hofstra in the quarterfinal. The record includes a 21-game win streak, the unblemished conference mark, a 12-0 record in road games and now four wins in the WNIT. The win total stood two games higher than any other team in the WNIT's 64-team field as the tournament began and continues to rise above the field.
 
FGCU secured its ninth-straight postseason appearance with a sixth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship. The Eagles went 14-0 in A-Sun action for their fourth perfect season in five years and earned the league's automatic bid to the WNIT with the regular season title.
 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The nonconference slate put the Eagles up against nine top-125 teams this season to push the team to a strength of schedule rating of 61. The slate included eight teams that made the postseason last year with seven programs that finished the 2014-15 season among the top-100. Of the team's schedule this season, five opponents from the regular season appeared in the WNIT and four made it to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The Eagles compiled a record of 6-3 against the top-125 teams with notable victories at George Washington (23) and Akron (123) as well as against Auburn (57), Quinnipiac (87), Harvard (97) and Arizona (122). The triumph over GW in Washington, D.C. stands as the team's strongest win of the season as it was a true road game played without reigning A-Sun Player of the Year Whitney Knight. The Eagles were also without Knight during losses to top-50 teams Ohio (50) and Arkansas State (43), while the senior played limited minutes on doctor's orders when the team battled No. 14 Mississippi State (24) to a 65-60 finish in Puerto Rico.
 
The schedule now includes five programs from power conferences with the close loss to Mississippi State, wins over Arizona, Auburn and Wake Forest and the matchup with Michigan on deck.
 
WITH WHITNEY
The 2016 A-Sun Player of the Year missed the first eight games of the season while battling a foot injury but picked up right where she left off upon return with 16 points and 10 rebounds at Providence on Dec. 12. In 28 games on the court, Knight has led all players with 13.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. She also tops the team and the league and ranks among the nation's top-20 with 87 blocks in her 28 games played. During her recovery, the team faced tough competition in Ohio, Akron, Arkansas State, George Washington and Harvard and amassed a 5-3 record to start the year. With Knight, the team is 27-2 and has outscored opponents by an average of 63.4 to 46.3 points per game.
 
POSTSEASON HONORS
In the days leading up to the A-Sun Tournament, the league announced its major award winners, highlighted by the Green and Blue. Knight was honored as A-Sun Player of the Year for the second-consecutive season, while classmate DyTiesha Dunson (Albany, Ga./Westover High School) earned the A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year nod and head coach Karl Smesko was named Coach of the Year for the seventh time in eight seasons.
 
In addition to the major awards, Knight and classmate Kaneisha Atwater (Fort-Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce-Westwood High School/VCU) were both unanimously selected to the All-Conference First Team. Knight earned her third First Team accolade, with Atwater taking the honor for the second-straight year.
 
On the academic side, Haas was named the A-Sun Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, while Dunson and Taylor Gradinjan (Cudahy, Wisc./Cudahy High School) joined Haas on the All-Academic Team.
 
In the midst of the postseason, Knight earned Associated Press All-American accolades as an honorable mention.
 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
Atwater currently tops FGCU's three double-figure scorers at 14.2 points scored per game through the 37-game season season. Atwater has added 5.9 rebounds per contest with 104 assists and 50 steals. Since her return from injury, Knight has added 13.4 points per game with a team-high 7.4 rebounds. Knight has blocked 87 shots so far this season with 78 shots made from the perimeter. Gradinjan has also contributed double-digits for the Eagles with 9.7 points per contest. The strong shooter has made a team-best 88 3-pointers this season and ranked third in the league through the regular season.
 
Dunson has facilitated the offense with 180 assists on the year. Dunson's assist to turnover ratio of 3.34 currently ranks third the nation, while the total assist mark stands as a new FGCU single-season record.
 
As a unit, the Eagles have scored 64.6 points per game, while holding opponents to just 49.1 points per contest. The defensive mark ranks second nationally, only behind Connecticut. FGCU has converted 38.6 percent of shots with 9.6 makes from 3-point range per game. The Eagles have been narrowly outrebounded 37.6 to 37.0 boards per game but hold a heavy advantage in turnovers as the squad has forced 17 miscues per game with only 10.5 turnovers of its own. The margin of 6.2 ranks seventh nationally, while the limited number of turnovers is the country's second-best mark.
 
FGCU's stifling defense will be a test for Michigan's high-powered offense but the run-and-gun Wolverines will create a matchup unlike the Eagles have seen in recent history.
 
WNIT HISTORY
2016 marks FGCU's sixth appearance in the WNIT with its first since the 2013 season. FGCU fell 65-41 to Winthrop at Alico Arena in its last appearance but has improved its WNIT standing this season. The Eagles are now 7-5 all-time in WNIT games with wins over Drexel, George Washington, USF and now Bethune-Cookman, Wake Forest, Tulane and Hofstra. The team advanced to the second round in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2016 and will appear in its first-ever semifinal game Thursday.
 
ROAD WARRIORS
The Eagles are known nationally for their success at home, but this season the team is excelling away from Southwest Florida as well. FGCU holds a 12-0 record in games played on the home court of its opponent with an average margin of victory of over 19 points. The team has held foes to just 49.2 points per game with a 35.5 percent clip from the floor. The road slate this year includes a win in Washington, D.C. over A-10 power George Washington (while Knight was out with injury). The Eagles are one of just three teams nationwide with an unblemished record on the road, joining Connecticut (14-0) and South Carolina (11-0).
 
POWERFUL WINS
After defeating the Pac-12's Arizona in Puerto Rico before the holidays, the Eagles have now defeated at least one team from each of the Power Five conferences since making the jump to Division I. With a home win over Auburn to end 2015 and another victory over an ACC foe in Wake Forest, the team has picked up 12 total wins against the BCS programs.  – SEC: Auburn (Dec. 30, 2015), LSU (Dec. 28, 2012), Florida (Nov. 14, 2008); ACC: Wake Forest (Mar. 21, 2016) Clemson (Nov. 28, 2014) Virginia Tech (Dec. 16, 2012/Dec. 21, 2011/Nov. 25, 2010), Big Ten: Michigan State (Nov. 19, 2011), Indiana (Dec. 21, 2010); Big 12: Oklahoma State (Mar. 21, 2015); Pac-12: Arizona (Dec. 20, 2015).
 
The matchup with Michigan will stand as the team's 11th game against a power opponent at Alico Arena. The team previously earned home wins over Wake Forest, Auburn, Virginia, Virginia Tech, LSU, Michigan State, Florida and Indiana.
 
RAINING THREES
FGCU topped the Atlantic Sun and ranked among the nation's best with 9.6 3-pointers made her game and 354 total long-range makes on the year. The Eagles' signature shot has produced 1,062 of the team's 2,389 points on the year. On the national stage, the total 3-pointers made rank third among the NCAA's 349 teams, while the makes per game mark stands at sixth. The team has consistently ranked among the nation's top 3-point shooters and held the NCAA single-game record with 22 made on 41 attempts until this season when Sacramento State hit 25. The Eagles led the nation during the 2012-13 season with 342 long-range makes and followed with 319 in the 2013-14 season. That mark of 342 now stands as the third-best performance in NCAA history. The team also sank 10.7 3-pointers per game in that season, an average that also stands as the third-best overall mark. The Eagles' total of 354 marks a new program single-season record and stands as the league's top performance over a season.
 
THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES  
The University of Michigan enters Thursday's semifinal with a record of 21-13 after defeating Wright State, Bucknell, San Diego and Temple in WNIT action. The Wolverines went 9-9 in Big Ten play to finish eighth in the league. The Wolverines faced similar opponents to FGCU in USC Upstate and Hartford with both teams earning two wins as Michigan defeated USC Upstate 119-61 in November and followed with an 83-47 victory against Hartford four days later. The Wolverines are 5-7 in road contests this season but have not played a true road game since a Feb. 28 loss at Rutgers.
 
Michigan's squad has been offensive heavy during the 2015-16 campaign, averaging over 79 points per game for the nation's 11th most high-powered offense. The Wolverines shoot 48.1 percent with a 40.3 percent clip from 3-point range. The high field goal percentage ranks sixth in the nation, while the success rate from long range ranks fifth. Michigan matches FGCU with an average of 37 rebounds per game and holds an advantage over its opponents in turnovers, assists and steals. Since WNIT action began, the Wolverines' offensive efficiency has increased even more as the team has averaged 84.7 points per game with a 54.5 percent success rate in the four games played so far.
 
Sophomore Katelynn Flaherty set the Michigan single-season points record this season and has averaged 22.4 points per game through 34 games so far. Flaherty has knocked down 104 3-pointers this year to rank 10th nationally and converts shots at a rate of 45.2 percent. Freshman Hallie Thome adds 14.6 points per game with a shooting percentage of 63.8 percent to rank second nationally. The 6-5 rookie pulls down 5.4 rebounds per game and tops the team with 44 blocks on the year. The underclassman duo is aided by junior Siera Thompson. Thompson has dished out 176 assists and added 9.5 points per game. She also tops the team with 45 steals and has made the second most 3-point attempts on the team at 50. The team's only seniors – Madison Ristovski and Kelsey Mitchell – contribute 7.7 and 6.2 points per game, respectively, to add to the team's high-powered offense.
 
MILESTONES MOUNTING
With such an experienced squad, several players on the team hold and are within reach of program milestones.
 
Dunson leads the team and recently took the top spot in program history with 445 career assists.
 
FGCU CAREER ASSISTS

1	DyTiesha Dunson	2012-16	445
2	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	419
3	Megan Jones	2002-05	338
4	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	335
5	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	333

 
Knight tops the FGCU record book and took over the top spot in the league records Saturday, Feb. 20.
                                                                                                                                                                           
ATLANTIC SUN CAREER BLOCKS

1	Whitney Knight	2011-16	321
2	Jessica Bobbit	Belmont 05-09	290
3	Katie Beth Pate	Lipscomb 03-07	264
4	Albena Branzova	FIU 91-95	250
5	Denise Hogie	CoC 91-93	248

                                                         
On the offensive end, Knight passed Adrianne McNally to move to second all-time with 21 points scored Feb. 20.
 
FGCU CAREER POINTS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	1,901
2	Whitney Knight	2011-16	1,551
3	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	1,415
4	Kelsey Jacobson	2008-12	1,263
5	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	1,185

 
Knight recently took the second position in the FGCU record book in steals and now stands only behind Hansen in three different categories.
 
FGCU CAREER STEALS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	249
2	Whitney Knight	2011-16	203
3	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	199
4	Shannon Murphy	2007-11	168
5	Brittany Kennedy	2011-13	148

 
Knight entered the 2015-16 season with 516 career rebounds and will continue to climb the FGCU records. She recently moved to second all-time in the record books, behind only Hansen.
 
FGCU CAREER REBOUNDS

1	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	887
2	Whitney Knight	2011-16	725
3	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	658
4	Robyn Swain	2002-04	640
5	Courtney Chihil	2008-12	603

 
Gluesing tops the squad with 138 games played through a four-year career. The senior matched Sarah Hansen's all-time appearances record in the A-Sun Quarterfinal and became FGCU's all-time leader in the A-Sun Semifinal game, while Haas and Meador sit just behind Gluesing in the top-three.
 
FGCU CAREER APPEARANCES

1	Jaime Gluesing	2012-16	138
2	Stephanie Haas	2012-16	137
3	Katie Meador	2012-16	132
4	Sarah Hansen	2009-14	132
5	Adrianne McNally	2006-10	128

 
UP NEXT
With a win Thursday, the Eagles will advance to the WNIT Championship game against South Dakota. The Coyotes defeated Oregon 88-54 Wednesday night at the Dakota Dome in Vermillion, S.D. and have been announced as the host for the championship. The WNIT Championship is set for Saturday, April 2 with a 3 p.m. tipoff. The championship game will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
 
SMESKO
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his sixth-consecutive Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year award with a successful 2015-16 campaign and was named the espnW Mid-Major Coach of the Year. Under his direction, the team has compiled two-straight 30-win seasons with four perfect A-Sun regular-season slates in the last five years. The team earned its first top-25 ranking and a third NCAA Tournament appearance as a seven seed last season where FGCU won its first ever DI NCAA Tournament game against No. 10 Oklahoma State. With 30 wins and counting this year, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 12-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 377-72 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.8 with a mark of 145-13 (91.7 W%) in Atlantic Sun contests and has led the team to a 81-1 record in conference play in the last five seasons.  The six-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year earned his 400th career win last season in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma, and holds a career record of 438-99 (81.5 W%).  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 raise awareness.