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Kelly Graves has turned Gonzaga University women's basketball into one of the elite programs in his nine years at the helm. Graves has guided the Bulldogs to an unprecedented five straight WCC regular-season titles (2005-09) and now three straight post-season apperances. The Zags won their fifth WCC regular season title in 2009 with a 12-2 record and went on to win their second-ever WCC Tournament title and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Gonzaga's post-season was probably its most exciting. The Zags, seeded No. 12 in the NCAA Tournament, upset No. 5 Xavier University for their first-ever tournament victory. Gonzaga was nearly a minute away from the Sweet Sixteen but fell to No. 4 University of Pittsburgh by five points in the Second Round. Courtney Vandersloot was named WCC Player of the Year and earned AP and State Farm All-America Honorable Mention accolades. The Bulldogs had three players earn first-team All-WCC honors for the sixth straight season, giving Graves 15 first-team honorees in his nine years on the GU bench. The Bulldogs finished the 2008 season with an impressive 13-1 finish. Gonzaga swept the WCC annual honors as Heather Bowman was named WCC Player of the Year, junior Jami (Bjorklund) Schaefer was tabbed for Defensive Player of the Year honors and freshman Courtney Vandersloot was named as the conference's top newcomer. Graves earned WCC Coach of the Year recognition for the fourth time in his career as the Zags became the first conference program to sweep the individual awards since U.S. International in 1985-86, the league's inaugural season of women's basketball. Gonzaga was one game away from its second NCAA apperance in 2008, but fell in the WCC Championship game to host University of San Diego. The Bulldogs, instead, earned a bid to the WNIT; the school's third bid in five years. The Zags fell in the second round of the WNIT to the University of Colorado and ended their 2008 campaign with a strong 25-9 record. Gonzaga won its third straight WCC regular-season title with a 13-1 finish in 2007. The Bulldogs went on to win their first-ever WCC Tournament Championship and earned an automatic bid to the NCCA Tournament; the Zags inaugural appearance. Graves was named WCC Co-Coach of the Year after leading the Bulldogs to a 24-10 record and a first-round NCAA Tournament apperance. Stephanie Hawk earned WCC Co-Player of the Year honors, while freshman Heather Bowman was tabbed as the WCC's Newcomer of the Year. Gonzaga ranked among the top teams in the West Coast Conference during the 2006 campaign as the Bulldogs finished 11-3 to tie for the WCC regular-season championship. It was the seventh time a team had repeated as conference champions in the 20-year history of WCC women's play. In 2005, Gonzaga became only the second school in WCC history to run the table in league play as the Bulldogs finished the 2005 season 14-0, joining only the 1997 University of Portland Pilots as undefeated regular-season champions in the 20-year history of the league. Graves was also part of that run as an assistant coach at Portland. Along the way Gonzaga ran off a nation-leading 23-game win streak and cracked both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25 polls reaching as high as No. 23. Graves earned his second WCC Coach of the Year honor and was named the WBCA Region VIII Coach of the Year as Gonzaga finished the season 28-4 and advanced to the second round of the Women's NIT, the second-straight post-season appearance for Gonzaga under Graves. The Bulldogs also had several firsts in 2005 under Graves' watchful eye as Shannon Mathews became the first Gonzaga player to earn WCC Player of the Year honors and the first to earn All-America honors with an honorable mention nod from the Associated Press. Graves was named the fourth head coach in the NCAA Division I history of the program on April 11, 2000, and it's no surprise where he's taken the program in eight seasons. The turnaround began in 2002 when the Bulldogs posted an 11-18 record, the first time the club had hit double digits in the win column since 1998. That success continued in 2003 as Gonzaga posted a winning record for the first time since 1994 when the Bulldogs advanced to the WNIT. Gonzaga posted 18 wins, at the time the second highest total in the school's NCAA Division I history, and received a bye to the WCC Tournament semifinals. For the efforts of his team Graves was named the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year for the first time in his six years as a head coach in the league. The Bulldogs also had one player named to the WCC first team and two additional players earn honorable mention All-WCC honors. In 2004, Gonzaga continued to make improvements under Graves as the team again posted 18 wins and a second-place WCC finish. The Bulldogs advanced to their second WCC Tournament championship game and were awarded a bid to the Women's NIT after falling to Loyola Marymount University, 61-58, in the WCC title game. Dating back to his years as an assistant coach at Portland, Graves has now coached 27 All-West Coast Conference performers, seven WCC Players of the Year, five All-Americans, two WCC Defender's of the Year, two WCC Newcomer's of the Year and 23 WCC All-Tournament selections. And Graves has done it all by making the Spokane area one of his recruiting priorities. "I have loved recruiting the Spokane area and believe I've had success in recruiting the area because I respect the coaches in the area. Those young ladies are well coached and work hard," Graves said. No stranger to the area, Graves started his coaching career in nearby Moses Lake as the head coach of Big Bend Community College. In three seasons at the school, Graves turned a struggling program with four wins his first season into a Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges power his last season with 23 wins. From Big Bend, Graves earned his first taste of West Coast Conference basketball as an assistant at the University of Portland under head coach Jim Sollars. During his tenure at Portland, Graves recruited many of the players that helped the Pilots post a 102-46 record and 51-19 WCC mark in five seasons. The Pilots made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1994-97 and boasted three straight WCC Players of the Year from 1995-97. In 1998 Graves moved south in the WCC to guide the program at Saint Mary's College. He made an immediate impact with the Gaels, producing a 66-26 record in three seasons with WCC Tournament championship game appearances his first two seasons. In his first season at the helm he guided SMC to a 20-9 record, the first 20-win season at the school since the 1990-91 season. Graves followed up that success with a 26-7 mark and two firsts for the Gaels program. The first-ever WCC Tournament championship and first-ever NCAA Tournament berth, a 61-57 setback to Notre Dame. His final Saint Mary's squad finished with a 20-10 mark that included a first-round WNIT victory over Hawai'i and a second-round loss to Long Beach State. Graves is an active member of the WBCA (Women's Basketball Coaches Association) and has previously served on the voting panel for the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll. He works with the WBCA's philanthropy arm. Graves and his wife Mary have three sons - Maxwell Joseph (1995) Jackson Obde (1997) and William Kelly (2000). |
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