Now that the Fresno State women's basketball team is firmly entrenched as an annual contender in the Western Athletic Conference, it's almost time to bid so long.
The Bulldogs get one last crack at another championship in their 14th and final WAC season before shuffling off with Nevada to the Mountain West Conference next season.
"You can't deny there's more incentive to leave some kind of legacy," Wolf Pack coach Jane Albright said.
It took Fresno State 10 years to get over the top, but it has won the WAC regular-season or tournament title six times over the past four seasons.
"We don't shy away from the fact we want to be a WAC champion," Bulldogs seventh-year coach Adrian Wiggins said. "It's a source of pride for the team to look at all the banners hanging in the rafters."
The road to title No. 7 for the Bulldogs begins against Nevada at 2 p.m. today at the Save Mart Center.
"It would be nice to win that last one," Bulldogs sophomore point guard Taylor Thompson said.
Junior forward Rosie Moult said that point was stressed to the four first-year players: "Everyone has to step up another level."
It should be a wide-open WAC race for what are considered the top three teams -- Louisiana Tech, Utah State and Fresno State, the order voted on by the coaches in the preseason poll.
"No one can say this or that team can win," Louisiana Tech coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. "Everyone has done a good job bettering their team."
The most improved is Utah State, which went 9-5 in nonconference play behind senior forward Ashlee Brown, the WAC preseason Player of the Year.
Louisiana Tech has gone smaller after the departure of dominant post player Adrienne Johnson, the 2010-11 WAC Player of the Year, but Weatherspoon said her team will play more up-tempo.
Fresno State returns two starters but lost the five seniors that turned around the program. Still, the Bulldogs were one of only two WAC teams -- Utah State the other -- that had winning records in nonconference games and Wiggins' team's ratings index percentage of 63 is by far the highest of the eight WAC teams.
The Bulldogs are well aware that the WAC tournament champion will receive the conference's only bid to the NCAA postseason party. The conference's RPI is too low to sneak in another with an at-large berth. And that could be good for Fresno State, which isn't tournament ready yet.
The Bulldogs tend to let down at times on defense, they've been outrebounded in 10 games and their shooting comes and goes. What has helped keep them in games is balanced scoring (WAC-leading 73.9-point average) and 3-point shooting. They've made 158 3-pointers, which ranks No. 2 in the nation, out of 437 shots for 36.2%.
"We have a lot of weapons," Wiggins said. "We shoot the ball pretty well, we're defending hard and learning how to defend smart. But we haven't been making free throws [67.5%] and we haven't rebounded at the level we should. Those are all things that have to improve, and if those things happen then you'll see our scores change a lot."
But probably the biggest hurdle the Bulldogs have faced so far is realizing that just because you want that last WAC title doesn't mean it's guaranteed.
"Last year's team had the attitude that they could just win whenever," said Wiggins, whose 2010-11 squad captured the WAC tournament and a fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid.
"I keep telling this year's team they think they're better than they are, and they're starting to figure that out."
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