March 24, 2011
SPOKANE, Wash. - Never before in the 25-year history of Gonzaga University's NCAA Division I women's basketball had a player scored 30 points in back-to-back games.
Prior to last weekend there had only been 16 total 30-point games since Gonzaga joined the D-1 ranks for the 1986-87 season.
But that was before Kayla Standish.
With the Bulldogs once again on the big stage of the NCAA Tournament on their home floor in the McCarthey Athletic Center, all the junior from Ellensburg, Wash., did was score 30 points as the No. 11 seeded Bulldogs stopped No. 6 University of Iowa last Saturday and then did it again Monday in a win over No. 3 seed UCLA to advance to this weekend's Spokane Regional. She also teamed with Courtney Vandersloot to give the Bulldogs two 30-point performances in the same game for the first time in school history, Vandersloot knocking down 34 points against Iowa.
Don't ask the 6-2 Standish what led her to go 26-for-34 from the field in the two games, hit her first 3-pointer since Jan. 15 and grab 17 rebounds.
"I was thinking about it earlier because people were asking what my mindset was, but I wasn't really thinking about anything," she said after a practice in preparation for Saturday's 6 p.m. Sweet Sixteen showdown with No. 6 seed University of Louisville in the Spokane Veteran's Memorial Arena, just a stone's throw from the McCarthey Athletic Center. "I felt I needed to perform a lot better, step up and have a consistent game. We needed everybody to have a good game."
But she's not complaining about her newfound home in the spotlight, nor her 3-pointer that came Monday against the Bruins with 10:22 to play to snap a 58-all tie and give the Bulldogs a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
"It felt really good. I haven't shot a three in I don't know how many games. The last time I shot a three I completely missed it, coach wasn't very happy and said I would never shoot one again so I didn't. I put that one up Monday and it just went in so I was feeling good," she laughed.
Her last attempted trey prior to Monday came against Saint Mary's College Feb. 24. Her last make came Jan. 15 in Los Angeles in a victory over Loyola Marymount University, going 1-for-2 from beyond the arc. She's 7-for-22 from 3-point range, but 10 of those attempts - and three of the makes - came in the first seven games of the season.
Kayla isn't the first Standish recruit by Gonzaga head coach Kelly Graves. He recruited her older sister, Tami, when he was an assistant coach at the University of Portland. But he left the Pilots to become the head coach at Saint Mary's College before he had a chance to coach Tami, a 2002 Portland graduate. "I remember recruiting Tami hard," Graves recalled. "Some of that paid off because she ended up going to Portland."
He never dreamt younger sister Kayla would one day be on his radar, and it almost didn't come to fruition.
"I took visits to Cal (University of California) and WSU (Washington State University). I wanted to cancel my visit here after I went to WSU, but I'm very glad now I didn't," Standish reflected.
She said it was the sense of team that made her choose the Zags.
"I liked both coaches (Graves and then-WSU head coach Sherri Murrell), their assistants and got along great with them and totally trusted them. But once I hung out with both teams there was a bigger bond with this team than there was over there (WSU) and I felt more comfortable and that I'd fit in better here," Standish said of the factors that ultimately drew her to Gonzaga.
"I knew it wasn't this coach's charm," Graves said when asked what he thought landed Standish. "But it was one of the greatest days in the history of Gonzaga basketball when she said she was coming here."
Graves thought he had a special player.
"We thought Kayla was really a special player, and for a couple of years I've been pumping her up, `Kayla you are really good, you're really good,' because I think she lacked some confidence," Graves emphasized. "I don't know if we quite expected this what she is doing right now. But she is certainly as talented a player and the most athletic post I've coached."
Once Standish got to Gonzaga she had to play the waiting game behind a couple of pretty fair players - West Coast Conference Player of the Year Heather Bowman and Vivian Frieson, who became the first WNBA draft pick in Gonzaga history.
She played in all 34 games with three starts as a freshman, averaging 13.4 minutes/game, 3.9 ppg and 4.4 rpg. Last season she appeared in all 34 games with one start, averaging 15.6 minutes/game, 8.1 ppg and 4.4 rpg.
"I knew I had to wait two years behind Bowman and Viv, which was totally fine because I think they obviously helped with how I've turned out the last two years. I've always wanted to be in a position like this to have an important spot and be relied upon, so I'm very happy with where I am," she said.
But this year she has blossomed, starting all 34 games to date, averaging 17.4 ppg, 8.7 rpg and blocking 57 shots, the latter just 10 less than she blocked her first two years combined. Her 57 blocks this season rank third on the single-season list, and her 124 career blocks are good for fifth on the Gonzaga charts.
Her play this past weekend surprised even her.
"After this weekend I surprised myself. In league games I never had 30 points and then we step up and play two Top 25 teams (Iowa was the first team receiving votes and UCLA was as high as seventh in one poll) and I end up making 30 points, so I guess I surprised myself from that aspect," she said.
And with it came a renewed confidence.
"In my head I was thinking I needed to work on my strength this summer, so I was thinking about that before we played our (NCAA Tournament) games. After playing those games and posting up I feel more confident with my strength," she said, although the weight room is still a top priority this summer.
A far cry from high school.
"In high school I would never be caught dead posting up. I was longer and taller and people would just lob me the ball, but now it's completely different and strength is a part of it," Standish said.
Graves insists her only drawback has been her confidence - or lack thereof.
"What she has done is amazing and she is in that zone. It's incredible. She always has had (the green light to shoot), but it's a confidence thing with her," Graves explained. "I think she is just now realizing how good she can be, and I think a lot of people are. I've heard from the pro people and a lot of people are high on her."
As is the case with some of her other teammates, she's more noticeable around the Spokane community and has her friends and family at home watching.
"Since this last weekend I think I've doubled my Facebook friends and I got a lot of text messages. It's funny to see who is following me from home, like people who say good job I watched your game and saw you on TV. It's surprising to see the people who remember me and continue to follow me. Some little kids - I guess they aren't little anymore - but a lot of middle school girls come because their parents were my teachers in high school, and hopefully my little cousins will come," she said looking ahead to this weekend's expected flock of family and friends to Spokane.
But her friends, she says, are found right next to her on the playing floor, on the bench and in the lockerroom.
"It sounds cliché that we're a bunch of sisters and how people always try to claim that, but we are all really close friends and we hang out together outside of basketball all the time," she said of her teammates. "I don't really have any other friends at Gonzaga that I call to hang out with. Everyone pretty much lives together so we don't really get away from each other."
In the classroom she is pursuing a special education degree - probably something along the lines of counseling.
"Since basketball runs into both semesters I can't really student teach in four years so I'd have to go back to school. I don't want to teach, but I definitely want to do something like counseling. I don't know exactly what, yet. I had a class my junior year of high school and we had kindergarten buddies. My friend's buddy had cerebral palsy so he was in a wheelchair and had some mental retardation. I had never been around kids with special needs and we went to this classroom and there was just this one kid. I would find myself always following him around and always wanting to be around him and he was just so happy I was there spending time with him that it just kind of drew me to it," she said of her career ambitions. She's in a class now that allows her to spend time in the field.
"Tuesday and Thursday mornings a girl in special ed with me goes to Shadle Park High School. We are doing a project with one of the girls in the developmentally impaired classrooms, so we spend a couple of hours every morning working with her and everyone else in the class. Thursday's they are in the computer lab so we help our one girl using a computer and help her figure her way around. The other day is math and they are doing a lot of money counting, so we spend a lot of time counting coins. When we are there they have their 10-minute break and they wheel out two carts called the Shadle Park Snack Shack and they sell cookies and water bottles to people. They just love it," she smiled.
Just as she loves the fans who come to watch the Zags play.
"It's awesome," she said of the large turnout of fans. "Every time you step out on the floor it's a bigger crowd and a louder crowd. Coming to Gonzaga I didn't know what to expect as far as the crowd and it's a lot more than I ever expected," she said.
There was a time when the big crowds might make her nervous, but not anymore.
"No, not at all, especially playing on our home court," she said of getting the jitters for a big crowd. "My very first game my freshman year I was definitely very nervous, and once we got going the crowd was on our side."
Just as it will be this weekend as another Bulldog season goes deep into March.
