Going to the Dogs

The Cardinal travel across the valley to the Savemart Center on Sunday to play the Fresno State Bulldogs. Finals break begins on Monday so this is your last chance to see them play until mid-December.

If you don't go to the game, you can watch it on Fresno State All-Access, listen to it on KZSU or follow the action on GameTracker.

Five years ago, Fresno State head coach Adrian Wiggins brought in a handful of freshmen, and the Bulldogs made their first NCAA Tournament appearance after winning their first Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championship. The Fab Five (Jaleesa Ross, Marnique Arnold, Taja Edwards, Emma Andrews and Hayley Munro) went on to lead the Bulldogs to a school-record 98 wins, three WAC regular-season titles, three WAC tournament championships and four trips to the NCAA dance.

The Fab Five graduated this year and took with them 62% of the Bulldogs' scoring and 57% of their rebounding, Taking their place are four freshmen, two transfers from four-year schools who must sit out, and guard Ki-Ki Moore who becomes eligible after tranferring from Washington State last season.

The rebuilt team has made a good start toward capturing another WAC title in their final season in the conference before transferring to the Mountain West. The Bulldogs have won five of the first seven games of a fairly challenging schedule (Sagarin/CBS ranks their schedule strength at 77). They've lost only to USC and Pepperdine, where they blew a 12-point lead late and lost in double overtime.

The Bulldogs are a guard-oriented team with a run-and-shoot style of play and are currently one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation. They were ranked #4 last week with an average of 9.7 per game; their rate of 39.7% was ranked #9. Since then, they sank 17 3-pointers in their victory over Oregon and upped the average to 10.7 and the percentage to 40.5.

They are aggressive on defense. They lead the WAC in steals (12.5 per game) and turnover margin (5 less than their opponents).

Although they have a good turnover margin, they don't take good care of the ball themselves. They average almost as many turnovers (16.5) as assists (16.7).

The starters for Fresno State are:

• #24, 5.8" redshirt junior guard Ki-Ki Moore sat out last season after transferring from Washington State, where she was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman team. She is the Bulldogs' leading scorer (19.6 ppg) and rebounder (6.6 rpg). She averages 2.1 3-pointers a game at a rate of 55.6%.


• #25, 6'1" junior guard/forward Rosie Moult hails from Australia, where she played for the U19 team for two years. She is the Bulldogs' best 3-point shooter, averaging 3.6 per game at a rate of 42%. She averages 14.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.


• #12, 5'10" senior guard/forward Blakely Goldberg transferred to Fresno State last year after two seasons with Fresno City College She averages 8.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 3-pointers per game.


• #10, 6'1" freshman forward Alex Sheedy is the eighth Australian to join the women's basketball program. She was a member of the Australia U19 team for three years. She averages 6.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.


• #33, 5'5" sophomore guard Taylor Thompson is the Bulldogs' best ball-handler. She averages 4.4 assists per game with only half as many turnovers. She also averages 6.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Coming off the bench for significant minutes are:

• #11, 5'8" freshman guard Madison Parrish is the second Parrrsh to play at Fresno State. Her sister, Amy, was an All-WAC forward and is now a third-year assistant coach. Madison averages 24.4 minutes, 8.1 points and 1.7 3-pointers per game.


• #31. 6'3" senior center Veronica Wilson averages 18.4 minutes, 7.9 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.


• #5, 5'10' sophomore guard Bree Farley is the third Australian on the squad. She averages 16.0 minutes, 3.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.

Here are the Bulldogs' 2010-11 statistics and their roster.