College basketball: FGCU women playing Missouri at Stanford in NCAA tournament

No. 17 Missouri at Stanford it is. 

Florida Gulf Coast University's women's basketball coaches and players will be playing in their fifth NCAA tournament in just seven years of eligibility, and they learned Monday night along with fans in Alico Arena that they'll be heading a long, long way to do so. 

FGCU (30-4) drew a No. 12 seed and will face fifth-seeded Missouri (24-7) at Stanford, which is located in Palo Alto, California, at 3:30 Saturday afternoon in a game that will be televised by ESPN2. 

If the Eagles get past the Tigers, they'll play the winner of fourth-seeded Stanford (22-10) versus 13th-seeded Gonzaga (27-5) on Monday. 
 

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FGCU women's basketball players celebrate in Alico Arena on Monday night after learning they will tip NCAA tournament play against Missouri at Stanford on Saturday afternoon. By Dana Caldwell

"I've seen Missouri play during the year," FGCU program-founding coach Karl Smesko said. "We haven't done a prep for them, I just watched them and South Carolina play a great game. They have one of the best players in the nation, Sophie Cunningham. Other than that, we're going to have to do a lot of studying over the next couple of days to get ourselves ready."

Atlantic Sun regular-season and tournament champion FGCU wrapped up one of its best-ever pre-NCAA tourney seasons with Sunday's 68-58 home win against second-seeded Jacksonville in the conference tourney final.

The Eagles had then-top 25 wins against DePaul in Las Vegas and Kentucky at home. They destroyed Illinois and beat mid-major power South Dakota State. They had an RPI of 17 that despite stacking up ASUN wins dipped into the 50s. It was up to 47 Monday. The Eagles spent much of the season ranked as the nation's best mid-major. They briefly popped into the USA Today Coaches poll at No. 25. 

Last year FGCU was a 14th seed and played within 62-60 in a controversial first-rounder in Miami. In 2015, FGCU got a seeding of seventh and beat 10th-seeded Oklahoma State in Tallahassee before losing to second-seeded Florida State on the Seminoles' floor. In 2014, FGCU was a 12 seed and lost to fifth-seeded Oklahoma State by a point in overtime. In their first season of eligibility in 2012, the Eagles were a 12 seed and lost in overtime to St. Bonaventure in Tallahassee. 
 

Smesko said Sunday he usually thinks his Eagles usually deserve a fifth or sixth seed and said Monday night he had hoped for a higher seeding than 12. 

"But we understood somewhere between 10 and 12 is probably where we'd fall and we did," Smesko said.

The 64-team bracket tips on Friday, so the Eagles were thankful they don't play until Saturday at a venue 3,020 miles away. 

'That definitely helps, especially when you make a trip of this significance," Smesko said. "And to have an extra day to prepare will be really helpful for us."

Missouri has wins over sixth-ranked South Carolina and 12th-ranked Tennessee and lost in an SEC quarterfinal to No. 18 Georgia. 

"I'll watch quite a bit about them tonight," Smesko said. "I know they're really good. I'm surprised that they're a 5 seed. I thought they might be a team that hosts, be one of the top four seeds. But it doesn't really matter what I think of the matchup. We've got to go out there and get ready for it and do the best we can."

Most FGCU players knew little to nothing about Missouri. But All-ASUN senior forward Rosemarie Julien said starting senior guard Erica Nelson is the resident women's basketball expert and she told her teammates they "had a great chance."

"If she's telling me we have a good chance, I believe in that," Julien said. "I'm not familiar with them. But I'm excited. I'm just so excited."

Missouri, which will be playing in its third straight NCAA tournament, is led by the 6-foot-1 Cunningham, who averages 18.0 points and has made 46.6 percent of her 3-point attempts. 

FGCU's lockdown defender, Julien, will guard Cunningham. After she looked at her stats, Julien simply said, "Wow" and headed upstairs to begin studying her.

"She's one of the best players in the country," Smesko said. "Probably going to be an All-American. It's going to take a team effort to slow her down."

FGCU sophomore forward Tytionia Adderly also wowed and tossed in an "Oh, my goodness" at Cunningham's numbers. But she still felt extremely confident.

"Rose can guard anyone," Adderly said. "I think we're going to be fine. We've traveled to places before and made upsets.

"We're going to win."

2018 Women's Basketball NCAA Tournament
FGCU's Draw: The 12th-seeded Eagles play fifth-seeded Missouri at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Stanford (California)
TV: ESPN2
Tickets: Go to fgcuathletics.com/tickets