Jim Gazzolo column: Gotta beat the best to be the best<\/p>\n
Published 11:34 am Thursday, September 18, 2025<\/p>\n
It was a move that drew more than just a little attention.<\/p>\n
Days after the women\u2019s college basketball season ended last spring, McNeese State pulled the trigger and flipped its program.<\/p>\n
Stealing, or um rather hiring away, Southeastern Louisiana head coach Ayla Guzzardo was a bold move by Cowboys Athletic Director Heath Schroyer.<\/p>\n
She had recently won the Southland Conference regular season after turning the Lions into the league\u2019s power. So Schroyer picked her to turn around the Cowgirls.<\/p>\n
All Guzzardo did was bring her entire team, including coaches, to Lake Charles with her.<\/p>\n
Schroyer said he believes, if you can\u2019t beat them, buy them.<\/p>\n
Well, the new-look Cowgirls haven\u2019t played a game, and already the move is paying dividends.<\/p>\n
McNeese accepted an invitation on Friday to play in the Bahamas in November. The multi-team event features several prominent Power Four programs.<\/p>\n
McNeese will open with West Virginia of the Big 12. It will be a great test for the Cowgirls and helps fulfill one of the promises Guzzardo made when she came here.<\/p>\n
She said she wanted to improve the schedule in an effort to help improve McNeese\u2019s NCAA seed \u2014 if and when the Cowgirls capture the Southland\u2019s tournament berth. Games like this will help.<\/p>\n
Guzzardo understands what Will Wade preached on the men\u2019s side, that it is important to get a better seed if you want to pull off an upset. Wade said it is much easier to win against a five seed than a No. 1.<\/p>\n
His Cowboys did it in their second year as a 12 seed, beating No. 5 Clemson last spring. That goes double for the women\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n
It is almost impossible for a 16 seed to beat a No. 1 on their home court in the opening round. It has been done once \u2014 in 1998 \u2014 in the history of the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament. Blowouts are the name of that game.<\/p>\n
The only way for McNeese to secure a five seed is to establish a brand name, similar to what the men\u2019s team has achieved. That takes getting out there, playing big schools and winning some of those games.<\/p>\n
To do that, you first have to play those teams. The Cowgirls weren\u2019t going to do that by failing to make the Southland\u2019s postseason tournament.<\/p>\n
\u2018We don\u2019t want to just go to the NCAA, we want to win some games there,\u201d Guzzardo said. \u201cTo do that, you need to get the highest seed you possibly can, and you have to play good teams to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the tournament would reach out to McNeese and offer the Cowgirls an invitation shows that Guzzardo brings a solid brand name with her. She is a lightning rod for sure, but lightning draws attention and that\u2019s what Schroyer was looking for and got in this hire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we get this invitation if she\u2019s not our head coach,\u201d Schroyer said of Guzzardo. \u201cShe started paying dividends from the very first day. She has been out in the community, meeting people and helping our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guzzardo said she sees this as an opportunity to acclimate her squad to playing in large venues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tournament represents an exciting milestone in our program,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cWe are so thankful to our administration for pouring into our program. Our student-athletes have worked diligently to earn this opportunity, and we are proud they will be able to experience this type of competition on this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exposure will continue to help McNeese as a brand, a benefit that the hiring of Guzzardo has already achieved.<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/p>\n
Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Gazzolo column: Gotta beat the best to be the best Published 11:34 am Thursday, September 18, 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,100058,100059,100060,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-165812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-guzzardo","tag-jim-gazzolo","tag-mcneese-state-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}