The Fresno State women’s basketball team dealt with many distractions this season, even with a very public lawsuit overshadowing the program.

“The new players had less of an idea of what was going on. Regardless, it was definitely an energy sucker,” coach Adrian Wiggins said

In addition to the lawsuit, the Bulldogs suffered six straight losses in the early season.

“Obviously we were a little unsure. Our confidence was down. We didn’t have a good idea of our talent,” Wiggins said.

Wiggins said the sexual harassment lawsuit that former coach Stacy Johnson-Klein filed was a huge disturbance for the team. Fortunately, the young players weren’t as affected by it.

Hayley Munro said the focal point stayed on basketball.

“It was easy to stay focused as we had a great coaching staff and stayed together as a team,” she said. “Coach Wiggins was always positive all the way through the trial.

“I guess he had his own way of dealing with it. But in a team environment he showed no emotion.”

Early losses and lawsuit aside, the team was very young, which is a risk for any program.

“It’s hard to tell who is going to be talented. It’s always a gamble,” Wiggins said.

The team persevered through the early rough patch to become Western Athletic Conference (WAC) champions, a first in program history.

Things only got better for the women’s basketball team. After being crowned the best in the WAC, the next stop was the NCAA tournament, another first for the program.

As the team and media gathered for the bracket seeding to see who they would play, the anxiety grew.

“We were excited,” Wiggins said. “We knew Baylor was going to be tough.”

But there was something more important than being able to go against the tough school.

They fought through all the adversity put in front of them.

“We were there and that was the major goal,” Wiggins said. “Each game gets tougher. For our program and our first time being there, winning any game would have been huge.”

The youthful team could be seeing even more young faces in the coming seasons since their appearance in the NCAA tournament.

“It definitely increases recruitment opportunities. We may not notice a difference until next spring since the recruiting process takes place so early in the year,” Wiggins said.

Coming off such successful season will make the next even more exciting.

“We’re only losing two seniors,” Wiggins said. “We want to get back to the tournament. That’s a huge goal for us.”

The goal is more than another tournament appearance.

“We want to make it further into the tournament,” Munro said. “Hopefully to the Sweet 16.”