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Mystery of new GCU look begins to unveil at MW Media Day
10/23/2025 10:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro
Gandy shares conference's preseason stage with LaMendola, Mann
LAS VEGAS – When Winston Gandy became Grand Canyon's new women's basketball coach, the canvas was blank and every decision he made was a brush stroke toward creating Thursday's picture.
At GCU's first Mountain West Basketball Media Day on Thursday, Lopes players Juliana LaMendola and Chloe Mann were boarding a 360 photo booth with Gandy, shooting bubbles at him and smiling from the good-natured ribbing he shared with media just as he does with them in practices.
They represent players with potential that Gandy believes he can unlock to build a Mountain West contender, but they also are emblematic of what he wants his first team as a head coach to be about.
"People do make the place," Gandy said. "I love my job, and I want my players to love where they are and what they do. I want them to love the university because our university is great. The students there are phenomenal. It's one of the most welcoming campuses I've ever been on."
Mountain West media is not sure what to make of the Lopes after 11 players graduated from GCU's first NCAA Division I Tournament qualifier. GCU was predicted to finished seventh among 12 teams by a media poll that included one voter giving the Lopes a first-place vote.
With no public exhibitions, the Lopes will be somewhat of an opening-night surprise Nov. 3 at South Carolina. But Mann has enough of a reputation from her freshman season at Cincinnati to be the Mountain West Freshman of the Year, while LaMendola brings the experience of a top program at Indiana.
"It's a blessing to get, for sure, but we play basketball," Mann said on the day her award was announced. "We don't judge the things you do based on a piece of paper. I'm honored to receive it, but I feel like what I do during the season will show more than that."
Mann, a 5-foot-8 sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas, averaged 8.5 points in 21.6 minutes per game last season at Cincinnati.
"Chloe's worked tremendously hard," Gandy sad. "You could argue she is one of the players with more in terms of experience. But she's not the only kid on our roster that has experience. Jules is another playing coming from the Big Ten that I think is going to play a pivotal role for us."
Gandy, who assisted at South Carolina and Duke previously, recruited LaMendola when she was also a Metroplex standout in Coppell, Texas. He was admittedly late to show his interest, but that was not the case when she entered the transfer portal as he took the GCU job.
"Super-hard worker," Gandy said of his 6-foot-1 junior. "Competitor. Her will to win is unmatched at times. She's helped our group tremendously. Coming from a winning program, that's really important nowadays. There's a lot of people who think they know, but unless you've been in it and seen what it looks like, you have no idea."
Gandy has signed 14 new players since becoming head coach in the spring. Because of the massive changeover, he slowly rolled out the program during summer workouts to allow sports performance and athletic training staffs to be emphasized early and have a build-up come later.
"We're all trying to figure out our role and our place on that team," LaMendola said. "It's been a lot of finding synergy and chemistry together, and it's been really fun to do that. Practices are really intense, as they need to be going into a new conference.
"There's been a lot of progress from June to now, and there's going to be a lot of progress made from now to spring. It's a really exciting journey."
In a deep Mountain West conference that favors four-time defending champion UNLV, Gandy built a nonconference roster to prepare the Lopes for Mountain West play. He said his team will need to be deep too.
"We've got a number of players that could have a day," Gandy said. "They have that belief in themselves. That's really important. Because we're going to play the schedule we're going to play, we're going to need more than one or two people to show up for you."
The players are on board for the team's transformation because their coach's honesty, humor and direct coaching has been exactly who he portrayed himself to be in recruiting. LaMendola had to hold herself back from committing on his first call and took a visit that sealed her instinct after meeting GCU President Brian Mueller and GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs.
"The thing I like most about Coach is when he critiques us and is giving us tips about different things we could get better at, he doesn't make it seem like we're just the most terrible at it," Mann said. "He's a very funny guy. He shares his criticism in a playful way, but also in a way that we understand that we're learning things that we have to get better at."
At GCU's first Mountain West Basketball Media Day on Thursday, Lopes players Juliana LaMendola and Chloe Mann were boarding a 360 photo booth with Gandy, shooting bubbles at him and smiling from the good-natured ribbing he shared with media just as he does with them in practices.
They represent players with potential that Gandy believes he can unlock to build a Mountain West contender, but they also are emblematic of what he wants his first team as a head coach to be about."People do make the place," Gandy said. "I love my job, and I want my players to love where they are and what they do. I want them to love the university because our university is great. The students there are phenomenal. It's one of the most welcoming campuses I've ever been on."
Mountain West media is not sure what to make of the Lopes after 11 players graduated from GCU's first NCAA Division I Tournament qualifier. GCU was predicted to finished seventh among 12 teams by a media poll that included one voter giving the Lopes a first-place vote.
With no public exhibitions, the Lopes will be somewhat of an opening-night surprise Nov. 3 at South Carolina. But Mann has enough of a reputation from her freshman season at Cincinnati to be the Mountain West Freshman of the Year, while LaMendola brings the experience of a top program at Indiana.
"It's a blessing to get, for sure, but we play basketball," Mann said on the day her award was announced. "We don't judge the things you do based on a piece of paper. I'm honored to receive it, but I feel like what I do during the season will show more than that."
Mann, a 5-foot-8 sophomore from Fort Worth, Texas, averaged 8.5 points in 21.6 minutes per game last season at Cincinnati."Chloe's worked tremendously hard," Gandy sad. "You could argue she is one of the players with more in terms of experience. But she's not the only kid on our roster that has experience. Jules is another playing coming from the Big Ten that I think is going to play a pivotal role for us."
Gandy, who assisted at South Carolina and Duke previously, recruited LaMendola when she was also a Metroplex standout in Coppell, Texas. He was admittedly late to show his interest, but that was not the case when she entered the transfer portal as he took the GCU job.
"Super-hard worker," Gandy said of his 6-foot-1 junior. "Competitor. Her will to win is unmatched at times. She's helped our group tremendously. Coming from a winning program, that's really important nowadays. There's a lot of people who think they know, but unless you've been in it and seen what it looks like, you have no idea."
Gandy has signed 14 new players since becoming head coach in the spring. Because of the massive changeover, he slowly rolled out the program during summer workouts to allow sports performance and athletic training staffs to be emphasized early and have a build-up come later.
"We're all trying to figure out our role and our place on that team," LaMendola said. "It's been a lot of finding synergy and chemistry together, and it's been really fun to do that. Practices are really intense, as they need to be going into a new conference."There's been a lot of progress from June to now, and there's going to be a lot of progress made from now to spring. It's a really exciting journey."
In a deep Mountain West conference that favors four-time defending champion UNLV, Gandy built a nonconference roster to prepare the Lopes for Mountain West play. He said his team will need to be deep too.
"We've got a number of players that could have a day," Gandy said. "They have that belief in themselves. That's really important. Because we're going to play the schedule we're going to play, we're going to need more than one or two people to show up for you."
The players are on board for the team's transformation because their coach's honesty, humor and direct coaching has been exactly who he portrayed himself to be in recruiting. LaMendola had to hold herself back from committing on his first call and took a visit that sealed her instinct after meeting GCU President Brian Mueller and GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs.
"The thing I like most about Coach is when he critiques us and is giving us tips about different things we could get better at, he doesn't make it seem like we're just the most terrible at it," Mann said. "He's a very funny guy. He shares his criticism in a playful way, but also in a way that we understand that we're learning things that we have to get better at."
Players Mentioned
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