It’s not like Xavier’s basketball program hasn’t been there. It just hasn’t done that. Yet.
Saturday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, another golden opportunity to breakthrough the basketball champions circle awaits, but so does a surging opponent in defending champion Desert Vista.

"A basketball state championship would mean so much to this school," longtime athletic director Tui Selveratnam said on Friday.

"Coach (Jennifer) Gillom has done so much for our program and our school. We'd be so thrilled to see it happen."

Xavier has long been an athletic juggernaut in Arizona. The Gators championship trophy case could nearly fill an entire basketball gymnasium--even without a basketball championship. 

Between soccer, volleyball, swimming and softball, Xavier has an astounding 56 state championships to boast on. The first swim and dive team title came in 1973, but it wasn't until the 1990's that Xavier began collecting championship trophies all across the athletic spectrum. The first in soccer was 1993, volleyball in '96, and the softball propgram won its first in 2021, with a repeat in '22.

Is this finally the year for Xavier basketball?

"We've been knocking on the door for a while," says Gillom, a WNBA pioneer and member of the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.

"It's just a matter of getting through that door."

The success in volleyball and soccer notwithstanding, Xavier has still dealt with the reputaiton of dominating the so called 'country club' sports (i.e., golf, swimming, etc). To be fair, the aforementioned state championship count did not include Xavier's golf dynasty, which has stockpiled 37 team titles since 1980.

But Gillom can't worry about perception or comparisons. All she can do is lead Xavier''s basketball program, one she's elevated to elite status, with six consecutive trips to the semifinals or finals since she took over again in

"There aren't many students who come to Xavier to play basketball," Gillom said earlier in the week. “So we really do the best we can to incorporate a winning culture in order to maintain consistency, which gives us opportunity every year to be in contention.”

The basketball program has contended consistently, but the championship has remained elusive, with lots of close calls and near misses. 1977 was only the fourth year in which the Arizona Interscholastic Association crowned women's basketball champions via postseason tournaments. That season Xavier fell to Sierra Vista Buena, 33-30. 1986 was another heartbreaker, as the Gators lost to Marcos de Niza by three points in overtime (52-49) to Marcos de Niza.

More recently, Xavier has flirted with a basketball title on several occasions, which is where coach Gillom’s wisdom and experience comes into the equation. Gillom is a WNBA playing pioneer, as one of the first eight players to join the league. She enjoyed success with the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks. Her hall of fame resume also includes Olympic Gold medals as a player (1988 Seoul, Korea) and as a coach (2012 London). Her time playing overseas also helped Gillom absorb even more basketball knowledge, which led to an organic player-to-coach transition. 

After leading Xavier’s program from 2004 to ‘08, Gillom pursued coaching in the WNBA, where spent time with the Minnesota Lynx, Connecticut Sun and the Sparks  

Gillom returned to Xavier in 2016, before resuming her role as head coach for the 2017-'18 season. That same year she led the Gators to the championship game against Valley Vista, but it wasn't meant to be, as the Gators fell 68-55. Xavier was right back in the title game the next year (2019), only to fall to Hamilton 45-33.

But Gillom's success was never overnnight. She's laid a foundation that's provided consistency and championship contention annually. In the three seasons since the 2019 runner-up finish, Xavier reached the semifinals each year, only to lose before reaching the big stage.

The Gators got over the semifinal hump Tuesday night with a victory over No. 6 Pinnacle, setting up Saturday night’s showdown with Desert Vista, whose return to the Open championship game is remarkable in itself. 

The Gators beat Desert Vista early in season, 53-39. But the defending Open champions were still adjusting to a new head coach in Erin O’Bryan, as well as new players. 

“They’re going to be tougher and we know that,” Xavier senior Dominique Nesland said after the Gators semifinal victory. “We’ve all worked so hard for this over the last four years, there’s no excuse not to leave everything on the court.”

Gillom is hoping the semifinal win will help her team play loose and enjoy the opportunity in front of them. "I think getting past the semifinals after three straight years was a huge lift for our seniors. We know we've got a difficult team to beat, but given what we've gone through the last three years, it feels good and hopefully it will show on the court."