Kelly Graves, who built the Gonzaga women's basketball program into the class of the West Coast Conference, is leaving the Zags after 14 seasons to become women's basketball coach at the University of Oregon.

Oregon made the announcement Monday night.

"I am truly blessed to have been the coach at GU for 14 years, but so excited for an amazing future at UO," Graves said on his Twitter feed.

Graves replaces Paul Westhead, whose contract was not renewed when it expired in March after his fifth season as Ducks coach. Oregon went 16-16 last season, losing to Washington in the second round of the WNIT. The Ducks last made the NCAA tournament in 2005.

Katelyn Loper, the former Post Falls High star, is a junior on the Oregon women's team. She transfered there after playing her first two seasons at Hofstra.

Meanwhile, Graves coached Gonzaga into the NCAA tournament each of the last six seasons, and seven of the last eight. Under Graves, the Zags made it as far as the Elite 8 in 2011, and a pair of Sweet 16 appearances in 2010 and 2012. Gonzaga won or tied for the WCC regular season title each of the last 10 seasons, and in recent seasons, played before large crowds and the occasional sellout at the 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga went 29-5 this past season, losing to James Madison in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"When we started this process and began talking to people about who the right coach was, everyone would say, 'Kelly Graves' - and then they'd say, 'But you're never going to get him,'" said Lisa Peterson, a University of Oregon senior associate athletic director and the department's senior women's administrator, who chaired the search committee for the new coach, in a story published at goducks.com. "He was the first person on the committee's radar, just because of all the success he's had."

At Gonzaga, Graves went 316-136 (.699) - and that was after starting off with a pair of losing seasons, 5-23 and 11-18. Under Graves, the Zags also appeared in the WNIT three times, in 2004, '05 and '08.

Prior to Gonzaga, Graves coached three years at WCC foe Saint Mary's, going 66-26 and leading the Gaels to the NCAA tournament in 1999 and to the WNIT the following season. Prior to that, he was an assistant at the University of Portland from 1994-97. Before that, he was head coach for three seasons at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake.