tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88997074215999293542024-03-13T17:01:21.792-07:00C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball BlogTwo basketball teammates who talk about the Stanford Women's Basketball games and women's sports issues, among other things.C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.comBlogger565125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-63568011016156654242022-03-19T10:51:00.003-07:002022-03-19T11:13:58.956-07:00Belibi Me, it's March Madness for College Woman's Basketball<p>March Madness is officially here for Women's Collage Basketball. And by officially here, I don't just mean on the calendar. This year, for the first time, the <a href="https://theathletic.com/news/march-madness-to-be-used-for-womens-basketball-championships-starting-in-2022/gQsuMBtOo7zQ/" target="_blank">Women's game can use the words "March Madness!</a>" For those of you that remember last year at this time (I know, it's been a long year), that the men got a full weight room and <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2021/03/19/ncaa-womens-tournament-unequal-treatment-men-march-madness" target="_blank">the women got a few yoga mats and a pyramid of dumbbells</a> your granny would use. BTW, it was <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/Get-better-Stanford-coach-reveals-gross-16036715.php" target="_blank">Stanford athletic trainer Ali Kershner</a> who first brought the issue to light. I love looking back at this and seeing how the NCAA tourney officials responded the next day saying there was a lack of space and <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/03/19/oregons-sedona-prince-rips-ncaa-over-weight-room-disparity-video/" target="_blank">Oregon's Sedona Prince filmed ALL THE SPACE that was there</a>. Ah, the power of social media to still keep fighting for something that should have happened in 1972 with the passing of Title IX.</p><p>But I digress.</p><p>For C and R are here to talk about the first round of the Stanford Women's Basketball team's win in the first round of 64 (now 68, with 4 play in in games, just like the men's) over Montana State. As you can expect, when a number 1 seed plays a number 16 seed, there will be a blow out (except for that one time...). Heck, South Carolina earlier in the day beat Howard by almost 60 points. Stanford doesn't typically blow out teams like that, with the final score in their game being 78-37, but they did do something historic. In the first quarter, they held Montana State scoreless. In fact, their first points didn't come until 9 minutes in the second. That was the first time Stanford has ever held an opponent scoreless in any time period, and you know Stanford has a lot of history. That was impressive.</p><p>But that wasn't even the most impressive thing that happened that night. The most impressive thing that happened that night was Fran Belibi's dunk! Well, a dunk is always amazing in the women's game, but she BLOCKED a three point shot first, corralled the ball, ran down court and then took two long, long strides and dunked, above the rim! Here see for yourself:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">FRAN BELIBI WITH THE BLOCK AND DUNK 🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/HighlightHER?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HighlightHER</a><br /><br />(via <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StanfordWBB</a>)<a href="https://t.co/IhtEp8BdR0">pic.twitter.com/IhtEp8BdR0</a></p>— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1505012699960274944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>Check out the bench reaction at the end of the video!</p><p>Did we mention it was above the rim?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglj9jvGnZI1F5xL8YyxE9vU6WDFm386lPGzLQOlrvsuS5KjH0cpZzvgKySuSOga21MRYe9aIhQyw2h4ifP6Gja14yKNjURCFJNX3uVgN9XVDW7-DOqyVJkIypLzATfG27N1INs7BYBa1jJyCsN3SPzhV7VacI8brJgM0701PJ0OyNYBUKvVTIHicAl8Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="410" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglj9jvGnZI1F5xL8YyxE9vU6WDFm386lPGzLQOlrvsuS5KjH0cpZzvgKySuSOga21MRYe9aIhQyw2h4ifP6Gja14yKNjURCFJNX3uVgN9XVDW7-DOqyVJkIypLzATfG27N1INs7BYBa1jJyCsN3SPzhV7VacI8brJgM0701PJ0OyNYBUKvVTIHicAl8Q=w229-h286" width="229" /></a></div><br /><div><p>She got a 30 second standing ovation from the home crowd!</p><p>And yes, we all wanted to faint!</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The bench reaction to Fran Belibi's dunk 😂<br /><br />🎥 <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StanfordWBB</a><a href="https://t.co/fjaXUgaS72">pic.twitter.com/fjaXUgaS72</a></p>— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAthletic/status/1505016971158466564?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4b8BAjIKsjjyZ1Z53_F0jEe07HpACMSZnbDqRr1cGN0rJ2PETd-la53iv11aPzyBUVCeyxifbxLbI1GbH7xw8IaaNGIx9xabOamnugeOW-Xz9bKeHQtBFIPRocO1GU3KPL8dFRCuCQU-ZRla2TxNNRMlyw2M2c8PGTRVZjwnawR6xLyS5tboVyYcUYQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="624" height="212" img="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4b8BAjIKsjjyZ1Z53_F0jEe07HpACMSZnbDqRr1cGN0rJ2PETd-la53iv11aPzyBUVCeyxifbxLbI1GbH7xw8IaaNGIx9xabOamnugeOW-Xz9bKeHQtBFIPRocO1GU3KPL8dFRCuCQU-ZRla2TxNNRMlyw2M2c8PGTRVZjwnawR6xLyS5tboVyYcUYQ=w152-h212" width="152" /></a>We love this quote from an <a href="https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/33543089/fran-belibi-throws-3rd-dunk-ncaa-women-tournament-history-stanford-demolishes-montana-state" target="_blank">ESPN article</a>: "Thinking back on plays people don't remember, 'Oh, it was a really cool 3-point shot' or 'It was a great shot.' People remember the dunks," added <a href="https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4398829/lexie-hull"> Lexie Hull</a>. "I remember every single one of Fran's. To be right there was super cool and definitely a memory I'll have forever."</p><p>It's not the first dunk in women's NCAA tournament history. The first belongs to the peerless Candace Parker, followed up by Brittney Griner in 2013. It is the third but no less thrilling. Fran said later in an interview she was getting grief from her teammates because she had not dunked in a game this year so she was itching to do it. Fran dunked twice last year, but that being the Covid year, no one was in the stands to see it, let alone cheer for it.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">"I went for it"<br /><br />Fran Belibi on her dunk against Montana State 😤<a href="https://twitter.com/MarchMadnessWBB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarchMadnessWBB</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchMadness?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MarchMadness</a> <a href="https://t.co/iOZe8NdzDh">pic.twitter.com/iOZe8NdzDh</a></p>— FanSided (@FanSided) <a href="https://twitter.com/FanSided/status/1505034193784377350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p>This time she got her standing ovation and love from her home town crowd. Plus trending on Twitter. Something special to remember for a first round game! </p><p><br /></p><p>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog" target="_blank">C and R on Twitter</a>, too!</p><p></p><p></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-53722430331702027922022-02-26T17:26:00.004-08:002022-02-26T17:36:38.256-08:00Stanford Seniors Save the day for Stanford Women's Basketball <p>Dear me, it's the end of February already and Ca and R haven't blogged even once. And we even had a New Year's resolution to blog more, after all the Stanford Women's Basketball team battled Covid, went on the road for 63 days, couldn't do laundry or even sleep in their own beds and still won the National Championship, the lease we could do was write a little bog now and then.</p><p>Sigh, okay here goes. Stanford won the PAC-12 regular season championship by going undefeated in conference play (16-0). Yay. The last two games, though, their offense stalled. Boo. This team, so Jekyll and Hyde.</p><p>The last game of the season was against lowly Washington, and if not for the defense to offensive heroics of SIXTH year <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/highlights-no-2-stanford-womens-222634659.html" target="_blank">senior Anna Wilson,</a> all would have been lost.</p><div class="separator" dir="rtl" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimEFoLzHvZ-4bc1VSgdOqWQpa6wMS3OdZdbgUePtIZcLkT0oJIwYXLmqIlK-26k0tkDugBynKMECfyewi8fIr2Q_Igp-ka9O2SXJxNJbAO5-8SleaX9a0R_BDkuyf_3P7vGubjwT-hhPF-ltAtz4CA6n9N75fY4wrqZ7q-dnc7WLdc44K4JyuKcjswBg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="727" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEimEFoLzHvZ-4bc1VSgdOqWQpa6wMS3OdZdbgUePtIZcLkT0oJIwYXLmqIlK-26k0tkDugBynKMECfyewi8fIr2Q_Igp-ka9O2SXJxNJbAO5-8SleaX9a0R_BDkuyf_3P7vGubjwT-hhPF-ltAtz4CA6n9N75fY4wrqZ7q-dnc7WLdc44K4JyuKcjswBg" width="320" /></a></div>Speaking of seniors, sixth year or otherwise, it was senior day for Stanford, and years ago Stanford smartly moved the ceremony to after the game. Anna said '<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/stanfords-meant-absolutely-everything-anna-224612698.html" target="_blank">Stanford's meant absolutely everything to me</a>' after the win. Believe me, there was a lot of water works as Stanford honored Alyssa Jerome, Anna Wilson, graduate transfer Jordan Hamilton and <a href="https://pac-12.com/article/2022/02/25/michelle-smith-no-bad-days-lacie-and-lexie-hull-stanford-womens-basketball" target="_blank">sisters Lexie and Lacie Hull</a>. <div><br /></div><div>Oh, we do have to share one story Mrs. Hull shared about wihen Tara was recruiting their daughters. She asked Tara what do the players do for fun. Tara had a blank look and then said, we win, that's what we do for fun (Tara is never not thinking about winning).<br /><p></p><p>So, as mentioned previously, Stanford finished the PAC-12 season undefeated for the 8th time in program history. How hard is that to do once? Well no other Pac-12 program has done it once. Stanford's done it 8 times! And, Tara VanDerveer continues to extend her record as the winningest women's basketball coach in D-1 history with 1150 career wins and is just two wins away from 1,000 with Stanford. Must people talk about setting a a culture of excellence. Tara lives and breathes it.</p><p>It looks like C and R are going to the PAC-12 tournament, so hopefully we can give you updates from courtside (if we are not too busy gambling or playing pickleball!).</p><p>Hope to be more verbal on the blog in the coming days as we head into March. </p><p>Yours in Basketball,</p><p>C and R</p><p>And as always, <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog" target="_blank">follow C and R on Twitter</a>, where we are the snarkiest.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-17563314935348934532021-05-15T22:15:00.002-07:002021-05-15T22:15:37.222-07:00Stanford Women's Basketball is Your National Champions!<p>For the first time, since 1992, Tara VanDerveer and the Stanford Women's Basketball won the National Championship!</p><p> You can almost call it the COVID bowl, as Stanford wasn't necessarily the best time, but they were the most resilient, and had a deeper bench then familiar foe and fellow Pac-12 school, Arizona in the finals. Much was made about their "nomad" season as they couldn't practice or play in Santa Clara County due to the restrictions and had to become road warriors living out of suitcases. So much so, that the Stanford faithful loving joked they should take a drink every time the networks mentioned they plight. And really, they almost gave the semi final game away to South Carolina, up by one, yet coughing up the ball in the final seconds and letting SC get not one, but two shots at the basket. Both missed and the Cardinal moved on the final.</p><p>See the SC highlights here:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/irqLHhQUGKY" width="557" youtube-src-id="irqLHhQUGKY"></iframe></div><br /><p>Apparently, you can see the whole South Carolina- Stanford game here:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Un4J3Q7nw1Q" width="528" youtube-src-id="Un4J3Q7nw1Q"></iframe></div><br /><p>The finals were against Arizona, a team they had beaten twice previously this year, and if there is any team you don't want to play, it is a team you have already beaten twice previously. Odds are just not in your favor to beat them three times in one season. And Arizona also had one final shot, trailing by one, and although THREE Stanford defends went after Ari MacDonald of Arizona, she still got a shot off. It hit the left side of the rim and bounced up... and bounced away. Stanford pulled of an improbable win.</p><p>Check out the highlights, it still gives me chills!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lkFQ22cV6f4" width="546" youtube-src-id="lkFQ22cV6f4"></iframe></div><p>I know this blog is way late, but I wanted to get the videos in here so I have something to look back on in the years to come! Just amazing!</p>
<p>Congrats to the road Warriors of the Stanford Women's Basketball team!</p>
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-40660051504462325442020-12-19T09:23:00.002-08:002020-12-19T10:00:49.603-08:00Tara VanDerveer gets 1099 wins to pass Pat Summitt<p>Well, she got it. And she aptly got it in the style she was probably most comfortable with, no fanfare, big speeches or packed fans hanging on her every word. We, or course, are talking about Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer setting the all time career women's basketball wins, surpassing the legendary Pat Summitt.</p><p>In an empty gym at the University of Pacific, albeit televised on ESPN2, the Stanford Women's Basketball team beat UoP by the score of 104-61 (making this the third time this season they have broken 100 points). With this win, she now has 1099 (and counting), passing Pat's record and just a handful of wins ahead of still active UConn coach Geno Auriemma.</p><p>And wasn't it serendipitous that UConn had their first two weeks put on pause due to Covid concerns that allowed Tara to sprint ahead and beat Pat first and hold it for a little while? Yeah it was! Glad everyone up in the frozen north is healthy, mind you, but the basketball gods wanted Tara to have this, to have her be the one that surpasses Pat.</p><p>When she tied the record, the story Tara kept telling about Pat was the one that happened when she came out West to play Stanford, after just receiving her diagnosis of early onset dementia. They met courtside, and Tara said to Pat, look what you built, sweeping her arms to the packed and raucous Maples crowd. And Pat Summitt turned to her and said, "Tara, I love you." Tara then describes how, in that moment, it took the wind out of her sails because she wanted to maintain a fiery edge and just <i>beat</i> her...The fact that is the quote she remembers and shares with the world is not what we expected. </p><p>So much has been written about this historic milestone, and better than C and R could ever spit out, (<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/Eerie-echoes-of-her-first-victory-as-VanDerveer-15806370.php" target="_blank">Ann Killion has a great article</a>) but take a listen below. Tara over the years has been described as dry and understated, in a slightly negative light, to analytic and even-keeled in a somewhat positive light. But in the video with her addressing her team, she tells her players she loves them. And that everything she does is because of that love for them. And yes, the message sometimes gets lost in translation, and that "Sprint back" doesn't seem like love, but it is, Tara style. Have a listen yourself and get a feel for this unique, one of a kind coach.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="295" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iQAOetuGR08" width="537" youtube-src-id="iQAOetuGR08"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>And, in typical Tara fashion after she broke the record, she thanked the ADs that hired her, her coaching staff, her family (even though she often trots out the quote her Dad said when he said "basketball will never take you anywhere," which, if you understand Tara, was more of a challenge then the end of a conversation), and every single player that has ever played for her. She also says she is looking ahead to the next game, and how her current team can improve. Typical Tara.<div><br /></div><div>We love you too, coach!<br /><div><br /></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Don't forget, follow C and R on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"> and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">, too!</span><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-10744899737605467432020-12-14T23:00:00.007-08:002020-12-15T15:22:01.544-08:00Tara VanDerveer ties record for career wins in the most understated way<p>Have you been keeping up with all of the #1 ranked Stanford Women's Basketball team's wins? They are currently 3-0. We don't blame you if the answer is no, as the scheduled changed so much in the last two weeks due to Covid. However, they finally got a third game in, one that counts in the Pac-12 standings no less, on Sunday.</p><p>The game was against Cal, of course, in Oakland as Santa Clara County, where Stanford plays and practices, still has a ban on basketball. And of course our heroes without a home prevailed, 83-38. What makes this win so special is it was career-win number 1,098 for head coach Tara Vanderveer. With this win she ties legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summit.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpLBt7qVoAA4TiF?format=jpg&name=small" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="680" height="291" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpLBt7qVoAA4TiF?format=jpg&name=small" width="517" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(image curtesy of Stanford Women's Basketball)</div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was so Tara, so apropos that the win happened with no fans, no fanfare and no fuss. No standing ovations, no courtside speeches. As the final horn sounded, she waved to Cal Head Coach, and former player and assistant coach, Charmin Smith. The players also forgo the handshake line, because, you know, Covid. Never mind the players were all just out there moments ago sweating over each other. Then the PA announcer spoke a garbled announcement about the win. Her players cheered. And what did Tara do? She waved her hands and says, "All right, all right, let's go to the locker room." So, so.... Tara.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The game had it's own magic courtesy of Fran Beilibi. She got a steal, raced to the basket, and with no one in front of her, and an escort of black shirts, she lined herself up to the basket, took that special, well placed dribble, and DUNKED it! I mean hand above the rim, throw it down dunk!! Check out the video courtesy of Pac-12 Networks.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0s4fsnaQAtA" width="406" youtube-src-id="0s4fsnaQAtA"></iframe></div><div><br /></div>Even though Stanford won by a bunch over Cal, they still missed a lot of shots. And scoring 83 points in the third game of the season is actually a let down, as they broke 100 points in the first two games. So still some room to improve. Freshmen Cameron Brink was high scorer with 16, three-point specialist Hannah Jump had 15 (going 5-6 from behind the arc) and was followed closely by Frannie with 14 (and didn't Tara say a few years back that a slam dunk still only counts for 2 points?). Steady Kiana Williams added 11.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Tara won't be as lucky to be low key for the next game with a chance to break the record. It happens Tuesday against Pacific and ESPN grabbed a chance to film history, so yay! You KNOW they are going to have to make a big del out of it, as well they should. Just don't know if Tara will cooperate. She is a slow and steady interview, and won't have the big emotions ESPN will want from such a historic game. You can check her out during the Cal game here, courtesy of Pac-12 Networks:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="329" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J5t4wRFvnAo" width="395" youtube-src-id="J5t4wRFvnAo"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">If you want a little more perspective on her historic wins, listen to <a href="https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/12/14/tara-vanderveer-history/" target="_blank">former Stanford players and coaches talk about some of her iconic wins</a> (Candice, Jayne, Azzi, Chiney, Nneka, all the faves!).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Stay tuned for 1,099! Maybe they will bring back the big bucket of confetti from win #1,000. And, just for the record, we truly love you too, coach!!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Don't forget, follow C and R on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"> and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">, too!</span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-64764994135983765162020-11-25T14:58:00.001-08:002020-11-25T15:05:25.648-08:00Stanford Women's Basketball Routs Cal Poly, Looking Good at #2 in the Country<p>So we turn away from our remote, working-from-home computer to our home computer to watch the live stream of the Stanford Women's Basketball team play Cal-Poly (shh, don't tell our bosses). It's at 11AM on a workday the Wed before Thanksgiving. (And why is it being live streamed on the internet when BOTH the Pac-12 and Bay Area Pac-12 channels we pay a gazillion dollars extra for on cable are showing RERUNS of men's sports??) </p><p>But we digress. So, we open the ESPN women's basketball scores webpage (got to get those good keywords in there!) and see the #1 team in the country, South Carolina, destroyed Charleston 119-38. Gulp! Scoring a bazillion points is not #2 Stanford's strong suite, we thought. Then Stanford played, and, by golly, the final score was 108-40!! Hot dog! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtPYS3u1r1VtEONG_xk4sgoESV5arSSKlKOhvmC04sjtzt0Uk_JpeQv4iS8m_Ufby_lp8tg5SVPXQ-QIUGhCx4VVHx6nqFbDK0Ksp-sgmIKdVIzAdg6ks5bGNFdG6pghbASV_G2oBWIVE/s339/Stanford+WBB+score.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="304" data-original-width="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCtPYS3u1r1VtEONG_xk4sgoESV5arSSKlKOhvmC04sjtzt0Uk_JpeQv4iS8m_Ufby_lp8tg5SVPXQ-QIUGhCx4VVHx6nqFbDK0Ksp-sgmIKdVIzAdg6ks5bGNFdG6pghbASV_G2oBWIVE/s320/Stanford+WBB+score.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Yes, the game was all kinds of 2020 Covid-era weird. No fans (cute cardboard cut outs, though), expanded bench with socially distanced chairs, everyone on the sidelines wearing masks, Stanford coach <a href="https://twitter.com/JanieMcCAP/status/1331719729405337602" target="_blank">Tara VanDerveer utilizing a tiny plastic red bullhorn to make her voice heard through her mask</a>. Time out huddles were huge, the end of the game high five line was air high fives.... One Cal Poly player ran in the game from the bench with her mask, then belatedly took it off. Later we saw another Cal Poly player playing with a mask... </p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEujpVgjciN3rvjJYLvixKjw6Lh5_F-3imqHOJSL2SETAtNr1eLzFpYihGYp0nvbgpQ6dNiFqs4B0CRyVZ7JBSP2la2sf5CA_696yGvY74BpgXFHFnTrly-STASI_D6eRIaiJgcZ1P7SMn/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEujpVgjciN3rvjJYLvixKjw6Lh5_F-3imqHOJSL2SETAtNr1eLzFpYihGYp0nvbgpQ6dNiFqs4B0CRyVZ7JBSP2la2sf5CA_696yGvY74BpgXFHFnTrly-STASI_D6eRIaiJgcZ1P7SMn/" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Photo: Tony Avelar, AP</div><p></p><p>All so strange, although we understand this is all done with the players, coaches, staff and official's health in mind. And Stanford was lucky they got to play as it was estimated over a quarter of Women's games did not happen this week. I mean look at <a href="https://uconnhuskies.com/news/2020/11/23/uconn-womens-basketball-to-pause-team-activities" target="_blank">poor UConn</a>, with a positive Covid case, they have suspended activities for 14 days and will miss up to 4 games.</p><p>It's funny, part of the joy in this blog is we can be humorous and not take anything seriously. And normally, we LOVE to make fun of UConn and give them a bad time. However, these strange times are no laughing matter. As we reread that UConn sentence, we are aware it comes off snarky even if we didn't mean it that way. We don't know how to shut the snarky filter off, we guess.</p><p>Anyway, back to Stanford and their won, which puts Tara VanDerveer 3 wins away from tying <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/When-Stanford-s-VanDerveer-passes-Summitt-15745329.php" target="_blank">legendary Pat Summit for all time career wins as a coach</a>. Now four will gives her the record (fun fact, UConn coach Geno Auriemma is hot on Tara's heels, being three wins behind Tara and now that UConn is not playing, Tara should get there first...I swear we didn't mean that to sound as snarky as it did... well maybe a little!).</p><p>Anyhoo, back to the Stanford game, the thing that stood out the most was the impressive play of the freshmen. Cameron Brink scored 17 points and 9 rebounds, almost a double double in her debut, coming off the bench. Jana Van Gytenbeek had 9 points and 4 assists, including some great, long fast break passes. Agnes Emma-Nnopu had 8 points (she is the second Australian recruit behind Alana Smith!). </p><p>But C and R would be remiss if we did not give some Stanford love to the returning players. Haley Jones, coming back from an injury that cut short her season last year, looks like a new and improved version of, well, Haley Jones. She did get a double double, with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The always steady Kiana Williams scored 13, and Lexi Hull got a game high 21 points. Hannah jump, our three-point specialist scored 13, and shot 3-7 from behind the arc. In fact, as a team, Stanford shot roughly 53% from the field. Starter Fran Beilibi, while not scoring a bunch (2 points and 3 rebounds) looked sharp in her passing game, much improved over last year where she would put her head down and just try to make it to the basket. She was credited with 3 assists.</p><p>The only quibble we have is free throws (free throws, free throws, free throws)! Stanford shot 58% from the free throw line. Come on, in the age of Covid where you can't do a whole lot of contact drills, free throws should be where you excel! Hope to see that improve.</p><p>looking forward to game #2. As Tara VanDerveer said in preseason, the best ability is availability. All the players dressed got to play, and let's hope they all stay healthy! </p><p><br /></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">Don't forget, follow C and R on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;"> and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog" style="background-color: white; color: #660099; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">, too!</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-90071213276346094422020-03-18T19:31:00.001-07:002020-03-18T19:31:48.821-07:00The 2019-2020 Women's Basketball Season comes to an Anti-climatic EndWell, that was unexpected. World events intruded on the 2019-2020 Women's basketball season, cutting short many league basketball championships and would not let the NCAA tournament championship even be played. The world events was the pandemic coronavirus, and the correct, but painful, decision was the right one, but it still stings on some many levels; financially for venues and workers and emotionally for coaches and players, especially seniors.<br />
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So, the AP put out their last poll for the season and <a href="https://apnews.com/6e1961e205d010fd55d8d7eb44cee764" target="_blank">South Carolina is number one</a>. South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley says there should be no argument who is the final #1 team.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqiBu927PbY0YeJTFaAGZLdfvnQe8Yz0ZShSW4VxX1uupS4uZMc8sWXYIzu0gMjaYINaUougRntw11adFR65tDvxrC1zrv-lYZXoHuGhIm1agdNYMS0VzLuqPdrH1nM21dFSzf2UG9JqG/s1600/ApTop+25.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="359" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqiBu927PbY0YeJTFaAGZLdfvnQe8Yz0ZShSW4VxX1uupS4uZMc8sWXYIzu0gMjaYINaUougRntw11adFR65tDvxrC1zrv-lYZXoHuGhIm1agdNYMS0VzLuqPdrH1nM21dFSzf2UG9JqG/s320/ApTop+25.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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According to the <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/03/17/ncaa-womens-basketball-rankings-final-ap-top-25" target="_blank">Sports Illustrated</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The AP has always released its final poll of the season before the start of the tournament that settles the national championship. Staley said she wasn’t sure if the Gamecocks might recognize this achievement next year with a banner or something else since there was no tournament.</blockquote>
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The Stanford Women's Basketball team came in on #7 for the season. Pac-12 buddy Oregon, with stand out star Sabrina Ionescue came in at #2, and they will forever be debating if Oregon could have won the program's first national championship.<br />
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There was talk of trying to get another year of eligibility for seniors, as <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/coaches-want-the-ncaa-to-allow-senior-basketball-players-to-return-next-season-but-its-a-complicated-issue/" target="_blank">Coaches want the NCAA to allow senior basketball players to return next season</a>, but that seems unlikely. This headline says it all: <a href="https://www.si.com/college/2020/03/18/ncaa-not-likely-to-grant-extra-year-winter-sports" target="_blank">The NCAA Not Likely To Grant Extra Year of Eligibility for Men's And Women's Basketball</a>.<br />
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Stanford head coach Tara Vanderveer was not in support of it, according to the <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-march-madness-stanford-women-have-early-farewell/" target="_blank">San Jose Mercury News</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“For spring sports it’s legitimate,” she said. “But basketball is different. We played our whole season. What it means is 64 teams didn’t get one more game.”</blockquote>
Still, it's sad to say good bye to the Stanford seniors, Nadia Fingall, Mikaela Brewer, DiJonai Carrington and Anna Wilson. Although will we? It seems both Anna Wilson and DiJonai Carrington want to come bask as a medical redshirt for one more year. According to the same <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/13/coronavirus-march-madness-stanford-women-have-early-farewell/" target="_blank">San Jose Mercury News</a> article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Two of the four seniors, DiJonai Carrington and Anna Wilson, want to return next season as a medical redshirt. There is only scholarship space available for one of them. Wilson applied for the redshirt year before Carrington was lost for the season in November when aggravating a previous knee injury.</blockquote>
What will Tara do? One thing she said, she doesn't like this shelter in place ordeal for the Bay Area. It reminds her <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/As-Stanford-s-VanDerveer-copes-with-end-of-15131664.php" target="_blank">too much of retirement</a>.<br />
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Well, congrats to Stanford on a ggreat season, and to all the teams. Hopefully the silver lining is we will appreciate next year's season and March Madness even more.
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Don't forget, follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-3659826819735919942019-11-05T22:50:00.000-08:002019-11-06T08:51:38.420-08:00Stanford Women’s Basketball wins First Game of the Season!We know it is only the first game of the season, and we know it was only Eastern Washington, and we know preseason rankings mean nothing and we know it is way too early to tell and we know this is a run on sentence and that R would totally make me rewrite it if she hadn’t already gone to bed, but…. (drawing a big breath)… the Stanford Women’s Basketball team looks Goooooood!!<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="2" style="float: right; width: 231px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img alt="Fran Belibi Jumping for Stanford Women's Basketball" border="0" height="411" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/72/e7/27/72e7277a0aeab90dc0dd9ebf6688d50a.jpg" width="231" /><br />
photo courtesy of C</td>
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</tbody></table>
Stanford was still feeling the high from their great showing against Team USA in exhibition, <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/Cardinal-women-rise-to-challenge-against-Team-USA-14805321.php">holding them close in the first three quarters</a> before the big girls pulled away 95-80. I love that Stanford Head Coach Tara VanderVeer let the freshmen Fran Belibi jump against “Big Sly” Fowles (And won!). See the photo that I took, so I didn’t have to “borrow” anyone else’s!<br />
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So back to the first official game. The final score of the Stanford- Eastern Washington game was 92-27. Freshmen Ashten Prechtel (pronounced Pretzel by the announcer, well not really, but that is what my ears hear so she will forever be called that for the next four years) led all scorers with 15 points and went 3-4 from the 3-point line. Freshmen Fran Belibi had 12 points and 15 rebounds and freshman Hannah Jump hit four consecutive 3-pointers and scored 12 points! Veterans Kiana Williams added 11 points and Lexie Hull had 10.<br />
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Okay, look at the top scorers. Notice anything about the top three? They are all freshmen! And Freshie Fran Belibi, of the dunking fame, had a double-double in her first official college game! High scorer Ashton Pretzel made three 3s! Oh wait, we said that already, but the big girl can shoot! It’s also worth noting that the Eagles did not have a player who broke double digits and at one point, Stanford’s defense held them at 19 points for 9 minutes!<br />
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What stood out most for me, though was the depth of the bench. In past years, when it was a blow out game, the subs would come in and let the foot off the gas a little and the other team would pad the score so it would “only” be a 20 point or so win. Not this time. Everyone wanted to score and everyone was very focused and driven on what they were supposed to do. Stanford as a team was 13 of 28 from 3-point range.<br />
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And the next game? Well, it’s with the University of San Francisco, and probably not much of a test either, even though coached by Stanford Alum Molly Goodenbour, but it is in the new Chase Center, in San Francisco, which is the Warriors new digs, and this will probably be the only time C and R will step inside due to the high ticket prices, but oh, how far have the Warriors fallen, and R is right, I DO write run on sentences. Whew! Looking forward to it and more. See you there, Stanford fans!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-73057061895500708232019-10-30T20:50:00.000-07:002019-10-31T18:32:28.537-07:00Stanford Women’s Basketball Season StartingHidey ho Stanford Women’s Basketball fans! It’s the start of a new women’s basketball season and C and R are pumped! The good news is Stanford is <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/Women-s-college-poll-Oregon-No-1-for-the-14575761.php">ranked #3 in preseason polls</a>. The bad news is Oregon, for the first time, is ranked #1. Oregon State comes in at #7, UCLA is #11, and Arizona State is #20, so nobody will be sleeping on the Pac-12 this year!<br />
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The second reason to be excited is that Stanford was busy in the off season, scoring the number two recruiting class, including NATIONAL player of the year Haley Jones. She is a local recruit, from nearby Santa Cruz who played at Mitty. This allows her parents to easily get to games at Maples and we met her De-lightful ,with a capital D, mom, Monique Jones. We want to be invited to Thanksgiving and just sit around shooting the breeze with her, she is amazing with great energy (We said we would put her in the blog! Hi Mama Jones). Haley was held out of the first exhibition game of the season as a precaution, but we should see her in action against the next exhibition game vs Team USA (with Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and our very own Nneka Ogwumike) on Nov 2.<br />
But back to basketball…oh, did we tell you one of the <a href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1144375107688620037">freshies can dunk</a>?<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Stanford Women's Basketball, Fran Belibi Dunking" border="0" height="252" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3e/2c/0a/3e2c0ab51fb53f15c33000e82944d30e.jpg" width="449" /><br />
Photo courtesy of Stanford Women's Basketball</center>
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Stanford opened with an exhibition over Beijing Normal University, and in warm ups, just as C and R were stowing their coats, Fran dunked, so we missed that one, but many more to come (We hope). Also in the freshmen class is 6-5 forward Ashten Prechtel and Hannah Jump. We are going to need Ashten’s height, as Stanford seems to be a whole lot of speedy guards and forwards and not a lot of tall folk, as Beijing’s large center seemed to score whenever she got the ball near the basket.. Plus, when the announcer says her last name, our ears hear Pretzel, so that is her new nick name from us and we are going to be visiting the soft pretzel stand a lot this season!<br />
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Okay, back to the one game they have played, which was an exhibition against Beijing Normal University. The game opened with the two team’s national anthems and an exchange of gifts. It was neat to finds out that one of Stanford’s male practice player stood in as translator between the two teams when they meet before the game.<br />
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For the game itself, we are happy to report that five players scored in double figures, with Stanford shooting better than 63 percent in the 100-58 victory.<br />
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It was funny, when the game started, junior and returning starter Allyson Jerome was all over attacking the basket and running the fast break. She was lead scorer at the half. Freshie Fran got in the game and had a slow start in the first half, only to come on strong in the second. We were surprised she was high scorer, with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Alyssa Jerome just missed with 16 points but didn't miss any of her seven attempts from the floor. Sophomore Lexie Hull added 14, Ashten had 12 and senior Anna Wilson added 11. It rained threes, with the team hitting 8-of-11 (.727) from 3-point range and the team also made 10 of its 13 free throw attempts (.769) on the night, which was a huge sore point last year.<br />
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Looking good, Stanford! Can’t wait for the season to start!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-28398888755864784282018-12-15T18:40:00.000-08:002018-12-15T18:40:33.049-08:00Three ball from Bigs Beats BaylorHidey ho Stanford Women’s Basketball fans. Just a quick blog to tell you that the Stanford Women’s Basketball team, ranked 11th just beat the number 3 ranked team, Baylor.<br />
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Yes, the score will show a final of 68-63, however it was more of a beat down than that. Stanford was up 41-25 at the half. Yes, you read the right.<br />
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Baylor has two bigs, 6-7 Kalani Brown and also very tall Lauren Cox. What if we told you they held Lauren to TWO total points, and Kalani Brown to five? Lauren and Kalani each had two in the first half!<br />
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I will say this, give Tara VanDerveer enough time, in this case about two weeks, to prepare for a team, and she will figure out how to beat them with lesser players (no offense, Stanford starting five!). She will key on your two best players, Brown and Cox, and make you beat them with your third or fourth option. This disruption to the super stars who are used to scoring is usually hard for teams to handle, as Baylor witnessed this game. Baylor did get a nice game out of NaLyssa Smith and Chloe Jackson, each with 15 points, but it was not enough.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Stanford Women's Basketball" border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/48356623_10157002027734885_7039311773052174336_o.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=b48eedd123bdbeaca0de4752961e8691&oe=5CABB06A" width="480" /><br />
Photo courtesy of Stanford Women's Basketball</center>
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<b>Then came Coffee</b><br />
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We have to give major props to Senior Shannon Coffee, for my home town of Dayton, Ohio!! She has been a bench player and was called on this afternoon to guard Kalani Brown, due to her 6’5 size. And she did a good job on the the afore mentioned five points of Brown. However Shannon is not known for her offense. However again, she made three 3-pointers, chipping in nine points to the cause. They were especially timely in the fourth, when Baylor mounted a comeback from that disastrous first half, and got within seven.<br />
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<b>Tara-ism at its best:</b><br />
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"Shannon has been someone that has been a role player for our team and a lot of times she's led the cheers on the bench," VanDerveer said. "Today people were cheering for her. She made some big shots. Her defense was really good. It was really exciting for her to have such a big game in a big game."<br />
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<b>Some fun facts:</b><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li>Our two tallest players, Allan Smith (lead Stanford scorer with 21) and Shannon Coffee were 8-of-13 from deep.</li>
<li>Seven of Shannon’s 12 career 3-pointers have come against Baylor, including three this Saturday!</li>
<li>Baylor had more turnovers (15) than assists (13)</li>
<li>Brown had a season-low five points on 2-of-7 shooting</li>
</ul>
<b>Some not so fun facts:</b><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li>Stanford was 9-21 at the free throw line. Maybe with all that scheming, Tara forgets to have the team practice free throws?</li>
</ul>
Next up is Tennessee on Tuesday at ol’ Rocky top. See ya there (or on the SEC channel if you get it!)<br />
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More Stanford Goodies at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog</a>
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<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-14949285545762278942018-11-12T12:40:00.000-08:002018-11-12T12:40:16.204-08:00Stanford Women’s Basketball beats Coach’s old teamThis was a game of numbers. First, the Stanford Women’s Basketball team took on Idaho, for the third time in program history, but first time for Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. Why is that important? Idaho gave Tara her first head coaching job forty years ago and according to my trading card I got at the game, she was 42-14 in those two years.<br />
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Stanford won handily, 115-71, and no, the 115 is not an infamous misprint, Stanford really did break 100, the first time in two years, and fifth highest total since 1994, when they scored 122. And this was a three-ball affair.<br />
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Tara Vanderveer spoke after the game and said Idaho is known for hitting threes. Yes indeedy. They hit 15 of ‘em (way to go, Ida-ho!). That’s okay, Stanford hit 16 of ‘em, tying a program record. Idaho has two players that have over 300 made threes in their career. And Stanford actually stopped those two! It was the other two they didn’t know about.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Stanford Women's Basketball" border="0" height="320" src="https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45166164_10156895905119885_851857744699850752_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=a7f80947d3ffd3fdf5fdabba595e2594&oe=5C7EC33D " width="480" /><br />
Photo courtesy of Bob Drebin/ISIPhotos.com</center>
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More numbers:<br />
• Stanford outrebounding Idaho 46-20, including a 17-2 edge on the offensive boards<br />
• Stanford had 34 points in the paint<br />
• Idaho made 63% of their threes<br />
• Stanford’s Alanna Smith had 19 points and 9 rebounds<br />
• Kiana Williams, also of Stanford, also had 19 points and 9 assists<br />
• Stanford freshie Lexie Hull, starting in her second game has 17 points and 5 rebounds, although it seemed like more<br />
• Stanford’s Nadia Fingall had 16 points<br />
• Stanford’s Maya Dodson and Anna Wilson each had 10 points.<br />
• Lexie Hull and Kiana Williams combined to go 9 of 15 from three-point land<br />
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Stanford plays San Francisco at home, against Coach Molly Goodenbour, a former player under Tara VanDerveer. Old teams, old players, doesn’t matter, Tara just mows then down. San Fran will be fun, then Stanford welcomes Ohio State on Sunday, Nov 18. See ya at Maples Thursday and Sunday.<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-47320477357720585132018-11-07T22:57:00.002-08:002018-11-07T22:57:18.716-08:00Stanford Opens Season with a win over UC DavisHidey ho Stanford Women’s Basketball sports fans! Long time no blog. Does anyone even blog anymore? Well, I have been doing this for upteen years, so why stop now.<br />
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First games are always fun because you get to ask all of your friends and seat mates, how do you think they will do this year? And everyone says it’s hard to tell. Same for this game against UC Davis. Oh, Stanford won, handily by a score of 71-43. However the offense looked stagnant at times. Why does the post have to catch the ball at the free throw line with her back to the basket? Speaking of free throws, Stanford was worst in the Pac-12 last year. This game they started out weak, but finished the game at 72%. Let’s hope they keep improving.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Stanford Women's Basketball" border="0" height="269" src="https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45163660_10156895903284885_8308939582179639296_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_ht=scontent-sjc3-1.xx&oh=16de56bed55026f9be2f5a6be81619cf&oe=5C82BE47 " width="480" /><br />
Photo courtesy of Bob Drebin/ISIPhotos.com</center>
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So Stanford the last few years has always been a sisterhood. Then the Ogwumike sisters came (Nneka and Chiney) and it really WAS a sisterhood. Two of the three Samuelson sisters (Bonnie and Karlie) kept up the tradition (although Stanford fans lament the one that got away…. Katie Lou…. To UConn!). However Stanford always has to take things up a notch, so this year we have freshmen identical twins Lexie and Lacie Hull. And boy, these freshmen are already making an impact. Lexie started the game, and Lacie played significant minutes, with Lexie finishing with 11 points and 11 boards. So the freshie got herself a double-double her first game out. C and R expect big things out of you, young lady!<br />
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Although there was a strange session where three Stanford players jumped as a UC Davis player was in the air shooting, and it did look like Lexie flew in hard. They at first gave the foul to Shannon Coffee (shout out to Dayton Ohio) and then they reviewed the play. For a long time. And then the refs (Missy!) said the foul was on Lexie Hull and gave UC Davis two technical shots for unsportsmanlike conduct. And now I am not allowed to use the word “and” anymore. I guess Lexie hit her in the head. I don’t know, wish they would televise these games. *Editor’s note, ESPN reported that the technical foul was for “making contact with the opponent under the basket.”<br />
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Good to see that four Stanford players were in double figures, the afore mentioned Lexie, Alanna Smith, off of her silver medal in the FIBA World Cup for team Australia, Kiana Williams, and Maya Dodson. Maya was especially good to see as she (and Coach Tara VanDerveer) stuck to her strength, which is around the basket. She has great post moves from the low blocks and every time she scored, you could see her confidence grow. She also led the team with three blocks, and you can tell those are just as fun as a basket.<br />
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Next up is Idaho at home. See you at Maples!<br />
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PS<br />
UC Davis has twins, too, senior sisters Karley and Kourtney Eaton. Hey NCAA, has that even happened where two teams played each other with two sets of identical twins?<br />
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PPS<br />
Did you know Tara coached at Idaho two season (well, it was 40 years ago, so you are excused if you forgot)? And also coached at Ohio State, which Stanford plays Nov 18?<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-60786145585866265062017-11-10T18:38:00.000-08:002017-11-10T18:40:07.270-08:00Stanford Opens Season with loss to Ohio StateWell, C and R are sure Tara Vanderveer will use this loss as a learning tool for her young team. And the Stanford Women’s Basketball team can learn from the first half, where they didn’t back down, ran the fast break and matched them bucket for bucket until the closing minutes of the second quarter.<br />
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<b>Then in the Second half….</b><br />
Then the second half stated and Ohio State, playing on their home floor, where Tara VanDerveer coached for 5 years in the 80’s, pulled away. They used timely 3-point shooting and rebounding to prevail 84-65. Oh, they started getting back on defense, too, killing Stanford’s best scoring weapon, as the three just was not there. It is obvious they still miss Karlie Samuelson and no one has filled her shoes. Yet. Stanford was 5-16 from 3-point line. And Nadia Fingall, who C and R think f as a post player was 2-3. Tara wasn’t kidding when she said they were going to play position-less basketball.<br />
Shout out to the Stanford senior, Brittany McPhee, who single-handedly keep Stanford in the game, especially in the first half, running the transition and getting a basket when needed. And never mind that crazy three more than half a court away that banked in at the buzzer to end the first, making Stanford only down 40-46. She would finish the game with 24 points. Sadly, no other Stanford player would get to double digits.<br />
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Ohio State, on the other hand, had a balanced scoring attack, with four players in double figures, and lights out shooting from their star player Kelsey Mitchell. She poured in 30 points. <br />
Enjoy these highlights from the Cardinal Channel.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UqnbZO6txck?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></center>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Rebounding wins championships</b><br />
And boy did Ohio State rebound. Forward Stephanie Mavunga grabbed a team-record 26 boards. In fact Ohio State out-rebounded Stanford 64-41, the most telling stat being 28 offense boards for OSU and 9 for Stanford. Wanna know who lead the team in rebounds for Stanford? Come on, guess. Time’s up! Marta Sneeze-ix, as the announcers called her. Our little 5’8’ point guard Marta Sniezek led the team in rebounding with eight. Okay, Tara has a lot of learning to do with her team.<br />
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<b>Fun fact:</b><br />
Stephanie Mavunga is the sister-in-law to Stanford great Jeanette Pohlen. JP, when asked on Twitter who she was rooting for between Stanford and Ohio State, she said she "couldn’t lose."<br />
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<b></b><br />
<b>Second Fun Fact:</b><br />
Never eat a buckeye<br />
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<b>Freshmen</b><br />
Stanford Freshmen Maya Dodson got some quality minutes and scored seven. She will have to watch the fouls, though. Alyssa Jerome, who is a 3-point specialist was 2-2 from behind the arc in her debut, and scored eight total points and made all three of her attempted shots, so she is 100% from the field.<br />
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<b>Guess who’s next?</b><br />
UConn. No, you don’t win a prize. Stanford has <a href="http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-womens-basketball/hc-sp-uconn-stanford-history-20171109-story.html">busted some streaks,</a> however UConn is starting from scratch and are slightly relieved they don’t have that streak thing hanging over their heads and have nothing to lose. I don’t think I like those odds.<br />
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Forget your fave football team. Tune in to ESPN Sunday.<br />
<br />
More Stanford Goodies at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">Follow C and R on </a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-12226196473128772502017-11-02T20:20:00.000-07:002017-11-02T20:20:03.993-07:00Stanford Season about to StartAre you as excited as C and R about the start of college women’s basketball? If the weather has to get chilly and the hours of sunshine has to shrink, we would rather spend our time in doors watching women’s basketball.<br />
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<b>What’s new with Stanford?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Well, for the first time in 32 YEARS, Any Tucker will not be on the bench. Longtime Stanford associate head coach Amy Tucker is retiring from coaching but will remain with the program in an administrative role, according to the Stanford site. 32 YEARS! To replace her, Stanford hired someone very familiar with the program, who can connect to the players. Say hello to new assistant coach Lindy La Rocque, who played for Stanford from 2009-12. Stanford appeared in the Final Four each season during her undergraduate career and advanced to the national title game in 2010.<br />
She will be forever remembered for the “Lindy Slide” where she chased down a ball in her own back court, knocked over Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson, slide on her belly while corralling said ball, and shovel passed it to a streaking Jillian Harmon under the basket for two points. But no one remembers that very clearly…LOL.<br />
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<b>What’s in store for Stanford? </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
First, we have a <a href="https://stanford.rivals.com/news/vanderveer-freshmen-share-thoughts-on-offseason-progress">quartet of freshmen</a>, one who head coach Tara Vanderveer said can dunk.<br />
<center>
<img alt="Stanford Freshemn" border="0" height="449" src="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/70/a0/72/70a0721226eaf88b980beb88e32c95e6.jpg" width="359" /><br />Photo Courtesy of Stanford Women's Basketball
</center>
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Two, Tara has ANOTHER new system, this time patterned more like the <a href="https://stanford.rivals.com/news/more-than-posts-stanford-s-system-is-big-on-versatility">Golden State Warriors.</a> Could be exciting. Also, the post players are going to come out to the three point line and shoot threes. Could also be ugly.<br />
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It’s odd that there is only one preseason game, against UC San Diego, although maybe they learned from the NFL with those meaningless preseason games where everyone got hurt. However, Tara VanDerveer took her once-every-four-years overseas trip to Italy. That team gets to <a href="https://www.stanforddaily.com/2017/11/01/brewer-the-journey-to-a-new-season/">bond over crumbling ruins</a> and competitive card games, but more importantly, the team is allowed by the NCAA to practice earlier than other, non-trip year teams, and also play exhibition games. Oops, forgot to mention, the head coach of UC San Diego is little sis Heidi VanDerveer. I don’t think Heidi has ever beaten Tara. There is a meet and greet after this game that might or might not be for season ticket holders that might or might not cost money. The marketing emails contradict what Coach Tucker told us (Hee hee, she talked to us on Twitter, she talked to us Twitter!).<br />
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After the one exhibition game, Stanford travels to the land of the holy, otherwise known as Ohio, and plays Ohio State in their own tournament, something about Buckeyes. And Stanford’s second game of the season at the same tourney, is against….reigning champs UConn!<br />
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Fans in the stands surmised that Tara didn’t want to play UConn when the two Samuelson sisters were on opposite teams, but now that Karlie has graduated, all bets are off. We could write a whole ‘nother blog about playing UConn, not one but two streaks broken, the 2010 championship game (where Lindy played against them) and Stanford held them to 12 points at the half, and then Jayne Apple went 0-0 for the first time in her career and Stanford lost by seven…grrr, if only…..Well give Tara the whole summer to prepare and anything is possible, although no streak is on the line, with UConn losing on a buzzer beater to Mississippi State in the semis.<br />
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<b>What did Stanford do in the offseason?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Alanna Smith got called up by the <a href="https://pickandroll.com.au/alanna-smith-overnight-success-years-in-the-making/">Australian National Team,</a> the Opals (her home country), and played in the FIBA Asia tournament. She averaged 10.8 points per game.<br />
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Brittany McPhee was called up to Team USA to play in the U23 Women Team. They won the <a href="https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2017/08/wu23-game-03-jpn.aspx">U24 Four Nations Tournament Title</a> in Japan (and no, don’t ask C and R how the numbers thing works).<br />
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Tara VanDerveer signed a three-year contract extension. C and R bet she wants to beat Pat Summit’s career wins record of 1078 and then call it a career. I think she is about 70 game shy. She was also honored by the Women’s Sports Foundation for her storied career and milestone achievement of her 1,000th career coaching win, reached in the spring of 2017. Who is that introducing here? Only the Fab Chiney Ogwumike.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zG5M-9s3GC4" width="560"></iframe>
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Looking forward to the season!!<br />
<br />
More Stanford Goodies at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"> </a><br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><br />Follow C and R on </a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-38621277871426445032017-03-05T22:53:00.000-08:002017-03-05T22:53:05.681-08:00Stanford WBB wins Pac-12 TournamentC and R will admit, it did not look good for the Stanford Women’s Basketball team in the championship game. They made it to the finals of the Pac-12 Tournament, after losing to Oregon State in the regular season to lose a share of the regular season title, and wanted some redemption. With some good luck bouncing their way in the tournament, Washington losing in the earlier round, they breezed through Washington State and held off a pesky Oregon team to be here in the big lights. And their opponent? None other than the Oregon State Beavers, the team that had their number, beating them twice in the regular season (although it took double over time in the first match-up).<br />
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So when the tip off happened, and Stanford faced the Beavers, Stanford found themselves quickly down, 16-3. This did not look good. Stanford did the same to the Cougars two nights ago, and they could never recover. Stanford was down 12-22 at the end of the first quarter. This match up was billed as two defensive-minded teams facing each other, but 12 points?<br />
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Then, Alanna Smith to the rescue. The sophomore Aussie came off the bench to help Stanford slowly claw their way back in to this game offensively. She had 12 points for the half, and some good boards and blocks. Stanford found themselves *only* down 29-23 at the half. That score was somewhat misleading as OSU’s prolific score, Sydney Wiese, hit a crazy, banked-in three at the buzzer, even with Bri Roberson’s hand in her face.<br />
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Okay, let’s talk defense for a moment. OSU had 29 points at the half. But they scored 22 in the first quarter. Stanford’s defense held them to just seven points in the second quarter, and Syd Wiese to just five points for the two quarters. Take away that crazy three and OSU is really hurting.<br />
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Coming out of the locker room, after a quick peptalk/anger management session with their Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer, the defense rose up again. Alanna got the start and Stanford tied it at 34 all with 3:24 to go on the third. The third quarter ended with OSU hanging on to a 36-34 lead.<br />
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Let’s do some more math shall we? Oregon State only scored SEVEN points in the third quarter. That is not de ja vu. Or maybe it is. Let me rephrase, that is not a typo!! Stanford’s defense again came up big, holding OSU down, and Sydney Wiese to just eight points through three quarters.<br />
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Fourth quarter, and it was all Stanford. But C and R you say in a high, falsetto voice, isn’t this where OSU’s scorer, Sydney Wiese makes her presence known and takes over the game? Isn’t this where she knocks down threes?<br />
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Sure, C and R answer, she hit a three. ONE three. One three for the quarter. It was Oregon State’s ONLY field goal of the fourth quarter. They only scored SEVEN points in the fourth quarter. Of a CHAMPIONSHIP game!! The Beavers went 4-for-24 from the field over the final 20 MINUTES! And now I broke my cap lock button.<br />
<br />
<center>
<img alt="Stanford beats Oregon State" border="0" src="http://www.gostanford.com/images/2017/3/5/2017_03_05_WB_OSU_vs_STAN_3444SM.jpg" height="247" width="440" /><br />Coach Tara VanDerveer hoists the Pac-12 Tournament trophy<br />
Photo by Eric Evans
</center>
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Defense wins championships. Of which Stanford now has 12 of them. Pac-12 tournament titles. Of which is the most in conference history. And gets the Pac-12's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. And C and R continue their streak of incomplete sentences.<br />
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Other notables, Alanna, the hero, had 18 points, including one 3-pointer for Stanford. Karlie Samuelson had 14 points, and made two 3-pointers. Erica McCall struggled under the basket, and OSU paid a lot of attention to her, and she ended the game with eight points and eight rebounds. Brittany McPhee also looked off and had six points and six rebounds, as Stanford must like square numbers. Syd Wiese for OSU finished the game with 13 points, below her average. C and R admired how she handled the handshake line, giving Stanford lots of respect, so we gotta respect her back. They will be in the NCAA tourney, for sure.<br />
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<b>After the game.</b><br />
Alanna was named to the all-tournament team, and Erica “Bird” McCall won Most Outstanding Player. Stanford gets the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, although Stanford fans (such as C and R) don’t get to see them play locally as Maples Pavilion is hosting the Pac-12 gymnastics championships. Huge Bummer. Home field advantage is huge, and Stanford tends to play better at home. Looking forward to the March Madness!<br />
<br />
More Stanford Goodies at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog</a><br />
<br />
Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-88748825285124495342017-02-26T20:55:00.000-08:002017-02-26T20:55:31.839-08:00Stanford closes out regular season in a tie for Second in the Pac-12Going in to the last weekend of regular season basketball, The Stanford Women’s Basketball team controlled their own destiny. They had two games left on the road in Oregon (or as my sister-in-law likes to say, Or-E-gone). A win against the Oregon State Beavers in the second-to-last game would guarantee them first place in the Pac-12 league, a shiny trophy and the number one seed in the Pac-12 tournament, where winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney. You couldn’t write a more perfect script.<br />
<br />
Except Stanford forgot to study the script. They came out against the Beavs flat, and did not look like a team fired up to win a championship. Give OSU some credit for having lock down defense, and a scorer named Sidney Wiese, and Stanford could not get anything going offensively. OSU shut down Stanford’s three-point specialist Karlie Samuelson, as well as the rest of the team from behind the arc, and with no made threes, (0-8) and only 47 total points on offense, they did not look like a championship team. They did hold OSU to 50 points, but losing 50-47 hurts. Probably the biggest differentiator was rebounding, in that Stanford forgot how. They box score says it was OSU 47 to Stanford’s 37, but it seemed a lot more lopsided than that, nothing more frustrating as a series for OSU with FIVE O boards!<br />
<br />
Still, Stanford could have won the regular season if Cal beat Oregon State and Stanford closed out the season with a win against the Oregon Ducks. Stanford did bounce back to get the win at Oregon, 65-59, but they still did not look like a championship caliber team. Cal, the one time we rooted for them, lost. Still, you can’t place your destiny in someone else’s hands, as more often than not you will come up short, as Stanford did.<br />
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Special shout outs to seniors Karlie with 18 against the Ducks, Erica McCall with a double double (16 points, 14 boards) and Stanford’s favorite beach player as of late, Alanna Smith with 14.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Stanford beats Oregon" border="0" height="270" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5oE-Z8VAAA_wbB.jpg" width="480" /><br />
Stanford beats Oregon, ties for 2nd place in Pac-12.<br />
Photo courtesy of Stanford WBB.
</center>
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So Oregon won the Pac-12 regular season title with a 16-2 record, and Stanford tied with Washington for second with identical 15-3 records. Stanford gets the number two seed at the upcoming Pac-12 tournament, due to a tie breaker that C and R can’t figure out. Point difference in the two games vs Washington, maybe?<br />
<br />
So, to recap, Stanford gets a first-round bye for the <a href="http://pac-12.com/womens-basketball/womens-basketball-tournament">Pac-12 tournament</a> in Seattle March 2-5 and will play the winner of No. 7 Washington State and No. 10 Colorado on Friday at 6 PM. Tune on to all the games, as you will witness history every time Washington’s Kelsey Plum scores. She just broke the career points scored for D1 women’s hoops, needing 54 points in the next few games. She decided to just get it out of the way and scored 57 in one game. So any more points she scores is gravy.<br />
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Once again, Stanford controls its own destiny with the start of this tournament. Run the table, win three games in a row this weekend, and they still get the shiny trophy and the Pac-12 tournament champions moniker, and most importantly, the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.<br />
<br />
More Stanford Goodies at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog.</a><br />
<a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">
Follow C and R on </a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-16682269377525920632017-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:002017-02-04T12:18:12.278-08:00Tara VanDerveer Celebrates Special Win #1,000We get so used to seeing wins out of the Stanford Women’s Basketball team, with Tara VanDerveer at the helm. So used to catching victory balls on the home court at Maples Pavilion after those wins. So used to cheering in the face of opposition the times we venture off campus to support the team in a road game. These wins always send C and R home with a smile. However Stanford’s win over USC on Feb. 3 was truly special.<br />
<br />
We got to celebrate career win #1,000 for Tara VanDerveer and look back on her legendary career. Tara, in her typical understated-ness said this was pretty much like any game, and would be on to victory #1,001 shortly after. However, it was great to see the joy her players had for being part of this historic run and this particular victory.<br />
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There was Erica “Bird” McCall, all fist-pumping and fired up for hitting a three at the half time buzzer to put the team up 31-22, and running C’s streak of free pizzas (She had guessed 30 points at the half). There was the pure unadulterated glee as Erica and Karlie Samuelson caught Tara unaware as they held a huge orange Gatorade Bucket over Tara’s head, her body language prepared to be doused, only to find out it contained confetti. And the pride the three seniors had, Erica, Karlie and Bri Roberson, presenting Tara with a commemorative plaque with a Stanford jersey with “Vanderveer” on the back and the number 1,000.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="Tara VanDeveer" border="0" height="315" src="https://scontent.fsnc1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16299515_10155069060584885_3601249498163347058_n.jpg?oh=4183a0447e23b2b9ab8eb45be43a23cf&oe=5942D371" width="473" /><br />
Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer celebrates win #1,000.<br />
Photo courtesy of Stanford WBB.
</center>
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Final score, not that anyone cares, was 58-42, a low scoring affair for Stanford. Wonder if emotions had anything to do with it? The game was close until the third when Karlie Samuelson hit three 3-pointers in quick succession and added a jumper at the buzzer to help Stanford pull away. She would finish with a game-high 21 points. Erica added 18, and Brittany McPhee chipped in ten.<br />
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But when the final seconds ticked down, and Maples began chanting and cheering, the final score did not matter. More confetti rained down from the ceiling, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott gave Tara a commutative trophy. Former player and now much-in-demand TV analyst Ros Gold-Onwude (we said hi, she knew who we were!) summed up the night for the crowd, and finally the microphone was given to the coach herself.<br />
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Believe it or not, she, the master of dead-panned humor said she was speechless! Then in traditional Tara fashion thanked many and deflected glory. For Tara, echoed the many articles written before the game, the game is not about the victories but about the relationships. A wonderful video tribute played with so many people stating what Tara means to her, including many Stanford fan favorites of ex-players.<br />
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The night was attended by some of those players, such as Jennifer Azzi, who said more than a coach, Tara has been her friend for life. The game just happened to coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and in the lobby before the game, C and R walked by Simone Manuel and Katie Ledecky giving autographs and in Simone’s case, wearing flippers on dry land to race a young fan in a swim rely. At half time, Stanford introduced the National Champs in Women’s Volleyball, and just “a few” of Stanford’s Olympians, including Ledecky and Manuel. You know, every day people you might see in class if you went to Stanford.<br />
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So yes, it was great to make a big deal out of one victory for Tara VanDerveer, lest we forget every victory is special in its own way. Bay Area sports fan, we are lucky to have such a person who strives for success, yet puts more emphasis on watching and helping her players grow.<br />
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Follow C and R for more victories on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-28390694081258126562017-01-29T21:01:00.000-08:002017-01-29T21:02:29.077-08:00Stanford WBB knocks of Washington, half way through Pac-12 PlayWell, the days, and Stanford Women’s Basketball games, fly by, with C and R barely having time to watch them, let alone blog about them, but a little more than half way through the Pac-12 regular season, and we MUST talk about this game that just transpired. (Yay, longwinded run on sentences are back, too, apparently).<br />
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Over 10,000 women’s basketball fans, including Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson in support of his lil sis Anna, who plays for Stanford, and Seattle Storm coach Jenny Boucek, scouting Pac-12 talent, came to see Stanford play Washington. And Boucek got her an eyeful of some Kelsey Plum.<br />
Side story: Jenny Boucek was at Maples a few weeks back scouting Erica McCall and Oregon State’s Sidney Weiss, and C and R spotted her all alone in the front row under OSU’s basket. So, C and R, especially C, never hesitant to make a fool of herself, sauntered over there and starting chatting her up. She was very gracious and obviously is a huge student and fan of women’s basketball.<br />
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So the joint was rocking, Washington ranked higher than Stanford, and were coming off an insane night of 18 made threes. They quickly took it to Stanford. Kelsey Plum was 5-5 from the three-point line in the first half and had 24 points. And this was with Stanford guarding her heavily. Although Washington executed the pick and roll pretty well.<br />
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Meanwhile, Stanford, was 1-11 from the three-point line, the lone basket by center Nadia Fingall! Not a good time to have the three go south on you. Stanford found themselves down by 18 halfway through the second quarter. Then Stanford’s Erica McCall discovered she could move against the larger Wash center, Chantel Osahor and Erica scored a few in the post. Stanford was lucky to go in to the locker room at half time “only” down by 12.<br />
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But you know Stanford’s hall of Fame coach is a master of the half time adjustment. Number one priority was to limit Kelsey Plum. And Bri Roberson, quiet, unassuming Bri Roberson, who already lost her headband early in the first quarter, as C and R track that sort of thing in a private-joke drinking-game sort of way, akin to an Ogwumike losing a contact, went to work.<br />
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She scored all 14 of her points in the second, including three three-pointers that were always timely. Roberson also scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to pull Stanford even at 55-55 with nine minutes left. Brittany McPhee added 17, and her ability to score off the dribble and penetrate is so desperately needed. Both these players chipped away at the lead until they went ahead by one, to trade the lead four more times with Washington in the closing minutes. Erica would end up with 16 and Karlie Samuelson joined them in double figures with 10, however, surprisingly did not hit a three.<br />
<center>
<img alt="Tara VanDeveer" border="0" height="291" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3Y-KlYWQAALyew.jpg" width="518" /><br />
Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer gets the most out of her players in win #999.<br />
Photo courtesy of ESPN.
</center>
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Did they stop Kelsey Plum? Well, she “only” scored 20 in the second half, and “only” hit two more three-pointers, so you can say yes. Both Plum and Erica were saddled with four fouls that limited their effectiveness in the third quarter. However Stanford had other players that stepped up and Washington did not in their stars’ absences. Stanford outscored the Huskies 39-23 in the second half.<br />
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How insane was Kelsey’s stats? She was a Curry-like 7-7 from the three-point line until a desperation heave missed with six seconds left in the fourth and the game tied. It was her only miss from behind the arc that night. She finished the game with 44 points before fouling out in the closing seconds. She scored 18 of Washington’s 24 points in the second quarter. The senior (thank goodness) moved up three spots on the all-time scoring list (she now trails Brittney Griner by 145, and Jackie Stiles by 155. C and R suspect she will do that soon). However, she did not have a good supporting cast. The rest of Washington was a combined 6-37. For the game. The seven other players only contributed 24 points.<br />
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Stanford shot some FTs near the end to win 72-68 to make it look like a respectable win, however Stanford was lucky to win this thing. Missed free throws, missed threes, and just missed shots really hurt Stanford.<br />
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Well, a win is a win, and with that win, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer has a bunch of them, 999 to be exact. One more win and Tara will join legendary coach Pat Summit as the only two women’s basketball coaches with 1,000. Be there Friday night versus USC to see history made!<br />
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More Pac-12 madness at the original <a href="http://womenssportsinformation.comblog.html/">C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog.</a>
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
<hr />
<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-3194935665409637602016-12-24T22:41:00.000-08:002016-12-24T22:41:09.206-08:00Stanford Women’s Basketball First Half Check InHidey ho, sports and Stanford fans. Apologies all around, C and R have been SO remiss in our blog writing. With the season practically half way over, and Pac-12 play just around the corner, we thought we would make an attempt.<br />
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First, let’s back it up. C and R treated themselves to a great Thanksgiving Holiday and took themselves down to warm sunny Cancun, Mexico to see Stanford play in the <a href="http://www.cancunchallenge.net/2016-womens-field.html" target="_blank">Cancun Challenge.</a> We thought, sunny warm weather, on the ocean, all inclusive, all you can eat, and watching women’s basketball games, how can we not go, plus we would be surrounded by ALL of our Stanford friends. Well, most of it came true. It was sunny warm, C went in the ocean every day, R did yoga on the beach, but not many Stanford fans came down.<br />
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So C was most excited about talking to Stanford player Shannon Coffee. Shannon went to high school in Dayton Ohio. C went to high school in Dayton Ohio. The only difference is C went to high school 30 years before Shannon.<br />
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So when C and R went to the first game against Northeastern (in Boston, we had to ask, too), we looked for all the fans. We saw two distinct groups. So shout out to the Kaylee Johnson family and who else was there? The Coffee family! Oh joy! However, come to find out, the Coffees are from the affluent side of Dayton Ohio and Shannon went to the fancy high school and C lived in the unincorporated side of town and went to the “gritty” high school. C’s high school didn’t even have AP classes, so Stanford was never a possibility! But I digress.<br />
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So our small party of Stanford supporters sat in the stands and Stanford was winning handily against Northeastern. So C and R hit the all-inclusive, all you can eat, all free food bar. Suddenly Stanford was only up by 10. So C and R began chowing down on chicken wings and Stanford started to pull away. The nice thing about it is head coach Tara VanDerveer played al a lot more of her bench and C and R got to see a lot more of players we don’t usually see, including the freshies. Final score 74-45. <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21467&path=wbball" target="_blank">Box Score here</a>.<br />
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The second game was against Wichita State, which we can’t report on because we were out seeing one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza. A bus came and picked us up promptly at 8:40 AM. And five hours later, we still hadn’t seen any Mayan Ruins. Most of the trip was designed to see how many American dollars they could get out of us. Finally in the sixth hour, after navigating a gantlet of t-shirt vendors and knick-knack providers (of which we did partake on the way out), we saw it, the famous El Castillo, Spanish for "the castle", also known as the Temple of Kukulcan, is a Mesoamerican step-pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán, sez Wikipedia. Two times a year, the sun would light up triangles on the stairs until they touched a large snake head. Incredible. How did they know how to do that?<br />
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But was most impressive was the “ball court,” where special games were played four times a year on the solstice and equinox days. Two rings were embedded high in the stone walls, one on each side. Underneath each rings were raised platform, and then the rings were separated by a huge grass court, similar to a soccer field. Supposedly two teams would propel a ball in the grass court (debate if it was hiops and shoulders only, not feet or hands) up to their captain on the raised platform and the captain would try to get the ball through the hoop. It was so hard to score a goal, so the game would end when the first goal was scored. Then, and this is also much debated, the winning captain had the honor of being scarified to the gods and so was beheaded. Or the losing captain, which even you believe. Well, someone was beheaded, that is for sure. Carved in the stone was someone getting beheaded by another guy with a machete, so someone was getting beheaded because of this game. Have we progressed much in our sports culture?<br />
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So long story short, Stanford beat up Wichita State, C and R were amazed by the ancient sites, and everyone got to play. Final score 87-39, <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21468&path=wbball" target="_blank">box score</a>.<br />
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The third game was the game C and R really wanted to see, Purdue v Stanford. Purdue played a zone offense, probably having watched a lot of game film on Stanford. Stanford’s offense is not very well designed for zone. Stanford offense is about setting screens and quick ball movement to get players an open look, especially threes. Throwing the ball to the middle is definitely a second priority. So Stanford had a hard time scoring. All we remember, in between our trip to the all you can eat buffet, was thank goodness for Brittany McPhee. She was only of the few who could drive in create her own shot. We also saw flashes of that from freshie DJ Carrington. Purdue lead most of the game, until Stanford finally caught on that driving in resulted in points or fouls. Once they got some foul calls in the closing minutes, it was all over. Final score 78-69, with the game being MUCH closer than the score indicates. <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21469&path=wbball" target="_blank">Box score</a>.<br />
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One thing that was really cool was meeting and talking to all the players not on Stanford teams. We met a local Palo Alto girl who went all the way to Boston to school. We met an Idaho State player’s aunt and grandmother, and although the player had suffered TWO ACL injuries, she was getting a bachelor’s and two masters degrees for free. We tried to trash talk UCLA, who was in the other division, but they were all so nice it was hard. Really enjoyed talking to an UCLA assistant coach and hearing how her role is different than a head coach’s role (She can be more buddy-buddy where the head coach has to lay down the law).<br />
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However after the Stanford game, Purdue was SO dejected. We told them to keep their head up, however, they were in control of that game (and had over 200 fans cheering for them), so to lose it in the final minutes hit especially hard. They truly believed they would win. We don’t normally get to see the other team after a Stanford loss.<br />
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After five days of being waited on hand and foot and stuffing ourselves to the gills, plus time in the ocean every day to see real gills, it was hard coming back to the chilly Bay Area. But jobs and mortgages await.<br />
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Stanford also rolled on, having games to play. They traveled to Bakersfield to play against Stanford player Erica McCall’s dad Greg. He coaches Cal State Bakersfield. Erica was extra-special hyped up and scored 18 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and Stanford won handily, 77-59. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IvNWdkATO4" target="_blank">Highlights here.</a><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="272" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-IvNWdkATO4" width="483"></iframe>
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The next game was UC Davis at home and Stanford won 68-42. <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21471&path=wbball" target="_blank">Box score</a><br />
<a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21471&path=wbball" target="_blank">.</a><br />
Then came Tennessee, and although Stanford jumped out to a 15-4 lead, which we did not see because the SEC channel was still showing a men’s game, thank you very much, Stanford stopped scoring (read what we said about Purdue, Tenn went to different zone looks), and they lost 51-59. <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21472&path=wbball" target="_blank">Box score.</a><br />
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They continued their trip to the East Coast with a win over George Washington, however Stanford again built a big lead and watched it slip away when GW clamped down in a zone and the threes weren’t following. However they came back late in the 4 th on a 13-2 run. Don’t like seeing them squander big leads. Oh, Erica McCall joined the 1,000-point club. Final score 71-52. <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/boxscore.aspx?id=21473&path=wbball" target="_blank">Box score</a>.<br />
Still, despite the loss to Tenn, some good things in the first half of the season. The emergence of Bri Roberson at guard. Although she is not a prolific scorer, her quick hands on D help her stay in the lineup. The ability of Brittany McPhee to create her own shot, as we mentioned. Didn’t see much of it last year. The more confident Erica McCall on scoring down low and rebounding. There is a glint in her eye we have not seen before. And of course, love the pure post play of freshie Nadia Fingall. She makes her presence known and will be good in the post in the years to come.<br />
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Next game is against Yale, battle of the brains, then starts Pac-12 play, and believe you me, C and R, this is not going to be a cake walk like past years. Just ask undefeated Cal, Washington’s Kelsey Plum, who just broke Chiney Ogwumike’s Pac-12 scoring record and Oregon State's Sydney Wiese, who just broke Candice Wiggins’ Pac-12 three-point shooting record (dang, what’s up with Stanford records falling?). The Pac-12 is a good league this year! And is anyone’s for the grabbing. Stanford will have their work cut out for them.<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-19322581329420932822016-11-20T21:11:00.000-08:002016-11-20T21:11:19.075-08:00Stanford Starts the Season 3-1Women’s Basketball is back, and even though UConn is supposed to have a “down year,” they still remain queens of the hardwood. But what about the Stanford Women’s Basketball team?<br />
After a rousing exhibition win over UC San Diego (and Stanford’s head coach Tara VanDerveer beating her sister Heidi at the helm for San Diego), the regular season started with a bang. Here are small synopses of the games:<br />
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<b>Cal Poly</b><br />
Playing at home at Maples Pavillion, Stanford handily beat Cal Poly 83-55. The nice thing about this win was we got to see a lot of the freshmen, and for the first time in a long time, we can say there is not a huge drop off when we go deep in the bench. Everybody scored, almost, Shannon Coffee being the lone active player with zero points, and freshie Anaa Wilson was injured and not suited up for the game. See all the points scored in the <a href="http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/gostanford.com/documents/2016/11/12/11_11_16_No_11_Stanford_83_Cal_Poly_55.pdf">box score</a> here:<br />
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<b>Texas</b><br />
This was a huge test, as then No. 11 Stanford beat No. 8 Texas 71-59. How did they do it? Stanford drove inside. The score was actually pretty even until midway through the third quarter. Stanford found their groove and drove to the basket, in particular Brittany McPhee and Erica McCall. Stanford also benefited from the very bad “hand check” rule, where if an opposing player puts her hand on the player with the ball, it gets whistled as a foul. Never mind that the hand does not push or shove or alter the dribbling player’s trajectory at all. It is a bad rule, as bodies go flying on drives to the basket and on rebounds and nothing gets called, yet the refs have to whistle for the hand check. Once Stanford got their confidence in going inside, and Texas was on their heels, forget about it. Hats off to Brittany McPhee with a career-high 28 points, and Erica McCall with 17 points. Erica had six blocked shots, one off her career high. <a href="http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/gostanford.com/documents/2016/11/14/11_14_16_No_11_Stanford_71_Texas_59.pdf">Box score here</a>.<br />
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Texas highlights from Stanford Athletics::<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="267" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xvhvtr36VxA" width="476"></iframe>
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<b>Gonzaga</b><br />
Remember how we said Stanford found their groove against Texas by driving inside? Well, they lost that groove, and that driving mindset, to unranked Gonzaga, losing 68-63. Stanford could not get the ball inside and was trailing most of the game. Their offense was very stagnant. When you work the ball on the perimeter, you better make some threes. Stanford was 3-18 from beyond the arc. Well, if the threes aren’t falling, you better drive inside. And that’s what Stanford didn’t do for most of the game.<br />
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Finally, in the third quarter, Britany McPhee started to drive inside and Stanford was helped by a foul calls. Erica McCall hit some tough jumpers just outside the paint (she would end up with 17 points). Stannie took the lead with 2 minutes left in the third. Then they stopped going inside and Gonzaga got hot from behind the arc and took the lead back with 6 minutes in the 4th. Stanford had the ball and was trailing by 1 with 27 seconds and called a time out. What worked for Stanford the last few scoring plays? Brittany McPhee going left and driving to the basket. What did Stanford do for a must get basket? Britany McPhee driving left to the basket (she would score 22 total points). How many Gonzaga defenders beat her to the spot? Three, with a Gonzaga player named Tinkle blocking her shot (more on Tinkle below).<br />
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Wasn’t Britany’s fault, when you are one-dimensional, the other team can predict. Still, Stanford had a shot with 14 seconds and down by three. Not sure what play Tara drew up in the time out, but Alana Smith inbounded the ball and threw a rainbow across the key to three-point specialist Karlie Samuelson, and the high, arching pass was easily intercepted by Gonzaga.<br />
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Let this loss be an eye opener to diversify their scoring options. Know what else drove a dagger in Stanford’s heart? A Tinkle. Former Stanford Alum Joselyn Tinkle’s little sister Elle plays for Gonzaga and she scored 18 points and added three blocked shots (including the last one on Brittany). She was especially good in the fourth. Jill Barta, the Zags tall athletic center scored 26. Laura Stockton, daughter of NBA great John Stockton, played guard for Gonzaga and contributed 12 points and 4 assists. <a href="http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/gostanford.com/documents/2016/11/19/11_18_16_Gonzaga_68_No_11_Stanford_63.pdf">Full box score.</a><br />
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<b>CSUN</b><br />
After a bad loss to an unranked team, Cal State Northridge was just want the doctor ordered. And you can bet Tara had the team work on getting the ball inside, and drives to the basket. Erica McCall scored 17 points, Brittany McPhee and freshie Nadia Fingall, benefiting from extended minutes also had 14 and Stanford beat CSUN 88-54. In fact, Tara gave extended minutes to everyone active, and 11 of 12 players scored and grabbed rebounds for Stanford. Passing was also crisp, and Stanford had 19 assists.<br />
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What’s next? Stanford will travel to the <a href="http://www.cancunchallenge.net/2016-womens-field.html">Cancun Challenge</a> for Thanksgiving, and will take on Northeastern (Nov. 24), Wichita State (Nov. 25) and Purdue (Nov. 26). Guess who is following? C and R will be <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">live tweeting</a> from games…except if we book a snorkeling or boogie boarding excursion…or I can’t figure out how to do wifi in Mexico. Look for us over your Thanksgiving!!<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-32358528328271020812016-10-04T19:34:00.000-07:002016-10-04T19:34:01.249-07:00Women’s Basketball is Back!The Stanford Women’s Basketball team had their first practice this week and games are right around the corner. Always fun to get a sneak peak at the freshmen, yet we are missing some familiar faces, too. <a href="http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/07/21/thompson-wont-return-to-stanford-womens-basketball-team">Senior guard Lili Thompson opted out of playing</a>, although she is still at Stanford and is on track to graduate with her class. <a href="http://www.stanforddaily.com/2016/09/01/kailee-johnson-to-forego-senior-season-with-womens-basketball-team/">Kailee Johnson will forego her senior season,</a> graduate two quarters early and pursue a career in real estate investment. Gotta strike while the market is hot.<br />
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<center>
<img alt="" border="0" height="321" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cs-qNtQUIAA8t4z.jpg" width="481" /><br />
The Stanford Women's Basketball Team 2016-17</center>
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The <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/index.aspx?path=wbball">Stanford Women’s Basketball website</a> also has a new look and feel (thanks to them I had to redo all my links), and here is a cool page on <a href="http://stanford_ftp.sidearmsports.com/TheCardinalFacts/WomensBasketball/">Cardinal Facts</a>.<br />
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Check out their first day of practice (and why is Karlie Samuelsson wearing a cast?)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="271" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K6keP6mtPac" width="484"></iframe></center>
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Can’t wait for <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/schedule.aspx?path=wbball">the season</a> to start!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-61934395616568928212016-05-16T21:15:00.001-07:002016-05-16T21:15:49.015-07:00Stanford Season RecapOkay, now that the sting has finally worn off of Stanford losing in the Elite Eight to Pac-12 foe <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=749999&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=210837591&SPID=127029&DB_OEM_ID=30600">Washington Huskies</a>, we can look back at the <a href="http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=749999&SPID=127029&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=30600&ATCLID=210936791">year in review</a>.<br />
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The season was up and down, with Stanford going exactly 5-5 against AP top 25 teams. The up was highlighted by an epic, 90-84 upset of top-seeded Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 in Lexington, Ky. And down; consider this chilling fact: This season was the first since 1999-2000 that the Cardinal did not win some form of a Pac-12 championship - regular season or tournament.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OEIiZpyBWN0" width="560"></iframe></center>
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There were some post season awards for Stanford. Erica McCall was named to both the All-Pac-12 squad and the Pac-12 All-Defensive team, Lili Thompson earned her second All-Pac-12 nod and was a Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention, Karlie Samuelson was picked All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention, Kaylee Johnson earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention team and Marta Sniezek was a Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention pick. Stanford now boasts 70 all-time Pac-12 all-conference honorees, the top total in league history.<br />
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And, this being Stanford, not all awards are won on the hardwood floor. Some are won in the classroom (nerd nation). A psychology major with a 3.53 cumulative GPA, Erica McCall was selected to the 2015-16 CoSIDA Academic All-District Women’s Basketball Team on Feb. 11. Her honor continued a run of five straight years with a Cardinal receiving academic all-district accolades, the longest streak in the Pac-12. Other players receiving academic honors: Kaylee Johnson landed on the Pac-12 All-Academic second team while Brittany McPhee, Erica McCall, Karlie Samuelson, Lili Thompson, Briana Roberson and Kailee Johnson each earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention squad.<br />
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And, Stanford’s victory over Oregon State on Feb. 26 was the 1,000th in Cardinal program history.<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" src="http://image.cdnllnwnl.xosnetwork.com/pics33/800/VW/VWXNJEWFDDMGIAF.20160506193629.jpg" /><br />The Stanford program won their 1000 game this season. Coach Tara VanDerveer has 828 of those victories!</center>
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But don’t worry about Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. She is now 20 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women’s basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins. And, according to sources, <a href="http://www.sfchronicle.com/collegesports/article/VanDerveer-will-have-loaded-team-next-season-7216231.php">Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer will have loaded team next season</a>. Did we mention we are getting <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154142437699885.1073741846.147933639884">three McDonald’s All-American</a>, including Russell Wilson’s sister?<br />
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<a href="http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/15230529/notre-dame-fighting-irish-lead-way-way-too-early-preseason-top-25-rankings">Early Preseason polls have Stanford at #10,</a> with five Pac-12 teams in the top 25. The even better news is UConn is not ranked number one. Or even number two. They are fourth. Wow.<br />
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Having Basketball withdrawals? The <a href="http://www.wnba.com/news/chiney_named_rookie_of_year_2014_08_27.html">WNBA</a> just started, and the Olympics in Rio is right around the corner!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-57711873824118670572016-03-25T22:55:00.000-07:002016-03-25T22:55:24.451-07:00Stanford’s Sweet, Sweet SixteenSo the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team was playing Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen. No one, and I mean no one, thought they could win. In fact, for ESPN to fill the pre-game show they had to ask the analysts what Stanford could do to win the game and, well, the commentators, let’s just say, were all firmly in Notre Dame’s camp.<br />
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So, C and R asked each other what does Stanford need to do to win??<br />
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Stanford would have to take control early in the game and play lock down D and outscore ND. If we do that, we gonna win.<br />
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Have to hold ND’s Brianna Turner to zero points in the first half, then we gonna win.<br />
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Get high flying ND guard Lindsey Allan in foul trouble and send her to the bench and limit her to six points in the first half, then we gonna win.<br />
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Have Erica McCall get going early and score 19 by the half, we gonna win.<br />
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Be up by 11 at the half, we gonna win.<br />
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If Kaylee Johnson is scoring, we gonna win.<br />
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Get Kaylee Johnson involved in the offense, score early and have a double double, then we gonna win.<br />
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Have Erica McCall keep the scoring up and score a career-high 27 points and drain at least one 3-pointer and go 12-18 from the field…we gonna win.<br />
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<img alt="Erica McCall" border="0" src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2016%2F0325%2Fr67090_1296x729_16-9.jpg&w=570" height="255" width="454" /><br />
Erica McCall, whom coach Tara VanDerveer calls the most improved player in the nation, led all players with 27 points. Photo: Mark Zerof/USA TODAY Sports
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Cut off ND’s screen to the elbow play. Do that, and we gonna win.<br />
Shoot 59% from the floor, we gonna win.<br />
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Shoot 55% from the three point line, including one from Marta Sniezek, only her second made three of her young career… we gonna win.<br />
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Score 11 3-pointers, we gonna win.<br />
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Have Karlie Samuelson go 5-6 from behind the line, gonna win<br />
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Have freshie guard Marta Sniezek drive in for lay ups and get in double figures for a career high..gonna win.<br />
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Heck, if Stanford gets four players in double figures, we gonna win.<br />
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Keep a double digit lead for most of the game, we gonna win.<br />
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Hold off ND when they make a run, not once, not twice, but THRICE…then we gonna win.<br />
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Have Lili Thompson give out a career high in assists, we gonna win.<br />
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Have Kaylee Johnson score 17 and gran , say 12 boards, then we gonna win.<br />
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Score 90 points… we gonna win.<br />
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And if Karlie can score 20 points and make some key baskets just when Stanford needs them…we gonna win!<br />
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Have Karlie Samuelson heave, and I mean heave a throw WELL beyond the three point line with time expiring on the shot clock, with a minute and a half to play, and have it bank off the glass for three to make it 84-78 Stanford lead and stop a ND run……WE GONNA WIN!!<br />
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WE GONNA WIN!<br />
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So that, Ladies and Gentlemen, are all Stanford needs to do to win…..and they did. They beat Notre Dame 90-84, with four players in double figures, career highs in points for Erica and Marta and assists for Lili, a double double for Kaylee, 11 threes and whatever else we said above. Next up is a familiar Pac-12 foe, Washington, on Sunday (yes Easter Sunday) at 10 AM Stanford time. This will be the rubber match, and I don’t think Tara has been beaten by Washington twice in one season since the 80s. We gonna win!<br />
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More March Madness: Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-55497407111646064312016-03-21T22:24:00.000-07:002016-03-21T22:24:33.807-07:00Stanford Sends South Dakota State PackingMarch 22 <strong>Stanford Sends South Dakota State Packing</strong>
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For a #12 seed playing an #4 seed, this was not a slam dunk. First of all, even though the #4 seed Stanford Women’s Basketball Team was playing on their home court, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits brought the loudest people in All the Dakotas. SDSU beat #5 seed Miami two days prior, feeding off of their crowd’s energy, and they nearly knocked off Stanford, too, with that same energy.<br />
Stanford enjoyed a slight lead at the half, 33-27 yet their offense stalled when Erica McCall went to the bench with three fouls in the third. SDSU rode their standing, cheering crowd to a lead mid-way thought the third quarter. It also didn’t help that Stanford was 10-22 from the free throw line. Then, Stanford fans, who tend to be quiet observers instead of rabid cheerers, came to life, with about four minutes left. Stanford fed off that energy, stealing and flying bodies and all, and went on a 12-3 run in the final minutes.<br />
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(apologies, embed code for videos not working, please follow the links)<br />
Then, with the clock running down, and Stanford needing a score….wait, why listen to us prattle on when <a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15038985" target="_blank">you can see for yourself.</a> Lili with the lay up and one with 8 seconds left! Nothing but net!<br />
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The Jackrabbits, who were well coached, advanced the ball to half court and dribbled to the key where they met…<a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=15039013" target="_blank">wait, just looky here:</a> Yes, Erica McCall and looks like Kailee Johnson blocked that ball and all of SDSU’s hopes and dreams.<br />
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Stanford survives 66-65! Sweet Sixteen Bound!<br />
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<a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:15039020" target="_blank">Hear the Tara VanDerveer interview,</a> and what Lili Thompson: had to say about the close game:<br />
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C and R will float on this game until March 25th, when Stanford meets #1 seed Notre Dame.<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899707421599929354.post-44973074080609167012016-03-20T11:02:00.001-07:002016-03-20T11:02:43.430-07:00Stanford (Lovingly) Beats USFWhat to say about the Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s 29th time in the NCAA tournament? Fans all said what a shame we had to play USF, coached by the beloved Stanford alum who started it all, Jennifer Azzi. Well, you can say head coach Tara VanDerveer likes to win. Heck, Tara said it herself after her team handed Jennifer’s team their worst loss of the season (85-58): “I love Jennifer but I love winning more.”<br />
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<img alt="Tara VanDerveer and Jennifer Azzi" border="0" src="http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/44/61/40/9639940/5/920x920.jpg" height="310" width="430" /><br />
Tara VanDerveer and Jennifer Azzi share a lot of history<br />
Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP.
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First some context. Before the game, Jennifer Azzi sat alone on the opposing team’s bench at Maples, a very different view than one she was used to, in a place where she has so many memories. In her line of sight was a list of two National Champions. The team she led in 1990 when she was a senior was listed first. Winning a national championship must hold special memories for a player. To build a program from 12 fans and no NCAA appearances, in Jennifer’s freshmen year, to a national championship with sold out crowds in her senior year, well, let’s just say not many players can claim that sort of impact. And here she sat getting ready to face the woman who got here there, perhaps the biggest influence in her life, the woman who thought so much of her that she asked her to be her emotional captain on the 1996 Olympic team that won Gold in Atlanta.<br />
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How weird was it for Azzi, coaching her first NCAA game? She said she was unsettled that her parents were at this game, not in their usual Stanford gear, but in yellow USF shirts. She and Tara shared a long and sincere hug at midcourt during player introductions. Don’t think Tara would hug Geno for that long…or at all. Afterwards, Tara’s mom, Rita, was crying for Jennifer. Even Tara had enough of the sentimentality, scolding her mom, “But I’m blood!”<br />
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About the game, Jennifer said they were not used to that level of physicality, and the rest of the NCAA field might have politely snickered, as Stanford is usually known as “the Good Girls.” Do keep in mind this is Jennifer’s first NCAA game, so if she keeps up the success and comes back, she will need to know her players will face this level of physical play, or more, in subsequent years.<br />
And they don’t call them Trees for nothing. When USF’s 6-3 center went to the bench with foul trouble, they didn’t have anyone on the floor over 6 feet. Stanford had Erica McCall, Kailee Johnson and Alanna Smith, all 6’3. At one point Stanford had more rebounds (43) than USF had points. The rebounding total was doubled in Stanford’s favor, 49-24.<br />
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Stanford accolades:<br />
Lili Thompson scored 17 points, Erica McCall had 14 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double, plus a three-pointer for the big! Karlee Samuelson had 11, on 2-4 shooting beyond the arc, her specialty. Starter Kaylee Johnson was more aggressive going to the rim and scored 13. Add in her 9 boards and she almost got herself a double-double. Stanford will need her to score in double digits every night to advance in the tournament. It was good to see bench players Marta Sniezek and Aussie Alana Smith score as well, eight and nine points respectively. Marta had a game, giving out nine assists and hitting her first collegiate three! She’s only a freshman! Throw in Brittany McPhee’s eight and you have everyone contributing.<br />
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Speaking of our Aussie player, we thought we were hot stuff having our first international recruit from down under. Well, here Jennifer has beaten her former coach. She has seven players on her roster representing five different foreign countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia and Sweden.<br />
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See all the pretty Stanford assists!</center>
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Next game for Stanford is Monday night at 6PM, against the upstart #12 seed South Dakota State’s Jack Rabbits. They beat #5 Miami 74-71. C and R only caught the last 5 minutes of the game, but from what we saw, Miami played listless and with no energy, compared to SDS intensity. It didn’t hurt that they had a whole section of fans right next to the court action and were very rabid. C and R are worried those fans will be louder than the polite Stanford fans. So please get off work and come on out!<br />
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Follow C and R on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/candrsstanfordwomensbasketballblog">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StanfordWBBBlog">Twitter</a>, too!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">See the original post at C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
http://womenssportsinformation.com/blog.html</div>C and Rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479642766316346954noreply@blogger.com0