C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog

Sports, Illustrated

2009-11-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

C and R saw a nice article in Sports Illustrated about the Stanford women’s Basketball team. You know we are always happy when women’s basketball makes the mainstream media such as Sports Illustrated. Even better, our old buddy, Ann Killion, wrote it. (Yes, C really met her, on a charity run/walk a few years ago, go on and ask her, I am SURE she remembers talking to me, one of thousands of people that day!!) Ann Killion used to write for the San Jose Mercury until they unceremoniously axed her in a cost cutting measure. (This is how C and R imagine the conversation went. SJ Merc: we are losing money all over the paper in every section due to this here internet, so the smart thing to do is and cut anything and everything that has to do with women’s sports, we are sure that is the problem.)

Anyhoo, the article had a neat comparison that the talent gap between the number one women’s team (Uconn) and the number two team (Stanford) is as wide as the geographical gap between the two teams. As much as C and R hate to admit it, we kinda agree, comparing the last time Uconn and Stanford met in the NCAA tournament and Uconn out muscled us.

However a few things Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer has done has encouraged us. One, constantly scheduling really really hard and tough opponents. On the road. Two, really working with the point guards to get them to be an outside shooting threat. Three, the “two looks” her team can have, three “bigs” over 6-2 on the floor and pounding it inside, or a trio or four of shooting guards hitting from outside with only one big. Four, and this one we are not so sure about, asking center Jayne Appel, so good under the basket, to play higher and let Nneka Ogwumike have more room to create offensively under the basket. Hey, didn’t C and R say she needed to do just that after the first exhibition game?

Yeah, sometimes we wonder if Tara or the team ever reads our blog. We have whole fantasies that Tara reads us and takes copious notes on our suggestions, hee hee. Okay, C and R said I shouldn’t be so rigid in my offense and Nneka is secret weapon who flourishes when she is allowed to create offensively instead of following that “everyone stands in their spots and then we ‘hand off’ to the guard” offense. OMG, we are crackin’ ourselves up.

Wherever you get your ideas, Tara, we love that you are not being complacent. And that you are going East to met the grown up, big girl teams. Your first test will be this weekend against Old Dominion and Rutgers.

UC San Diego

2009-11-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Okay Stanford, you really have to do something about your parking situation. C and R got to the Stanford campus and could not find a place to park. It didn’t help matters that the game was scheduled at the same time as the Stanford women’s soccer game, and they are getting mucho attention-o because of their undefeated season. Today was senior day, against rival Cal, and a win would give them the PAC-10 title outright their first perfect season in conference history. No wonder there was no place to park. And we are glad women's sports of any kind are being supported. Well, not to keep you in suspense, they beat Cal 4-1, won the title and their first perfect season and Kelley O’hara scored a hat trick to shatter the single season record. Dang, if we didn’t have a Stanford women’s basketball game to go to, we would have loved to have been a part of that.

We finally found a short cut to the dust bowl parking lot and pulled in, making us behind schedule and we had to run, our Joslyn Tinkle bells tinkling all the way. Our regular readers are in the know about our plan to tinkle a bell every time freshmen Joslyn Tinkle touches the ball. We even brought extras for our section mates. So you can imagine our disappointment when we saw Joslyn all decked out in the “black sweats of injury”. Those who are hurt wear the black sweats, and Hannah Donaghe (torn ACL), Sarah Boothe (broken foot), Michelle Harrison (no idea) and Joslyn were wearing them. Upon closer inspection, Joslyn was also wearing glasses, and we later found out she is out with an eye infection. An eye infection? Oh, also someone stepped on her foot in practice. Well, at least that is a little better. Then we saw Jayne Appel wearing a leg wrap and power knee brace although she was starting. Seems she got kicked in the calf during practice. How is that possible, and just exactly what goes on during said practices?

Nneka gets the jump ball duties now and she won it against UC San Diego, making it two in a row in the exhibition season. The team looks markedly different from just a week ago. We have the “big” line up of Jayne, Kayla Pederson and Nneka Ogwumike, and our guards, Ros Gold-Onwude and Jeanette Pohlen are passing to them inside for easy scores. When our guards miss their shots, our tall lineup is picking up the “garbage” and putting easy shots back up. At one point, tall 6-4 Jayne misses a shot and 6-2 Nneka gets the rebound and puts it back in. It’s hard to defend two trees, and add 6-4 tree Kayla Pedrson on the floor at the same time and they are pretty unstoppable. In fact, Nneka had several rebounds and passes where she would catch it around her chest yet still be in the air and be able to get the ball to her head and shot. Did we mention this was all while she was still in the air! She did not land between grabbing the ball and shooting. Very impressive.

Poor short, smaller, slower UC San Diego. They do get the pep squad award as the bench kept up the cheering for most of the game. They even would start chanting when the shot clock was winding down, a fact not lost on the Stanford Band. More on them later.

This starting lineup also ran more fast breaks than last week; most often lead by Jeannette in the point guard spot. She has great court vision and looks down towards the basket and makes loooong passes, with authority, as they say. None of that “rainbow pass” stuff that gets picked off, such as she did to the other team trying to connect on a long pass down court.

In fact, after starting the big line up, Tara VanDerveer mixed things up with a small guard line up. First, JJ Hones is in there; then she throws in Lindy LaRocque and Jeanette, Mel Murphy, too, with one big to get the rebounds. Now the guards are shooting perimeter shots and knocking them down. Wow, it is almost like Stanford has two different teams. Anyone watching film on Stanford in preparation to play them will have two game plans to defend as the team has two extremely different but successful looks.

C and R also notice they have a new inbounds play and get the ball in a lot faster. Good. But then they go back to that old “hand-off” offense, the one where the high post catches the ball with her back to the basket at the three-point line, and waits for the guard to come around from Italy and the post “hands-off” the ball to her. Sigh. Predictable and takes the whole shot clock to go through all the reads. But then we were heartened when the B-Team would totally abandon the play and one person would just drive in and create something on offense. Mel Murphy was extremely good at this. In fact, she was jumping high for rebounds and sky-ing like Nneka.

The second half was more of the B-Team and more Mel Murphy, and more of the guards driving in. Mel would end up with 17 points. We also got to see more of Mikaela Ruef (The Roof is on fire), and she and the Stanford band shared a laugh. Yes, the Stanford Band and even the Tree were in attendance at this game and were very vocal. The Band that is, not the Tree, The Tree never speaks, just dances strangely. As we mentioned, the UC San Diego bench would start counting down when ever their shot clock hovered around 7 or 8 seconds to help their team get a shot off. So the Stanford band would wait until their clock read about 11 or 12 seconds and start chanting 5-4-3…to get the team rattled and hurry a shot. C and R wonder if that is borderline unsportsmanship. At one point they started counting up, meaning when the clock was at 20, they started counting 10, 11 to get back to 30. Don’t know if it confused San Diego, but it sure confused us.

So anyhoo, Roof (Mikaela Ruef) grabbed a rebound and decided to take off down the court with it. She started dribbling. All 6-3 of her. There is a reason most “bigs” don’t dribble. Most are so tall they have a long way to dribble the ball from their waist to the floor. So Roof takes off and looks like she is dribbling in slow motion. She probably is pretty fast, but compared to a Pohlen or Murphy, she just looks so darn slow. She spots a San Diego player on front of her and dribbles behind her back! Which is hard to do in slow motion let alone fast motion. The Stanford Band Ohhs and Ahhs loudly. She keeps control of the ball and still lumbers on. She gets to the foul line and sees more San Diego players and dribbles behind her back AGAIN! The Stanford Band goes ballistic. She keeps control, splits two defenders near the basket does an underhand scoop and it goes in! It is also the 100th point for Stanford. The crowd goes crazy. The bench erupts and a time out is called and everyone pats her on the back.

Jayne, while resting to let the B-Team get minutes has been talking non-stop on the bench. She is now reliving the scene for everyone on the bench. She pantomimes dribbling behind her back, she pantomimes dribbling behind her back again and the underhand scoop. Everyone around her is cutting up. It is great to see such raucous fun and enjoyment of the game. (BTW, C and R wonder when Tara is going to have a little talk with Roof about the underhand scoop shot she keeps doing. We have seen it several times now in the course of two games and it doesn’t look like sound fundamental basketball. Boy, aren’t we party poopers!)

The game ends 107-55. Wow, another 107 points. Now the regular season comes. And it is a hard test right away. At Old Dominion Nov. 13th and Rutgers Nov 15th. Good thing the Stanford girls are good at taking tests.

Tinkle, Tinkle

2009-11-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

Hi, C here...So, okay, I was at the craft store (I do too, go to the craft store on a regular basis) and saw a package of little jingle bells…..so I got this great idea. I am bringing them to the next game and will pass them out and every time freshmen Joslyn Tinkle touches the ball we shake the bells. Maybe only three times, tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, to let her know we appreciate her! Really, she looked great in the first preseason game; her moves were very reminiscent of Jayne Appel. We expect big things out of her. So if you are at the craft store yourself, pick up some jingle bells, not the big cow bells, although they had a big ol’ clapper bell I almost bought but then R would have killed me. Just the little jingle bell kind. Well, I did get three different sizes to experiment with the sound, but pick up the size you like and meet me at Maples on Sunday.

Speaking of Jayne, she received another honor. She was named to the Associated Press' preseason All-America team. I am sure it is well deserved. She had a great year last year and when healthy, hopefully more of the same. But isn’t picking a preseason All Star Team really just voting on last year’s performance? I mean it is preseason, no one has done anything yet, right?

After getting whooped by Stanford 107-49, Vanguard went over to Cal and Cal ONLY beat them 101-81. HA. But two of their five hundred freshmen shined brightly, so we are worried about the youth factor. Let’s hope brains and experience can beat them when we meet Cal.

Okay, C and R are always happy when one of our local newspaper, the SF Chronicle this time, pays attention to women’s basketball, so it was nice to see an article about Nekka Ogwumike and her “skying” ability (hey, that’s what we call it when she jumps so high, too). Jayne says she is jumping even higher this year. So much so that Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is concerned that Ogwumike will get called for goal-tending this season. Gulp! And, oh, the Chron used the spelling of her nickname Nneka. So we have to get with the program and start using it, too.

Come out Sunday with your tinkle bells to see Jocelyn, Jayne, Nneka and the rest, here on Gilligan’s Isle, we mean Maples Pavilion. Sunday at 2:00 PM.

Exhibition

2009-11-03T14:43:00.001-08:00

Okay, we must admit, when the announcer said, “Welcome to the first game of Stanford’s season”, we got goose bumps! Even though it was an exhibition game, even though it was a low turn out of a crowd, we were so excited to be back at Maples.

Yes, yes, Stanford opened its season with an exhibition game Sunday and we are sorry we didn’t write earlier. But we got side tracked with a gorgeous trip to the beach. But I bet you are glad we are taking that count down scoreboard thingie down, now that basketball is here!

So, we walked into Maples Sunday and were disappointed by the low turn out in the stands. To be fair, the Stanford women’s soccer team was playing right outside on another gorgeous California Fall Day. Make that the unbeaten, number one team in the country Stanford women’s soccer team playing right out side and maybe that drew some of the fans. Although by the time Nnemkadi Ogwumike (Nekka to us now) lined up for the jump ball, it was an okay crowd (sorry we don’t have the numbers).

We like to get there early to watch warm ups. We aren’t the only ones, as the jumbotron scoreboard started to show last years highlights, the Stanford women looked up to watch. It’s easy to forget these young ladies are only in their late teens and early twenties and it’s nice to see they are not jaded about watching all the great things they accomplished last year.

We get to see the new freshmen, Mikela Ruef (as in “the Roof is one fire”), from Beavercreek Ohio, near C’s old hometown of Dayton, and Jocelyn Tinkle. To keep C from being childishly immature about her last name, R might have to buy her a small bell so she can tinkle it when Tinkle grabs a rebound or scores a point.

And wow, Sarah Boothe has lost a lot of weight. So much that she has resculpted her body. And she has a stress fracture in her foot. If she can still find away to exercise and lose weight, then there is hope for C and R! The staff is still unsure of she is going to red-shirt and give up this season.

C and R scope out our opponents. Vanguard University. C sure hopes we beat them because Vanguard is the one that lost nearly half her money in her 401(k)! No? She is confusing the Vanguard Company with little Vanguard University? She does that every year we play them. C and R have to use R’s fancy phone to look them up and remind themselves that Vanguard University is a small Christian school near LA. There must be a connection to Stanford and Vanguard, a former Cardinal on the athletic staff perhaps? We will have to work on that one and get back to you.

Anyhoo, Vanguard is small, with only two players over 6 feet tall. So small that when Nekka jumps for the ball to start the game, their center does not even jump and the rest of the team falls back on defense, conceding the ball.

C and R hate to say this, but Stanford doesn’t look all that sharp to start the game. C says they look ragged. R says they look nervous. They seem to miss many open players. Both teams make turnovers. Neither team scores until 2:20 into the contest, when Nekka gets a lay up.

Dependable Jeanette Pohlen starts hustling and dropping shots. Nekka is so athletic, and can really sky when she jumps. She even steals a pass out of the air meant for center Jayne Appel, and makes the basket. Speaking of Jayne, she still does not look 100% with her injured knee and we hope she can rehabilitate it in time for the opening game.

Stanford finds a rhythm and it is 25-7 when the subs come in. We get to see a lot of Tinkle. She blocks a shot and then gets a rebound on the other end and she looks almost identical to Jayne. Same build, same moves, wow, she is going to be effective off the bench early on!

After a half time of expensive hot dogs, the game starts up again and we notice two things. Stanford is almost predictable in its offensive movement and the out of bounds play takes 4 and-a-half seconds to develop. IN the out of bounds play under the basket, the ref hands the ball off and starts counting and by the time the guard comes around the horn from Africa, the count has reached 4.5 and at 5 seconds they lose the ball. It is pretty close. Maybe this is one time you don’t want to have all those reads and options and instead just throw it in.

So on offense, it could be this is the only offense they have had time to practice, or want to show this early on, but even C and R knew where the players are going to stand and when they would cut. The one bright spot is when Nekka gets the ball and can’t find anyone open, she is athletic enough to create her own path to the basket. If I were a coach, I might want to clear out everyone and hand the ball to Nekka and say, “Go score!” Maybe they could do it every third rotation or something.

At one point, a Vanguard player gets tangled with Kayla Pederson and they both go down but only Kayla gets back up. The Vanguard player stays down and the refs call time out. Finally, one of the Vanguard trainers comes out to her, and another follows. They appear to only have the two trainers. They eventfully help the player up and after the required polite crowd applause, the smaller trainer tries to put her arm around her shorter shoulders and support her weight. Stanford player JJ Hones, out for the game so the subs can play, taps the trainer on the shoulder and offers to take her place to help support the Vanguard player and proceeds to help take her to the visiting locker room. JJ has torn her ACL, twice, so she knows a thing or two about hobbling off the court. Still, C and R thought that was pretty classy.

As the game continues, it is hard to nitpick on a team that is closing in one 100 points. Lindy LaRocque hits another three and Cinnamon (Ashley Cimino) gets us to 100 points. R makes the observation that Melanie Murphy looks really good. She has great ball handling skills, is good at spotting the open players underneath the basket and is not afraid to pull the trigger on passes. She even hits a couple of outside shots. Very impressive.

The game ends 107-49. The Stanford players slap hands and all wait their turn to shake hands with the fallen Vanguard player, now out of the locker room on crutches with a big bag of ice strapped to her knee. Again, very classy. They return to the Stanford bench and ask where are the red balls to fire into the crowd after a victory? Even a preseason victory is a victory. They look just as disappointed as C when the media relations women shakes her head and tells them, “no red balls to throw”. Darn.

Still we get to exit out into the warm California sunshine. Same time next week.

Practice Makes Perfect

2009-10-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

If you have been as mesmerized by our little count down graphic at the top of the page as we have, then you would know Stanford plays its first exhibition game of the season this Sunday, November 1st!

All C and R can say is…FINALLY!

We know these girls are smart, they do attend Stanford classes, after all, but now they have to go to point guard camp. The SF chronicle reported that Tara is running a camp for point guards. R thinks are biggest question mark will be the point guard spot, although she loved the look she got from JJ Hones in an early practice. Now, let’s hope she is healthy in time for regular season play.

The Chron article also said that they want Jayne to, gulp, take more threes?!? We know Kayla plays that way, and that you want to be more versatile as a team, but don’t take your best player away from her strength. Jayne scores her points close to the basket, rebounds well close to the basket, and when double-teamed near the basket, is the best passer to find the open player even closer to the basket. I think it would be a mistake to have Jayne on the perimeter.

Well, we will find out in the coming weeks…

Open Practice

2009-10-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, it is R (solo) again, a second blog in a month! And you thought the world was going to end in 2012! Anyhoo, I told C that I was going to Stanford today to watch Lacrosse and support Coach Jaime. She couldn’t go because she was going to watch her son dunk other boys, I mean play water polo. She informed me that Stanford Women’s Basketball is having an open practice and BBQ and although she was bummed to miss that, she told me to go and take notes. These “open” events are for the Fast Break Club - fans who contribute financially to support Stanford’s program. Since I am not a member of the FBC, I rationalize that our blog helps with PR or marketing efforts or hmm, and well, I walked into Maples Pavilion to watch an impressive scrimmage with Refs!

After the scrimmage and before the BBQ, I saw a Lacrosse game. OMG, that is a sport for the toughest chicks with stix and Stanford’s team is good. They were killin’ their opponent. I was amazed and confused at this new sport. How much time do you have before you have to pass or shoot – is it unlimited?

And, after a goal is scored what is the ref doing with those two opponents before whistling the start? (Wikipedia: The "draw" is what starts the game and keeps the game going after a point. The draw is when two girls, one from each team, stand in the center circle with the backs of their sticks facing each other. Then the referee places the ball between the two sticks. Each player has to push their sticks together parallel to the ground to contain the ball.) Bizarre. If I were reffing, I’d be sure to get the heck outta Dodge before whistling the start.

And, had I had the opportunity to run around a field and smack another kid with a stick when I was growing up, huh, basketball may have taken a back seat! I immediately call C to tell her all of this. She shouts into her dying cell phone she would love to go to a Lacrosse practice and run around with a stick and chase a ball.

So, after about 45 minutes, I head back to the Basketball BBQ. As I approach Jimmy V’s, I see Jayne and her entourage, I mean the Stanford Women’s Basketball team leaving. Boy, Jayne is the one everyone gravitates towards. Everyone wants to be in her orbit!

With the team exiting, I figured that I missed my opportunity to mingle. But then I heard Tara addressing the fans, so I walked in, again. Tara impressed me. She seems to be growing and learning along with her players. She mentioned the pressure defense we will face this fall and how competitive this season will be – I read her words to mean that we will not have an easy time, even winning games in the Pac-10 will be challenging.

Specifically, Tara named a few who will make the rotation and continued that not all 12 women play in every game. She said Jayne is in the rotation although not 100% healthy today, and maybe will be at full strength in a month or so. She named Kayla and new and improved Nneka as great contributors (notice the new way we will spell Nneka’s name. I think we saw it in a press guide once). Then she mentioned the two freshmen; Joslyn could be in the rotation and continued that Mikaela is probably not ready. Tara added that Jayne improved immensely from her freshman year to her sophomore year -- giving hope for Mikaela next season.

Tara said that many players are battling staying healthy and that Ros lost her big toenail in today’s scimmage – and showed it to Tara –purple nail polish and all. I don’t know if Tara talked about her starting point guard, but I hope it is JJ Hones. I saw JJ pass the ball today – well, she reminded me of Diana Taurasi. Overall, I was impressed with the high level of play at the scrimmage. I don’t think we are any match for Geno’s team, but we will likely win most of our Pac-10 games. The fresh start of a new season always brings such unbridled hope and anticipation. I can’t wait for the games!

Jaime Part II

2009-10-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Remember we talked to Jaime Sellers, Stanford Assistant Women’s Lacrosse Coach. We recently heard from Jaime and she had some more to say. Previously we asked her how she got a paying coaching job right out of college and Jaime wanted to talk more about her wonderful head coach Amy Bokker.

“When I was hired, I recognized Amy was taking a risk in hiring someone with very little to no actual coaching experience. Amy's mentoring nature and giving young aspiring coaches the opportunity to be a part of something great is one thing the Amy feels is of the utmost importance to the growth of not only lacrosse, but women in sport. I feel lucky that a coach of Amy's caliber and experience believed in my ability and desire to coach.”

Wow, we are lovin’ Stanford’s head coach more and more. C and R enjoyed listening to Jaime talk about her experiences with trying out for the national team. We have never personally known someone who has made it that far in her sport, so we appreciated the insight and first hand knowledge. Jaime wanted to add to what she said.

“ The experience was great, but I am unsure I will participate in the process again. I felt the try-out was very well organized, but by the end I started to feel that the coaches already had in mind who they were most likely going to pick. With my best play coming at the end of the weekend, I was hoping I could impress the selection committee, but unfortunately it was a little too late and I fell short of doing so. Overall, I want to stress how honored I felt to make it to the last round and that it was, above all, a great learning experience.”

WNBA Finals

2009-10-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Phoenix Mercury, for winning the WNBA Championship over the Indiana Fever in a best of five competition. The papers say it was the “big three”, Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter and Penny Taylor that did it, but we sooooo love Diana Taurasi. The powers that be agreed with us by voting Taurasi the Finals MVP to go along with her league MVP. Diana didn’t always have the most points, but she contributes in so many ways. She really helped her team by stepping up her rebounding and her defense.

This is Phoenix’s second championship in three years. Phoenix won it with the super-speed style that then-coach Paul Westhead used in 2007 and Corey Gaines adopted when he took over. And we love this quote:
“When I first started coaching in the WNBA coach Westhead, who is my mentor — who we owe this championship to as much as him being here right now — he told me, ‘We're going to coach the players as players, not women, ball players”' Gaines said. “And it's funny how they embraced it because they enjoyed being treated that way. Instead of being treated as women basketball players, we treat them as ball players.”

We love that many are saying this WNBA finals is the finest in the WNBA’s 13 year history. The five games were entertaining and so well played that it gave a lot of attention and respect to the WNBA.

In the deciding game five in Phoenix, Phoenix Suns captains Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash and Grant Hill purchased the tickets in the upper bowl of US Airways Center, then gave them away, leading to a sellout crowd of 17,313. We here at C and R wish they didn't have to do that, that the public will come out on their own after seeing and hearing how great these women play.

The great Mechelle Voepel reports that:
“Television ratings and attendance were up, with the last three games of the Finals being sellouts. The total attendance for the series was a record 82,018. Upper-deck seats were bought and distributed by members of the Suns organization for the contests in Phoenix, which no doubt helped. But both games in Indianapolis sold out with no freebies.”

Going from on the verge of losing the WNBA franchise, so selling out your home games in the finals is great for Indiana. We hope they are around next year for Phoenix to beat again!

#1 Fan?

2009-10-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

C and R got an email from the University of San Francisco Athletics Department. They wanted to let us know about their new ad campaign to attract more fans to their women’s basketball games and wanted our help to get the word out. Then a week later we got a similar email from St. Mary’s. At first we thought, boy, we are glad someone out there knows how to use Google! Then we realized we are turning up in Google when people are searching for women’s college basketball. Cool! Nothing like invented pride to swell ones head! Our little ol’ blog is getting noticed, typos and all. And with a great blog about women’s college basketball comes great responsibility. So we want to do our part to help promote women’s basketball, not just Stanford.

So I picked up the phone and had a wonderful talk with Rachel Engrissei, Assistant Media Relations Director for theUniversity of San Francisco Athletics Department. Anytime I get to talk women’s college basketball with someone equally excited, it’s a good day! We both acknowledged that there is a need to attract more fans to women’s games in general. She told me The West Coast Conference has launched an innovative marketing campaign titled the “WCC Fan Draft”. She gave me some background on this new campaign.

Wait, first, go to the website listed below, pick a team and try it out. It is cute! Then come back and finish the rest of this post.

In the quest to find the “No. 1 fan” for all eight institutions, fans should visit http://wccfandraft.com/ and enter their name and phone number to attend the virtual WCC Fan Camp and have a chance to win tickets to the 2010 Zappos.com WCC Basketball Championships on March 5-8 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. (What happens in Vegas…hmmm, maybe C and R will go to the Final Four this year!)

The ad is based on a clever idea Gonzaga had last year that sparked a lot of buzz in the sport business/marketing world. The other colleges in the conference wanted to try it out, but marketing takes money, and we are talking about women's basketball…..so the WCC applied for a grant!

The program was funded by a 2009 -10 NCAA Women’s Basketball Marketing Grant. The West Coast Conference was one of only 18 recipients of the grant program, which dedicated approximately $750,000 nationally to increase awareness, exposure and increase attendance of women’s basketball.

“With the help of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Grant, the West Coast Conference and its institutions were given the opportunity to design and implement a new and unique viral marketing campaign that would have not been possible in the past,” said WCC Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich. “We feel very strongly about promoting our women’s basketball programs as much as possible, and feel that the WCC Fan Draft concept will greatly enhance each of our school’s women’s basketball marketing efforts for the 2009-10 season. We hope that success from this program will help us to continue to earn these grants in the future.”

We love that the WCC Commissioner feels strongly about promoting women’s basketball. We are going to do our part and some WCC games. Do yours too, and meet us there!

Lacrosse Anyone?

2009-10-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

This is R. C has taken the lead in writing our blogs and this is my first solo blog in years - although, C will edit it, post it to our website, probably do some formatting, and maybe even spray a little Windex on it…and, well, did I say I was doing this solo?

So, if you remember we got press passes for a WNBA game last month and I thought I was gonna die, I was so excited. Well, now we have the guts to ask for press passes to any event. For example, University of San Francisco would like a little coverage in our blog due to a new ad campaign sponsored by the NCAA to get more people to attend women’s sporting events and yes, we asked for a press pass (okay, more on that in another blog, let’s not get distracted here).

Since it is the “off-season” for women’s college basketball, we are always looking for more things to fill our time, such as the WNBA and other women’s college sports and bad rounds of golf. I want to share an accidental meeting with a Stanford coach not Tara or Amy, or even a basketball coach, nonetheless a Stanford women’s coach of Lacrosse, Jaime Sellers. I don’t know how to spell the sport, nor have I ever watched it, played it or met anyone who has; but she granted us an interview after we met on the basketball court and that is a whole other story. Oh, she whipped me good after explaining that basketball wasn’t her sport, ugh.

We later bonded when I found out she recently climbed Half Dome in Yosemite in the dark! I have made that difficult trek up the Half Dome trail ten times, and made it to the top six. Jaime did it in the freezing dark, started out on the mist trail, slipping and sliding, freezing and cursing and almost turned back. But as in all things, she persevered and continued on for many more hours. Her group made it to the top at sunrise, but she was too miserable and cold to make it all the way to the top. She stopped at the chains.

So, after extensive research on (read I goggled) this coach, Jaime Sellers, and read about an incredible athlete: Jaime Sellers is a first-year assistant coach, having graduated from William and Mary last spring after a 66-goal season that was good enough to break a school single-season record that had stood for more than 30 years. Over her college career, Sellers scored 108 goals and had 19 assists for 127 points. The native of Kennebunk, Maine, led William and Mary in six categories as a senior (goals, points, draw controls, shots, free position goals, shots on goal) and scored five game-winning goals, while earning All-South Region second-team honors.

This former All-Colonial Athletic Association first-team midfield player now handles the defense and scouting as her main Stanford coaching responsibilities. It is funny she was hired by Stanford at all, what with Sellers having burned Stanford for three goals when they met last year, and her scoring three against George Mason. At the time, George Mason was coached by current Stanford head coach Amy Bokker and current Stanford assistant coach Brooke McKenzie. Or maybe that was why she was hired, because they saw first hand what kind of Lacrosse skills and knowledge she had.

So, of course I told C all about Jaime and C said let’s write down a bunch of questions we can ask her. C even bought a digital recorder, she loves the gadgets, which we chickened-out of using even though C practiced on everyone including her cat. Recording interviews is big time, as we learned on our WNBA press pass adventure, and we are small time!

Okay, here are the questions we asked and us paraphrasing what she said:
What are some reasons that you have an offensive record-setting senior year in college after a rather ordinary junior year?

Jaime attributed this to a coaching change in her junior year. She felt the previous administration did not communicate well and she always felt off balance and didn’t know what was expected of her. The new coaching change brought in someone not to uptight and could communicate what she wanted out of the players, and trust them to give it to her. This was an environment Jaime excelled in. And it shows C and R that in coaching it is not enough to know the sport, you must be a good and effective communicator.

With the economic environment for women’s sports already limited, it is hard for young women to get a paying coaching job, especially with no previous coaching experience. It is almost unheard of. We asked Jaime how she got a paying coaching job right out of college, especially way out here on the West Coast. The answer is pure Jaime; she worked really, really hard to get this job. Starting right after her senior season, she started emailing and networking for coaching jobs. Sometimes coaches didn’t call her back. Sometimes they told her a spot was imminent only to find out another had been hired. Frustration was high and a lesser person would have thrown in the towel. When Amy Bokker got hired on as the Stanford coach, she was familiar with Jaime’s play. It didn’t hurt that Amy also went to William and Mary and Jaime’s coach knew Amy and put in a good word.

Jaime also told us that her senior year her coach used her as an on field general, and she did direct the defense as well as mentor a strong freshmen core in scoring. So, when her coach put in a good word for her, she wasn’t just blowing smoke. Jaime had coaching experience from how she approached her senior year.

Next we asked if Stanford tutors her or the players on what to say to the media. She laughed, what media? Lacrosse in general and women’s lacrosse in specific does not generate a lot of media interest. Have you ever seen a seen a women’s lacrosse game? Well, it’s hard when none are broadcast, not even the women’s D1 championship game. The athletes themselves don’t get many requests for interviews. As far as what to say or not to say, Jaime said the only rules she knows that restrict her surrounds recruiting: what you can and cannot say to a possible recruit, and since C and R are not going to be recruited for lacrosse (although C secretly wishes so), we are safe in this interview!

As R mentioned above, she has never seen a lacrosse game. We asked Jaime why lacrosse so popular in the east and not here in the west? She agreed, but wasn’t sure why either. She guessed that because lacrosse is big in Canada, it trickles down to that northeastern part of our country. It’s akin to water polo being prevalent in sunny California and Texas, but not so back East. Stanford doesn’t even play lacrosse in the PAC-10, as not enough PAC-10 schools have women’s lacrosse teams. They play instead in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

With the bias that the best Lacrosse is played in the East, we asked Jaime if that colored the NCAA selection committee’s perception. Jaime asked if we researched what happened to Stanford last year. We said we had….’nuff said. Well, except if you haven’t followed women’s lacrosse, (something Jaime hopes to change one day), then you probably hadn’t heard what happened. Let us fill you in.

First of all, only 16 teams go to the Lacrosse championship, unlike the 64 teams we are used to in women’s basketball. Second, since 1982, all of the D1 championships have been won by teams east of the Mississippi. Now imagine that. If you’re not invited, you can’t win.

Last year, Stanford won the Mountain Pacific Sports Tournament championship, but that division gets so little respect, you don’t get an automatic bid to the tournament, like winning the PAC-10 in women’s basketball does. Last year Stanford was ranked 14th in the final national poll, beating three top twenty ranked teams, including third ranked Penn in its final game, yet did not receive one of the 16 bids to the NCAA tournament. Hmmm.

Stanford hopes to change the east’s mind about how we play lacrosse out here. This year, if you win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, you get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and after Stanford’s last season’s success, they hope they can do it again.

Not only is Jaime an excellent coach, and was a great college player, she recently tried out for the Women’s National Lacrosse Team. Cool! Over green tea and mounds of food at the local Mongolian BBQ, she told us that the experience was great, but it seemed like the coaches already had in mind who they were going to pick and she wasn’t one of them. She said the end of the three day trial had them scrimmaging and certain players didn’t even need to play. She was hoping she could impress the selection committee, but again, politics, and favorites ruled the day.

Jaime has future aspirations to be a head coach someday, “back east”, she said. We hope she gets a little California sand in her shoes and decides to coach out here. Besides, how else is the west going to overcome this east coast bias in lacrosse if she leaves?

Real Men DO wear Pink.

2009-10-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hats off to the NFL for helping to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

If you didn’t tune in to a football game this first weekend in October, then you missed NFL players wearing pink or pink-tinged items to help bring attention to breast cancer. C and R’s local paper talked about some of the San Francisco players hesitant to wear pink items (shoes, gloves, hats) until one of the players said he had someone in his family dealing with breast cancer. The shoes several of the SF players wore will be auctioned to benefit cancer-related charities.

Monday Night Football featured a dream match-up of Future Hall of Fame Quarterback Brett Favre, now playing for the Minnesota Vikings, facing his old team of 16 years, the Green Bay Packers. Favre wore pink shoes and the announcers showed shots of his wife, Deanna Favre, a breast cancer survivor.

Even the referees got into the act, wearing pink and donating a portion of their salaries to breast cancer charities in October. Their donations will total $24,000.

Many teams will extend the national platform with local efforts. Teams will designate home games in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and plan special in-stadium or pregame events with local organizations.

This from the NFL’s official website:
The National Football League will support October's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with team community outreach. Games from Oct. 5-27 will be designated as NFL Breast Cancer Awareness games. The NFL and its players will support October's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with its largest on-field presence and a national screening-reminder campaign. In collaboration with the American Cancer Society, the initiative, called "A Crucial Catch: Annual Screening Saves Lives," encourages annual mammograms for women over 40.

Game-worn pink merchandise and balls will be autographed post-game and auctioned off, with proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society and team charities. Special pink merchandise will be available at NFLShop.com and in stadium retail stores, with a portion of proceeds going to breast cancer charities.

We also found this quote on the NFL site, or should we say NFL Shop:
The NFL Shop is proud to support the fight against Breast Cancer. The NFL’s campaign, "A Crucial Catch", in partnership with the American Cancer Society, is focused on the importance of annual screenings, especially for women who are over the age of 40. Throughout October, NFL games will feature players, coaches and referees wearing pink game apparel to raise awareness for the campaign.

Now, everybody take a deep breath…We really believe this is a good thing. We are sure having professional male athletes that get a lot of television exposure wear pink, breast cancer’s symbolic color, brought a lot of exposure and attention to the disease, and possibly some donations.

We also see words like “portion of the proceeds”. This worries us. When we first started our parent site, Women’s Sports Information, we found this eye-opening site website: Think Before you Pink. It is a project of Breast Cancer Action, and was launched in 2002 in response to the growing concern about the overwhelming number of pink ribbon products and promotions on the market. The campaign calls for more transparency and accountability by companies that take part in breast cancer fundraising, and encourages consumers to ask critical questions about pink ribbon promotions.

We especially like these five critical questions to ask before you buy “Pink”.
1. How much money from your purchase actually goes toward breast cancer? Is the amount clearly stated on the package?
2. What is the maximum amount that will be donated?
3. How are the funds being raised?
4. To what breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?
5. What is the company doing to assure that its products are not actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?

At the time, a few years ago, the website pointed out a “pink” perfume that only give 50 cents of it’s $30 price to breast cancer research. It also shamefully pointed out a car company, I won’t embarrass the manufacturer by giving the name, that gave about a dollar of the purchase price to breast cancer research, and had set a cap in the low ten of thousands. They were buying their goodwill, and cheaply, too.

The Think Before You Pink site recommends giving directly to the charity or research entity yourself. You money will go further than buying the “pink” products. We like that advice and do give money annually to breast cancer.

So, yes, we applaud the NFL and the players that wear the pink gear. We also look at the products for sale skeptically. We instead focus on the message of awareness (1 in 8 women will get breast cancer) and the national screening-reminder campaign, which encourages annual mammograms for women over 40.

Cal's Tierra Rogers

2009-10-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

Being a blog about Stanford women’s basketball, we love to make fun of Cal. This year, Cal has recruited an excellent class of freshmen and C and R are already thinking Stanford is going to really have their hands full.

We are sorry to hear about Cal freshmen recruit and Bay Area local basketball player Tierra Rogers. She collapsed after complaining of shortness of breath and was rushed to the hospital. Tests revealed she has a rare heart disease, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia, a potentially fatal condition if it had not been discovered. She had surgery to have a defibrillator implanted in her chest. Reducing rigorous physical activity will lessen the risks on her heart. Her college basketball career is over.

In high school, Tierra played for Sacred Heart Cathedral. Rogers led her high school team to state titles from 2006-08, including perfect 32-0 seasons in 2007 and '08. She lost only three games in her entire four-year high school career. Last year, Tierra’s father, Terrell Rogers, was shot and killed at halftime of one of her games outside the Sacred Heart Cathedral gym in San Francisco on Jan. 12, 2008. Tierra considered giving up basketball. Instead she went on to finish the season 32-0, winning the state title and being ranked No. 1 in the nation.

We are glad Cal Coach Joanne Boyle is with her. "My first reaction was, 'Thank God she's still alive and with us,' " Boyle said. "We'll figure out another passion for her, but it won't be basketball. She's defined by more than basketball."

She is defined by more than basketball.

We wish her much success in her college career at Cal.

WNBA Finals, Game 1

2009-09-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

The opening game of WNBA championship game was yesterday. And it was shown on a semi-legit channel, free with your paid cable bill channel, a channel that more than 10 people get, maybe you have heard of it, it's called ESPN2.

Congrats to Diana Taurasi for wining the league's MVP Award this year before the game. She would be my first pick on any team!

Okay, we reported here how great it was that Indiana's Larry Bird, Pacers Sports and Entertainment President, bought 9,000 seats for the deciding game three of the WNBA semi-finals. Indiana went on to win that game. Someone in Phoenix must have read our article, because, Women Talk Sports reports that "Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr bought the entire the upper-level of US Airways Center for game one of the 2009 WNBA Finals". He only bought 7,000 seats to Bird's 9,000.

Steve Kerr was quoted, “Both of us were part of championship teams and understand the importance of a packed house. For anyone who doubts the WNBA level of play, this is an opportunity to see for yourself. I challenge any doubters to come see the talent, skill and intensity on the court."

Okay, we know we had absolutely nothing to do with Steve Kerr getting into the act. We also love his message, if you are not a fan of Women's Basketball, come see it free. Wow, great, our hat's off to both of you...but....these guys shouldn't be spending their own money. The management should be giving away the seats, with the same message, we are so sure you will love the talent and intensity, especially during the finals, come see it for free. The building can give away the cheap seats, or charge a dollar, or somthing to encourage more fans of this greaet game.

Here's another way to fill the seats, have an exciting, well contested, highly skilled game! And, apparently, they did. The game was a marketing dream, there was a lot of scoring, the game went into over time, goats were turned into heroes (Cappie Pondexter), and everyone scored at least 20 points.

Check out this quote, "Well, if you didn't like women's basketball," Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said, "I think you do now."

Win, win, win. Except for the Indiana Fever, which actually lost to the Phoenix Mercury, 120, to 116 in over time.

Can't wait for game two.

Lisa Leslie

2009-09-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

The WNBA finals are set. The good news is the Western Conference Champion Phoenix Mercury will play the Eastern Conference Champion Indiana Fever starting Tuesday. Good news, that is if you live in or are fans of Phoenix and/or Indiana. The bad news is, for us Lisa Leslie fans anyway, is that Phoenix defeated the LA sparks and Lisa Leslie is now officially retired from the WNBA. I know the LA Sparks really wanted to send her out with a win and a championship. The great Mechelle Voepel writes a great article on her final game and sums her career.

We were watching the press conference after the game and Lisa Leslie was blasting people for not coming out and supporting the WNBA more. Our memories can be faulty, but we think we remember her saying she was mad not many fans came out to the deciding game three of the semi-final conference game in Phoenix. We can’t seem to find a video clip of it, though, but will keep scouring that there Internet.

Well, Phoenix could do what Indiana did. Did you see Larry Bird bought 9,000 seats to the Indiana Fever’s game three of the semi finals? It seems this Larry Bird guy, who used to play pro basketball for the men’s Indiana team, is now the president of Pacers Sports and Entertainment, which includes the Fever. He is proud the Fever are in the semi finals and is aware they have never made it to the finals. So he made the decision to put up $90,000 of his own money to by $9,000 ten-dollar seats. Players have always maintained that sometimes crowds can be the intangible difference, and he wanted to insure a big crowd.

According the “The Indy Channel,” some of the people who lined up for tickets Saturday said they probably wouldn't have come to the game, but the free tickets made it an easy choice.

"I personally have never been a big woman's basketball fan, but I wanted to come out and show my support," said Christa Eldrige.

Oh, the Fever ended up beating the Detroit Shock to advance to the WNBA finals.

We salute Larry Bird for fronting the money for the seats, but asking one person to put up the cost for the seats is not a reasonable long term solution to the problem of low attendance. (Okay, let’s acknowledge there is low attendance at WNBA games in general and not debate why. Let’s save that for another day.) What if the arena itself were to proclaim, “We have so much faith in our team and that you will love them once you come to see them that we will put up the seat expense ourselves.” Meaning they give away the cheap seats to entice more people to come to games and can gain some money from parking and concessions and hopefully make more fans for life. If the cheap seats are going to go unused anyway, I don’t see what the arenas have to lose.

Oh, in happier news, C and R got to spend the day looking at Lisa Leslie clips, not a bad way to spend a day. The WNBA site had highlights of Lisa Leslie. It was cool to see clips from early on in her career, the first season in particular where she was so happy, a big smile on early play, playing to the fans. She showed lots of emotion on every drive to the basket, would make a block and then a give a fist pump. They showed “The Dunk”, and how she immediately hugged her teammates rather than just beat her chest, to share the moment with them. We thought, wow, the WNBA did a good job picking clips where after the play Lisa is smiling and high-fiving teammates and really into the game with emotion. Then we realized as the clips kept going on, no that’s how she played, so happy, the joy showing and the emotion spreading around her and radiating like sun rays warming my cats.

Mechelle Voepel reports that Lisa wants to run a basketball academy for girls and work in broadcasting, and might like to coach someday. She also wants to remain a strong advocate for women’s sports and help WNBA rookies to be role models and be aware how they represent the game.

She didn’t go out with a win or the championship, but she went out a class act.

Glamour Part II

2009-09-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

We have a letter! From a fan! We have a fan. We have a fan not related to us genetically or geographically.

He wrote about our commentary on the Jayne in Glamour blog. And he mostly agrees with us. Another reason to post what he said!

Let me share with you what he said, because, well, he writes so much better than C and R! Let’s hope he doesn’t get in the blogging business.

Fan:
The magazine's emphasis on physical appearance, for a woman who is clearly a role model based on a unique combination of both athletic and academic excellence, is most definitely the wrong message. As a father of two teen-aged daughters, the societal obsession with appearance has been a continual battle, both with regard to their self-esteem and their focus (or lack thereof) on areas of development that really matter. All crazy, because they look just fine.

I must have read the article differently, because I was much more impressed with Jayne's future plans: "Off the court, Appel was inspired by a family member who suffers from mental illness to do advocacy work on the issue and volunteer for a support group. The psychology major plans to graduate early so she can prepare for the WNBA and expects to pursue a career in mental health advocacy." (Yes, she did say that.)

Signed your number one (and only one) fan.
(Okay, we made that closing remark up.)

C and R writing again:
Oops, we kinda glossed over that part about Jayne doing "advocacy work" and well, Jayne, we owe you an apology. C and R are sorry if we portrayed you as shallow and not having long term goals outside of sports. We hope you make it to the WNBA and use your fame to support worthy causes that are important to you. (I know this sounds snarky in a written form, but we really do mean this, sincerely.) C mostly wanted to comment on the type of magazine Glamour was and question if being in it was sending the right message to young people, not attack you personally.

(R always wonders if the Stanford players read this blog. C always say no, but R is the more hopeful one of the bunch. So Jayne, if you are sitting around the dorm munching popcorn with JJ, show her we apologized, hee hee.)

Oh, want to see what we wrote back to our fan? (We need to fill some more space)

Opening paragraph, thanks for writing, blah blah, blah.....

Second paragraph, C writing here:
Growing up in the 1970's (shhh, no one do the math…), I was a tag-along little sister to my older brothers, (just like Jayne following her brothers) and at first played sports because they did, and then later fell in love with all things sports! (Is that a proper sentence?). My Mom did not understand this obsession with sports and my absolute lack of desire to be ladylike and wear skirts and high heels. Good thing I had all that "boy training" so when I played girl sports in high school I was good because I had been taught to play like a GUY and not ladylike!! (Not the case today, women athletes are more properly trained to play like a guy, or more aptly put, aggressively and at a higher level.) I hate when women athletes are forced to appear "feminine" for convention and society's sake. But I digress...

Oops, we did kinda gloss over the part where Jayne said she wanted "to do advocacy work on the issue and volunteer for a support group". I guess I better go write Jayne an apology. (See above, Jayne)

Keep raising those daughters right, with lots of self esteem and confidence and they will reward you be abandoning you and taking all your money and your sheets and pillow cases to go away to college to study engineering, a traditional "man's" major, as my daughter did this fall.... hee hee.... oh, I digress again.

Sincerely
C
Half of C and R
Stanford WBB

Geez, how many more days until college basketball season starts?

Glamorous

2009-09-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

We see Stanford center Jayne Appel is featured in Glamour Magazine. The article is entitled, Glamour’s 2009 Top 10 College Women. According to the article, they do this every year, and it’s a competition. We quote, “Every year, Glamour’s Top 10 College Women Competition honors budding leaders in every field - Martha Stewart won back in 1961! But the 2009 crew blew us away. Let them inspire you to dream big and make it happen!”

C and R had different reactions, naturally. Read below.

C: Are you kiddin' me?! Glamour!?! Is this the message you want to send to little girls! She is Stanford educated, tough as nails, and a hard worker, why does she want to be seen in a magazine that bills itself as, “For young women interested in fashion, beauty and a contemporary lifestyle.”

Last year Jayne was All American everything and this year she is a preseason favorite for the Wooden Award and Wade Trophy, two awards that reward women’s top college basketball player, and as reported by this site earlier, has been invited to try out for the USA National Basketball Team. She is a role model in her own right, in playing sports, and not a role model being concerned about shallow appearances and whether or not she has her flip flops (an unfortunate quote).

R: Okay, when C first sent me the link I read all 10 women’s profiles. And of course the first thing that jumped out at me was this “can’t live without” quote: Mascara. “I wore it through basic training, field training, you name it!” Sigh. Of course, the young women who made this quote is attending West Point and wants to be a doctor, no mean feat.

Upon closer look, all of the super stars have future plans to help others, except Jayne. She wants to play in the WNBA. Then I thought that playing in the WNBA is a short-term goal for three to five years, maybe longer, than she can take her Stanford degree and apply herself in the business world. Thank goodness she does have the option of playing a women’s professional sport here in America before she goes onto have another career. Will she dedicate her business career to helping others, as these other women have stated? Only time will tell. Also, many professional women’s athletes use their fame and notoriety, small as it may be, to endorse some great charitable causes. Candice Wiggins uses her persona to raise awareness and money around AIDS. Getting involved with charity work is certainly something Jayne could do as an athlete. This level of public awareness to be involved in a “cause” is not afforded the other nine women listed.

Getting back to C’s point that being seen in a women’s magazine that is dedicated to fashion and beauty is detrimental, well, I am not so sure. The writing in this particular article Jayne appears in highlights some wonderfully caring and smart women. My office mate told me see saw that Stanford basketball player in Glamour magazine (she knows I am a Stanford fanatic). She doesn’t follow sports of any kind and just the fact that she noticed a women athlete in the pages associated with femininity is a good thing. Some people think women who play sports are rough, dirty and unwomanly, read unfeminine. If Jayne can change some people’s minds that a women athlete can be tough, smart and well, a women, then maybe people won’t be so unreceptive to female athletes, and we can get more people to support women’s sports.

Readers, what do you think? Discuss amongst yourselves or drop us a line.

National Team Members?

2009-09-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

Stanford center Jayne Appel and former Stanford star Candice Wiggins have been invited to the USA Basketball National Team tryouts. (Okay, someone has got to tell the official photographer to stop taking the women's pictures in front of the Olympic rings. With their heads in the middle of the five rings, it looks like they are wearing Mickey Mouse ears- but we digress).

Both Candice and Jayne have been on the US “College” National Teams for championships in off Olympic years. But now they have been invited to the Big Girls Team! Okay, they were really invited to the US Women’s National Team’s fall training camp to play in the 2010 FIBA World Championships.

This could be the stepping stone for Candice and Jayne to be on the Olympic Team in 2012! It is a great honor just to be asked to training camp, one Candice was certainly hoping for when we talked to after the last game of the WNBA season, so we know she is very excited. They will join some really great women who will also be trying out, and some members who have already been picked, so although the Olympics are a long shot for both of them (Jayne is still injured) we wish then the best of luck!

Smack Dab in the Middle of the Playoffs

2009-09-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, the WNBA conference finals are set. It is the Detroit Shock vs. the Indiana Fever in the East, and the LA Sparks vs. the Phoenix Mercury in the West.

C and R are glad to see Lisa Leslie and LA are still alive, although they made it close in the conference semi-finals, going to three games and all with Seattle. We would love to see her close out her remarkable career with a championship. And Candace Parker is playing remarkable well for a woman WHO JUST HAD A BABY! Let’s see the NBA players do that! We hope LA does well against Phoenix, even though we hate to root against Diana Taurasi.

Games start Wednesday.

Oops, almost forgot, the Stanford women are back on American soil, going 3-1 in their tour of Italy. We can’t see them play until November 1^st. JJ writes about all the great stuff they saw.

Remember when C and R said they met up with Michelle Smith, the reporter that covered women’s Bay Area basketball for the San Francisco Chronicle and then took a buy out because they were cutting her job anyway, at the Sacramento Monarchs Game….do you? Well, anyhoo, she has not one, not two, but three blogs! Well, really three and a half as she sends stuff to WomenTalkSports, same as us! Geez, some days it’s all C and R can do to get out of bed and get on with their hum drum lives, let alone muster up enough energy to write a blog and here Micelle has three! (three and a half!). Of course, be kind to C, she is teaching her 15 and ½ year old son to drive and she is practically catatonic after each “joy ride” that it is all she can do to get from the car back to the house in one piece….but we digress. Here are all three of Michelle’s blog sites: AOL Fan House, and CSN Bay Area, and still under construction, LeftCoastHoops.

Go get ‘em, Michelle.

The Game!

2009-09-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Okay, let’s back up a minute now that we have had some time to catch our breath with our fantastic experience getting a press pass to watch the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs play their final regular season game against the Minnesota Lynx.

On the loooong car ride up to Sacramento (Why, oh why, can’t they bring a WNBA team closer to the Bay Area, where women’s basketball enjoys so much support?), C turns on her computer so C and R can think of some non-lame questions to ask the players. Her computer instantly crashes and she frantically tries to restore it to an earlier, happier time when everything worked while hurtling 80 MPH in a white Toyota Corolla. And the only questions they can think of are lame indeed.

We get in and the Monarchs staff could not have been more professional or courteous to us. We marvel at the free parking, free food, and free admittance to the game with front row seats. We are in heaven.

We briefly visit the Monarchs locker room before they kick us out (looks a little small compared to all the locker room shots of Michael Jordan and gang seem to enjoy). We sit next to a beat writer for Outward Magazine who has been following the team for years and she gives us a lot of insider information. The first of which is we can’t cheer while sitting at press row. R is so totally bummed. The worst thing for C is she can’t pick up on the freebies. Some fans have the bang sticks with tassels. She is jealous.

Although this game means nothing to either team, both are out of the play-offs, we are keeping our eye on ex-Stanford grad and current Monarch Nicole Powell. She needs 5 points to break the franchise record of 545 set by Yolanda Griffith. Early in the game she misses her first three, but connects on the next two to get the record.

Both teams are playing for pride and are hustling down the court. The refs are not calling a lot of fouls and they game is getting rough. We notice Minnesota Lynx Candice Wiggins, another former Stanford player, is not playing point. More like an off guard. She is having a cold shooting night, as are most of the Lynx.

In one series Candice gets three straight rebounds, which means she keeps missing easy put backs. Where is the box out, Sacramento? Finally she gets the rebound and tenaciously puts it in. We want to cheer for Candice even though we are not supposed to, and this is Sacramento’s home game. Nicole Powell keeps firing away, though.

The t-shirt squad comes out and we are dying to stand up and yell for one. We watch them sail over our heads and it is killing us!

We see Courtney Paris come in the game. We are sorry to say she still looks out of shape, and this is the end of the season. She does look tough inside on defense, getting rebounds, but disappears on offense. We talk again to our seatmate on the right, and we a have discussion about her weight. Our seatmate has been following the team for years and she says Courtney has a hard time fitting in to Sacramento’s system, which is tough defense with lots of movement.

We see the Sacramento Monarch mascot come out during a time out. So what kind of mascot is Monty, anyway? Is he a cross between an elephant/hippopotamus/dinosaur? During a time out, he comes out with the rap crew in a psychedelic swimsuit and flashes the crowd. Sigh, is that proper mascot behavior?

It is half time, and so far it is all Sacramento. Our seatmate said Sacramento was going to give non-starters a chance to play, but you can tell the coach wants to win this by keeping in most of his starters and all of Nicole Powell. She has 18 points at the half.

C and R have one mission at half time. We want to meet up with the great Michelle Smith. She wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle about women’s college basketball, not sports, but exclusively women’s basketball, and then last year the paper axed her to “save money”. Well, okay, we have two missions, to meet up with the great Michelle Smith and find our way back to the media lounge for more cookies.

We see Michelle at the other end of press row and introduce ourselves. We talk women’s basketball. We ask what she is up to. She has a new contract to write about women’s basketball at Fanhouse, which is part of AOL. See Michelle Smith’s writing for yourself. She also is getting another blog up to write more content. She is one busy lady and we are glad she has landed on her feet after the Chronicle so rudely puling the rug out form under her.

The game starts back up and Nicole Powell has 25 points with 4 minutes to go. The Lynx are only making 25% of their shots, and that is unacceptable at the pro level. The Monarchs easily win 88-66 and sends the crowd home happy.

We go to Minnesota’s locker room and use our press privilege to request a private, one-on-one interview with Candice. To our surprise, they say yes and as we wait in the hallway, we feel like kids playing grown ups and about to be caught and thrown out any second. We see Minnesota’s Head Coach, Jen Gillom, and listen in as the Monarchs media staff interviews her. She instantly rubs her feet ands says, “these high heels are killin’ me!” And it is all C and R can do to not interject with how we hate that coaches of women’s teams have to dress “feminine” when coaches of men’s teams, such as football, can wear more comfortable team gear, such as a polo shirt with the team logo. She praised her team for their heart and effort. She seemed to connect with her players while on the court, too.

The media relations man bangs on the door several times calling for Wiggins, as she has another event after us. Turns out she is going to speak to the Stanford Women’s Basketball Fast Break Club group that made the trip from the Bay Area.

Then Candice comes out in all her smiling and personable glory. We introduce ourselves and tell her we have been following her from her days at Stanford (And wonder if she recognizes her old stalkers from the Stanford days!). We ask what she is going to do in the off season and she said is headed to Greece for pro ball and keeping herself open for the National Team try outs, (we wished her luck) and trying to get batter at playing basketball.

C and R have seen dominate college players, such as Candace Parker, but still to this day they marvel at how Candice took just an above average Stanford team and willed them into the National Title game on her charisma and personality alone, not just her basketball ability. That was very rare and awesome to witness. We mentioned this to Candice and she said the women were awesome to lead, and gave all the credit back to the Stanford players. We read between the lines that they were also willing to buy into Candice’s optimism and confidence. We asked her how the WNBA was different, and she answered that everyone here is at a different phase in their life, in terms of basketball experience and life experience. Again, we are reading between the lines because her teammates are older, or at different points in their life she cannot lead them on her confidence and optimism like she did at the college level.

Candice’s schedule was tight, so we walked with her to pick up friends and go to the Fast Break Club. R watched the LA Sparks final home game, and the final home game of Lisa Leslie’s career a few days ago. The Lynx were the opponent and Candice was quoted as saying Lisa Leslie was the face of the WNBA and she admired that Lisa is the face of the WNBA and was still feminine. So R asked Candice about that.

Candice was eager to talk about how great Lisa was, and here she was in the final game, 37, a mother, yet still setting screens and banging around with everyone. Here are more comments from Candice about Lisa.

We followed her on the elevator (like the good stalkers we are) and watched her walk into the Stanford Fast Break Club and receive a warm welcome. Someone asked what was the hardest thing about being in the WWNBA and Candice said the travel. She said in college, they would talk the whole week before they were going to the East Coast and how important it was to get on East Coast time, and in the WNBA you are in a different city practically every night and the main focus is don’t miss the bus. She said it gets very wearing.

Nicole Powell also showed up and thanked everyone for coming, talked about her life as a Monarch, as Candice had to go catch her bus. It was a perfect end to a prefect night. We had so much fun covering a women’s basketball game.

It was great to see Candice, and she did tell the Fast Break club that whenever she sees someone with a Stanford shirt that means something to her, because Stanford always will hold such a special place in her heart. With Candice you can believe it.

Halftime!

2009-09-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

Here courtside at the Sacramento Monarchs Game vs. the Minnesota Lynx. It's half time and Nicole Powell continues to light it up. She got her 5 points ands more to set the single season franchise record for scoring. She currently sits at 18. Sacramento is ahead 41-34. Minnesota seems to be in a scoring slump, and Candice Wiggins is not doing much to help that. Found the press room again and got more cookies and popcorn! They sure do take care of the press! More later.

quick hi from courtside!

2009-09-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Quick hi from courtside. C and R are now watching both teams warm up. We are trying to be impartial, but our seats are closer to the Lynx, and we are enjoying watching Candice Wiggins warm up. Candice walks right by us while warming up. Hi Candice, remember us, your stalkers from Stanford? She is dancing to the warm-up music. She shows off her vertical leap in a drive to the basket.

A stirring National Anthem and a pretty good crowd, the game is almost here! We are excited.

When they introduce Candice, R screams and the journalist on the other side tells us we media need to be impartial. We will be quiet for now!

Almost Game Time

2009-09-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, we survived the drive up to Sacramento. We found the press entrance (almost knocked over a few handicapped people rushing through). We are here to blog about the Sacramento Monarchs and Minnesota Lynx game, the last game of the season for both.

R is so excited she can’t even think. We got free parking and free admittance and when they said help yourself to the free food for the media, and then all the questions we thought up on the drive up went out of our heads!!

We got access to the Sacramento Monarchs locker room and right off the bat saw Kara Lawson in street clothes. She’s been injured about a month (left leg). She is looking forward to her gig at ESPN with March Madness. Who wouldn’t love a job like that? We are so excited one of the players asked if we had any more questions, so was so sweet to us, we think it was Laurie Harper.

We found our seats courtside. We are in the front row. R walked out to take a picture of C typing away, and Candice Wiggins was on the court at the same time.

We are getting excited about the start of the game! Cheerleaders from the local women’s football team, yes you heard us, that wasn’t one of C’s glorious typos, cheerleaders from the local women’s team perform. We talk to a friendly statistician before the game. He is sitting next to us in the front row. We do note Nicole Powell needs five more points to surpass Yolanda Griffith’s franchise records of 545 points in a season. We tell him to nudge us when it happens so we don’t miss it.

It’s a few minutes before the game. We don’t want to blog live and get us or anyone else in trouble, so we’ll write more at half time!

Going to Sacto

2009-09-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

We are off to Sacto to see the Minnesota Lynx play the Sacramento Monarchs. Both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs, but we are excited because, as we reported earlier, C and R get media credentials and get to join press row! We hope we get to speak to the players before and after the game. Now, we need to think of some not-lame questions to ask them.

We decided not to blog live, as there are restriction in order to protect the WNBA’s live access investment on the WNBA website. That’s okay, we are cool with that. We might send an update at half time or something to tell you we made it and how much we are enjoying the experience. Chat soon….

Sacramento Monarchs

2009-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

OMG, we almost forgot, C and R are going to the Sacramento Monarchs last game of the regular season Sunday. It will probably be the last game of the year for Sacramento, as they are currently in sixth place, and the top four teams go on to the play offs.

But we don’t care; they will be playing the Minnesota Lynx, and our favorite hometown girl Candice Wiggins, and the game will probably mean something to the Lynx, as they are currently tied for fourth place with San Antonio and are trying to secure that last playoff slot.

But none of that matters much to us, either, as C and R and this blog are going to be issued their first press pass!!

We were invited to view a Sacramento game in August and write about it for our blog (free publicity for everyone), and we talked to the Media Relations director and asked if we could attend the last home game of the season with a press pass. Much to our surprise, she said yes and showed us around press row. There was a stodgy gentleman already there who gave us the evil eye, probably because he was “a real journalist”, sniff, and we were just bloggers. Either way, we are gonna have us some fun!

So what if we don’t have to hold ourselves to the same journalistic standards as members of the journalistic press do, and we can exaggerate and use hyperbole to our hearts content? Is that our fault we like to write our opinions about something we love (women’s basketball in general, and Stanford Women’s basketball in particular)? Our blog was once asked to participate in a survey about sports bloggers and many of the questions dealt with, “Do you think bloggers should be held to the same standards as newspapers? I know what they were trying to get at, but we answered no. As long as we are up front that we are a blog, stating our opinions in a legal way (libel and slander are still out, bloggers), and do not pretend to represent an official entity (speak for Stanford, or any of its players in any official capacity), then I think we are in the clear to give our opinions, and yes, sit at press row. We give the “experience” of seeing a women’s game. Anyone can open up the paper and get the box score….well, anyone whose hometown newspaper actually happens to post a box scores of women’s sports, our two local papers don’t do a good job of it. We tell you what it was like to be there as a wide eyed, admiring fan, and not some jaded journalist….whoops, just kidding ‘bout the “jaded” part. You get he idea. Stay tuned for our blog of the whole ordeal and whether or not we get the cold shoulder or any nasty comments directed our way, and if we get into the locker room to see Courtney Paris, Nicole Powell, and Candice Wiggins!

Hall of Fame and Italy

2009-09-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

In non-related to Stanford basketball news, Highly respected and much-honored C. Vivian Stringer, head coach of the Rutgers women's basketball team, will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. With C and R's favorite male basketball player, Michael Jordan….the.best.ever.

Here is what Stanford's head coach, Tara VanDerveer, said about Coach Stringer: "Congratulations to Coach Stringer for this tremendous and well-deserved honor. I have the ultimate respect and admiration for Coach Stringer. She represents the best of basketball and I am also happy to call her a friend."

In news that is related to Stanford Women’s Basketball, the team is still in Italy, two for two in games played and 20 for 20 in gelato bought and eaten. Four players are already out for the count. Well, these four players were previously injured, had surgery, are in rehab, and don’t know the date they will be back. The four not playing are: Jane Appel (knee), JJ Hones (knee), Sarah Boothe (foot) and Hannah Donaghe (knee). Glad to see the team is getting out and seeing the sites: