Ding Dong, the Streak is Dead!

The first, the last, and UConn was everything in between. C and R are of course talking about the amazing UConn Huskies women's basketball streak of consecutive wins and Stanford’s small part in it. Stanford was the last team to beat them in March 2008, and the first team to beat them since they got the all-time men’s or women’s streak record of 89, stopping them at 90.

This win was so great; let’s savor it minute by minute, shall we?

40 minutes before the game, tons of scalpers on the sidewalks next to parking lots, which themselves are choked with cars. Tickets like the seats R has are going for $125 a pop!

35 minutes before the game, C and R get in Maples early to watch the teams warm-up, but only UConn is out there. Where is Stanford?

30 minutes before game, the countdown clock stops. This game is being televised after a men’s college game. Are they waiting for men’s’ basketball to be over? Stanford waits to come out to warm up, too.

15 minutes before the game, a friend walks up to Stanford box office and gets 3 general admission seats at face value. Say what, Stanford? You advertised the game was sold out and many of our friends who did not have tickets (And yes, you who did not heed our warnings know who you are) friends without tickets stayed away and yet they could have gotten in? Why didn’t you advertise, “Limited seats left?” You might have gotten even more fans here. Official attendance is 7329. Why is it when Tennessee women’s basketball has a sellout, it is 14,136?

10 minutes before game, both teams are now out and warming up. UConn is intense in warm ups, and to our untrained eye, Stanford looks half hearted, kinda going through the motions. UConn has purpose and drive on their lay ups to the basket, Stanford, well, not so much.

5 minutes before game, time for the National Anthem. Maya Moore tells a teammate, “The flag is this way.”

3 minutes before the game, C and R see former Stanford players Jayne Appel, Candice Wiggins, Ros Gold Onwude and… JJ HONES? Wow, she is the guard who got kicked off the team at the end of last year with one year of eligibility left for drinking and driving… a golf cart (Lord, what a thing to live down) and would be starting this game if not for that. It would be hard to show up back at the farm, yet here she is which says a lot about her character, wanting to support her friends and Stanford. Let’s hope she is not bitter.

Pregame introductions

Maya Moore gets a healthy round of applause. Geno gets booed. C and R hate when anyone boos players or coaches, we just feel it is bad sportsmanship. Anyone who is out there playing or coaching is dedicated and putting forth a high effort, and let’s face it you have to respect the streak of 90 straight winning games, nearly 2 and a half years worth of not losing.

Game time-tip off, Stanford’s Nneka Ogwumike loses the tip, not a good sign.

18:42 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen makes a three. (C leans to R and says, look, were winning! Little did she know Stanford would not give up the lead for the entire game!)

18:29 minutes left in the first half, Kayla Pedersen gets a defensive rebound. She would be tough on the boards all night. In fact Stanford would go on win the rebounding battle 43-36.

18:02 minutes left in the first half, UConn makes their first basket, a two pointer

(C: look, were still winning!)

15:59 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen makes another of her five threes and Stanford is up 6-2.

14:08 minutes left in the first half, Lindy La Rocque hits the first of her two three-point shots, glad to see running, gunning Lindy shooting. And she has a great, great defensive game. Was on Maya Moore for part of the night, was very determined and focused.

14:00 minutes left in the first half, the Jumbotron shows the Quattro of friends (Jayne, Ros, JJ and Candice), for the first of umpteen million times.

13:31 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen post up over a smaller guard and makes a lay up, first practiced two days ago against Xavier, and finds success again.

13:31 and 12:27 minutes left in the first half, Stanford goes up by 13 points!! Thirteen points! The largest lead of the night, but still, 13 points!

Oops, wait we did it again at 4:21, too.

10:36 minutes left in the first half, or thereabouts, National Player of the Year Maya Moore shoots an air ball. The crowd chants the “Air-ball” refrain. Look, not that we are making fun of Maya Moore, it’s just that Maya Moore has the best pull up jumper in the country and has been so outstanding and so consistent during the two and half year streak, we are sure that was very uncharacteristic of her, and hopefully can be attributed to Stanford’s tough defense on her.

3:16 minutes left in the first half, Maya Moore makes her first basket, a three. Her first basket of the night with almost 17 minutes gone by in the game. That’s got to be some kinda record. Stanford’s defense is great. Chiney Ogumike is doing most of the defending of Maya Moore now, except when she and then Nneka get two fouls and both go to the bench in the closing few minutes of the half. Now we do not do so well defending Maya and hence the 3-point shot. Maya Moore hits another one at 1:52, but Stanford holds her to just 6 first points half. Also must be some kinda record.

Stanford fouls with 32 seconds minutes left in the first half and with one second left in the first half. Yes one second, UConn threw a half court pass and Lindy undercut Kelly Faris. She should have let her catch and shoot, odds are she wouldn’t have made it anyway.

0 seconds minutes left in the first half, and Stanford leads 34-30.

Halftime, as C races to the concession stand and gets two hotdogs, R gets stopped by the floor crew letting UConn pass to the locker room. R looks right at Geno and says, “You’re awesome!” He looks right at her and says “Thanks.” He then spies one of the half time performers; a monk in a karate suit and lunges low in a karate stance to challenge him two feet in front of R. R is too late to get the photo!

C and R meet with super fan TG and give him his “Fear the Trees” shirt, a prize for knowing who the other coaches were in the 800 career-wins club. C shows her “Hecka Necka” shirt to the cameras but is sure they didn’t show it.

20 minutes left in the second half, C and R just get back to their seats.

17:56 minutes left in the second half and Jeanette scores the first Stanford basket of the second half, what else, a three! Stanford goes back up by seven.

17:11 minutes left in the second half, UConn scores their first points of the second half, also a three. The last time Stanford beat UConn, it’s not that Stanford stopped them, it’s just that Stanford (And Candice Wiggins) outscored them. Let’s hope this game Stanford just stops them, because this year, sometimes Stanford is not good at scoring.

13:22 minutes left in the second half a three by Jeanette Pohlen….lead is nine!

13:21 minutes left in the second half, Jumbotron shows a live action shot of Jayne, Ros, JJ and Candice Wiggins…

10:52 minutes left in the second half, Maya Moore makes her first basket of the second half, (got to be some kinda record), what did she make? What else, a three, she would have no lay ups, a huge defensive statistic. But wait, her three makes it a four-point game. Stanford needs a basket and cannot let UConn back into this game!

10:44 minutes left in the second half, Kayla makes a lay up, thank you very much Ms. Reliable. (Old Faithful?)

9:12 minutes left in the second half, a friend texts R and tells her she thought she saw C and R on TV!

8:05 minutes left in the second half, jumper by Moore.

7:26 minutes left in the second half, three pointer by Moore. Oh no, is this the start of an UConn come back? Little did anyone know, this would be the last points for Maya Moore all night.

7:05 minutes left in the second half, no, no comeback, a lay up for Joslyn Tinkle, who also is having the game of her young life. She played great defense, also asked to guard Moore several times and did a great job. C and R hearTinkle bells in the audience, even though we haven’t promoted it as much this year. Thanks, Stanford fans! R also starts to say, “we’re going to win, I can feel it!” C has a sour pit in her stomach. She can’t handle the stress (You can’t handle the truth!)

6:44 minutes left in the second half, missed three-pointer by Moore. R pounds C’s knee.

Kelly Faris for UConn makes 2 three-pointers at 5:59 and 4:49 to cut the lead to six. Yikes.

3:35 minutes left in the second half, Maya More is being guarded by Tinkle, who gets screened and hands her off to Lindy, who gets screened, hands her off to Kayla who defends her tough and although Moore gets a three point shot off it misses badly.

Tinkle to Lindy to Kayla

Tinker to Evers to Chance

(go ahead and look that one up, especially the sad poem part about breaking opposing fans hearts! C’s head is full of useless trivia like that, just swimming around in her head, waiting to surface at parties to annoy people and mostly beat R at Jeopardy).

2:19 minutes left in the second half, two UConn free throws narrow the lead to six points again, and C is worried, worried, worried. Little did she know this would be the last time UConn would score on the Maples floor that night!

1:42 Chiney would foul Maya Moore and also foul out of the game. Maya misses the front end of a one and one. Again, uncharacteristic of her.

1:37 minutes left in the second half, timeout with Stanford still leading by six and R all smiling and happy and pessimistic C still cannot let herself believe lest she jinx it for Stanford and it is the longest 1:37 minutes of C and R’s life!

1:20 minutes left in the second half, another timeout. Time seems to be agonizingly suspended.

1:14 minutes left in the second half, Nneka would score again to end up with 12 points and have 6 sky-high rebounds.

53 seconds left in the second half, Reliable, Old Faithful Kayla misses the front end of a one and one! And we were just saying about Maya Moore… (To be fair, Kayla got knocked to the floor and possibly hit her head and got her wrist banged so much she grimaced in pain for the final 23 seconds.) Kayla would finish with just 8 points but 11 timely rebounds.

But wait, Tinkle got the rebound and was fouled. They have another chance to pad the six point lead.

51 seconds left in the second half, Tinkle would miss the front end of a one and one… C is about to have a heart attack.

42 seconds left in the second half, 34 seconds left in the second half, 17 seconds left in the second half, Jeanette is fouled, and she would sink all six shots! She would finish the game with a career high 31 points!

4 seconds left in the second half, UConn’s Kelly Faris shoots a three pointer and misses and Jeanette Pohlen grabbes the rebound.

1 second left in the second half, Jeanette Pohlen throws the ball in the air.

0 seconds left in the second half, Stanford wins 71-59, a margin of 12 points! R predicted they would win by 10, so C is taking R to the track next weekend.

2 seconds after the game ended, Candice Wiggins, Stanford great, who is NOT on the team currently stormed the floor and hugged Pohlen, Pohlen still had her game face on and hurriedly pulled away, probably wondering if it was a violation of game rules or something for her to even be on the court and wanted to do nothing, nothing to jeopardize this incredible win. Jeanette wanted this one. She wanted this so badly and has stepped up her play. Kara Lawson on ESPN said Jeanette Pohlen was the best guard on the floor tonight. Maya Moore was held to 14, 10 points below her average, and credit Stanford for being in her face and not letting her have good looks all night. Credit Stanford Head Coach Tara Vanderveer for having the exactly right game plan and Stanford for executing it.

5 minutes after the game, the team came back out, lead by a leaping Nneka.. Tara spoke to the crowd, thanking them for helping to make Maples a good environment to win (and keep their home streak alive at 52) and asked that everyone come back for another game. Then she thanked The UConn team and coach and staff.

R said she feels bad for Geno. Heck, C figures, Geno must feel relieved. He got the streak in the record books, and now the pressure and the daily questions will go away and he can focus on basketball, league play and the March tournament. Hey, same for Stanford.

15 minutes after the game at the post game conference on national TV Tara said, “We didn’t win a national championship.” We have a lot of basketball left.

Yes, good to keep it in perspective, Tara, but it sure makes those losses to DePaul and Tennessee easier to swallow, and gives much hope for the future.

UConn - Stanford Game Sold Out!

Thursday’s Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s game vs. number 1 in the country UConn is sold out. However, if you did not secure your ticket like C and R (well, R, she has the season’s tickets), we have seen scalpers outside of Maples during big games like this, so maybe you will get lucky. And, if you can’t go to the game, this one is being televised on ESPN 2.

So, the national papers were kinda hum ho about Stanford’s win against Xavier. It seemed to C and R they already discounted that game and were looking ahead to the UConn game. The game where Stanford played their best game all year. The game where number 9 Stanford knocked off number 4 Xavier. A game where number 9 beat number 4 by 37 points. You can’t discount a game like that.

C and R were encouraged by that win because it means at least we have a chance with UConn with the team that showed up Tuesday. And remember, this is essentially the same team that held UConn to 12 first half points in the championship game. (The two Stanford players missing from that game are defense specialist Ros Gold-Onwude, and center Jayne Apple, who went scoreless for the first time in her college career). Annnnnd, Stanford’s Jeannette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen were the last two players to beat UConn in 2008!

Travel safely to the game, come early, and expect long lines at the concession stands. Plan on eating out for dinner.

A Different Stanford Team Shows up and Crushes Xavier

R leans to me to be heard above the din and says, “This is a totally different team. This one is good.”

At the time, C and R were sitting with 4,493 fans who braved the misty rain (East coast readers are quoting the “We are a nation of wimps” mantra, but we almost went hydroplaning when we made that U-turn at Embarcadero and got our tennies wet walking back to our car, light rain is no laughing matter in Northern California, but I digress.) Anyhoo, C and R were sitting with all the Stanford fans that interrupted their Christmas vacation and played hooky from work to come out to a rare 1:00 PM game against Xavier, the game that C and R are billing as the revenge-of-the-double-missed-lay-up game from last year’s NCAA regional finals.

And ye of short term memory, that was the game where Jeanette Pohlen raced coast to coast with 4.4 seconds left and Xavier was too late in picking her up and let her score the game wining lay up. Well, she did that in this game not once, not twice, but three times! She took the inbounds pass after a Xavier score and went coast to coast, twice the defense did not pick her up and she made easy lay ups. The second time they showed the replay on the in house Jumbotron not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES as she passed her defender about the foul line and the second defender stood frozen on the opposite block and watched, watched from about 4 feet away as she scored easily. The third time she drove in the defenders at least saw her and moved; unfortunately they moved right in her way and fouled her. Didn’t they watch any game film? Although to be fair, Stanford again did some things they don’t normally do, so if Xavier did watch game film, Stanford surprised them. Tara has been surprising us all season with showing teams new things.

And as we said this team is different. This is not the team that lost at DePaul. This is not even the team that beat USF 100-45 to get Tara VanDerveer her 800th career win. This is a team that woulda-coulda-shoulda beat Tennessee. This is a team that can beat UConn.

So, dear reader, you are asking what is different about this team beating #4 Xavier by 37 points? (Thirty-seven points! Number 4 Xavier!). Well, first of all defense was king (Xavier didn’t score a point until 13:49 into the contest). Now Stanford IS a team that watches game film and devises a plan tailored to a specific team. Stanford played man-to man help defense, especially on number 53 Ta’Shia Phillips, who averages 13 points a game. She was limited to six. Nneka Ogwumike was on her and it was usually Kayla Pedersen or Jeanette Pohlen that came off their man and helped. Xavier never found the left-open player, as they usually were away from the ball. Their best scorer, 6-5 Amber Harris surprisingly played away from the basket and liked to hover around the 3 point line. Chiney Ogwumike was able limit Harris somewhat, and although she wasn’t 100%, she played 30 minutes and got 18 points, 2 away from her average.

And Stanford stole the ball, mostly by Kayla and Nneka playing that deny defense. I hope young girls were watching because they put on a defensive clinic.

Tara went with an opening lineup of two guards and three trees, (Jeanette, Lindy, Kayla, Nneka and Chiney respectively ). Lindy La Rocque was serious and in control. She played great defense, and even shot three threes and made two (she has been strangely silent on the scoring front this year).

Another huge change was offensive. Stanford started their offense in that predictable pass, pass, pass around the perimeter, then the post comes up to the three point line, gets the ball with her back to the basket and hands off to the guard. Xavier probably was thinking, oh yeah, like last year. And then, out of nowhere, the post turned to the basket and fired to a player cutting underneath. A wide-open player. Say What? Stanford did a great job all night looking inside, including when Xavier was in a 1-3-1 half court defense with 5-3 guard Shatyra Hawkes under the basket! Kayla, no slouch at 6-4, would sneak in at the block and have an easy basket. This happened several times. Say what, Xavier? And the first few times it happened, shouldn’t you adjust? But what do C and R know?

And could C and R believe their eyes, point guard Jeanette Pohlen was suddenly on the blocks down low, posting up, calling for the ball. What? She never, ever is given permission to go inside the three-point line on offense. She is usually the one that stays back to defend a fast break. But Xavier was in a man-to-man mode, and little Special Jennings, 5-6 or the same Shatyra Hawkes, all 5-3 of her, would be on Jeanette. Jeanette (and Tara) recognized the mismatch and took advantage of it. Stanford missed her the first few times down low, but when they hit her, she took it to the basket over her smaller opponent for easy points. Man, we have never seen that in all of Jeannette’s four years here!

And when Xavier, relying on last year’s film again we guess, pressed us after their basket, Jeannette raced the length of the court again for her third lay up! Hey Xavier, remember that time…

Okay, couple of plays that nearly brought down the house, a fast break with the ball in Jeanette’s hands and Nneka out on front pointing up in the air. JP gave her the alley oop and she caught it around the height of the backboard and shot it against the backboard without landing. Unfortunately the bank angle was too steep and it just missed. Then there was the leaping put back by Nneka, again, grabbing for the rebound at the height of her jump even though the ball was off to her right side, reaching out her arm and putting it back with same arm while in air. Fantastic. Not often seen in the women’s game.

Nneka leaping, Jeannette posting, Kayla stealing, three point T-shirts flying, C almost got one but fell into her back row seatmate’s lap, Tinkle driving, yes Tinkle who looked like she lost weight, Gracie coming in off the bench in the final seconds and getting a three, 30 point leads! Wow, glad this team showed up today. Hope they stick around for Thursday night.

Other possible headlines:
Xavier almost matched last year’s score, missing by one. Too bad Stanford scored 34 more points than last year (compare 55-53 to 89-52).
Jeannette drives the length of the court against Xavier for the lay in, not just once but many times.
Nine Nnekas leaping!
Bring On UConn!

Say It Ain’t So, Diana!

C and R favorite of favorites, so much that we overlook the fact she came from UConn, Diana Taurasi, has bee reported to have tested positive for a banned drug while playing basketball in the country of Turkey. Of course, all issues of privacy went out the window when the news was leaked, but like Pandora’s box, it’s out and in the news.


The first reports from her lawyer was that is it NOT a steroid. Okay, that piqued C and R’s interest enough that we dug deeper. Now it is being reported she tested positive for a stimulate, modafinil. Modafinil is used to counter excessive sleepiness due to narcolepsy, shift-work sleep disorder or sleep apnea, according to the website for the prescription drug Provigil. Man, she must have trouble staying awake over there is Turkey. To make matters worse, this very stimulate has been involved in several BALCO doping cases, most notably sprinter Kelli White. And we all know that BALCO was all about coming up with new and improved ways to HIDE steroid use. Sigh.

Taurasi has been suspended from European play and asked for her “B” sample to be tested. If the “B” sample is also positive, it could put her in jeopardy for the US National Team and Olympic lay in 2012. Augh!

Say it ain’t so.

VanDerveer Gets Win Number 800, Beating USF 100-45

The day dawned glorious before us: we had tickets to the exclusive, only-museum-in North-America hosting the post-impressionists from Paris (yes, we have other interests beside basketball, too), dinner in SF and a Stanford basketball game where head coach Tara VanDerveer was hoping to make history by wining number 800. What could be better?


It was only slightly misting when C and R made their way to the De Young Museum, and C especially enjoyed the Seurats, and that Van Gogh is some sort of crazy genius, both and separately, kinda like us. When it came time for dinner in the most cuisine friendly City by the Bay, we asked the trusted ol’ GPS and what did we pick? Mel’s Diner with burgers, fries and shakes. Walking back up the hill to USF, bloated, we see the Stanford bus and C waves like the bloomin’ idiot that she is, and that’s why you, dear reader, read us because we sure don’t get bogged down in things like facts or statistics of the Stanford games, now do we?

So C and R have finagled a press pass from USF, and if they are reading this post, I am sure they have morning-after regret. Plenty of back story on this game. Tara coaching against her two former and favorite players, USF head coach Jennifer Azzi, and assistant coach Katy Steding. Tara going for win number 800. Stanford dropping two on the road definitely need a “fix” of an easy win. The venue practically being a home game due to the proximity of Stanford. But we’re just happy to be here.

We get inside plenty early and chat with Tara VanDerveer’s mom, a delightful woman. She regaled us with stories, and said how happy she was to share this game with Tara.

We see Jennifer Azzi, still looking like she could play college ball, take a few minutes to address the young ladies and gentleman from Oakland Parks and Rec, who were here to see the game and get a taste of college life. She asked how many planned on attending college and just about all the young players raised their hands. Very cool.

R hits my shoulder, and good thing it was not the other way around as she is still nursing major surgery to hers, and says, “Chiney is wearing injured black.” We learn later in the post game press conference (yes, they let us in, hee hee) that Chiney turned it in practice and it is not major and should play the next game.

The starting line up is again juggled, with veterans Jeanette Pohlen, Necka Oqumike and Kayla Pedersen, Tinkle and Lindy. Tara alluded in the post game conference that this is the fifth starting line up she has experimented with and they need consistency and need to know what works down the road if they expect to compete.

Even though the house is not sold out, about 3,600 show up, a lot of it is Stanford faithful. We all expect a victory, and win number 800. So it is with dismay we see USF take the lead at the 14 minute mark, pulling ahead 11-10. Stanford looks ragged and slow on defense. The teams exchange leads several times, then something clicks. Stanford tightens up their D and they stop USF from scoring. Kayla looks like her old self before the head injury, and drives down the middle. We start hitting threes, including two by freshmen Sara James. USF gets stuck on 21, and go about 7 minutes without scoring until the half comes, and the half ends 21-48. Although, did you see the old inbounding-the-ball-off-the-opponents-backside-for-a-score-trick Tinkle did. Only a coach’s daughter could get away with that!

The second half opens and you can tell Nneka is feeling good. WE don’t let USF score until17-minute mark in the second half. A lot more of the second string get to play, for valuable experience, and perhaps not to embarrass her former player, Azzi. Sara James gets more playing time and she got the ball stolen a few times and showed she still can get rattled. Even with the bench players in, Stanford breaks 100 points and the final score ends up 100-45.

USF hands out Cardinal read signs that say “800” and “Congratulations Tara”. Jennifer gives Tara a warm hug, and some flowers and the game ball at center court. Tara returned the favor and spoke to the USF players after the game and told them to keep focusing on little things, which made Azzi happy because that’s what she tells her players every day.

At the post game conference, several reports asked Tara to reflect back on winnng 800, and she said, “I don’t even remember win number 700.” But that this was special and ironic to win it against Jennifer Azzi, the player that put Stanford on the map. She also appreciated winning it with “family” around to witness it, whether it be her sister and mother, or her extended family of former and current players and fans.

One thing Tara said to Kayla and Nneka as they were leaving the press area was, “See ya on Sunday.” Christmas day is Saturday. No rest for a team trying to find itself and resurrect a season in what is arguable their two toughest opponents in a two-day span.

And, oh, Azzi had to buy dinner for Tara.

Limited Seats Left for Stanford at USF

Tonight’s game at USF has limited tickets left. Reserved seating is sold out, but general tickets remain, so get there early if you need tickets! Game time is 6:30. Having Stanford, with its large following show up, coupled with the chance for head coach Tara VanDerveer going for win number 800 makes for good ticket sales for USF. Add to that it is USF’s annual "Pack the House Challenge" contest. Each year colleges compete to see who can get the most people to come to their gym on a certain night, and it seems like making the Stanford game the one is a little like cheating, or good business sense.

Speaking of good business sense, C and R had a hard time navigating the USF website. Couldn’t find the roster, current record, schedule in visible links. We had to dig deep. We thought we saw the Dons were 1-13, now we get a press release they are 2-9. Not that we want to short-change anyone a win, when so desperately needed, but someone needs to redo the website. C and R were sent a press kit for tonight’s game and they list Tara VanDerveer’s alma mater as Southern Utah (!) and that she graduated in 1994. Wow, how did she rack up 799 wins? They list her career record as 799-197, and her Stanford record as the same. No, she coached at Idaho and Ohio State and got some of those wins at those places. We’re just sayin’… someone needs to check their facts, and this from two people who routinely say whatever we think without fact checking.

Anyway, see you at the game.

Footnote:
Congratulations to UConn for… CONTINUING  THE STREAK of wins in women’s college basketball with win number 89. Some people have been comparing it to the UCLA men’s streak of 88, which is not the same game, just ask Geno Auriemma. Maya Moore was unbelievable, scoring a career high 41 points, and they beat FSU by 31. Got to see an interview of Tara VanDerveer as the last coach to beat UConn.

Come See Tara VanDerveer Make History at USF

If there is one silver lining to the fact Stanford Women’ Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer is stuck on number 799 and could not get win number 800 in two tries on the road it is that she comes back to the Bay Area to try in what amounts to a home game up the hill at USF. And it would be against her first favorite ex-player, Jennifer Azzi. The game is on Wednesday, December 22.

Lots of people have been eyeing Azzi, to see if the former great player can translate her success unto others, and so far her team sits at 1-13. In all fairness, these are not the players she recruited. Hopefully she can turn it around if not this year, then next.

Game time is 6:30 if you want to get front row seats on a piece of history, as everyone is expecting Tara to get win 800 Wednesday. C and R will be there, crashing the interview area. Plenty of tickets left, and the game time is not 7:00, as we saw listed on an old schedule some place, make sure you are there before 6:30.

Stanford Loses Two in a Row, This Time to Tennessee in OT

So faithful readers of the C and R’s Stanford Women’s Basketball blog will know C and R often give advice to 2-time national championship and Olympic gold medallist coach Tara VanDerveer. Never mind that we have never won a gold medal or a college basketball game or well, anything: we just feel qualified to give advice to the coach that has won 799 college games (and holding).

So our advice the last few years has been to stop taking out a player when they commit a foul. The trend seemed to start with Jayne Appel in her freshmen year. If she fouled, she came out of the game. It is a negative reward, the stick instead of the carrot, if you will, to teach her not to foul. Since Jayne has graduated, Tara, if we may call her by her first name, has kept the traditional alive this year.

In the game Stanford lost to DePaul on Thursday night, Stanford fouled a lot (Sarah Boothe fouled out in 17 minutes, which has to be some sort of record) and with the constant subbing, they never found thier offensive rhythm. And C and R scream and yell and rant and write not to take the starters out and lo and behold, in Sunday’s game against Tennessee Tara listened. (Yes C and R flatter themselves into believing Tara VanDerveer even pays attention to this blog!)

So, back to Tennessee, Tara left her starting five in when they fouled to give them a chance at unity and cohesiveness and then it came back to bite her in the behind when two players fouled out in overtime (note to Tara, never listen to C and R!) In fact, three of the starting five players had four fouls in the final minutes of regulation, and one was at three fouls, so it was inevitable we were going to get in trouble.

Unfortunately, it was Jeannette Pohlen who fouled out first early in the overtime period and it sunk us. Stanford self destructed in OT (sticky post it note to Tara all over her office, never, ever listen to C and R and always take out players when they foul to save them for the end). To be fair to C and R, the refs were up to some home cookin’ by calling ticky-tacky fouls against Stanford then letting Tennessee knock us to the ground for non-calls. We thought the game was horribly called.

Rewinding a bit, Kayla Pedersen was back in the line up against Tennessee after suffering headaches from hitting her head taking a charge against Fresno State. They kept saying she didn’t have a concussion because she passed the concussion tests, yet had headaches for days afterward. Isn’t that the definition of a concussion? And Kayla is good at taking tests. Just what were those concussion tests? What day is it? Who’s the current president? Can you solve for X in the polynomial x2 − 4x + 7 using non-negative integer exponents? What’s 2X times 4 where X is your score? (Insider joke for Stanford fans who sit by the band).

C and R cheered when we saw she was back in the line up, the team needed her. But she responded by missing her first seven shots. She was ice cold. Rusty. She would shoot 3-16 from the field, definitely not Kayla-like. And the refs started on some home court advantage in calling fouls and we were down 10 points early in the game.

To Stanford’s credit, near the end of the second half, they started to claw their way back. They did it with the veterans Jeannette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen and Nneka Ogwumike. They took the ball to the basket in transition before Tennessee was set in defense, and before Stanford would go into that stale half court offense where everyone stands in precise spots (Oops, we are giving free advice to Tara again and we all saw how that worked out). We felt lucky Stanford was only down 31-39 at half time.

Then Nneka showed up for the game (Hello Nneka, welcome to the Summit, now please score a basket) and we even took the lead with 9 minutes left on a Jeannette Pohlen three. She had another 20-some point game, too bad she fouled out. We even put some distance between us and Tennessee, going up by 6. Then Nneka disappeared, and when Stanford tried to make several passes to Nneka down low they were flat out stolen. And Stanford had some defensive lapses and their lead disappeared. After trading leads, Jeanette hit a three with one minute left to go up 70-67, but their freshmen countered and it was tied.

Then suddenly there are 5.1 seconds left in a tied-at-70 game and it is Stanford’s ball and they call time out. The first thing C and R say to each other is, did we set the Tivo to record overtime? Then the second thing we say is, remember that time against Xavier when there was 4.4 seconds left and Jeanette Pohlen raced the length of the floor and made the game wining lay up? But that would be too obvious. Then the third thing we say to each other is give it to freshman speedster Toni Kokenis, and since we know we have a direct ESP link to Tara, that’s exactly what Stanford does. Toni takes it up the court, dribbles behind her back to lose her defender but runs into two or three Tennessee players around the three point line and gets a weak shot off. She may be fast, but she is still a freshman and does not know how to finish like a Jeannette. (The ball hit the bottom of the net, and C and R instantly stood up and thought it had gone through the net, but it didn’t and we had to settle our hearts back down).

So now it is overtime and we have Boothe, Jeanette and Toni with 4 fouls and Nneka with three. Jeanette goes for a steal and fouls, is out of the game around the 4 miute mark and that sunk us. It’s funny, we thought we could play without any player but Kayla, but now we see we need Jeanette, too. Then Boothe loses the ball and fouls in frustration sixteen seconds later and we are just doomed. We lose 72-82 (the only points in OT came on Kayla’s free throws).

Tara will have to wait on win number 800 (and congratulations to Barbara Stevens, the DII coach of Bentley college who got her 800th win today and becomes the fifth college coach to join the 800 win club). If Tara does it Wednesday against USF and her favorite ex-player Jennifer Azzi, she will be the sixth coach.

See everyone up in SF.

Stanford Loses Big Time to DePaul, VanDerveer Stuck on Win 799.

Thursday night I am nose deep in lesson plans when R calls me in a panic.

*Ring Ring

C: Hello?

R: I have that stupid game tracker on my computer and Stanford is playing Depaul and they are LOSING!

C: Wait, who is this? And who is this “stanford’ you speak of?

R: You know it’s me and you know it’s Stanford and you know they are losing.

C: What? I didn't know they are losing, I am doing lesson plans and don't have game tracker open, it always makes my computer crash. Well, they always trail early in the game and then come on strong…

R: It’s almost half time and they are trailing by nine…

C: Okay, that’s not good.

R: I think my game tracker is frozen. Why oh why can’t the game be televised? I will restart my computer or something and call you back. Bye

*Ring Ring

C: Mike’s pizza, please hold.

R: You’re not funny and I think I figured it out. Kayla is not playing.

C: She must be feeling the effects from her concussion or whatever when she hit her head taking a charge in the Fresno State game.

R: Exactly. We are not okay without Kayla Pedersen, our security blanket. It’s now half time and Pohlen hit a three and we are only down by 2, 37 to 35.

C: I bet they are pressing us. We panic without Kayla.

R: Well, it’s hard to tell with the stupid game tracker, but it looks like we are turning the ball over a lot, and we are fouling, so we are subbing like crazy, Ruef, Tinkle, Sara James, Toni, so it must be hard to find a rhythm

C: What about the sisters? Our beloved Nneka and Chiney?

R: Scrolling through the play by play, it looks like Chiney is missing, then turning the ball over. Nneka hasn’t scored many points.

C: I wish Tara didn’t have the policy of taking out players when they foul. The constant subbing and different personnel sounds like we cannot get in an offensive flow. Call me back when half time starts.

*Ring Ring

R: We lost!

C: That was a quick half.

R: I didn’t want to bother you, and we never regained the lead in the second half.

C: Man, what was the final score?

R: DePaul won 91-71.

C: Wow, they killed us? I thought for sure Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike would save the day and pull out win number 800 for Tara.

R: We just fouled too much, and Depaul made a lot of threes. Nneka only scored 10 points. Plus Pat Summit and Vivian Stringer each got win number 800 against this DePaul coach so he was super motivated to NOT lose to Stanford.

C: Bummer, and since Tara didn’t get her career 800th win, now that Barbara Stevens from DII Bentley College will get there first.

R: I thought they kept Division I and Division II records separate.

C: Good point, but if Bentley wins before Stanford, then Tara VanDeveer will be the sixth coach not the fifth to join the club. Bentley plays Sunday and Stanford plays Sunday. Who is Stanford playing again?

C and R: Tennessee!!

C: Oh no, trying to win the 800th against Pat Summit on their court…

R: …Named after Pat Summit…

C: …Will be all but impossible! I thought we could beat Tennessee easily after the way we beat Texas, after all Baylor handled Tennessee but now I am not so sure.

R: Especially if Kayla stays out.

C: Especially if Kayla stays out. The junior bloggers told me Kayla started in the first game of her freshmen year and has not missed a game, for a total of 121 straight starts.

R: Gotta love those junior bloggers.

C: No wonder we panicked. Everyone there has played with Kayla every single game of their college career, and she is just so naturally strong at every position.

R: Well, at least the Tennessee game will be televised on a proper channel we actually get, so we can see for ourselves what is going down with Stanford on Sunday.

C: Get well soon, Kayla, Stanford needs you!

Stanford vs. Fresno State

C and R hurry to Maples, after all it has been exactly 14 day since we have seen the Stanford women’s basketball team play, live or tele-vised, and we are excited. R is out without her sling, giving her new and improved bionic shoulder a spin. We are pleased to see a good-sized crowd make its way to Maples Pavilion. Then we see the signs proclaiming it is “Dog Day’ at Maples, and we see some dogs and owners waiting outside. They are to perform at the half time show in the agility contests, and C would like to one day see what her time would be.

Ex-Stanford player and C's favorite of favorites, Candice Wiggins is sitting four rows and two chairs away from C and R, not that they notice her in her gray sweater and looking the picture of health. Here’s hoping all the leg/knee issues are healed.

C and R are surprised to see freshmen Toni Kokenis getting her first start, even if it is Fresno State. Head Coach Tara VanDerveer is going with a two guard set, Toni and veteran Jeanette Pohlen and her choice of three trees, Kayla Pedersen, Nneka Ogwumike and little sis Chiney, also a freshmen. Surprising, and it leaves Jocelyn Tinkle odd man out, although she would get used heavily as a sub.

Speaking of Tinkle, or Jingle, as she got inadvertently nicknamed due to our habit of bringing jingle bells to all the home game last years and ringing then when she stepped on the court, C and R have been remiss in getting that trend going again. So C wore her jingle necklace, and when Tinkle came in, we heard other sleigh bells going off.

In fact, we thought it was our good friend, Coach N, who brought some of the little girls from her team this year that were on the team we helped coach last year (time constraints aren’t allowing us to coach this year, bummer). We found them at half time and asked if it was them shaking their jingle bells like a good Montana-nite should and they said no, they still had their bells in their back pack, it was someone else. Good to know the trend has not completely died.

And speaking of Toni Kokenis, as we were before we got sidetracked on Jingle, it was good to see Toni show some emotion. She usually looks so serious and focused, as if nothing phases her, sort of like Tara. Toni missed a fast break lay up and said a bad word that we could never say in front of the little girls we did coach and then when she got called for a foul, she jumped up in the air and stomped on the floor as if to say, “NO way!” She also was smart enough to turn away from the officials as she as doing this lest she get a technical.

Which reminds us, the other team got a technical. It wasn’t for swearing, but for holding down Nneka. It was strange to see the official go to the little courtside monitor to look at the foul and see how flagrant it was before she assessed the technical. We thought they didn’t use instant reply in college basketball.

R has family members who attended Fresno State so although she did not want Fresno to win, she wanted them to do well, so it was she that put the small jinx on Stanford. Fresno was fast and aggressive, and held the lead for 7 minutes early in the first half. Of course, once Fresno got to the score to 9 to 13 around the 15 minute mark, Stanford shut them down and went on a scoring frenzy, scoring 33 to their 4. Half time score was 42-17.

Our man-to man defense was solid and we forced many shot clock violations. Nneka hit her sister, Chiney, with a pass under the basket and then it was as if our confidence soared to work the ball inside. The sisters Nneka and Chiney would finish with 17 and 18 points respectively. Sarah Boothe also had some easy baskets once we worked it inside.

Many dog pictures were shown and many dog videos got played, our favorite being the dachshund-type dogs on the treadmill trying to get the milkbone. Reminded C and R of our jobs, always running runing and getting nowhere, the allusive prize always out of reach (no,just kidding). Jeanette Pohlen became the 32nd Stanford player to score 1,000 points, and Tara got her 799th win. Many subs got to play, and Stanford would go on to win 77-40. Former Stanford player Ros Gold-Onwude got to interview Tara after the game for ESPN, and they played it on the jumbo tron.

Scary moment in the first half around the 8:22 minute mark when Kayla took a charge and hit her head hard on the floor. She was helped off and kept out of the rest of the game. C and R were sure it looked like a concussion. The papers would report they kept her out to be “cautionary”. And I think that was the longest we have been without Kayla in three and a half years. Kayla is a senior and once she made the starting line-up, we think, she has not missed a game, and has logged over half a game in minutes for each game she has been in. Kayla is usually our go-to person, that makes us feel confident and secure with her ball handling skills, excellent rebounding and ability to score a three or drive inside. We wonder how it felt to the rest of the team to not have her in?

Fresno State did press us little, and without Kayla, we did panic a little and lost the ball a couple times. Hope other teams do not look at that footage and get any funny ideas. And of course we hope Kayla is back in for most of the games. Stanford has a tough schedule coming up. Stanford travels to DePaul, and then number 8 Tennessee on their court and then back to Maples for number 4 Xavier (the revenge of the double-missed-lay-up game) and then, dun, dun, dun… number 1 UConn December 30th. Hope Kayla is rested and ready.

Just Who is in the 800-Win Club?

Quick order of business, we need to follow up on what coaches are in the 800-plus-win club. Reminder, Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer is just 2 wins away from joining that club. Last week or so, C and R asked our faithful viewers who else was in the club. And as anything else in our lives, the answer is complicated. Active, retired, percentages, which Division, all divisions, all time?

So I think we need to qualify it and say Division I college basketball coaches with 800 or more wins, active or retired. Most sites agree on this order:

1. Pat Summitt
2. Judy Conradt
3. C. Vivian Stringer
4. Sylvia Hatchell

C and R love that all the coaches that preceded her are women. (Geno is stuck around the 740’s, hee hee, although to be fair, he has THE highest win percentage to losses).

So VanDerveer will be the fifth coach to join that club. Well, yes, except Barbara Stevens of Division II Bentley College is practically tied with Tara, and what if she gets it first? Will VanDerveer become the 5^th or the 6^th college coach to join the club? Depends if you say “Division I” or “all time winneniest”. And yes, the NCAA records website uses the word “winningest” so we didn’t make that word up, unless they made that word up then we are all just using a made-up word. Anyway, go Tara.

Congratulations to superfan TG, who won the shirt, although he lost style points for not unearthing Barbara Stevens, and a special shout out to the junior bloggers, because hey, at least they pay attention when not doing homework!

Stanford is back in town Sunday against Fresno State!

Blog to Rally for Girls’ Sports Day

Hey, the National Women’s Law Center wants to draw attention to opportunities for women to play sports by holding a national “Blog to Rally for Girls’ Sports Day,” on December 8th and drawing attention to Title IX issues.


Let me quote their website:
The idea behind our Blog to Rally for Girls' Sports Day is simple: "What did you win by playing sports?" You can use this theme to begin discussing what the chance to participate in athletics programs meant to you and/or your daughter and how it has affected your lives.

Rally for Girls' Sports: She'll Win More Than a Game: Is to address the discrimination in athletics that girls still face in high schools nationwide, the National Women's Law Center launched the Rally for Girls' Sports: She'll Win More Than a Game campaign, which features advocacy and outreach to parents and other adults.

So I have been asked to write about what I won by playing sports… okay, you don’t have to ask me twice…

I could write volumes about how sports has meant to me, and a separate chapter about what it was meant for my almost grown daughter, but I won’t bore you with the details. I mean, I have a life long love affair with all things sports. Sports has shaped my life and body, defined who I am, revealed to me my closest friends and even became my job (PE teacher). I am my happiest when playing sports. I am the second-most-happiest when coaching and passing along my passion of sports. Sports were my earliest connection to people. I grew up with three tolerant older brothers and toddled after them, doing whatever they did all day, which just happened to be sports (well, mostly baseball back then, but we were very clever at making up our own games, such as freeze-ball tag, and our mother often yelled at us for the sound we made when we would throw tennis balls against the slanted roof to try and predict where they would bounce down).Sports helped see my though the turbulent times of high school, both as a stress reliever and as a built-in coolness factor with the popular kids. It was a shame I could only play three sports a year. There is not an American sport I have not played at some point in my life. But I won’t bore you with those details.

My daughter, I remember like yesterday, was a shy first grader who did not have much interest in catching balls like her ol' mom, no matter how much I cajoled her to play catch. But she really enjoyed swimming laps. Mindless, endless laps, although that’s not how she would refer to swimming. She loved the anonymity of the lane instead of the anxiety of competing against others head to head, and for years we cheered on her “personal best” ribbons instead of remarking what place she finished in. She wasn’t the fastest and didn’t need to be, she enjoyed being out there. It gave her confidence and purpose and access to instant friends. Then one day when she turned 14 and her shoulders grew from all those butterfly strokes, she actually touched the wall first in a race! No one was more surprised then she was! And then the competition bug bit her, and she wanted to be first every time.

I went to every swim meet, of course, but was never more proud of her then when she won first place in the 50 free her sophomore year of high school in a 20-team tournament against hundreds of other girls. The 50 free event in a swim meet is like the 100 yard dash event of track and field. It is the shortest distance and an all out swim. You swim down and back again in a 25 yard pool. It is a sprint and you hardly breathe. Blink and you miss it. Only the bestest, super fastiest girls, totally going all out, win this event. Times are separated by hundredths of seconds. You have to stretch, twist, reach, hold your breath, dig down deep, go into oxygen depravation mode and will your arm to grow a quater of an inch as you go for the finish…  And she touched the wall first.

I had to ask several parents, banging them on their shoulders “Did my daughter touch the wall first? Did my daughter win? Did she win?” I couldn’t believe it. My shy little girls who was not even able to say her name to adults in first grade touched the wall first! It is a moment that connected her to her team and connected us.

On a side note, she even brought pride to our little public school. We were matched up with quite a few “name” private school from our area, the schools that field all-star teams and year-around athletes with moneyed parents and private lessons and go on to swim at places such as Cal and Stanford. And my little daughter, from that “ghetto-school” as one private school parent derogatorily called us, won it all! Attuitude, Ha!

And she joined water polo in high school despite never throwing a ball much. And she was good! Even though the object of the game is to drown the other player. And when her team's goalie graduated, she decided to be the goalie even though she had never played goalie before in any sport and her reflexes were questionable, what with NOT having spent hours throwing a tennis ball against a slanted roof. And she became good. She was fearless. Girls would throw hard water polo balls 80 mph at her and she would block them. (She once scored a goal from the goalie position, swam out a few strokes then heaved it and as I followed the arc of the ball from my vantage point at the top of the stands I knew, just knew it was going in. And it did, right over the outstretched hands of the goalie).

Her favorite play was when she would make a save and the opposing player would swim after her in the goal, trying to scare her/pressure her/get her to give up the ball and get an easy score. Her coach taught her to swim to teh side with the ball in front of her face, pushing it with her chin, protecting the ball with arms on either side and churn her elbows up and down in an exaggerated motion so she was all-elbows to the opposing player. It was like trying to reach over a band saw, an elbow was sure to hit you and knock your teeth out. Opposing players would do that once a game and then wisely leave her alone. She would smile at them, daring them to come near. This from the shy first grader who would never harm a fly and always let more aggressive kids take her toys.

She decided not to pursue swimming in college, which shocked the swim community and me because she loved it so much. So what is she up to now? She decided to instead join the rugby team, which isn't too much different from the wrestling she did her last two years of high school.

Sports has given a lot to my daughter, the same as me, but in a completely different way.

But like I said, I don’t want to bore you with the details.

I could not imagine my life without sports, or the opportunity to play them, just as I could not imagine my daughter without all sports has given her. Please sport the girl or woman in your life to have opportunities to play sports.

Write in and share your sports story, and I will publish your thoughts.

And if you see a tennis ball, pick it up and bounce it. You’ll be surprised how your mood will improve.
C-
One half of C and R

Sorry Stanford Soccer

Our hearts go out to the Stanford Women’s Soccer Team. They made it all the way to the finals, the championship game, and lost a heartbreaker to Notre Dame 1-0. (C and R know that feeling, losing in the championship game, like the Stanford Women’ Basketball Team did last year to UConn). Even more heartbreaking, Stanford was going for its first ever soccer title. And even MORE heartbreaking, they were in the title game last year and lost that one, too, to their arch rival, well, everyone’s archrival, North Carolina. Sort of like UConn is everyone’s archrival. North Carolina was the soccer team’s UConn, and even more, more heartbreaking was the fact North Carolina was eliminated earlier in the tournament and with them out of the way, Stanford thought this was going to be THE year.

The game was on TV and R was able to watch it, what with C busy trying to learn Brazilian dance steps, the Salsa, and country line dances all in one day. R said Notre Dame’s Melissa Henderson played like the best player in the country. In fact, she said Notre Dame just seemed hungrier. Plus, several of our forwards, including our best, Christen Press are small, and their defense was able to win more of the headers. Maybe we need to recruit taller soccer players. (Hmm, wonder how Kayla Pedersen would do as a college soccer player. Does she have four years of soccer eligibility left?).

R, admittedly not a fountain of soccer knowledge, said a huge bright spot for Stanford was freshmen goal keeper Emily Oliver. Let’s quote her, “The score easily would have been 3 or 4 nil without her heroic saves”. Did you like the use of the word “nil”? It’s a soccer term meaning zero, which is what Stanford is in soccer titles, which is causing our eyes to tear up. To come so close, twice in two years, it has got to be harder to lose the second time around.

A small consolation is several Stanford players getting picked for the All-Tournament Team: Camille Levin, Christen Press and the fearless Emily Oliver.

Well, third times a charm and we wish them best of luck for next season.

Too Tall for Texas

Ice, Ice, Baby!

That’s Kayla Pedersen, BTW, during the Texas game, hitting those two technical free throws to put Stanford up 2-0 BEFORE THE GAME STARTED! BECAUSE TEXAS FORGOT TO SUBMIT A LINE UP BEFORE THE GAME! Oops, sorry for yelling, and yes… we know, we know C and R are extremely late on the Texas blog, the game that happened Sunday. (and for those of you who saw us buddy buddy with some Cal fans, they did not, repeat did not poison our salsa at Chevy’s where we went to discuss all things women’s basketball, and no, they are not so much Cal fans as fans of all of women basketball and impressed us with their fountain of knowledge of all other teams not named Stanford. We kinda forget to pay attention to those other teams….streak, what streak, who has a streak going on… BUT. I. DIGRESS.) Now I am yelling and being grammatically incorrect, something R hates, and now I am switching which person I am speaking in, and oh, be nice to me, I have had a headache of a week because I am teaching DANCE to my students. Sure yeah, if I was teaching basketball I could teach a cross over move on the way to a lay up to the basket like it was nobody’s business. But all this week I have been trying to memorize the steps to the Macarena, the limbo and the d'hammerschmiedsgselln (boy, did that dance just break my spell check). Google it, then try it with a friend, it’s fun!

And today I was doin’ the hula in one class and doing Bollywood dance in another.
NO. I. AM. NOT. LYING. AND. NO. THERE. ARE. NO. EXISITNG. PICTURES. (that I know of)
BUT… I………. DIE…..GRESS

No wonder I complain to R all the time that it takes me so long to write a Stanford Women’s basketball blog because I am already a jillion sentences in have not really talked about Stanford women’s basketball at all. Boy, I am not sending this baby to the serious sites that discuss women’s basketball. At all.

Anyhoo, back to Kayla, she is so smart. R called her perfection the way she shot those free throws before the game with a perfect arc-- it was nothing but net and no doubt! She is so smart. Also, when Kayla got her fourth foul with about 4 minutes left in the game, Tara sat back impassively instead of subbing her out. Why? Because she trusts Kayla. She trusts her to play smart and not get the last foul, unlike our beloved Chiney Ogwumike! WHO FOULED OUT! Well, first of all, we thought the officiating was really good, all three refs. And although the game was called tightly, it was called consistently tight for both sides. Texas quickly got everyone on their team in foul trouble. And Chiney couldn’t help herself! Poor sister Nneka was tossed around inside, too. Our Cal friends, who know a quality basketball player when they see one, said Nneka needs to put some meat on her bones. (Loved Kayla’s leaping tip-in, too!)

Okay, best live moment of the game you won’t see in a stat sheet: Kalya asking a question of the ref while the game was going on and him answering. It was when Kayla went for a defensive steal and knocked the ball away and kinda dribbled it then picked it up. She ended up with the ball in her hands and her elbows out as everyone ran down the court. I was wondering if she could dribble. Did that little pushing around count as a dribble. Kayla paused there with a thoughtful look on her face and actually turned to the ref and said, “Can I dribble?” The ref was getting ready to run down the court and stopped and looked at her. And I’m thinking (yes, I do that occasionally, too) that he won’t answer her, he is not allowed to answer her during live play, and he turns to her and says, “No.” So Kayla motions Jeannette back with her hand, she runs back down the court and Kayla passes it to her. Smart. And as for the ref, he probably was so shocked she asked, he just answered her automatically. Does anyone know, can a ref give a verbal ruling or answer a question like that during live play?

Scariest moment of the game: Watching Texas Tech warm up. Okay, technically that happened before the game, but when C and R first sat down, we saw how intense they were doing a man on man pressuring drill. And then we saw they had size like us. We thought oh no, they are going to press us with their long arms and pick on our lack of depth at guards. After watching Stanford play hum-ho against South Carolina, we were worried indeed. And then... Stanford came out and was all business, and a different team then the one of Friday. Boothe gave quality D, and we were successful when we dribble penetrated. And teams can stop full court pressing us right now; because we solved it right away. First we passed down-court quickly and got some easy baskets, a memorable one to Kayla all alone. And then we inserted frosh Toni Kokenis at point guard and she just out ran them before they could trap her. She out ran both pressing guards. It was great. Texas quickly called off the press.

And kudos to the big crowd. Friday’s game was sparse, it was nice to see a showing against a ranked team, and nice Stanford responded too, beating Texas 93-78. The game never really was in any doubt. (Oh, except when they led 6-9 in the opening minutes). Kayla scored 19 with 12 boards and Nneka added 22. Chiney got 14 before the foul out.

Reminder:
Head Coach Tara VanDerveer is only 2 victories from joining the tony 800 win club. She is trying to become the 5th women coach to do it. Quick, can you name the other 4? The first one to write in correctly (and can tell me where to find the answer) gets a “Fear the TreeS” T-shirt. Oh, oh, oh, Tara has more wins then Geno, by the way!

Good luck to the Stanford players who are taking finals and resting. We are sure Kayla, whose majors are communications and psychology is taking finals like..ah… Advanced Cognitive Neuroscience Computational Neuroimaging Analysis Methods and the affect on Cell Signaling and Behavior and the ever popular Neural Basis of Cognition: A Parallel Distributed Processing Approach and then the Applications of Parallel Distributed Processing Models to Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience.

And how to Dance the hula 101. (okay, I got those fancy titles off the Stanford psychology website and combined several together just to make R laugh, so if I even remotely guessed and got close to a real class Kayla is taking, it is all pure coincidence, Kayla’s parents, we are not stalking the players on campus. Only after games and at coffee shops and such. No, R is pulling out her hair with her one good shoulder, she hates when I call us stalkers, we are just normal fans. Well, mostly normal. A little Abnormal. Maybe we need a psychology class or two.. and maybe I need help with my digression.

Se ya at the next game whenever it is.
C-

Stanford vs South Carolina

It was great to see Stanford live and in person. C and R played host to R’s relatives (W + W, they are so cute!) and our good Bball friend P. W + W had never seen a live basketball game, men’s or women’s, and let me tell you Stanford, they were impressed. They were impressed with the size, natch, as C was sporting he “Fear the Trees” shirt, and their speed. And of course they loved the score! Half time was 35-11!

Stanford would go on to beat South Carolina 70-32, and W + W got to hear the brainiac cheer “2X plus 4, where X is your score!” Only at Stanford. We must have bored them to death about sisters Nneka and Chiney before the game. And yet how were the first four points scored? Sister to sister. Both times Chiney fed her older sister Nneka, but you could tell she was looking for her all the way. One close by fan said “They’ve been doing that for years!” W + W got treated to some ferocious defensive grabs from Nneka, too.

We got to see Stanford’s new and improved man-to-man defense, and the very new 1-3- that features Chiney’s desire to chase the ball. Both worked well. Stanford reacted quickly to South Carolina’s penetration, and then our height took care of the rest. It really was as if they hit trees. And, well, it wasn’t that Couth Carolina was bad, it’s just they had no three point shooters. If you can’t get anything inside, you need to go to plan B, and they just didn’t have one. A very glaring weakness. Stanford, on the other hand, is trying to up their accuracy and shot 42% from beyond the arc, which is a good thing, because we don’t dribble penetrate all that well, although freshmen Toni Kokenis was one of the few for Stanford to do that Friday.

Well, the real test will be Sunday against number 16 Texas. Oh, head coach Tara VanDerveer is just three wins away from the very elite 800 club!

Stanford vs Gonzaga Redux

Happy Thanksgiving from C and R! We are thankful Stanford will be back in town tomorrow and R gets to escape her house and life as a shut-in following shoulder surgery twice this weekend!

Heard from TG, who answered most of our questions from out last posting. Faithful readers with nothing to do will remember that we asked how others “saw” the game. TG said he utilized the “All-Access” pass you can get through Stanford’s website, we believe. He commented” no commentator, just audio from the court announcer and crowd noise. Miss all the insightful commentary :), but it's better than watching chess pawns shoot baskets.” (Meaning that gawd-awful game tracker).

And we also asked how Stanford barely squeaked by with a win when we beat them by 30 points last year. Here, let him tell you: (comments in parenthesis are ours)

1.  Great, great, energy in the Gonzaga sell-out crowd of 6,000.  Wonderful statement for women's BB in Spokane. (Yes, and their coach asked the community to fill the place for every game, not just this special occasion-let’s hope they do)

2.  Courtney Vandersloot is one of the best guards in the country.  She finished with 24 points, 10 assists on 1 turnover, and threw in 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and a blocked shot just for good measure.  Off the charts.

3. Stanford defensive rebounding was awful.  We gave them 21 offensive boards, to our 15, and overall rebounds were tied at 49.  Trees need to play like trees! (!!)

4.  On the other hand, it's probably the only time Gonzaga will lose at home all season-- they had a 19-game home streak broken, and they’ll easily make the NCAA tournament, and probably win at least a couple of games. (Ah, that answered the question about Gonzaga’s dramatic improvement)

5. Overall, a good, tough early season road win for the Cardinal - with lots of room for improvement. (We would say so!)

TG

OMG, did you catch “Trees need to play like trees!” We smell another T-shirt if that keeps up, hee hee. Thanks for the insight, TG, don’t go startin’ your own blog or anything, your comments are always welcome here!

Oh, forget to give a shout out to Kayla Pedersen! She almost scored a triple double against Gonzaga, scoring 8 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out 8 assists, which would have been the first since Nicole Powell had three in the 2001-02 season. But fear not, Kayla set a different record. The 10 rebounds put her at 1006! She is just the fourth player in Stanford women’s basketball history to do that. Who else is in the “1,000 rebound club”? Oh just Jayne Appel (Jayne!), the aforementioned Nicole Powell and Val Whiting. And… and, she is just 257 rebounds away from Apples record mark of 1263. You go, Kayla! Show them what Trees can do!

Mark your calendars. Stanford plays Friday against South Carolina at 1:00 PM and then gets a televised date with Texas at 12:30 on Sunday. See ya there!

Stanford vs Gonzaga

Oh yeah, with this smorgasbord of football this weekend, we almost forgot the Stanford Women’s Basketball team played a game Sunday against Gonzaga. Almost. Stanford is the highest ranked women’s team to visit Gonzaga, and in their honor they sold out their 6,000 seat stadium. Cool. It was only the second sell out for their women’s team, the first being Tennessee in 2008, but then again, we were higher-ranked! Hee hee.

Since the game was not televised or else C and R couldn’t figure out their stations, we didn’t see the game, so imagine our surprise when we read that Stanford holds off the ‘Zags 84-78! What?! Gonzaga even tied the game at 68 with just over 5 minutes left. Last year we beat them 105-74! Well, they did go on to have their best season last year and reach the sweet 16 for the first time in their school’s history, so maybe they have improved.

But boy Stanford, you sure are giving us plenty to worry about in the mean time. Are we going to be able to hang with the top-ranked teams? Don’t make those pollsters back East regret your number 3 or 2 or whatever the ranking is now.

Nneka Ogwumike got to play today, and it was a good thing because she lead the Cardinal in scoring with 21 and in rebounding with 14. So much for the “ankle-gate”, which didn’t even get started, although she did have her fingers taped for this game. Could that have been the “undisclosed medical condition” the Stanford officials gave out as the reason for her missing Friday’s game? Inquiring minds want to know.

C and R will be thankful to have Stanford back in CA for Thanksgiving. The next two games are at home over that Thanksgiving weekend. The first game is against South Carolina. Have we ever played them before? Can’t recall.

Happy Thanksgiving from C and R if we don’t see you first.

Stanford vs Utah

Yes, yes, yes, we knew former Stanford women’s basketball player Michelle Harrison is now playing on the Utah women’s basketball team, thanks to all who wrote, it’s just been a busy end of the week and C and R didn’t get time to write!

So, Michelle Harrison, who has a special place in C’s heart because she studied art at Stanford and C studied art in… palookaville, and Michelle played college basketball for Stanford and went with them to the final four several times and C played college basketball for her intramural team which won the championship trophy T-Shirt her freshmen year, and Michelle was a three time letter winner in golf in high school and C once got a par, so yes, you can see they have a lot in common. The similarities are endless! Hee hee.

No wait, let’s start again. Michelle Harrison played high school ball in the Provo area, and was much heralded and recruited locally. She chose Stanford in 2006, but blew out her ACL in the early part of the season in 2007 and then sat out. Spent 2008-2010 with Stanford, had an incredible ride, and last year was part of the Stanford team to beat Utah 60-41.

Now fast forward to the 2010-11 season. Michelle had to apply for a waiver from the NCAA to get one more year of eligibility, and she won, but Stanford had two other fifth year players returning and new recruits coming, so she was the odd man out. She has no hard feelings and still likes and respected Stanford head basketball coach Tara VanDerveer immensely. She even keeps in contact with some of her former teammates. But she had this year of eligibility left, and was still working on her masters of arts so… she contacted Utah, a school that recruited her heavily and said was there a place for her? And they said, “Come on down!”

Having a player with four years of coaching from a high level coach like VanDerveer, and a teaching coach to boot, it was like get a player and assistant coach all rolled in to one. With the added advantage Michelle knows how to win and what it takes to create a winning environment. We are sure she is going to be a tremendous asset to Utah. How cool!

And it paid off early on with a game against Stanford Friday night. Oh, the scoreboard will tell you Stanford won 62-53, but for Utah, they won a huge moral victory. They came within a point in the second half, and rebounded and played defense well, holding Stanford to 23 first half points. (Unfortunately Utah only got 15 first half points themselves) Michelley scored 14 points against her former teammates.

But wait, this is a Stanford Women’s Basketball Blog, not Utah’s so let’s get back to basics. Jeanette Pohlen led Stanford with 19, followed closely by Kayla Pedersen with 13 and Chiney Ogwumike with 12. Stanford was able to score or get fouled nearly every time they threw the ball inside in the second half, and C and R like that game plan.

And big sis Nneka Ogwumike was sorely missed, sitting out the game with a very vague “ankle injury”. The official Stanford website called it an “undisclosed medical problem”. Hmmm, C and R are skeptical, after the whole Jayne Appel “sprained-ankle-but-really-a-painful-stress-fracture-gate” at the end of last season. Let’s hope it is nothing serious.

We wish we had more to report about the actual game itself, but since it was not televised in our area, we didn’t see it. So of course we get an email first thing this morning saying, “Did you see the game?!” And "what the hecka is wrong with Nneka?" (Okay, the joke came from our bball friends, but they like Cal, so we are stealing the joke and giving no credit).

And how did they see the game? R actually called Comcast, our stupid cable company to see if we could get the “Mountain Channel” or whatever the channel was that supposedly had the Utah-Stanford game but Comcast said we don’t get it. And the next game against Gonzaga also is listed as being on TV, but Comcast said you could only get it if you have a HD-3D TV! C has HD, but they said no, it is only broadcast to the Sony HD-3D TV sets?! What? Someone, please help C and R and tell us if that game is televised or not? And they shouldn’t advertise the game is on TV if it is a channel no one gets! Or else we will start advertising fictitious games on our C and R channel. Sorry, we’re a little cranky.

Anyway, a win is a win for Stanford. Best of luck to Michelle for the rest of the season, but we are on a mission, and we need to get Nneka healed before… UConn!!

The Streak is Still Alive

Someone asked C and R who they were rooting for in the UConn/Baylor match up. C had to scratch her head a minute (bedbugs), she didn’t know, she doesn’t like either team! Hate Uconn, given, but what does she have against Baylor? Well, she will tell you… Baylor has the “most unique” women’s college basketball player in the country right now in 6-8 Brittney Griner, yet C feels she is not coached well. She should be getting every rebound, and the Baylor guards should be throwing a post-entry pass to her every time down. They don’t, Brittney gets boxed out, and Baylor loses, that’s on Kim Mulkey.

R usually likes the underdog, which we both feel is Baylor, despite their “number two in the country” ranking. She is a tried and true Sanford fan who feels THEY should have gotten the number two ranking.
But we both admit the game of the year didn’t disappoint, coming down to one point game in the closing seconds.

There certainly was a unique player on the court all right, but her name was Maya Moore. Two-time player of the year for UConn, she was phenomenal in the first half. Her threes were from NBA range. She stops and elevates for scores. And her defense was outstanding. She helped in double-teaming Brittney Griner and stole a lot of those entry passes. Baylor had 17 turnovers in the first half alone, most of it trying to get it to Brittney.

Look, it’s not hard. Griner’s an athletic 6-8 and can jump. Have her hold her hands up and throw it about two feet above that. Case closed. Actually, Baylor surprised the heck out of C by getting Brittney the ball early in the game. She either made it or was fouled. Then it stopped. Could be Maya Moore’s double team, could be UConn took their freshmen center off of her and had 6-1 Samarie Walker push Brittney around. The smaller player did an outstanding job pushing Brittney away from the basket (Why is Brittney catching the ball at the top of the three point line? Coaching) and boxed her out after the shots. They made Brittney disappear and only have 6 points in the first half. Oh, Brittney missed her free throws (5-13 from the line). Sorry, this ain’t high school and you team needs every point, as this one came down to the wire. (Coaching, Coaching, Coaching!)

Then half time happened, and for the first five minutes or so of the second half, UConn continued their lead, going up 44-29. Then… somehow, Baylor found Brittney again and went on a 27-4 run. Maya Moore stayed stuck at 20 points. Baylor got Brittney the entry-level pass we were all waiting for, she turned and fired, drawing fouls and showing a nice soft touch around the basket, causing two UConn centers to foul out. Brittney added 13 points for the second half to make 19 for the game (compare that to Maya Moore’s 30). But C still believes Brittney is not the player she should be, and you need to play both halves and have a complete game.

UConn was up 44-29 as we mentioned and blew a 16-point lead, but came back from 8 down to make it a one-point game with 36 seconds left. Then, the worst coaching blunder cam from none other than Baylor’s Kim Mulkey. UConn had the ball with 36 seconds, Baylor plays great D and when Maya Moore finally got the shot off, Brittney blocked it out of bounds with 2 seconds on the shot clock for UConn and 8 seconds in the game. UConn calls a time out, comes back to the floor, and Kim doesn’t like the way they set up for the out of bounds play and calls a time out, using Baylor’s FINAL time out. Now if Baylor gets the rebound or Uconn makes it, they need that time out to stop the clock and move the ball closer to the basket. But no, they waste their last one.

Sure enough, Maya airballs it (Maya airballs?!), Baylor rebounds it with 5 seconds left in the game, and NO TIME OUTS! Baylor has to dribble the length of the floor and shoot a ball well beyond the three-point arc. It comes up waaaay short and C and R immediately switch to “Glee” and debate if we like Gwyneth Paltrow as a sub for Mr. Shoe or not (One for one against).

But first, the basketball announcer said Baylor didn’t even get the shot off in time had it gone in. Think back to Jeanette Pohlen racing the floor with 4.4 seconds left to beat Xavier. That happened after Tara had called time out!! (Coaching!)

Terrible mistake, Baylor loses, the streak is still alive and will be waiting for Stanford in December, for that game of the year.

Game of the Year?

So, when UConn was on our schedule to come here, to Maples in December, to play the Stanford Women’s Basketball team, the last team that beat them, what, three years ago, and then lost to them in the NCAA Championship game last year, and the game was going to be the exact number of games to beat the UCLA men’s basketball streak of consecutive wins, it was going to be the game of the century. Well, UConn’s league added in some meaningless games to their schedule and now the game against Stanford is not the magical number and besides, UConn has to get by -sniff- number two Baylor, tomorrow, so now that game is being called the game of the year... so far.


Of all teams not named Stanford, experts agree Baylor has the best shot of stopping UConn this season. Baylor is lead by 6-8 shot blocking/dunk machine Brittney Griner.

The game is being televised, and is set for 6 PM EST, and after a frantic search for all basketball games at 6 PM on our Tivo, we remembered our math and calculated the game starts at 3 PM our time. C and R have to work and or nap at that time, so we are taping it. Please don’t call, email, text, chat or send smoke signals about the game. We will be watching it later in the evening, unless “Glee” comes on, then we’re screwed.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how much Brittney Griner has improved. BTW, didn’t one of the Baylor guards quit? A quick internet-thingie search says it was starting point guard Kelli Griffin who quit days before the season opener. That can’t be good. And more googling turned up that the new Baylor freshmen guard, Makenzie Robertson is fiery Baylor coach Kim Mulkey’s daughter!! Wow, that’s got to be tough. We mean, has that even ever happened before, a Mom coaching her daughter in a DI school in a top 10 program?

Wonder if they had any special NCAA rules to follow about no contact or special gifts or considerations when she was in the recruiting process. (Not that we are saying Kim violated any rules, just that there are specific recruiting rules that would be hard to follow as mother/daughter, such as they can’t see/talk to each other before signing up, although maybe her daughter was a typical teenager and locked herself in her room 24/7!). Geez, how did we get so off-track? We just wanted to tell our faithful fans about this match up.

Anyway, tune in or record this game of the year and scout UConn for Tara, won’t you? We know we will. Hee hee (That’s Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer and we are SURE she would love to hear from us!)

Stanford Women's Basketball Team vs. Rutgers

Oh joy, oh joy, the first (real) game of the Stanford Women’s Basketball season is here and R finally gets to leave her house (Shut-in from shoulder surgery). And it was a glorious day on the Stanford campus, the weather was perfect, high 70’s, the campus was hummin’, and NCAA women’s soccer was being held, right down the block from Maples. We stopped to see Stanford taking on Santa Clara, which is bittersweet for us as C always took the soccer teams she coached down the road to Santa Clara and cheered for them. Stanford was attacking from the opening kick-off, and it was no wonder they would win 2-1 and advance in the tournament. Sorry Santa Clara.

Maples was its usual sauna, which felt good, and no one bumped into R’s arm, so that was doubly good. Warm ups were fun to watch, and it was evident to C that sisters Nneka and Chiney truly like each other and enjoy playing together. And Chiney is ALL business. She wants it. She wants the ball, the basket, the rebound, to be the head of the line, she wants it. You can’t teach that, it is just there from the get-go and Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer took advantage of that.

From the opening tip off, which Nneka won, Chiney was a beast. She grabbed the offensive rebound and muscled it back in. For someone who doesn’t weigh very much, she sure can fight to the basket, to Rutgers chagrin. And yes, the freshmen Chiney started. It was Nneka and Chiney, Joslyn Tinkle, Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen. Fear the Trees indeed! Our smallest player was 6 feet. In fact, Chiney owned the offensive paint when she was in, getting 12 boards, 5 of them on offense.

Stanford took a lead but Rutgers, to their credit, hung around. Speed was a big weapon for them and they were very fast in the transition game, pushing the ball and it was 32-29 Stanford at the half.

And hey, Stanford, where were the free shirts for the threes Stanford made? Gotta throw those out to the fans, especially in our section!

C and R were a little disappointed at how Tara kept the offense so disciplined and regimented to the point were it stifled some of our creativity. The point guard stopped at the top of the circle and passed around the perimeter. Tinkle connected with a couple of threes, but with our height, it seemed we should be working it inside more. It wasn’t until the second half we had the guards drive and create something, or kick it out to a now-open players. Freshmen Toni Kokenis did this a few times. It certainly opened the game up for Stanford and we were able to pull away from Rutgers.

And we saw something we haven’t seen in a long time. Tara played a 1-3-1 trap defense, with Chiney at the point. Chiney has that desire to be around the ball, chasing it on defense. When we saw her play in the summer league and her team played man to man, she would often leave her man to try and steal the ball and we thought Tara would hate to see that. Instead, the mastermind coach saw it and used it to her advantage. She played Chiney at the point and let her chase, trap the ball and otherwise hound the ball carrier. Chiney loved it and put out tremendous energy. She is going to be great on offense and defense.

But it was sister Nneka to the rescue for the Cardinal on offense. Early in the second half, when Stanford opened up their offense a little more, she drove in and would pull up for a jumper, and she out-jumped the defense for easy scores. C and R loved seeing that instead of the set passing. And did you see her rebound? On her defensive rebounds she skied so high and tore them away from everyone. Hecka Nneka indeed! She would end up with 20 of Stanford’s 63 points. Rutgers would end up with 50.

Oh, it was cute when Stanford was on defense and playing man to man, Chiney kept yelling “Nneka, Nnecka!” every few seconds, if the ball went anywhere near her sister. And we saw the sister–ESP when Nneka was open down low and the pass instead went to Chiney up high, she immediately gave a no-look pass to Nneka down low.  It is going to be fun to see these two play together, and we hope Tara will play Chiney more, as she only played her 21 minutes.

We did get to see a lot of Toni Kokenis, who played point, which is a bold move for Tara to trust a freshmen so early in the season. Well, Toni is fast, as when Rutgers pressed us with about 2 minutes left, Toni outran two of the Rutgers players. We got a little peek at another freshmen, Sara James, but she wasn’t in long enough to make a splash.

All in all a fun game and we have no where to go but up! Too bad the next two games are away!

A special shout out to all our Stanford friends that said hi to us at half time (you know who you are!).

No Bad (Stanford) News

Ya know, it’s funny; R just asked me if I had heard from our junior bloggers this season. Faithful readers like Mom will know that the junior bloggers are still in school and almost as obsessed with Stanford Women’s Basketball as we are. Almost. And they have even taught C and R a thing or two in the stalking department. So it was serendipitous (it’s okay, they live near Stanford and that radius automatically boasts your vocabulary level by about 20 points on the SAT and they know even bigger words than C and R), serendipitous that I should receive an email from one of them today, taking a break from her algebra homework or facebooking or whatever the devil it is kids do today.


It was on the subject of who (whom?-- I never know, I don’t live in the radius of Stanford and therefore I are dumb) who Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer should get rid of if we have six recruits coming in 2011 and five active seniors graduating, which was the subject of our last post.

It began: Hey Stupid Idiots….
No, no, no, the junior bloggers are waaaaay too polite to begin a letter like that.
So it really began, DEAR Stupid Idiots….
No, no, no, and right now Mama Junior blogger has had a heart attack twice over. No, Junior Mama, just kidding, your daughter is very polite and very nice. In fact, she was so polite she wrote and said she wanted to point out a small detail I forgot. She said there are 15 scholarship spots and we have 14 players on the roster now with one spot open due to JJ Hones being dismissed last year, so we have six spots open.

Isn’t that cute, saying we “forgot” that detail, instead of calling us out and saying you idiots forgot about the void from JJ, which is what really happened (and thank you to other email writers who are not junior bloggers to point out the same thing to us). So although we are embarrassed, we are relieved Tara does not have to make the difficult decision to let someone go before they are a senior.

Well, the season is almost here, although I have to dish that one of the junior bloggers is going to MISS the Rutgers game, and I am so upset I think I might have to revoke her Tinkle bell. But it is okay, she is going to Yosemite, which is R’s favorite place in the world, so she is excused and gets to keep the Tinkle bell and will make the next home game!

How Many Recruits?

The Good News:
The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team signed six recruits for next year, and the recruiting class was ranked number four in the nation. Read all about their incredible accomplishments. (One is from Jayne Appel's old high school!)

The Bad News:
There are only five seniors listed on the roster. Who is Stanford Head Coach Tara getting rid of?

Convincing Win

Sounds like the Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s 100-52 win over UC San Diego on Tuesday was a lot of fun. Too bad C and R missed it, what with “Glee” on and all. No, R is still healing from her bionic shoulder, so we skipped this exhibition game. It will be hard for R to make the opening game, but when we saw it is Rutgers, well, she is saving her pain pills for Sunday!

Ogwumike leads the way, but it was Chiney, not Nneka, although C and R were cheered to hear Nneka played after sitting out the first exhibition game with a sore ankle. Hecka Nneka* (registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending) just played 13 minutes. Hope she is going to be okay to go for Rutgers.

Chiney, healthy as a horse, scored 24, almost a quarter of the points, and Stanford shot 75% from the field. Whew! Although the three point shot was not a threat in this game, who needs that when you have rebounders such as Sarah Boothe, Joslyn Tinkle, Kayla Pedersen, Ogwumikes squared… did we leave anyone else out. Fear the TreeS!* (Registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending).

Tara is sure trying out Toni Kokenis at point. It will be interesting to see how the freshman holds up in a game against say, Rutgers. Did we mention Rutgers is coming to town? (BTW, Tara is Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer- registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending… nah, just kidding on that one!)

Oh, we got an email from a fan that was actually at the game. Her observations were that in the Van Guard game, everyone, and we mean EVERYONE, was told to shoot threes. In this game, it seemed Tara said only shoot twos. In fact, everything should be a lay up. Boy, if any of that is true, we truly ARE a versatile team! Thanks PM!

If you bump into C and R at the “real” game on Sunday, make sure not to bump into R’s arm, as she needs to heal. See ya there!

Pre Season Favorites?

Stanford’s Nncka Ogwumike has been voted a preseason All-American, C and R see, but what about Kayla Pedersen? What, cannot have two players from the same team? Man, that’s cold. To quote someone from the internet, all that matters is how you are voted post-season. Hee hee.

Stanford Says "An Guard Vanguard"

The day dawns bittersweet, as this is the first, albeit it exhibition, game of the Stanford women’s basketball season, yet R cannot make it due to her broken wing. She graciously gives up her ticket to C and R’s good friend, P, a dyed in the wool Stanford Women’s basketball fan.


Granted, Stanford is only playing Vanguard, which confuses me because my retirement fund is with Vanguard, the investment company, and I bet the college loses today as much as I lost last year with the retirement company, or something like that, you know what I mean, I make a similar joke like that every year.

P, decked out in her finest Stanford gear, shows up around noon to attend the game with C. She brings a story. She was shopping this morning and the clerk, noticing her Stanford shirt, asks if she is going to the game today. She replies yes-indeedy, and the clerk says she hopes they beat Arizona. Arizona? Oh, she meant the MEN’S football team, not the women’s basketball team. C and R hate when that happens.

P and C make it to Stanford with plenty of time for the 2 PM game, but with the men’s football team set to play at 5 PM, traffic is fierce and parking is nil. We end up parking far away in some residential area and hoofing it to Maples. We make it in time for the National Anthem.

We see them warming up, Kayla Pedersen looks the same, and look, there’s Chiney Ogwumike, C wonders how she is going to contribute in her rookie season, and what the hecka is wrong with Nneka!! (Okay, kudos to P for giving me that joke.) Nneka is wearing the black sweat-suit-of injury and looking dejected along with Mel Murphy (knee surgery), and Hannah Donaghe (torn ACL). We later read she is nursing a left ankle sprain. We will need her for Rutgers in a week.

The first thing P notices as we sit down in R’s seats is that Vanguard looks so short. Why, we think P is taller than their center. The second thing P notices is that Jayne Appel is sitting courtside, in all her blond-haired-and-booted-foot glory. Soon Ros Gold-Onwude joins her, and we wonder what the former Stanford players think and feel not being a part of the Stanford line up for the first time in four years? Well, they were all smiles.

Starters take the floor, and it’s seniors Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen, of course, along with Sarah Boothe, Joslyn Tinkle, and, oh, Chiney Ogwumike. Good, head coach Tara VanDerveer likes what she’s seen in the 30 or so days of practice they have had.

We win the tip off, what with 6-5 Sarah Boothe against their 5-3 center (Well, she certainly looked 5-3). And from the first play we discover Chiney is a beast! She grabs the offensive rebound and puts it back up. She looks hungry for the ball and wants to score points. She misses her first free throw and C resists the urge to yell her age-old anthem, “this ain’t high school!”

Tara lets everyone in the game, giving freshmen Toni Kokenis a taste of point guard, and Sara James a shot at the off guard spot. At one point, it was a true freshmen-to-freshmen connection, with Toni running a fast break and passing to Sara for the score, and Sara passing to Chiney as she out-maneuvered her defender for the score. How much will we rely on our freshmen this year?

Even Lindy LaRoque gets in the game, which is surprising since we last heard she was hurt and might be out for the season.

With our height of trees, we out rebound them 67-27, especially offensively, and freshmen Sara James bombs a three to get us to 100 points. Where’s the free pizza, Stanford? Oh, BTW, what was up with poor Hannah doing the “three-point” duty? You know, when Stanford hits a three-pointer, someone from the end of the bench runs to the head of the bench and high-fives everyone. Poor gimpy Hannah, missing her ACL had to hobble down the line 14 times! Shouldn’t we get someone who has two good knees to do that job?

Wanna hear the box scores? You should, they are impressive. Kayla had 25 points and Chiney had 24. Jeanette Pohlen and Sara James each got 16, and Tinkle and Boothe each got 10. Granted it was against Charles Schwab, I mean Vanguard, but still. Oh, final score was 116-65.

One more exhibition game then on to Rutgers to start the season. Boy, Stanford doesn’t waste time testing themselves, do they?

Dunk School

So, women's basketball player Baylor’s Brittney Griner can dunk, so what, so can our Nneka, and she even takes out cameras! And yes, her hand WAS above the rim in Stanford's gym!



Well, it was all in part for Stanford’s “Dunk Schoool”, cuz, ya kow, those Stanford kids are so smart they are always in school or learnin’ or somethin’—enjoy!



Remember boys and girls,
plant
jump
throw down
rinse and repeat
See ya at the game!