Saturday, September 28, 2013

More Bad News for Stanford Women’s Basketball

The Stanford Women’s Basketball team announced via Twitter that red-shirt freshmen Aly Beebe will medically retire. The Twitter announcement was short, and there was no accompanying article on the Stanford Women’s Basketball website. But both the San Jose Mercury and San Fran Chron had a short blurb. Yes, it was knee related.

Aly Beebe
Aly Beebe - her Stanford Roster Picture has since been taken down.
Aly Beebe had an ACL injury in July of this year during Stanford summer practice that would force her to miss the upcoming 2013-14 season. She already sat out her freshmen year at Stanford due to a torn ACL she received in high school. She has previously torn her ACL once before. So with three knee surgeries for one so young, and she has retired from basketball. 

Aly was a champion high jumper in high school and it would have been great to see her leap like the Ogwumikes and compliment the rebounding role with the remaining Chiney. But what-ifs are hard on everybody. At least she has her education to fall back on and help her start her next chapter in life. We wish her well.

In other news, Team USA invited a select group of women basketball players to a training camp in October. Stanford alums Jayne Appel and Nneka Ogwumike, already pros in the WNBA, were invited. A few college players were also invited, current Stanford player Chiney Ogwumike among them. Stanford Women’s Basketball reported, again via Twitter, that she respectfully declined to concentrate on her upcoming Stanford season. Love Chiney’s dedication to Stanford. Hmmm, Olympics in 2016 with the Ogwmikes? Would be cool!

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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Stanford Women’s Basketball Team Tours Italy

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team started their season early with a trip to Italy for sight seeing and some basketball. The nice thing for the program was the ability to start practice earlier in the season. The nice thing for the students is they get to tour Italy and soak up some different culture and taste some wonderful food.

All this is evidenced in a great video edited by Stanford player Sara James. She has a future in video any time she wants it.


Her description:
Stanford women's basketball took a trip to Italy before their 2013-14 season. They visited four cities, including Rome, Siena, Florence, and Venice. They played three games against European teams. The trip began on August 27th 2013 and ended on September 5th 2013. Go card!

Stanford has taken advantage of these NCAA sanctioned trips in the past, as it always them to get in some extra practice before the fall season. Others teams did as well, as Cal went to China this year (photos from the Great Wall were cute!). This year the early play might not be as impactful due to a new NCAA rule that a coach can workout with their players eight hours a week, two on the court, if the athletes are enrolled in summer school or have met certain academic benchmarks. Either way, glad to see Stanford back at it.

Looking forward to the upcoming season!

More Stanford Video at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog

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