Belibi Me, it's March Madness for College Woman's Basketball

March Madness is officially here for Women's Collage Basketball. And by officially here, I don't just mean on the calendar. This year, for the first time, the Women's game can use the words "March Madness!" For those of you that remember last year at this time (I know, it's been a long year), that the men got a full weight room and the women got a few yoga mats and a pyramid of dumbbells your granny would use. BTW, it was Stanford athletic trainer Ali Kershner who first brought the issue to light. I love looking back at this and seeing how the NCAA tourney officials responded the next day saying there was a lack of space and Oregon's Sedona Prince filmed ALL THE SPACE that was there. Ah, the power of social media to still keep fighting for something that should have happened in 1972 with the passing of Title IX.

But I digress.

For C and R are here to talk about the first round of the Stanford Women's Basketball team's win in the first round of 64 (now 68, with 4 play in in games, just like the men's) over Montana State. As you can expect, when a number 1 seed plays a number 16 seed, there will be a blow out (except for that one time...). Heck, South Carolina earlier in the day beat Howard by almost 60 points. Stanford doesn't typically blow out teams like that, with the final score in their game being 78-37, but they did do something historic. In the first quarter, they held Montana State scoreless. In fact, their first points didn't come until 9 minutes in the second. That was the first time Stanford has ever held an opponent scoreless in any time period, and you know Stanford has a lot of history. That was impressive.

But that wasn't even the most impressive thing that happened that night. The most impressive thing that happened that night was Fran Belibi's dunk! Well, a dunk is always amazing in the women's game, but she BLOCKED a three point shot first, corralled the ball, ran down court and then took two long, long strides and dunked, above the rim! Here see for yourself:

FRAN BELIBI WITH THE BLOCK AND DUNK 🔥 @HighlightHER

(via @StanfordWBB)pic.twitter.com/IhtEp8BdR0

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 19, 2022

Check out the bench reaction at the end of the video!

Did we mention it was above the rim?

She got a 30 second standing ovation from the home crowd!

And yes, we all wanted to faint!

The bench reaction to Fran Belibi's dunk 😂

🎥 @StanfordWBBpic.twitter.com/fjaXUgaS72

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 19, 2022

We love this quote from an ESPN article: "Thinking back on plays people don't remember, 'Oh, it was a really cool 3-point shot' or 'It was a great shot.' People remember the dunks," added  Lexie Hull. "I remember every single one of Fran's. To be right there was super cool and definitely a memory I'll have forever."

It's not the first dunk in women's NCAA tournament history. The first belongs to the peerless Candace Parker, followed up by Brittney Griner in 2013. It is the third but no less thrilling. Fran said later in an interview she was getting grief from her teammates because she had not dunked in a game this year so she was itching to do it. Fran dunked twice last year, but that being the Covid year, no one was in the stands to see it, let alone cheer for it.

"I went for it"

Fran Belibi on her dunk against Montana State 😤@MarchMadnessWBB | #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/iOZe8NdzDh

— FanSided (@FanSided) March 19, 2022

This time she got her standing ovation and love from her home town crowd. Plus trending on Twitter. Something special to remember for a first round game! 

Follow C and R on Twitter, too!

Stanford Seniors Save the day for Stanford Women's Basketball

Dear me, it's the end of February already and Ca and R haven't blogged even once. And we even had a New Year's resolution to blog more, after all the Stanford Women's Basketball team battled Covid, went on the road for 63 days, couldn't do laundry or even sleep in their own beds and still won the National Championship, the lease we could do was write a little bog now and then.

Sigh, okay here goes. Stanford won the PAC-12 regular season championship by going undefeated in conference play (16-0). Yay. The last two games, though, their offense stalled. Boo. This team, so Jekyll and Hyde.

The last game of the season was against lowly Washington, and if not for the defense to offensive heroics of SIXTH year senior Anna Wilson, all would have been lost.

Speaking of seniors, sixth year or otherwise, it was senior day for Stanford, and years ago Stanford smartly moved the ceremony to after the game. Anna said 'Stanford's meant absolutely everything to me' after the win. Believe me, there was a lot of water works as Stanford honored Alyssa Jerome, Anna Wilson, graduate transfer Jordan Hamilton and sisters Lexie and Lacie Hull. 

Oh, we do have to share one story Mrs. Hull shared about wihen Tara was recruiting their daughters. She asked Tara what do the players do for fun. Tara had a blank look and then said, we win, that's what we do for fun (Tara is never not thinking about winning).

So, as mentioned previously, Stanford finished the PAC-12 season undefeated for the 8th time in program history. How hard is that to do once? Well no other Pac-12 program has done it once. Stanford's done it 8 times! And, Tara VanDerveer continues to extend her record as the winningest women's basketball coach in D-1 history with 1150 career wins and is just two wins away from 1,000 with Stanford. Must people talk about setting a a culture of excellence. Tara lives and breathes it.

It looks like C and R are going to the PAC-12 tournament, so hopefully we can give you updates from courtside (if we are not too busy gambling or playing pickleball!).

Hope to be more verbal on the blog in the coming days as we head into March. 

Yours in Basketball,

C and R

And as always, follow C and R on Twitter, where we are the snarkiest.