C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog

Exciting Finish to Stanford-Cal game

2012-01-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, a well-hyped game that lived up to its promise! C and R, are of course, talking about the Stanford-Cal women’s basketball game. It featured freshmen vs. freshmen, a career high scoring and rebounding night for one player, tough rebounding, one team clawing back to force overtime and one Hall of Fame coach and one who executed a great game plan and put her team in position to win. Of course, it’s easier to enjoy the game after the fact when your team wins, as Stanford did, beating Cal 74-71 in OT. Let’s get to the highlights (or low lights, in some cases).

Freshmen vs. Freshmen:
This game featured two starting freshmen guards, one for each team. For Stanford, Amber Orrrrange and for Cal Brittany Boyd. Brittany Boyd was talked about the most in the press, and they kept emphasizing she is not a scorer but a playmaker, she gets others involved and leads the way with assists. Today she channeled another great Cal guard, Alexis Grey Lawson, who was a point guard who drove to the basket and scored, sometimes to the detriment of a pass. Today Boyd was that scorer. She drove the lane and went inside and scored 14 first half points. The two freshmen were guarding each other for the first few minutes but then Orrrrange fouled and went to the bench. She came back in and fouled again and went to the bench again, where she stayed for the rest of the first half. She came in briefly in the second half, disappeared and then came in to a tight game with a minute and a half left where she got a block but made a crucial turnover, then got yanked and did not return for the rest of the game. Her stat line, 10 minutes, no points, one assist, one block. C and R wonder had she stayed in longer, she could get into a rhythm. In the second half, Brittany Boyd drove the lane but pulled up and made some impressive shots. She would finish with 19 points. She was full of confidence and shot the ball almost every time she touched it, and kept Cal in the game.

Career high scoring night and rebounding night for one player:
First, let’s talk about who it was not. It was not Stanford’s all-everything Nneka Ogwumike. She had what you might call an off night, and we will get to why she had such an off night in a moment. She “only” scored 12 points for the game, 8 in the first half. More importantly, she shot 6-18, read, she missed a lot of shots she normally makes. And she “only” got 9 rebounds (we say only because that would be a great night for a sixth man, but all year Stanford has lived by Nneka’s ability to rebound and score in the 20’s, and not many have stepped up to help her). Would someone tonight? Yes they would, enter her sister, Chiney. Or as C and R like to say, Chin-nay saves the day.
Chiney scored a career high 27 points, 13 in the first half, and most importantly, was the only Stanford player to score a basket in the five minute overtime period. She also was a beast on the boards, grabbing a whopping 18 of them. Which leads us to…

Tough rebounding:
Cal came into the game second in the nation in rebounding and first in the conference during conference play, according to Nate at Swish Appeal, which surprised the heck out of C and R. Because every Stanford game we’ve seen, including conference play, Stanford out rebounded everyone, especially the sisters Ogwumike (Ogwumikii, nicknamed by Cal Golden Blogs). Something had to give. Cal did an outstanding job boxing out and establishing position under the basket on both ends and keyed on keeping Nneka off the boards. When she did grab a rebound on offense, two players swarmed her and stripped her of the ball numerous times, taking away her ability to score. But Cal did such a great job keying on her, they left Chiney open to gobble up boards and put them back for points, hence the 27 points and 18 boards. The rebounding totals for the game were 47 for Cal and 51 for Stanford. From the stands, we thought Cal had the rebounding edge.

One team clawing back to force overtime:
That team was Cal, if you haven’t figured that out. The game was back and forth, and around the 12-minute mark in the second half, Stanford did their usual “take over” at Maples. Toni Kokenis hits a three pointer, the crowd of 6,000 goes crazy, steal and quick pass to Chiney for a lay up, crowd on their feet, time out by Cal Coach Lindsey Gottlieb, now fans giving energy and love communicating, oh yeah, we go this! But red Stanford hats off to Cal, they didn’t back down. Brittany kept driving and now she got help from Layshia Clarendon, who would drive in and pull up for a jumper near the foul line. In fact, that seemed to be the only play Cal could make, but it worked every time. And our guards can’t seem to jump to contest that shot, so they both scored that way. Clarendon scored 17, including a three-pointer with 36 seconds left to evaporate Stanford’s 11-point lead down to 2, 69-67. She also hit 2 free throws to send the game into overtime at 69.

But it was only her and Brittany in double figures; they needed one more scorer. Ditto for Stanford, the Ogwumikes were doing their part, and Toni Kokenis used her quickness to drive in and hit pull-up Js of her own and she scored 18. Again, 3 players scoring 57 of 74 points is troublesome. We need more balance. Quick side note, Stanford’s Hall of Fame Coach Tara VanDerveer inserted freshmen three-point specialist Bonnie Samuelson at the five-minute mark in the second half and she hit two three-pointers in a span of 30 seconds to put Stanford up by 9 with 3:14 left. Unfortunately, it would be the last basket of the half for Stanford, letting Cal come back to force overtime, where Chiney’s basket and a free throw by her and one by Toni would hold up to just a 2-point basket for Cal. ‘Nother side note, why did Claredon get off two three-point shots in 9 seconds that would have forced a second over time? Someone guard her, please.

Cal’s rookie coach impresses:
Her game plan was to limit all-star Nneka Ogwumike and dare Stanford to beat them with other players. It almost worked. It wasn’t so much that Nneka had a bad game; it was that three blue shirts surrounded her at all times. They also stripped her off the ball if she grabbed a rebound, as we mentioned, and they did not let her get untracked near the basket on offense. Thank goodness for Chiney doing the heavy scoring and Toni being our third scorer. Third side note, Nneka came out for autographs and we asked her what Cal did to limit her game. She said they had three people on her at all times, but she was proud of the way Chiney stepped up. Then she said, she would rather take Chiney scoring all the points then a loss any day. Oh, BTW, Nneka moved past Val Whiting into fourth place on the Stanford all-time scoring list.

Whew, great win at Maples, but we can’t help but feel anxious for when we play Cal at their home the last game of the season.

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Stanford-Cal Preview, Q & A Part II

2012-01-27T17:59:00.000-08:00

And now, here is NorcalNick from Cal Golden Blogs with his answers to C and R’s Q’s: (Oh, check out his blog with his questions about Cal-Stanford WBB and our answers plus Scott from Stanford’s Rule of Tree. Very informative. And Rule of Tree did their own Q and A with Cal Golden Blogs. C and R are getting dizzy.)

C & R Q: You have a new head coach, Lindsey Gottlieb (Who likes to use Twitter, no less, her handle is @CalcoachG), what type of energy does she bring to this team?
A: Well, in the literal sense she brings the energy of a new, fast-paced style of basketball that has the Bears racing up and down the court when given the chance. But in a metaphysical sense (that's what it's all about, right?) Coach Gottlieb seems to have brought a renewed sense of fun and confidence to the Bears. There were some chemistry issues last year, but team camaraderie and cohesiveness seems improved. Maybe the old adage about winning making everything better applies here.

The twitters and other social media outreach has been a fun bonus for the fans. We Bears don't have an embedded ESPN reporter like Stanford (so jealous!) but the staff has done a remarkable job keeping the fans informed and engaged to a team and sport that doesn't get much attention from mainstream media.

C & R Q: We’ve been hearing all about the one and only Brittany Boyd (her twitter handle no less, is @ONEandONLYbboyd, and we are sensing a theme). Just how good is she, and is she really Alexis Gray Lawson in disguise trying to have four more years of college eligibly?

She's an unbelievable amount of fun, because she plays with a flair and excitement that I find very infectious. Obviously as a freshman she presumably has not reached her full potential, but she has already shown a gifted ability to pass the ball, and her ability to get to the basket has added a dimension the Cal offense has generally lacked over the last few years.

The Alexis Gray-Lawson comparison is hard to avoid because of similar statures (Boyd is one inch taller), positions (guard), and backgrounds (East-Bay locals) but the main similarities they share is the aforementioned ability to drive to the basket. The point guard Boyd is a better passer while shooting-guard Gray-Lawson is the more gifted shooter. But despite the differences it warms the cockles of my heart to see a 5'7''/8'' guard barrelling through the lane with no fear.

C & R Q: Nneka and Chiney clean up any and all rebounds. What do you see Cal doing to keep them off the boards? (Short of breaking legs?)

Frankly, this issue concerns me - not as a basketball fan, but as a member of the human race. If Gennifer Brandon and Nneka Ogwumike both jump for the same rebound, I fear the extreme physics involved may rip some kind of hole in the space-time continuum or create some kind of quantum vortex. Physicists from both campuses are researching preventative measures as we spea. From meta-physics to actual physics we go!

I think the reality is that both Cal and Stanford will get their fair share of rebounds, which probably benefits Stanford. I fear that Cal is much more dependant on their ability to control the boards to earn a win. But watching these two teams battle for missed shots is worth the price of admission alone.

C & R Q: What’s with no last names on the home shirts? Can your uniform maker not spell? How will we tell whom Nneka is dunking over?

Well, being a public school, I'm guessing that the players huddled up and decided to forego names to save the taxpayers of our great state a few bucks on stitching. It's tough fiscal times and the Bears are nothing if not conscientiuos California citizens! (hee hee, good one, C and R).

C & R Q: Down by one against Washington State, Brittany Boyd loses her shoe but continues playing, passes and Cal scores, she gets an assist. Was that a planned ploy to distract the other team? (An our Toni Kokenis beat her to it last year, she ran so fast she ran right out of her shoe yet had the presence of mid to throw it back to the bench).

I think Brittany's game is all improv. If, in a split second decision, she decides her shoe needs to come off to make a play, then that shoe is coming off. Although now that I hear that Stanford has a similar issue, I think we may need to launch a shoelace investigation to prevent the scourge of loose laces from ever again terrorizing our basketball playing youth!

C & R Q: Breaking news, Cal players campaigned on Twitter to get disco ball on bus on way to Stanford (no really, we saw it on Twitter, look in Coach G’s timeline!). Do you see that as a help or distraction?

My guess is that it depends on the song choices. If the team is getting properly pumped up it could be an advantage. Of course, my choice of pump up music is likely vastly different from your typical 19 year old woman, and also isn't the type of music that generally matches with a disco ball. My guess is that they coaches and players will take the chance to remind themselves of 'this is how we do it,' and then hopefully proceed to then 'do it.' It being winning, I would presume.

C & R Q: See ya at the game!

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Stanford-Cal Preview, Q & A Part I

2012-01-25T23:45:00.000-08:00

And now, in honor of the Big Game, C and R present the 158^th annual Q & A with Nick from Cal Golden Blogs. He asks the Q’s, C and R answer them. (Secretly, we think he just wants our Stanford blog to mention his Cal blog, hoping for bad karma or ju-ju or what have you, but I digress). Our questions to him are at the bottom, and we will publish tomorrow or whenever we get around to it. One note, usually his questions are funny and silly, so that's how we wrote ours. Then he writes these scholarly and insightful questions, like he’s been studying basketball or something. Ours look stupid by comparison. Oh well, when have we ever let that stop us! Enjoy.

1. I don't really think anybody has effectively slowed down the elder Ogwumike, but if it can be done, how would a team go about doing so?

A: Break her legs? Just kidding. No really, we kid, cuz then we would have to hunt you down and return the favor. Okay, real answer, and not that we are totally biased or anything, but Nneka is an unstoppable force! LOL. She has always been good around the basket, with an incredible vertical leap. This year she has gone out and got a soft-touch shot from about 15 feet or so. She has so many ways to score it’s not funny. She can drive to the basket, hit a pull up jumper, break your ankles with a move or just jump over your head. (She can grab a rebound and put it back up without touching the ground! Oh, and she can catch and shoot an alley-oop pass without touching the ground, too. Not very many women’s players can do that). C and R’s recommendation to stop her? Go out and kidnap Britteny Griner.

2. After the Ogwumikiis there hasn't been a ton of production (by Stanford's lofty standards, at least). Is that a case of a lack of opportunity, or a lack of the type of depth usually seen on the farm?

A: Haven’t you been reading our blog? All season long it has been the Nneka and Chiney show (no complaints here) and three warm bodies (tons of complaints here). There has been hardly any scoring production from anyone! Jos Tinkle was demoted this year and then cracked the starting lineup the last 3 games and is taking nothing for granted and playing much better. She is averaging about 8 points. Why isn’t anyone else scoring? We have been scratching our heads all year. Could it be the case of watching a talented superstar like Nneka and depending on her too much? Chiney is wily and creates most of her own opportunities and points on offensive rebounds. Not a lot of people can wrestle a rebound like Chiney, not even Tinkle. We hope this lack of scoring by others is something super-genius Tara VanDerveer can solve. BTW, Sisters Ogwumikii? We like that, patent pending.

3. What's the best way to attack Stanford's defense? Drive-and-dish? Entry passes to the post? You have to give us something!

A: Well geez, why should we help Cal? Hee hee. Okay, you twisted our arm. This year, super genius Tara VanDerveer has been experimenting with different defenses, so that makes it harder for teams to prepare for what might happen, as opposed to relying heavily on man to man. Heck, we have even seen some1-3-1, and against one of the Washington schools, they used some sort of “Buzz” defense. So Cal needs to be prepared for many looks, not just one or two. Okay, that was a cop out. Here’s a better hint, attack the weakest player on the floor.

4. Stanford has their usual crop of highly rated freshmen, but I haven't seen any of them yet because they're too young to play much in the biggest televised games. What are your thoughts on the freshmen?

A: Well, two are hurt and gone for the season (Alex Green and Jasmine Camp). Jasmine Camp was the “it” freshmen for a while before she was hurt, now it is Amber Orrrrange (just kidding on the spelling, it’s really just 2 “R”s). She is a good playmaker, but not a huge scoring threat. Bonnie Samuelson has this CRAZY 3-point shot with a super fast release, but only goes in the hoop in games that are not close. Not so much when the game is on the line. Taylor Grenfield and Erica Payne play forward and although they look good, they don’t score and look like they are still trying to figure out the game. Don’t expect to see much of them if the game is close. Tara trusts Ogwunikiis, Tinkle, Toni, and subs out the fifth spot.
5. Any predictions? (Score or otherwise.)
A: Um, Stanford is going to win?

Sorry, that was cheesy, but it is Maples and if you can’t stop Nneka (one team triple teamed her and she still scored!!), it’s all over but the shouting. We predict Nneka will throw us a victory ball (hint, hint!).

Questions for Cal Blog:

You have a new head coach, Lindsey Gottlieb (Who likes to use Twitter, no less, her handle is @CalcoachG), what type of energy does she bring to this team?

We’ve been hearing all about the one and only Brittany Boyd (her twitter handle no less, is @ONEandONLYbboyd, and we are sensing a theme). Just how good is she, and is she really Alexis Gray Lawson in disguise trying to have four more years of college eligibility?

Nneka and Chiney clean up any and all rebounds. What do you see Cal doing to keep them off the boards? (Short of breaking legs?)

What’s with no last names on the home shirts? Can your uniform maker not spell? How will we tell whom Nneka is dunking over?

Down by one against Washington State, Brittany Boyd loses her show but continues playing, passes and Cal scores, she gets an assist. Was that a planned ploy to distract the other team? (An our Toni Kokenis beat her to it last year, she ran so fast she ran right out of her shoe yet had the presence of mind to throw it back to the bench).

Breaking news, Cal players campaigned on Twitter to get disco ball on bus on way to Stanford (no really, we saw it on Twitter, look in Coach G’s timeline!). Do you see that as a help or distraction?

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Stanford Starts Slow, Then Beats Washington

2012-01-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

You want an analysis of Stanford’s 65-47 win over Washington? Just dig up any article on their win Thursday over Washington State, rinse and repeat. Stanford started out slow in the first half, couldn’t get it inside to the dynamic duo of POY contender Nneka Ogwumike and her athletic sister Chiney, and couldn’t hit their outside shots (shooting just 23% from behind the line in the first half), and took a slight 27-20 lead into the locker room. Then half time came and Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer had a(n intense) talk with the team and they came out in the second half and hit threes to open up the middle and then Nneka took over inside. Another Pac-12 win for Stanford.

Well, there are some slightly different details. One, they couldn’t get it inside because of Washington’s Regina Rodgers. She is a big presence in the middle and very physical, often wrestling with Nneka for position. It was only when Rogers went to the bench with in the second half that Nneka could get untracked.

Let’s talk about Regina Rogers for a moment. She came in averaging over 16 points for Washington and is their best scorer. Stanford held her to 5 total points, mostly by one on one defense by Nneka and weak side help from others when Rogers touched the ball. But that’s not the point C and R want to talk about.

Let’s back up a bit. C and R missed the first half of this game (and quite a few other Stanford games this season) due to a conflict with the little girl’s team we coach. A commitment is a commitment. These middle school age girls play in the local rec league. They are not destined to play at Division I Stanford or probably play college basketball at any level. Most of these girls just play the sport in the winter, 8 weeks worth, and then forget about it. They are not year-round warriors or typical gym rats Six of the ten girls on our team do not play other sports at all. One girl has never played basketball before and we had to start with, first you dribble the ball when you move, you cannot keep running with the ball.

One of the girls who plays no other sports has a hard time catching the ball. She mentally is afraid of the ball, and that is tough to overcome. If she has never practiced it, and is fearful already, it makes sense she is behind some of the other girls. It is our jobs as coaches to put her in to a position to succeed. We tell our guards to dribble closer and bounce pass to our “centers” so the throw is not so high or scary coming at her head (she is tall and in that group, and this way we are not singling her out). We work on catching with her every practice. We have everyone take 5 minutes to throw the ball against the wall as hard as they can and the other partner has to catch it with both hands. You can try to make the partner miss, so we encourage them to make their throws hard and at an angle so the other partner has to move to catch it. Everyone loves this drill.

In our game on Saturday, several passes came her way and she fumbled the out of bounds. One of the parents on our team loudly and sharply criticized her with each missed opportunity, to the point he was ridiculing her. She is 12 yeas old. He was holding up a yardstick that we often use to measure pro players, and applying it to someone not even close to that level. And he was picking on someone who is much younger, in a sense, unable to defend herself. Self esteem for a budding middle school girl is still developing and it is crucial it not be smashed by a thoughtless parent shooting off his mouth. We have asked our head coach numerous times talk to him, but as you can imagine, to no avail.

So how does this apply to Stanford basketball? Glad you asked. When we first started this blog about 5 or 6 years ago, we also used the pro yardstick to measure Stanford players. We would criticize, why is she in the line up, she’s useless. OMG, did you see that air ball last night? She calls herself a basketball player? Harsh, indeed. Then we got to know the players as young women off the court. And we met their parents. When you shake a dad’s hand and look him in the eye and tell them how much you admire their daughter, it is really hard to point out every flaw and mistake and bad shot she made in the game last night. So we backed off on personal criticism about the player. Now, don’t get us wrong, C and R are not going all soft on ya. We still worry when Nneka, Chiney and a third player have seven-eighths of the points and everyone else has zeros, kinda like this game.(this time it was Nneka, Chiney and Taylor Greenfield with 44 of the 65 points). We have just made a conscious effort not to criticize personally or so harshly. I think it was Tara VanDerveer who said something like, “our job as coaches is to minimize players mistakes, and that’s the very nature of 18 to 22 year old girls but to make mistakes.”

So back to the Stanford-Washington Game (finally, some of you are saying). Regina Rodgers is a big presence inside we reported. We mean, she is big. She is 6’3, and well, she is about 75 pounds overweight. All of it in her stomach. It limits her ability to move quickly up and down the court. How can someone play Division I basketball and be that out of shape? And are we using an unfair yardstick to even mention her weight as a factor? We have seen some players be a “little out of shape” meaning they have some extra pounds around the middle. And we have seem many different body shapes, some happen to be shorter and stockier the others, but this seems out of control. Would this be talked about if she were on the men’s team? Your thoughts, readers?

Anyway, back to the Washington game. In the second half, Stanford made an effort to hit threes to open up the middle. Freshmen Taylor Greenfield responded by hitting 3 three-pointers to spark a 17-3 rally. She would end up with 12 points for the game. Nneka scored most of her 17 points for the game in the time frame, and Chiney got 15 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double.

Really scary moment when Nneka got pushed out of bounds, crumpled to the ground and held her shin in obvious agony. The refs stopped play and sister Chiney was the first one back to help her up. Reading Nneka’s lips, she said plaintively, “she pushed me!” Quoted in the Stanford site, Nneka shed more light on the play, “I was pushed into a screen and kind of fell over someone’s leg. It T-boned my leg.” She was subbed out around the 9-minute mark.

But here’s the thing (And we feel like we can criticize coach VanDerveer, she’s a grown-up), Stanford was up by 18 when Nneka went out limping. Taylor Greenfield promptly hit a three with her on the bench and Stanford was up by 21. Yet 2 minutes later, Nneka is reinserted back onto the line up. Why? Why risk losing your star player? She was obviously limping after each play. She did go on to score 8 more points to get to her 17. She finally was subbed out with about a minute left, and the lead was exactly at 20 again. C and R are surprised and confounded coach VanDerveer would risk her, and the season, that way.

Nneka did pass Nicole Powell for fifth on the Stanford all-time scoring list, and needs 5 more to take over 4th place. One might think Tara left in her for records, but watching Tara over the years, she usually does not care about the records, and coaches each game by inserting the best players to win the game (or rest some to give others experience.) Nneka usually averages about 29 minutes a game and is routinely rested in blowouts, when she could be kept into up her scoring average. So it’s strange she continued to play.

Hope she is better and not limping for next week’s home game against Cal.

Side notes:
Sarah Boothe did not dress for the game, we haven’t found out why yet. Freshmen guard Amber Orrrrange, recently inserted into the starting lineup, had a season-high 9 assists, 4 steals and 4 points.

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Stanford Starts Slow, Then Beats Washington State

2012-01-19T22:45:00.000-08:00

It was a dark and stormy night… and the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team was out of sync, not even a mouse. Whoops, wait, wrong appropriated story fragment. But it was such a weird night for all and to all a good night.

Stanford beat visiting Pac-12 foe Washington State 75-41, and although they brought some rain with them, the “storm” they promised never really happened. And the storm on the court never happened, either. Yes, a win is a win, and numbers don’t lie. Here they are. Stanford extended their school-record home wining streak to 72 games. Stanford won their 64th straight conference game. Washington State has never beaten Stanford, a streak going back 53 games. Stanford held Washington State to 27% shooting in the first half, 30% for the game. Stanford went on a 16-2 run to close out the first half. Player of the year candidate Nneka Ogwumike scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 29 minutes, for a double-double. Sister Chiney scored 19 and had 12 rebounds for a double-double, too.

But… halftime score was 31-20, and Stanford looked ragged for most of the first half. Nneka had only 2 points in the first 7 minutes when she sank 2 free throws, and Washington State had the lead until the 5 and a half minute mark in the first. When your star scorer, who you depend upon the most, only has 4 points in the first 10 minutes of basketball, you know something is not right. And when the Stanford Tree Mascot only has one eye, you really know something is not right in the State of Denmark and Maples.
Stanford could not get the ball inside to Nneka or Chiney, and our guards were having trouble dribble penetrating. And they missed18 of their first 24 shots in that time span, thank you Stanford website for the stats.

And then the threes were not falling. Stanford was 4-20 for the night from behind the line. At one point, three-point specialist Bonnie Samuleson shot the ball three times in a row, and missed three times in a row. Of course that means we rebounded the ball after each miss and got it back out to her, but to miss so many wide-open shots is inexcusable.

It was a sloppy game for both teams. Washington had 18 turnovers and Stanford was close behind with 15. Still, Stanford came back from the dead in around the 6 and half-minute mark to go on the aforementioned 16-2 run. Toni Kokenis got a buzzer beater lay up to pad their halftime lead to 11.

In the second half, after a thorough discuss by Stanford had coach Tara VanDerveer we’re sure, they played better. Stanford opened the half on a 24-6 tear to give everyone some breathing room. Nneka had 9 points in the first 12 minutes of the half. Speaking of which, she became sixth on the all-time Stanford scoring chart tonight. She can pass others on Saturday. Another bright spot was the play of Jos Tinkle, getting another start and scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.

Well, let’s hope Stanford comes out with more energy and intensity for Washington.

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Stanford Beats Colorado by a Mile

2012-01-14T22:34:00.000-08:00

Utah, Colorado, a mile high, seal level, doesn’t matter, the Stanford Women’s Basketball team just keeps rolling along and winning games. This time Stanford met new Pac-12 foe Colorado and even though a sign in the Denver locker room advised against strenuous activity in the gym because of high altitude, Stanford prevailed 80-54.

Of course it helps if your defense holds the home time to 6.7% shooting in the first ten minutes. Yes folks, that is not a typo; Stanford’s defense held Colorado to 1-15 shooting. The first points for Colorado came at the 13-minute mark and it was 2 free throws. Then Colorado got their first basket at 11 and a half-minute mark , making it 11-4. Colorado would improve to 20% shooting for the half.

Stanford got a scare about four minutes into the game when Stanford superstar All-Everything Nneka Ogwumike tripped and fell out of bounds, hurting her right ankle. Although we didn’t get the televised game, the KSZU announcer said she was in obvious pain. She went to the bench, luckily with Stanford leading 7-0, but surprisingly both she and her scoring sister had zero points so far. Nneka had her ankle taped and returned mid way through the first half. Stanford didn’t need her. When she sat down for good around the five and a half-minute mark in the second half she had a pedestrian 15 points.

It was great to see sister Chiney step up and score when sister Nneka was on the bench. And speaking of sisters, Colorado has sisters, too, Ashley and Brittany Williams. It seems to be a Pac-12 requirement these days. So Chiney picked up the scoring slack early in the first half and then Nneka returned. And then our KSZU feed went out. Then we got it back. Then it was 30-11, Stanford with about 3 minutes to go.
Fun fact, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer has been tinkering with her line up (tinkering with Tinkle specifically), adding Joslyn Tinkle and freshmen guard Amber Orrrrange to the starting line up. She did this in Utah and got the win, and again for this game and Tinkle scored 12 in the first half, making Tara yet again look like a genius. The half ended with Stanford up 32-15, and Tinkle was high scorer with 12 points.

It still is a little troubling to C and R to see the first half stats as this:
Tinkle- 12
Chiney- 8
Nneka- 6
Toni Kokenis-6
Everyone else zero
Only 4 players scored in first half
Okay, only 3 other bench players came in the game, but they have to score something
Amber Orrrrange, a starter- 0
Lindy LaRocque- 0
Sarah Boooohte- 0
You can’t go zeros.

In the second half, the only suspense was who would end up the high scorer. Most games, it defaults to Nneka. Her sister is usually close behind. Jos Tinkle had a head start on everyone from the first half for this game. Chiney came on strong on the second and would end up with 19. Guard Toni Kokenis, who got her groove back this road trip and scored a lot of Utah, also had 19. But it was Tinkle holding on with 20, making 2 of 3 three-pointers and tying her career high for points. And for the first time in a long time, Stanford has 4 players in double figures, and the amounts were high, 20,19,19, and 15.

Which brings us to even more troubling the final stats:
Four players, 20,19,19, 15 for a total of 73 points, 7 for everyone else.

After the game Head Coach Tara VanDerveer said this about Nneka when she hurt her ankle, “She tweaked her ankle, but we are not a one player team.” Hmm, some games it sure seems like it, although it was good to see Tinkle contribute more. Hopefully coach will start her more, too.
Stanford comes home for the next 3 games, including Cal!

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Stanford Beats Utah

2012-01-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

New Pac-12 foe, same old results. Stanford beat Utah on their home court 62-43. Since it wasn’t televised, and since C and R were at our little girl’s game (Same old results for us too, leading the whole game and then lost by a basket, and boy do we need to work on rebounding), we don’t have much to say about the game, but when has that ever stopped us, so here goes:

Same old high scorer for Stanford, Nneka Ogwumike, with 18 points and 13 minutes in 31 minutes. Same old sis Chiney had 11 points and 13 rebounds for a double trouble double –double. What was new was Toni Kokenis showing up for the game. Wait, we didn’t mean that to sound as mean as it sounded. Toni and her points have been AWOL the last few games and if we are going to be a team that has Nneka and Chiney doing all the scoring, we at least need a third scoring threat. Tonight it was Toni, who contributed 13. Freshie Amber Orrrrange added 8.

As much as we love to talk about scoring or lack thereof, it sounds like it was a defensive game, notably for Stanford. Here’s Nneka talking, from the official Stanford site:
"We don't panic. We just keep doing what we're doing. They were playing us very well in the beginning. It was a bruiser type of game, with lot of physicalness, and we did a good job of pulling away."

Wait, that wasn’t it. Try this line from the official site: Stanford held Utah to just 28 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from 3-point range. The Cardinal took advantage on the other end, connecting on 43 percent of their field goals.

Next up is Colorado, who actually has a record of 13-2 so it could be a good game. One of their losses is to Cal. It is listed as on TV, but it is a Denver station. So Gametracker, All Accees for a fee or good ol’ KSZU.

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Stanford Saved by Nneka Ogwumike Once Again

2012-01-07T23:16:00.000-08:00

Why is it whenever C has a continuing education class (And I do seem to need a lot of them!), they take place during a Stanford Women’s Basketball Game? Do the Cont Ed people grab a Stanford schedule and plan this out on purpose? Anyhoo, C had to miss the CLOSEST game this season (heck we beat Tenn by more) in a 67-60 win over Oregon State. R was there and here is her report. All typos are C’s, though.

And not only did I miss the game (This is C continuing, sorry, not ready to turn it over to R yet), I missed my all time fave player Nneka Ogwumike set not one but two, two milestones. She got 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. She is the 7th 2,000 point scorer for Stanford, and the fifth with 1,000 rebounds, joining Kayla Pedersen, (1,266), Jayne Appel (1,263), Nicole Powell (1,143) and Val Whiting (1,134). However, she is the first Stanford player to do both those feats in one game (that I missed). Anyway, heeeeere’s R:

At the onset of the game we were celebrating Dog Lovers; soon we would be celebrating Nneka Ogwumike who hit her 2000th point and grabbed her 1000th rebound -- as our Candice Wiggins Tweeted she did it, “the Stanford way, she’s so legit!” (R had to both tweet and report on this game while eating a hot dog--multi-tasking is so hard for us!)

Back to the dogs; dozens of dogs were dressed as fans -- I especially liked the scrunchy-faced dog wearing the ‘We Back Pat’ towel. One beautiful pit bull enthusiastically licked her owner’s face but I still gave her a wide berth to my seat.

In the first few minutes of the game, our offense was, you guessed it, Nneka, Nneka, more Nneka, and only Nneka. She had the first 8 Stanford points. Then she felt the pressure as her team kept feeding her inside (whether for the records or because we didn’t feel good about our other options, I don’t know), and she shot a couple of uncharacteristic air balls and even missed an alley-oop. I was beginning to wonder if anyone else would ever score for Stanford. Finally, a 3 pointer is made by the freshman Samuelson to accompany Nneka’s first 8 points.

However, Nneka is not one of these selfish, give me the ball type players. Early on, Nneka did a nice little bounce pass to Tinkle under the basket. Assist Nneka, bucket Tinkle plus one from the free throw line – nice 3-point play, and smart to get others involved.

On the other end of the court we gasped as Nneka snatched the rebound with one hand while floating a foot above her opponent, a much taller Beaver. Her sister Chiney, scoreless in the first half, wanted a piece of the action so she fouled a Beaver hard – so hard, she knocked her own contact lens out! That’s a first!

The Beavers had intensity and good shooting. Their 3-point specialist, Sage Indendi, made a quick 3 in the first few minutes. I was very impressed with Oregon State’s coach. He had his team ready to play. Wish I could say the same for Tara VanDerveer. Although she did own up to it in the post-game press conference saying, her team “played casual” and “lacked intensity.”

Halftime, Stanford is down 35 – 31, say what? C called in during her break and couldn’t believe it!

OSU catches on it is the Nneka show and decides to triple team Nneka. Not double team, triple team, and yet Nneka still scores! She was amazing. How amazing? She scored 33 for the night and grabbed 16 boards. Sister Chiney, humbled by not scoring any in the first half and losing that contact, comes back with a vengeance in the second half and adds 20 points and 10 rebounds. Double doubles for double-trouble, again.

Double troubling was the sister combined scored 53 combined points. Fifty-Three. Out of Sixty-Seven for the team. Not good. Next closest scorer was Tinkle with 5. F-I-V-E. Lindy, Toni and Bonnie each had 3. And that’s it. Very troubling indeed.

The Beavers also have the Pac-12 leading blocker Patricia Bright, averaging 3.8 blocks per game this season. Well, the first several blocks were by our sisters Ogwumike and the most awe-inspiring by our Nneka – sending the ball back 10 feet. Maples must be defended, I heard one fan yell.

Patricia Bright DID have a few early blocks on Chiney, but ended up fouling out midway through the second half – our Band verbally marching her off the court. Brutal.

We began to dominate and gain confidence cheering Nneka’s milestones. She joins Jayne Appel, Nicole Powell, and Val Whiting who have scored 2000 points and collected 1000 rebounds during their play on the Farm.
Although the game was a little too exciting (potentially jeopardizing our home-game winning streak), we get to place a W in Result column. UConn wasn’t so lucky. They lost in OT to Notre Dame 74-67 today.

PS
Our little girls won their game tonight and we went out for pizza. Then we played kick the can in the parking lot by the liquor store. (C ran so hard she nearly threw up her pizza… but you didn’t want to know that). Such warm and fond memories we are creating for them!

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Stanford Bombs Oregon

2012-01-05T22:35:00.000-08:00

Oregon’s Paul Westhead is a good coach. ‘Course, Stanford’s head coach is no slouch either. But Oregon doesn’t have quite the talent, or, say, a Nneka like Stanford does. He does play a certain style and sticks to it, and that style is fast. He dictated the flow of the Oregon-Stanford game, pushing the ball and constantly subbing in fresh legs. ‘Course again, Stanford has some speedsters, too, and could match them stride for stride.

In Stanford’s practices, when they run sprints, guess who wins then all? Sophomore speedster Toni Kokenis, you might guess. Anyone of the freshmen guards who are lightening quick? Nope, you’re wrong on both accounts. The answer is senior Nneka Ogwumike. She is the fastest Stanford player, so running on Stanford is hard to do. And Nneka loooooves a challenge, She rose to the tune of 32 points and 15 rebounds tonight. She has a double-double after the first 11 minutes. She was amazing. At one point she went so high for a rebound, the crowd gasped. Jos Tinkle threw her an alley-oop pass and the olny reason she didn’t make it was because she was fouled in the air. C and R love the fact Stanford even has that in their playbook. Most women’s basketball teams can’t even attempt that. Oh, Nneka scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds by half. A good amount for anyone playing 40 minutes, let alone 20.

More good news in that Stanford had other people step up tonight besides someone named Ogwumike. (Sister Chiney had a respectable 12 rebounds and 9 points). Freshmen Bonnie Samuelson, who probably won’t win most sprints, popped 6 threes, 5 in the first half for 18 total points. Another freshmen Taylor Greenfield also had a great night, scoring 17. So it was good to see others contributing.

And how, Stanford set a team record for attempting 42 three-point shots. Forty-Two! They made 14, but still. Again, this was because of Paul Westhead. Oregon came into the game as one of the top three-point shooting teams in the nation, having attempted 158 more three-point shots than Stanford. They attempted just 17 tonight. Heck, Bonnie shot 13 for Stanford. Weird that Stanford only went to the line 5 times, missing 2, and why are they still missing free throws? Guess Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer wanted to concentrate on the outside game tonight. Also weird in that Toni Kokenis was not all there tonight, in that she only made 1 out of 10 shots, a three-pointer. She has been consistently driving to the basket and scoring over 10 points a game.

And what is up with the Erica Payne experiment? Tara has her playing some point again in the second half when Stanford was up by 20 or more points. Of course, with all the subs, Stanford had five players on the court that were all over 6 feet and someone had to bring the ball up.

So as we said, Oregon dictated this game. Even though Stanford enjoyed a double-digit lead for starting 2 and a half minutes into the game, it never felt like Stanford was in control or was just going to cruise. Oregon didn’t back down. The half time score was 43-31, and Oregon went on a mini spurt to end the half, chipping away at Stanford lead that was 21 and got it to a respectable 12 points.

Not to make excuses, but Oregon was playing hurt. Their best player, 6-2 senior Amanda Johnson was out with a broken left thumb. In addition, senior point guard Nia Jackson had sore knees, and sophomore Deanna Weaver missed practice time with a hurt ankle.

Hold the phone. Did we just say Deanna Weaver? Deanna Weaver, the pride of Wilcox High School right here in Santa Clara? (Okay, my son goes to Wilcox, and although they have a rich sports program, we are a small public school and everyone plays multiple sports instead of concentrating on one sport year around and rarely does anyone from here go DI in anything, so hats off to her). In fact, my son had to play capture the flag against the women’s basketball team one gym period three years ago and he said those women were big and fast and destroyed the guys. Hee hee! You go, Deanna! She scored 8 in the first half in front of hometown fans and finished with 16 for the game. Santa Clara in da house!

Stat Alert:
Nneka needs 3 rebounds to get to 1,000 career boards. Bring your cameras Saturday for the game against Oregon State.

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Stanford Trio Does in UCLA

2011-12-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

Once again, a Pac-12 win for Stanford and once again, the scoring was lead by the trio of Nneka Ogwumike, Toni Kokenis and Nneka’s sister Chiney. One of these days that is going to be Stanford’s downfall but if the other team’s five can’t stop those three, then they deserve to lose. To wit, take a gander at what Stanford did to UCLA.

Stanford comes out in man to man defense, except their scouting report must have seen something about UCLA’s starter 5’4” Mariah Williams. They decided to not even guard her, thinking she is not an accurate shooter. The UCLA announcers says it is like UCLA’s four on offense vs. Stanford’s five on defense. Early in the game Williams catches the ball out on the three-point line. No one is on her. Stanford is daring her to shoot. She does. She misses. Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer looks like the genius she is.

Stanford’s Amber Orrange comes into the game and she is basically being a floater on defense to help stop any drives to the basket, leaving Williams alone. UCLA passes to Williams but Amber is so quick she makes the steal and goes all the way for an uncontested lay up. Once again, genius. VanDerveer. They left Williams alone all night. Several times she found herself wide open on the three-point line and the other nine players were practically inside the paint. The crowd implored her to shoot, but she remembered her lesson and then had to wait, wait, wait for someone to get open. We only got three that can score, but all five can play defense.

But back to our scoring trio. Nneka had 18 points and 11 rebounds in 26 minutes and Chiney 15 points and 11 rebounds in 27 minutes. Toni finished with 11 points, and four boards in 26 minutes. That’s 44 of Stanford’s 77 points in a game won 77-50. And the three only played a little over half the game. In fact, when Nneka went out of the game for good in the second half, and Chiney a minute later, the sisters had 33 points and 21 rebounds, compared to 30 points for UCLA. Wow.

Stanford definitely had the edge on size as well as healthy bodies. At times, UCLA looked intimidated, missing on shots and lay-ups if they thought they heard footsteps. Stanford went on a 15-2 run (or 25-7, take your pick) to close the first half. Oh, score at the half was 40-23, Stanford. UCLA shot a dismal 27.9% for the game, although we are bothered by Stanford’s three-point percentage. It was 15%. UCLA’s was 9%. At least Stanford’s free throws improved to 70 %.

We do have to do our due diligence and point out UCLA has just been decimated with injures. First of all, UCLA’s best player, Jasmine Dixon is out for the year with a ruptured Achilles, like our Alex Green. Further injuries to UCLA include junior Atonye Nyingifa (knee), junior Jackie Shepard (foot) and freshman Alexis Perry (shoulder). Nyingifa was averaging over 14 points and nearly 9 rebounds before tearing her ACL against Tennessee in December. Another UCLA player, junior Markel Walker had off-season thumb surgery and was heavily taped for this game.

Oh, C and R would be remiss if we did not thank UCLA for allowing their All-Access feed to be shown live on the Internet. We got to see the game for free, thank you, and the announcers were not totally pro-UCLA. They were very complimentary to the Cardinal, especially Nneka. One announcer had met her personally and could not stop raving about her as a person. We feel the same way. However we were a little bothered by the replays of UCLA scoring while Stanford in real tie was down on their end scoring. (Although that wasn’t an issue in the last seven or so minutes of the half, when Stanford went on their run, hee hee). And also sometimes the live action would be replaced with the word “defense” rotating and spinning and then we would hear the announcers stating how Stanford scored. Don’t do that.

And what was up with that gym? Okay, were they playing in a high school? Bleachers with no backs that only went about 10 rows back, a bazillion lines on the floor so it’s hard to tell what’s what. Can’t we play in the big-girl gym, please? Or is that reserved for guys only? UCLA. No wonder Nikki Caldwell left. Women’s teams down there get no respect.

Although it was cool during a time out that the UCLA dance crew let fans come on the court to dance. C and R saw some Cardinal Red shirts out there groovin’, although the announcers said later the facilities crew were not happy.

Side Note:
UCLA has two sisters, Rhema and Rebecca Garner, like Stanford’s Ogwumike’s sisters. Rhema is a sophomore and Rebecca is a senior, like Chiney and Nneka as well. USC also had sisters. It seems to be a Pac-12 trend.

Second Side Note:
Saw Erica Payne playin’ some point. Guess when you have a 30-point lead you can experiment. She looked uncomfortable bringing the ball up, and when pressured, threw it away. Her ponytail looked cool, though.

Third Note:
Thanks to all who wrote into tell us we could have tuned in KSZU when there was no televised play for Stanford-USC. We completely spaced on that one and forgot! So today we DID turn on KSZU for the UCLA game and they weren’t broadcasting it. Day late and dollar short seems to fit us well. It was also explained to us you can purchase the $10 a month or $15 a moth plan on All-Access, but somehow paying for internet content just seems so wrong…

Next up Oregon.

Happy New Year to You and Yours

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Stanford Prevails against USC

2011-12-29T23:03:00.000-08:00

Once again I race home from work, only to find the Stanford Women’s Basketball game vs. USC to open Pac-12 play is not on TV. I thought the PAC-12 was supposed to change this? The reason for the merger was more exposure for teams, especially women. Just when is this going to happen, people?

I did have a place on the web, supposedly, that I could see that game. It is the CBS All Access site. So I go to the All Access site and discover you have to pay money. The fee is monthly. Hmm, it’s now December 29th. If I buy it, do I only get it for 3 days and then have to pay for a new month? I am cheap. It was a Hard Candy Christmas (Dolly Parton song, go look it up).

So I make the executive decision to go free and cheap with Gametracker, which is why I am not an executive. By the time I get to Gametracker, the website that has the play-by-play acted out by little red icons, we are already down 2-5 to the Women of Troy. Stanford’s Player of the Year candidate Nneka Ogwumike is shooting ice cold, already 1-4 from field in the early minutes.

USC was without their star player Jacki Gemelos, who tore her ACL for the FIFTH time. The jokester in me started to think of some witty word play to write, but then reality hit me; there’s nothing funny about an injury, and to tear up your knee for the fifth time is just heartbreaking.

Back to the game. This time Gametracker is really bad. There are jumps in scores, omissions of Stanford scoring, phantom fouls. Nneka shooting but no foul called? I cannot make heads or tails, so I go and get a sandwich.

When I come back with said sandwich, we are up 13-5. My how fortunes change. Nneka still looks like she is cold, though.

Finally I switch over to ESPN’s website and play-by-play. You don’t get to see the little red icons running around, but it is more reliable. At the official TV timeout at 9:36 in the first, it is 15-14, Stanford. Wait a minute, TV time out? What TV time out? This game isn’t on TV! Then Stanford is up by 10. ESPN website has a lag, so I switch back and forth between the two to try to keep current. Yeah, it’s just not the same to read the play-by-play as seeing it live or digitally.

Then Chiney Ogwumike gets a foul with 3:51 left in the first. It is her first of the game, which is record for her. Usually she fouls in the first minute of the game and head coach Tara VanDerveer makes her take a seat for most of the half. This game she got to play a lot early on and Stanford is up by 9. Jos Tinkle comes in her stead. With Chiney out, if Gametracker is to be believed, USC makes a comeback. The score is 31-28 and the Stanford lead is only 3 with 48 seconds left, so Tara makes a bold move to put Chiney back in. It is a risky move if she picks up a foul in such a short time. She doesn’t, but Toni Kokenis makes the a bad choice to foul USC’s Briana Gilbreath with 6 seconds left. She is a good shooter and hits both free throwsto go into the locker room with her team only down by 3, 33-30, and enjoying an emotional boost. (By the way, she plays with her older sister Stephanie Gilbreath, like the Ogwumike sisters).

Wish we could tell you who did what in the second half but we were limited. Stanford clung to the same three point lead for the first 13 minutes of the second half. Well, it was more like a three point swing for those 13 minutes, with the teams staying neck and neck and trading baskets and the lead. At one time USC went up by one. Then in the final minutes Nneka got a little hotter, Chiney also heated up, and Toni decided to score. Nneka would end the night with 19, Chiney 12, and Toni 15. Everyone else for Stanford would have one point, to make the final score 61-53. In other words, the same 3 did all the scoring. Should we look a gift horse in the mouth? They did get the win. Or should we be troubled Stanford can’t get five consistent scorers?

One thing that did stand out on Gametracker was missed free throws, in particular Chiney who went 4-9 from the line. The team as a whole was 13-22, for a total of 59% free throw shooting percentage. Tara cannot be happy about that. Floor shooting was not much better. Of our big three scoring threats, Nneka was 6-16 and Toni was right behind her going 7-16. Chiney was a more respectable 4-6 from close range. Lindy LaRocque, also a starter, was 1-9. Hmmm. Maybe the air down there is affecting them. The bad news is they have to stay and play UCLA next.

Stanford Powers over… Bakersfield?

2011-12-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team played a rare day game on a weekday yesterday against Bakersfield, and the Cardinal Faithful weren’t happy about that, as many fans had to work. Well, C did anyway, but R went giving my seat to M.

She reported the stands were empty, texting a picture of empty red seats to C, who was able to listen to KSZU at work (thanks, guys, for broadcasting).

Long story short, it was like, if Nneka Ogwumike is a woman playing among girls, then the team was like a college team playing among high schoolers. R said it was no contest. Nneka was just flying around. After her outstanding 42 points against Tennessee, the only thing stopping her from scoring 100 was her coach, Tara VanDerveer, who sat her in favor of ample opportunity for her bench to play.

Nneka must have decided, consciously or unconsciously, after her attention-getting performance to let her little sister feel some of that love, because she seemed to make it her mission to feed Chiney. She would end up with 4 assists. Then Nneka and her sister Chiney sat down after a quarter of the game to make way for the freshmen and other non-starters. Curiously, Nneka only had 8 points in 13 minutes to Chiney’s 10 in 15 minutes, and we know how competitive Nneka is, she must have hated that her sister outscore her.

Sarah Boothe, at 6’5 towered over Bakersfield, pushing them out of the way to the basket, like a Black Friday Shopper going for a Tickle Me Elmo doll. She would end up with 6 points and 5 rebounds. R also said in the second half everyone was bombing threes, although Stanford ended up making 6 out of 18. She also said we played a zone defense and were very hands off, rather than smothering. It was a little embarrassing to be that mismnatched.

Jos Tinkel had a career scoring day with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. Two of her baskets were from three-point range. Freshie Bonnie added 14 points, going 4 for 4 from behind the three-point line in just 20 minutes of play. Erica Payne also had her named called nurmous times by KSZU, who relished saying “Bring on the Payne!” She adding 12 points.

All of that is well and good. We need others to be a scoring threat. But it’s hard to tell how legitimate their threat of scoring is against such a lower level opponent. Stanford was up 23-5 at the 13-minute mark, when the starting 5 were in. Although it was a little disquieting after leading 47-17 at half time that Bakersfield staged a mini come back in the second half. Final score 90-48.

And why were we playing them in the first place? Bakersfield is currently making their transition to Division I basketball and has a first year coach. Five of their players are out with knee injuries, and only 7 suited up for the game. The coach had just recently recruited a senior volleyball player who had not played bball since high school to have enough warm bodies. This was her third college game. If we were playing them as a favor, than careful what you wish for.

Injury report:
Bad news, freshmen Jasmine Camp is out for the year with a stress fracture in her foot. Surgery is set for January. She takes a seat at the end of the bench with other freshman Alex Green. Hmm, 2 out of the 6 freshmen down, not good news. Third freshman Taylor Greenfield also sat out of action with a sore hamstring but is expected to return. Tinkle made the most of the start in her spot.

And oh, the one time Stanford throws a victory ball to our section this year, Tinkle no less, was when C wasn’t there. M made the catch in her place.

Pac-12 play starts after the holiday break.

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Hecka Nneka Single-Handedly Beats Tennessee

2011-12-21T00:09:00.000-08:00

There is a saying Stanford Women’s Basketball Head Coach Tara VanDerveer has been espousing all season; “Nneka is a woman playing among girls.” And that certainly was the case tonight when #4 Stanford met #6 Tennessee.

Nneka Ogwumike scored a career high 42 points and grabbed an eye-popping 17 boards to help her team win 97-80 over the Vols. We’ve also been hearing the same refrain all season that other people have to step up for Stanford besides Nneka and her sister Chiney, that we can’t be a one or two woman show. But when you score 42 points, that’s like two really good players having a great game, right?

The funny thing was Tennessee was the more athletic team. They were stronger, faster, could steal the ball at will and shot well (49.1% for the game). Yet Stanford came away with the win. They got just enough from everybody to compliment Nneka’s insane performance. Sophomore Toni Kokenis did do her part well, scoring a career high 26, 5 on three-pointers. In most games, it has been Nneka, then Chiney, then Toni scoring in descending order. Tonight against Tennessee Nneka had 42, Toni 26 and Chiney 14. So Nneka, Chiney and Toni had 82 of Stanford’s 97 total points. Freshmen Taylor Greenfield added 2 three-pointers for 6 total and even three-point specialist Bonnie Samuelson silenced her critics that she couldn’t score one of those crazy shots with the game on the line. She got one, and made 2 free throws for a total of 5 critical points.

We do want to compliment the Tennessee team. One, they didn’t back down. Stanford would score a basket to please the crowd and Tennessee would march right back down the court and knock one down themselves. However when Stanford is scoring 3’s and your only scoring 2, you are going to find yourself in a deficit, as Tennessee did. Stanford made 9 of their threes to Tennessee’s 6.

And the Tennessee game plan was to trap and press, as Tara said they would see. And boy was Tennessee fast! When Stanford made slow, lazy passes, Tennessee was there to steal them. And for every loose ball, Tennessee hit the deck and hustled when Stanford players gave up on the ball heading out of bounds. They also knew whom to double team. Whenever Jos Tinkle and freshie Taylor Greenfield caught the ball in the trap, Tenn. immediately sent two players after them. Our freshmen were not used to their speed and got the ball stolen a lot (Amber Orrange). Stanford finally broke them down in the closing minutes, breaking their full court press and then getting some easy lay ups to pad the score, which is what you need to do against a Tennessee team as they can come back so quickly.

Tennessee also moved the ball quickly on offense and knew to pick Stanford guard Lindy LaRocque, getting her man an open run to the basket. And for some reason, Tara had them playing a zone on defense. Quick ball moment left the Tenn. wings open for wide-open looks or a back door sneaker behind the defense. It helped Stanford dig a hole early, falling behind by 9 before clawing back.

But we have Nneka and you don’t. Back to Hecka Nneka. So when Tennessee pressed Stanford, it took them 15-17 seconds to get the ball across the half court line. Then by the time Stanford got the ball to the free throw line there would be 5 seconds left. Not enough time to go through their whole offense where she stands there and she hands off here and she runs around the Cape of Good Hope… five seconds left they just threw it to Nneka and she scored it.

How did she score? Let us count the ways. She went one on one, she faked, she juked, she banked, she used her speed to blow to the basket or would pull up and shoot a jumper when they blocked her path, she drew contact and the foul, still scoring the basket, she out jumped everyone for the rebound and she calmly hit open shots when they gave her room. One time they just handed the ball to Nneka with about 3 seconds left and she just turned and shot a long 2, just inside the three-point line. Funny thing was, Nneka missed a lot of baskets in the first half, so her stat line reads 19-27. In fact, C and R felt Stanford was lucky to be up by 7 at the end of the half. Then the second half came along. At some point in the second half, Nneka made 11 shots in a row! She was just unstoppable.

We told you didn’t want to miss this historic game because of Tennessee coach Pat Summit, and it turned in to a historic performance by Nneka. It was amazing to behold live. She just could not be denied.

Ah, Pat Summit. Tennessee had some of their fans there dressed in orange, of course. But this game was unusual because many a Stanford fans wore the “We Back Pat” orange shirt with conflicting emotions. Dozens decided to honor Pat and her struggle with dementia and Alzheimer’s by wearing a netraul purple shirt that supported a “Walk for the Cure for Alzheimer’s. This way they can support the greatest women’s basketball coach and yet cheer for Stanford and not the Tennessee team.

The crowd was definitely on her side. Anticipation was high awaiting her entrance to Maples. When Pat came out, a warm welcome, standing ovation and holding of the “We back Pat” towels. (And big shout out to super fan K, who gave us one of his towels since they were gobbled up quickly. Thanks!). Tara and staff went over to hug her, and a video tribute from Tara has just played moments before.

It was a very classy thing to do but it definitely affected the crowd. At the UConn game last year, the fans were so fired up to cheer against Geno and the streak that they gave a lot of emotion to the Stanford team. The crowd gave them positive energy for every great play and a vocal voicing of when they felt robbed by bad calls. The crowd stayed on their feet practically the whole game. This crowd cheered the Tennessee team when they came out, was polite and reverent, but it was not helping the Cardinal. Many times Chiney exhorted the crowd to make some noise and give them some energy to the team. We didn’t need any reminders in the UConn game. It definitely was weird. Maybe that might explain a sluggish first half by Stanford. By the second half the warm glow had faded, and we even saw Pat berate the ref. We also felt embolden to heckle Pat, probably for the last time, all in good fun, of course.

Stafnord’s Mikaela Ruef was still out for this game and is listed out as “indefinitely” with plantar fasciitis. Jasmine Camp had an “undisclosed” foot injury, yet the foot was closed up in a boot and she was on crutches not putting any weight on it. Bummer.

C and R are so happy for Nneka. You can tell she is a senior and she wanted it. She played to the crowd, especially the Stanford football team in the house, and brought her own energy to the team. And when she got an assist from sister Chiney, she had a special smile. It really was wonderful to behold.

R said had she played like this against UConn, they would have won. However, the difference was she was in foul trouble and sat most of the first half of the UConn game. For this game, she played 19 of 20 minutes in the first and all of the second half. She stayed out of foul trouble in the first but got to 3 in the second and had to play smart, and you don’t go to Stanford unless you are smart. Several times we saw her pull up and refrain from contact against Tennessee and was able to stay in the game and single-handedly win it for her team, and her legendary coach, too.

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Not Just a Game

2011-12-19T23:18:00.000-08:00

You have to get to this game. By “this game”, we mean the Stanford Women’s Basketball team taking on Tennessee. It will be a good game. Many questions will be answered, especially about Stanford’s team. One being can they rise to the occasion, and hey, if the local 49ers football team can knock off Pittsburgh, a game C and R thought surely they would get creamed, then anything is possible.

But really, you have to get to this game for another reason, this might be your last chance to see legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summit coaching basketball. Much has been written about her legend (8 NCAA championships and over 1,000 wins) and about her decision to go public with her early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. A true silver lining is the awareness and influx of contributions to the condition. (For more info see the Pat Summit Foundation).

When Pat went public, she said she as going to turn over more responsibility to her assistant coaches. However, many are noticing she has turned over practically everything to them and he has become the assistant. She no longer speaks to the media after games or in the huddles or travels to see recruits. The San Jose Mercury reported she did not attend Tennessee’s’ practice at Stanford Monday.

Stanford head basketball coach Tara VanDerveer hinted to the crowd after the Princeton game to come out because it would be “special.” Other opposing teams have already honored Pat in some way when she come to play, and C and R think the word is out, privately, that Pat is not coming back to caching and this might be the last time to honor her.

Listen to Tara VanDerveer talk candidly about Pat Summit in an interview by Stanford alum Ros Gold-Onwude:

Speaking of something special, the first 2,500 people that come to Maples tomorrow get a free "We back Pat” rally towel, and you know how much C and R love free stuff, although Stanford and C and R draw the line at orange: the towels will be red. Highlights of past Stanford-Tennessee games will play before the game (Hope they show the Stanford wins, but with Tennessee holding a 22-6 margin of victory, that would be a short highlight reel. Wait, didn’t Candice Wiggins beat Candace Parker at Maples one year? Yes, we believe so).

Anyway, come for some great college women’s basketball, and to support and say goodbye to a great college basketball coach who has changed the women’s game forever.

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Not a Prince of a Game

2011-12-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

One of the neat things about going to the Stanford games is that at half time, we see so many friends to chat with. Sometimes it’s a quick wave as we are bursting to get to the bathroom, and sometimes we stop and catch up. Mostly we get to hear many other's opinions on the first half. Yesterday’s Stanford Women’s Basketball game vs. Princeton was no exception.

We caught up with our good friend P and asked her what she thought of the first half. Mind you, the score was 39-32, and although Stanford had a 7 point lead, they were not looking like themselves. She said, “I can’t decide if Stanford is that bad or Princeton is just that good.” Good point. Maybe a little of both.

How did the first half go? Well, you can dig up any number of game reviews to verse yourself on a familiar refrain. Nneka and Chiney scored all the points, with few contributors. No one stepped up. Stanford was pressed and they panicked and turned the ball over (17 for the game). Stanford didn’t play with intensity, yet Princeton played like they had nothing to lose.

As we sat with our little girl’s team, they noticed who was scoring all the points, too, asking again and again who was number 30? It wasn’t until Toni Kokenis connected with a three at the 13-minute mark that someone other than an Ogwumike scored for Stanford. The sisters had the first 15. At first, head coach Tara VanDerveer rested the sisters by choice, and then by necessity as they got into foul trouble, (offensively, for both of them, strangely enough).

VanDerveer was probably thinking to rest her star sisters early in the first half and let others have more game time. However with them on the bench, no one scored for Stanford and everyone scored for Princeton. Well, okay not everybody, but we had terrible defense. We gave up fast breaks. Our guards over-played their guards on man-to-man and Princeton constantly drove by them to a wide-open basket. No one stopped to help, because the helpers in the Ogwumikes were sitting on the bench. Princeton has already tied the score twice, and with the sisters out, they got within 2. Then Tara lost her patience and subbed the whole team out. Princeton also screened the heck out of our guards and we could not react in time, giving them wide-open shots. Good thing Princeton only shot 37 percent from the field. Had they connected on a lot more of those wide-open shots, Stanford would have been in a whole heap of trouble.

Inexplicably, we did not box out, a fact we pointed out to our little girl's team. At times, would shot with NO rebounders. The SF Chronicle article reported Princeton held the rebounding edge at half time 22-21. For the game, Stanford had 46 yet Princeton had 42. Inexcusable.

Yes, yes, the second half the starting five came out and played with more intensity. Other people hit some shots, most notably Toni K.and Lindy LaRocque. Stanford clamped down on defense and did their traditional pulling away. The final score was 85-66, in a game that was much closer than that score indicated.

And yes, yes, yes, we know being propped up by the Ogwumikes is a problem, the fans know it’s a problem, and so does the coaching staff. After the game, Tara addressed it to the faithful. Quotes include:
We need more from the upper classman
We need to find 3 others to play with Nneka and Chiney
We have to rebound and take care of the ball, and
We were sloppy

Quoted in the same Chron article, Tara said, “The sisters got after it, but that was the extent of the positives I can say about our team.” She added, “We need other people stepping up.” (The Ogwumikes scored 43 of Stanford’s 85 points).

One added note is Nneka showed us something new yesterday, hitting outside jumpers. When she caught the ball at the foul line, Princeton expected her to drive and played off, giving her a wide open look. She hit those shots with such ease and a nice touch, you would think she was making those all her life, instead of adding this skill recently. She is amazing.

Oh, Tara added that she expects Tennessee will press and trap. Yes, Tennessee is our next game. And by the looks of this one, I don’t think we are ready for it. We hope to see a completely different team Tuesday.

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Back to Basketball

2011-12-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

Are finals over yet? Stanford women’s basketball fans, C and R included, have been jonesing for some women’s basketball. Well, the Stanford variety, anyway. We are finally getting our wish this Saturday. Geez, stopping basketball for two weeks to study and take finals, what are these some sort of student athletes? Well, at Stanford they are. And speaking of student athletes, Princeton comes into town for Stanford to take out all their pent up energies. Hey, just discovered former Stanford standout Milena Flores is on the Princeton coaching staff. It will be “the Battle of the brains”, said Nneka Ogwumike ( I Finally told my spell check it’s a legal word. Now if I could just make it like Amber Orrange).

So come one out to the Princeton game, even if you think it won’t be that exciting. Bet you’ll see some of the stuff Stanford will be incorporating in their next game, which is, oh, Tennessee! When we spoke to Tara VanDerveer…yes, let’s all just pause for a moment and let that sink in, when I talked to legendary Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer at the Team Event, she said they had something special planned for other legendary coach Pat Summit. Can’t wait to see what it is.

But back to Princeton. Something special is going on before the game. There is a basketball clinic for kids to work out under the Stfnrod lights. I think for 3-8^th grade. All clinics start one hour and forty-five minutes before the game and end 45 minutes before tip-off, so you can cool down before watching the Cardinal show those same skills on the court! Clinic participation is $10/player and all clinics are held at the Arrillaga Practice Gym – located directly adjacent and connected to Maples Pavilion. Our team will be there!

Participants will also need to fill out a pre-game clinic registration and waiver forms. If you have any questions about the pre-game clinics, or to register, please call Lauren Greif at 650-862-5052 or email her at Ltgreif@stanford.edu
Also, Stanford Women’s Basketball has partnered with Jobtrain to bring the community. They are collecting unwrapped presents and clothes before the this game with Princeton. If you can help, please do us.

See ya at the game. We are donating our free courtside seats to an out of town blogger/sportswriter in the hopes of getting favorable press. Shhh, don't tell her.

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Rebounding Key to Stanford’s 93-59 win over Fresno State

2011-12-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

Once again, C and R had to miss the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team take on an opponent, this time Fresno State on Sunday, because of a conflict with our little girl’s team. We had practice at exactly the same time. (We need to get our head coach a refrigerator magnet with the Stanford Schedule on it for Christmas).

Oh wait, we just got one at the “Meet the Team Event” on Saturday in Palo Alto. That was an event that didn’t conflict. And it was a fun one. They promised prizes, and C was so happy when they called her name. Her prize? Was it tickets to the Tennessee game? No, it was courtside seats to the Princeton game. We saw so many old friends, who said they won tickets to the very same Princeton game in an online competition (and where the heck was C and R on that one?). Other friends who showed up also won tickets to the Princeton game. In fact, I think everyone there won tickets to the Princeton game, although you can’t blame the marketing department for trying. The Princeton game is December 17th, when it is Christmas break for the students and other fans are traveling or busy with the holidays. They are just trying to avoid a cavernous Maples Pavilion.

There was so much commotion and excitement at the autograph event that C spotted a lone figure in Stanford sweats. It was legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. C, not shy, chatted her up (After all we did “coach” together” meaning C won a prize to sit on the end of the Stanford bench during a game and keep her mouth shut. On the plus side, both Jayne Apple and Candice Wiggins high-fived her, but she digresses). So there was coach Tara and C asked her all kinda questions about the freshmen, etc, then said they were having a devil of a time getting the middle school girls to remember what they did in practice and apply it in a game. And Tara gave this great advice. She said to make practices as much as a real game situation as possible so they will recognize when they need to implement the skill in a game situation. Brilliant! After all, the woman didn’t win 800 plus games by just expecting everyone will know what to do when the time comes.

So while C and R and team were busy scrimmaging and playing out real game situations five on five in practice, Stanford was busy taking care of Fresno State 93-59. We are trying to get our girls to box out and rebound in a game, and we think Tara has imparted her wisdom to her team on when to do it in a game. The answer is rebound on defense and offense. Especially on offense. The Stanford team grabbed an astounding 67 boards to Fresno State’s 28. The mark of 67 is one shy of a Stanford record. The Twin Towers Ogwumike grabbed 28. Nneka had the team high score of 21 points as well as 12 rebounds and Chiney scored 13 points but grabbed 16 rebounds. That rebounding number was a career high for her.

Other highlights include freshman Bonnie Samuelson making 6 of 8 three-pointers, scoring 18, also a career high for her. Impressive, yet we can’t help but hear the echo of the SF Examiner reporter saying “Yes, but can she score when the game is on the line?” Sorry to put a wet blanket on that, but we also agree. Stanford needs her to step up in the big games, too, and not just the Ogwumikes.

Another positive note was that Lindy LaRocque was back in the line up, after sitting with a hurt foot. We asked her how her foot was at the meet and greet and she said she was ready to go. She scored 10 pints, 2 from three-point land.

Speaking of three-point land, Fresno State was coming into the game shooting 40% from behind the line, and Stanford held them to 23.5%. They launched 34 and made 8. Looks like Stanford played some D to go with those three-point shots and boards.

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team take a break from games for finals (after all they are student athletes, and the University actually makes them take hard classes and work towards a degree-- wow, didn’t mean to imply other schools don’t-- well, maybe some). We next see them December 17th at home against… Princeton. Come on out, we hear they have plenty of tickets left.

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Stanford-UC Davis Part II (or Basketball at Another Level)

2011-12-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

So with 2.5 seconds left, and down by two, our team inbounds the ball…..

No, not the Stanford Women’s Basketball team, they beat UC Davis handily yesterday by a score of 93-44. C and R are talking about the little girls we coach, and their game that happened at the exact same time as the Stanford game (which is why we had to give up our tix to see Stanford Women’s Basketball, and we had to pry the tix out of R’s hand on top of that. It was verrrrry tough to not go to Maples).

Let’s back up a bit. The little girls we help coach are not so little anymore, now in middle school, and we help our friend coach her daughter and her friends. And we coach in the local recreational league. Everyone plays an equal amount of minutes regardless of skill level. The emphasis is on teaching, not the score, and that’s how we like it. And boy, do we teach; boxing out, cross over dribbles, full court press, a Stanford inbounds play. We give them a lot of knowledge. And they respond. They are fantastic in practice. And then we start the game and they forget everything we taught them. A player for both teams each shot at the wrong basket. Luckily they both missed.

When we got to the gym last night, the other team was doing this fancy four-corner drill complete with two balls. It looked like something right out of Stanford. Two of the girls were almost as tall as us. One looked really big and strong. We often forget to box out in practice, let alone games. R turned to C and we both thought, we are going to get creamed. But our girls held their own. The nice thing about this league is they really balance the teams and the girls are all ‘sometime players’, not the year around club players. They all shoot crooked and with two hands heaves no matter what we drill them on.

Still, the other team had a commanding three point lead on us (Hey, when games are usually won 10-9, three points is a lot). But our full court press rattled them and we got within two! We kept trading baskets in the final minutes and both teams got to the 20’s. We were so impressed with our team. It was 23-21them with 16 seconds left. They inbound and we pressured them to turn it over in their backcourt out of bounds with 2.5 seconds left. We call time out and tell them they have to catch and shoot.

So with 2.5 seconds left, and down by two, near our basket we inbound the ball…..We inbound by the skin of our teeth and our guard heeds are advice and heaves it and is knocked to the ground. Hard. We run out to the fallen girl. There are some tears, lots of hugs. The clock has expired. The kind elderly gentleman ref has given us and 1 and 1 call (they had seven team fouls, we only had three).

As she is crying, C (me) has a thought, one that is kinda an antithesis to the league mentality. I know, I know, it is abut teaching not the score, but the coach in my, the competitor in me, just wants to use every advantage we have. So I am thinking if she is hurt, which the tears seem to indicate, then we can replace her with another player, preferably our best free throw shooter. As I turn to our best free throw shooter to ask her about taking the shot, the elderly gentleman ref comes over and voices my plan. He says, “ya know, if she is hurt, you can replace her with another player to take the shot.” See, he’s like me, nothing wrong with playing smart. However, the hurt girl wipes her tears with the back of her hand and says, “No. I’m okay, I’ll take the shot.” And you know what? I instantly changed my mental attitude and thought that was awesome that she wants the pressure and the responsibility of these final shots. Guess coach learned something today.

Since time has expired, everyone steps to half court. She is the only one at the basket. The whole half court is empty except for her and the ref, who bounces her the ball and steps back. She is all alone. She dribbles. She aims. She thinks about it for a long time. It is silent in the gym. You could hear a pin drop. She shoots, gives a little jump. The ball arcs high… falls to the basket… and misses the rim, the net, the backboard. Everything. Not even close. As coach, you just smile and clap, say “way to go” and make a mental note to work on free throws in practice. I motion to the ref she’s done, shake my head no, it was 1 and 1 and she missed. He shakes his head yes. He is giving her another shot, even though it won’t help us win or is technically legal in a 1 and1 situation. He bounces her the ball. She misses that one too. Oh well, we cheer the other team and slap their hands and make our players shake hands with the refs. Good sportsmanship is always practiced in this league.

After the game, it was one of our player’s birthday, so we embarrassed her by singing in the gym for all to hear. Then everyone shared cookies and juice, making crumbs everywhere. There were lots of smiles and giggles. Thinking back, C turned to R and said, “we totally won that game.”

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Stanford Starts Slowly, then Finishes UC Davis 93-44

2011-11-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

C and R couldn’t make tonight’s Stanford-UC Davis Women’s Basketball game, but someone who has never been to Maples did. She wrote us a little ol’ blog, even mentions the other team, too. It’s our twitter buddy and huge women’s basketball fan, Jessica Lantz, who writes for about 500 outlets, and her own freelantz blog. Here she is in her own words:
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The Stanford Cardinal took time out of their busy Wednesday evening schedule to dominate UC-Davis at the Maples Pavilion, coming away with a 93-44 drubbing of the Aggies.

As a first-timer to Maples, I was surprised by the quaint, cozy atmosphere walking into the building. Tree was a highlight to my night, prancing and dancing about in a surprisingly good looking costume. UC-Davis came out to play, unintimidated throughout the game, but particularly in the early stages of the night. In fact, the score was tied at 13-13 with 12:31 remaining in the first half. From that point however, the Cardinal turned on the jets sparked by a 10-2 run. The Aggies managed only 23 points in the first half and missed four of their last five attempts of the period.

The Ogwumikes played like you always expect, with Nneka finishing as the high scorer of the evening. Her 20 points in 21 minutes was coupled with nine rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Chiney chimed in with 18 points and nine rebounds (six offensive) of her own. The sisters took 13 of the 15 Stanford free throws in the game, hitting a combined 10 of their attempts.

Joslyn Tinkle was quietly effective in the game, especially in the deep stages of play. She finished with 19 points and nine rebounds. Bonnie Samuelson used her unorthodox 3-point shooting style to sling in five long-range bombs for 15 points, going 5-of-8 on the evening. Guard play was shared, and Jasmine Camp recorded the start and led the squad with six assists. Amber Orrange came in in relief, assisting her teammates to points on five occasions.

The Cardinal defense was stout, forcing 14 turnovers and holding UC-Davis to 36.2 percent shooting, and a 7-of-28 effort from beyond the arc. Stanford scooped up a huge 47-16 rebounding edge against the smallish Aggies. UC-Davis was impressively led by 19 points from guard Hannah Stevens. She was 7-of-9 on the night and hit 66 percent of her 3-point attempts (4-of-6). She never backed away from the obvious height advantage of her competitors, on both offense and defense. Despite the scoring disparity, it was apparent that the UC-Davis players and staff were using the game as a learning tool up until the final whistle.

Sounds like a through-and-through thrashing, right? Well – yes and no. There were obvious times when the freshmen looked like freshmen, where the posts didn't want to touch the paint and the team lacked a spark that I'm generally used to seeing from my usual seats in Big 12 arenas. I also can't deny that I am unused to seeing a slower game unfold before me. But all said, I thoroughly enjoyed my first visit to the Stanford campus and am looking forward to my next opportunity to see a game.
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Jessica Lantz
freelantz sports media
http://www.freelantzsports.com/

And why couldn’t C and R make it to the game? Find out in part II tomorrow.

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Too Much Nneka for Xavier

2011-11-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

It’s so hard to write a blog about The Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s win over Xavier if you don’t see the game live, televised or even follow it on Gametracker. Both C and R were doing family things the day after Thanksgiving (and not pepper spraying our friends, thank you very much) and had to read the news reports just like you.

First we opened the box score and play-by-play. Hey, Toni Kokenis made a three right off the bat. Gulp, then Stanford would miss their next 9 three-point attempts and would not hit another one until the second half. Hey, Jasmine Camp, the freshie started. Gulp, she wouldn’t’ score any points, going 0-2 from behind the arc. A quick scroll to the bottom of the half finds the lead changing hands several times and Stanford only up by one at the half. What the heck?

Here’s what we gleaned from the various electronic outlets:
In the first half, Xavier shut down perimeter, forcing Stanford into missing threes, as we mentioned. Also, Xavier got their game plan from UConn, which was to get sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike on the bench with fouls. They consistently drove to the basket to draw the defense into making fouls. Xavier made 11 free throws in the first half to keep it close, although Nneka and Chiney would be smart and finish the game with only 3 fouls each. Score 33-32, Stanford nursing that one point lead.

The second half was a different story. Well, the same old story since game two of this season. The story line goes like this: Hecka Nneka. Nneka would score 34 points for the game; 23 in the second half alone, and grab 13 boards overall. Xavier’s coach said they even tried to push Nneka outside to shoot jumpers, but Stanford fans know how high and accurate she is on those jumpers. Sister Chiney added 18 points and 8 rebounds.

Toni Kokenis would add 14 points, but again the underlying story is no one else is scoring. Stanford was 3-18 from three-point land for the game. Very troublesome, if you ask C and R. Still, Stanford was more aggressive on defense, stealing 5 times and scoring 23 points off of 20 Xavier turnovers. Ya gotta like that! And we do.

We think Tara is concerned, about being a one-note team, too, and in her press conference she added another Tara-ism to the collection. When asked about Nneka’s scoring all the points, she said, “Yeah, we don’t want to be just a one-move Mary.” Or Not a one-note Nneka. Other notes will have to sound off if we hope to be the full orchestra Tara VanDerveer wants to conduct. (Sorry for the clumsy a metaphor).

Work in progress...

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Stanford UConn Gone All Wrong

2011-11-21T23:10:00.000-08:00

What a frustrating game. Frustrating for Stanford, frustration with officials and frustration for C and R who couldn’t WATCH the game. Frustration for C’s spell checker that hates those fragmented and run on sentences. Let’s recap our experience and the game, if you are not too bummed out already.

First, C sets DVD to record ESPNU. Then drives to work.
R calls and says we don’t get ESPNU on our crappy cable plan.
C says she wouldn’t be able to set the DVR to record if we don’t get the channel, because a day without C and R arguing is a day without sunshine, which it was this morning.
R says well, she just set her DVR to record even though she doesn’t get that channel, so there goes that logic. Sometimes C and R can be really dumb about technology.
C changes five lanes to avoid the 22 Eastridge bus, the same one that takes you to Stanford.
R says she is still coming over tonight to eat all of C’s homemade chili, even though they can’t get the game
C stews all day at work, then gets stuck a half hour later than planned, getting in car at 5:30 PM, game started 4:30 or something.
C calls R on hands free device to avoid ticket and be safe.
R reports Stanford losing at the half 32-26.
C stuck in traffic, R following Gametracker. Frustrating all around.
R then says why don’t you turn on your car radio as you can pick up the Stanford station?
For living in high tech Silicon Valley, sometimes C can be so really dumb about any technology.
C turns on radio just in time to hear Stanford scores 4 straight points to start the half. Then the foul calls come. The KSZU boys were pretty cute with their Stanford loyalty and lack of objectivity, so we were not sure if the fouls were truly earned or not.
C pulls into driveway and runs inside during another questionable foul call on Stanford and turns off KSZU on car radio and turns on live streaming of KSZU online. Sometimes C can be pretty smart about technology.

Still, we can’t believe a game between the then current number 2 and 3 teams was not “National TV,” as promised. ESPNU is a niche channel, not on basic cable, and is one that you have to pay extra for. Bummer. We deserve better. The “we” being all of women’s basketball fandom.

Things we learned from listening:

Stanford couldn’t shoot the three.
Yet we controlled the inside.
Stanford had too many turnovers (16).
Stanford had the turnovers in the face of pressure, a very bad sign.
Nneka Ogwumike would score 22 points in 23 minutes, but they had no answer for UConn freshmen Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who is eerily Maya-Moore like, and scored 25.
Others need to step up and help Nneka score. Sister Chiney was cold with only 7 points on 3-12 shooting, and only hitting 1 of 3 free throws.
Two starters were so ice cold they got big doughnuts for points, Taylor Greenfield and Lindy La Rocque going scoreless.
Both teams either nervous, not used to big games, or played tough defense as Chiney Ogwumike would score the first points of the game for either team, a foul shot with 3 minutes and 18 seconds gone.
Foul calls perplexing
Refs called phantom fouls, at one point Stanford boys said UConn player swings an elbow, Nneka gets the foul. Nneka was limited to 23 minutes and you can’t score from the bench.
Stanford Women's Basketball Head Coach Tara VanDerveer trusts Nneka so much she not only lets her stay in when she fouls (take note, Chiney) but lets her play with 4 fouls, as she did for the last 8 minutes.
A Stanford freshman did stand out, and it wasn’t Amber Orrange, who went scoreless, it was Jasmine Camp, who scored 14.
It was not a blow out and Stanford didn’t get out-muscled, rebounds 46 for UConn to 45 for Stanford, and although the final score was 68-58, Stanford had the lead three separate times and tied the game 9 separate times.

Things we learned from Twitter:

Freshmen Alex Green ruptured her Achilles tendon in practice and did not make the trip. Bad news for the youngster coming off ACL surgery.
Former Stanford guard Ros-Gold Onwude gave her final thoughts “It’s early. More important who learns the most from this and improves the most come March.”
Amen

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Stanford’s New Motto, Fear the Three

2011-11-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

This should be an easy blog to write, or at least find a theme. The theme of the night for the Stanford Women’s Basketball team against Old Dominion was “shoot the three!”

But let’s start at the beginning: the game was over before it even started. Okay, not really, but Old Dominion was losing 2-0 before the game started. Stanford was awarded a two-shot technical foul, against OD before the game. We have only seen that one other time, and the reason given was the scorecard was messed up, so OD must have had some administrative error that cost them. Head Coach Tara VanDerveer gave Toni Kokenis the honor of shooting, and she made both. Stanford up 2-0 and there’s nothing you can do about it. That must be a little demoralizing for a team. Then the game started.

And how it started. Nneka Ogwumike is our jumper of the jump ball, and C and R usually place bets with each other over who will win the jump ball. We both bet on Nneka so it’s not really much of a bet. Bit wait, let’s back up even more so…

Thanks to the Internet, C and R culled video footage of the last season the Ogwumike sisters played with each other in high school. It was the high school championship game. Nneka went up for the tip, totally out-leaped the other person and did a volleyball spike of the ball towards her basket. At the same time, Chiney broke from the jump ball circle and was at the three point line when the slam came, corralled it, dribble two long strides and laid it in. It happened so fast, the other team didn’t know what hit then. When they realized they had to go inbound the ball and were down 2-0, you just knew the fight was out of them and they were going to lose. They did. Nneka and Chiney won the State Title.

So, back to present time, Nneka jumps, hits the ball, not quite so hard as the spike in high school but gets a good hit and Chiney is already moving off the circle, grabs it, dribble 3 or 4 times and lays it in. Now Stanford is up 4-0 with about 2 seconds gone. Talk about double demoralized.

And then guess what happened, Stanford fans? Well, if you saw the other 2 regular season games, you saw Chiney would foul before two minutes were gone and get yanked by Tara. Chiney fouled with a minute 10 seconds gone and took a seat. But it’s okay, Stanford was up 10-4 before she sat down, thanks to 2 made three-point shots by the starting freshmen Taylor Greenfield.

Stanford would shoot 9-15 from beyond the arc in the first half. Stanford brainiacs all over the Twitter world and scoreboard computed that the made percentage of three’s equaled 60%, and that the made percentage of 2s equaled 51%. When do you ever see that? And too bad Stanford discontinued the habit of throwing T-shirts every time a three was scored. C and R would have twenty on right now.

Lindy Larocque would have 5 three-pointers in the first half, and end up with 15 points, a career night. Sara James and Toni Kokenis would each have one as well in the first. Freshmen Jasmine Camp would get one in the second half, along with 2 more from Sara James, for a game total of 12-22, or 54.5%. Half time score would be Stanford 56, OD 24.

C and R are getting the picture after the Gonzaga game where the Ogwumike sisters scored everything and team was a zero for dismal (really 3-13) from three-point land that they needed to shoot and other people needed to be scorers. We are sure Tara might have mentioned this a time or two in practice. It worked. In fact, we are thinking this might be the game plan for the UConn game (Shhh, don’t tell them, let it be a surprise).

Oh don’t get C and R wrong. Nneka and Chiney still worked it inside and scored, especially in the opening of the second half. Nneka and Chiney each played 16 minutes, yet they scored 14 and 13 respectively. Nneka could still elevate and score, as evidenced by a steal and an open court fast break with the crowd hoping for a dunk. She laid it in, but her hand hit the backboard. And Chiney could still get the offensive rebound and put it back. She would have 9 boards, 5 on offense alone. And Chiney did a Nneka, twice. A Nneka is where you grab the ball and shoot without hitting the ground. R pointed out that Chiney gets a 2-for-1 when shooting a Nneka, a rebound and a basket.

With the veterans firmly taking a seat, Tara is still auditioning the freshmen, giving them ample playing time. At one point she had four freshmen and Sarah Boothe. C and R love freshman Erica Payne. She is scrappy, hustles and makes steals. We think of her as a Jillian Harmon type player, who played for Stanford a few years back. Freshie Amber Orrange not a typo had a smart block, smart considering she’s 5’7. An OD player went up and Amber jumped up, the OD player hesitated in the air, so Amber hesitated, keeping her arms in and when the OD player raised the ball, Amber moved her hands into the ball and blocked all ball, no foul. If she would have gone up high waiting for the block, with her smaller height, she surely would have fouled. Very smart, and quick hands and thought process.

Final score would be 97-48, and the only drama was could they reach 100? They didn’t, but the scoring was shared, mission accomplished.

Well, next game is UConn. It will be a question mark as to how that game will unfold. Will it be the Nneka and Chiney show or bombs away from three point land. Tara is probably hoping for a little of both. It will be different from last year, that’s for sure, and that’s what makes it so exciting.

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Candice Wiggins, Coach

2011-11-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

WNBA Champion Candice Wiggins surprised the heck out of everyone (well, C and R anyway) by not going overseas to play ball. Instead, she added “assistant coach” to her resume. Candice joined Occidental College as assistant coach. Her responsibilities will be grooming the guards. Did C and R mention that Candice was a four-time All-American guard at Stanford before playing in the WNBA? Oh, you knew that already.

Before you say “Occidental who?” or “isn’t that a life insurance policy?” know that Occidental is a small liberal arts college down south in LA that plays in Division III and is coached by a woman named Heidi. As in VanDerveer. Tara Vanderveer’s sister. Heidi VanDerveer is Stanford Women’s Basketball Head Coach Tara Vanderveer’s sister (say that five times fast!).

What a perfect match. Candice was a favorite of Tara VanDerveer during her four years at Stanford and we are sure Heidi likes her equally as much, if not more, because, well, she’s Candice Wiggins. Who wouldn’t like her? Going through four years of a Stanford program helmed by master minded Tara VanDerveer gives anyone an advanced degree in basketball smarts. Having the exuberance and outgoing good energy that motives a player to do better than their best is priceless. Ice should make an excellent assistant coach, and we wish her and Occidental college the best of luck.

Other Stanford Stuff:
What are you doing this Friday? Come on down to Maples, but not for Basketball. Come for Volleyball. The National Anthem will be sung by Stanford players, but not for Volleyball. For basketball. Say what? Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, Jasmine Camp, and Natasha von Kaeppler will be singing the anthem around 6:45 before the Stanford vball game vs Pac-12 foe Oregon. They’ve been practicing!

Heads up for December 3rd: Meet the Team at Town & Country Village, Palo Alto, for autographs, pictures and prizes! Fun starts at 1 and goes until 2 PM.

Lastly, this Thursday, against Old Dominion,.bring a canned good, get a general admission ticket. Or just bring a canned good, no perishables, for the Big Can Drive.

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All Ogwumike, All the Time

2011-11-13T22:01:00.000-08:00

C and R step into a well-warmed Maples to get a look at their beloved Stanford Women’s Basketball team in person, playing their first game at home, second of the season. It will also be the first regular season game for All-America Nneka Ogwumike, who was held out of their first game with an “unspecified upper body injury.”

We see the team warming up and an extra Cardinal Red pad on Nneka’s right elbow, so perhaps that is the source of the mystery injury. We are looking forward to seeing sisters Nneka and Chiney play together for the first time in the regular season this year. We also see Gonzaga warming up, for the first time with out standout guard Courtney Vandersloot, who graduated to the WNBA. We will see if there will be a drop off in scoring.

The game starts and Gonzaga is the impressive one in the opening minutes. They have such strong fundamentals and are quick, and push the ball in transition. Also, it doesn’t help that Nneka is flat and missing shots. And it doesn’t help matters even more when a minute and a half into the game Chiney Ogwumike picks up her first foul and gets VanDerveered (benched by head coach Tara VanDerveer).

Around the 16-minute mark, during an official timeout, Stanford brings out on the court Trisha Stevens, who played on the 1992 National Championship team and was just recently inducted into the Stanford Hall of Fame. The video montage of her stats is mind-blowing. Around the same time, freshmen Amber Orrange (not a typo) makes her first appearance in front of the home crowd.

Then the sisters get busy. As R notes, the sisters own the floor, they own the paint and they own the rebounds. At one point, Nneka is thrown an alley-oop pass and she catches and shoots it before hitting the ground. Not a lot of women’s players can pull off that feat (did anyone clock her hang time?). However, the sister’s scoring and rebounding ability, and Nneka’s jaw-dropping plays are tempered by rookie mistakes. Some of them by the freshmen. Guard Toni Kokenis, a sophomore with a lot of playing time last year under her belt is also passing it away. To be fair, Gonzaga is quick, smart and anticipating where Stanford is going to go with the ball. Whatever the cause, Stanford will end up with 16 turnovers for the game, 10 in the first half alone.

When Nneka takes a well-deserved break around the 7 and a half mark, she has 13 points and Gonzaga has 13 points. The score is 22-13, mostly from Chiney and Toni scoring when Nneka doesn’t. Nneka would have a double-double by half time. One notable score was Jos Tinkle (Bells) scoring on a nifty spin move near the basket on a fast break, breaking ankles and showing us some Show Time. Alas, that would be the only points she scores for the game.

Before the half, though, it is Gonzaga that makes its run. In the last 6 minutes, Gonzaga scores 18 while Stanford can only muster 6 points. Gonzaga would tie the score at 29 with 2 minutes left.

Stanford tries to go for one last shot with 30 seconds left and loses the ball out of bounds with 12 seconds left. Quick minded Tara VanDerveer inserts quick-hands Amber Orrange into the lineup for defense. The freshmen promptly fouls and Gonzaga sinks both shots to go up 32-31 at the half. Tara VanDerveer is going to go bald pulling hair while dealing with these freshmen! Media sources on Twitter not related to Stanford are drooling, hoping for the upset.

At the half, Stanford brings out Trisha Stevens again, plus her teammates from the 1992 National Championship to be honored. The video board shows they played at a high level even back then.

At the start of the second half, Stanford comes out with much more intensity, hustling and diving for loose balls. C and R are sure a “pep time talk” by Tara helped spark that. Many hitting the deck, most notably Toni and Lindy LaRocque.

Then it becomes the Nneka and Chiney show. Really, it wasn’t until Toni Kokenis hit a 3 pointer at the 13-minute mark that any other Stanford player scored not named Ogwumike in the second half. They could not stop Chiney inside. Nneka was even falling to the ground on a hard foul, threw the ball up and it went in. The second jaw-dropping play occurred when Nneka picked the pocket of a Zag guard and raced for the lay up, nearly stumbling for running so hard. As she neared the basket on the left, she faked a hard pass to her right. The Zag guard totally turned around to harass the streaking Stanford player on the right, who DIDN’T have the ball. Nneka had kept it and went up for an uncontested lay-up. Brought Maples to their feet.

The sisters would have had more points, but twice Nneka passed up a basket to try to hit Chiney. Gonzaga tried to double-team at least one of them, but really, they should have put all five on the two. No one for Stanford looked like a scoring threat, which, after basking in glee at their scoring, is really, really troubling for Stanford. Three point shooting was a non-existent threat, the team just 3-13 for the game.

Oh wait, was that Candice Wiggins who just walked by? Candice Wiggins in the house! Our section yelled great things to her and she acknowledged us all! She couldn’t get her championship here, but finally got one in the WNBA. She is well loved here at Stanford.

When Nneka finally came out of the game for good at the four and a half minute mark, the score was 69-51. Nneka would take a seat with 33 points and 18 rebounds.

As Stanford was pulling away, Tara put in four freshmen with center Sarah Boothe. With one minute left, Tara calls a time out and yells at her freshmen to “Get over here,” her face red. She was mad. We tell ya, those freshmen will be the death of her yet!

Hats off to Gonzaga, they didn’t quit and they didn’t back down when Stanford made a basket. Final score was 76-61.

Chiney had 19 points and 6 rebounds. Adding Nneka and Chiney’s points together, and you get 52 of Stanford’s 76. Chip in starting sophomore Toni Kokenis’ 14 and other teams are going to figure out who NOT to guard, which is everyone else on Stanford’s team. Troublesome indeed.

Still, it is hard not to be happy about the remarkable performance Nneka had, coupled with Chiney’s rebounding and scoring on the weak side. Now, if Stanford can just get a few more players involved.

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Stanford VS Texas

2011-11-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Friday Night:
So here we are in front of three, count ‘em three computers to watch our beloved Stanford Women’s Basketball Team. And what online site did we tune in? The Texas Longhorn Network! Blasphemy, or just really glad the content is available online and free? You decide.

Friday Afternoon:
Thanks to social media, C and R found out Nneka Ogwumike was not going to play in the Texas game. After C got over her heart palpitations, and R helped her off the floor, we quickly retweeted it. And worried. The tweet said “Upper Body Injury.” What the heck does that mean? After an exhaustive search of the Internet, we found out she got the unspecified “upper body” injury in practice this week and should be back for the home opener this Sunday vs Gonzaga. Still not very helpful on the “what” but we are glad it is not serious to Nneka and she can still play.

Back to Friday Night:
After getting all the computers fired up, we tuned in just in time for the starting lineup to be announced without Nneka. Starters were little sis Chiney, of course, plus vets Lindy LaRocque and Toni Kokenis at guards, Joslyn Tinkle and a surprising freshman pick, Taylor Greenfield at the center and forward spots. Stanford was also were wearing their black uniforms, the ones C personally likes, and thinks of as good luck charms, something she thinks they are going to need, without Nneka and a lot of untested and inexperienced guards.

Friday Game Time:
Okay, Stanford has Chiney, who has been a rebounding beast in exhibition and can score inside, we should be okay and then a whistle 30 seconds into the game and Chiney has her first foul. Any astute Stanford fan knows what that means, you foul, you take a seat. Stanford head coach Tara VnaDerveer wouldn’t take her best scoring and rebounding weapon out early, with the second best option on the bench, would she? Yes, take a seat Chiney, next to Nneka not in uniform. Now our two best scorers and rebounders are on the bench.

Stanford doesn’t panic and although we are not scoring early and often, as we do when Nneka and Chiney are in, we are not letting Texas getting many scoring chances.

Friday Night, three minutes into the game:
Three minutes into the game and another freshmen Amber Orrange (not typo and pronounced Or-rahn-jah, with the r sound rolling off the back of your throat.) enters the game. She uses her quickness to quickly get a steal. Then just as quickly makes a freshmen mistake, turning over the ball. She, and all the freshmen, will be a work on progress this season, that’s for sure.

So, we know Nneka is not playing, then we keep hearing the announcers say, “Nneka dribbles, Nneka passes”. It’s not our Nneka but it turns out they have a Nneka, too. Texas has a player named Nneka Enemkpali, who also played her high school ball in Texas, like Stanford’s Nneka. And here we though Nneka was such a unique name. Small world.

Friday Half Time:
Score at the half 35-30, Stanford holding on to the five point lead. Unbelievably, when Chiney picked up her second foul in the 1st half she was limited to 6 minutes playing time. Yet she collected 4 rebounds. Although with Chiney out, Texas caught up on rebounds in the stat column.

Almost all the freshmen got to touch the floor in the first half. Bonnie Samuelson and Erica Payne made it in. Bonnie got a three-point shot off with an incredibly quick release, but it seemed more rushed than spot on and missed its mark. (However the official score says Bonnie did not shoot, so maybe C and R are imagining things) Yet it was freshie Amber Orrange who impressed. She had 12 first half points, and scored when Chiney was on the bench. Texas Coach Gail Goestenkors was grabbed at the half for a recap and she told the announcer, “we wanted to limit Stanford’s threes (they did, Stanford only made one in the first half). And we need to guard Orrange and her left hand. Everything is left, and everything is a lay up.” Memo to Tar VanDerveer, teach Amber to go right sometimes. Amber only had two points in the second half for a total of 14 points. Maybe Texas was on to her.

Friday Start of Second Half:
Second half opens and Stanford has better ball movement, nice crisp passes, and scores five quick points in two and a half minutes to go up by ten before Texas takes a timeout to discuss why they have no points the second half. Freshie Taylor Greenfield had a nice pull up jumper and looked calm and poised. She would end up with nine total points.

The second half would see short runs by both teams, but Texas was plagued by poor shooting and could never manage to come close to taking the lead. Stanford also got a lot warmer, shooting wise. Toni Kokenis had two first half points, then ten for the game. Chiney would end up with 16. Tinkle had four 1st half points and ten in the second for 14 total. Several media sources say she looked more comfortable playing with her back to the basket as a true center tonight than as a forward, as she has been asked to do the last two years.

Texas was limited by only dressing eight. Several were out for medical reasons and one for team violations. Texas also hurt themselves by not making a three pointer in the first half. The Texas starting center, Ashley Gayle, was held to zero points. The announcers mentioned several times that certain Texas players were not in “game shape” some due to injuries limited training, but really, this is college basketball, you need to be in game shape the day of the game.

One thing we didn’t imagine hearing this game: “Amber Orrange with the block!” Oh yes she did. She made a block, gathered the ball, and raced for an uncontested lay up. Boy, they weren’t kidding when they said Stanford is a different team this year.

Friday End of Game:
Stanford went on to hold the lead and increase it, winning 72-59, and Texas didn’t help themselves by shooting 34% for the game. Amber was the most impressive freshman, with 14 points and six rebounds. However, she did have five turnovers, and they were mostly rookie mistakes, trying to force a ball in to traffic, a pass that might have worked in high school. Hopefully experience will weed that out. A little startling was Chiney’s free throw shooting. She was 2-7 for the game. Stanford can’t afford to leave points on the board like that.

Friday Evening:
Out for a night on the town with friends

Saturday Afternoon:
Finally get around to writing this blog

It is always good to have that first game under your belt. Game two is Sunday vs. Gonzaga, who won their opener 101-88 over Hofstra. Hopefully Nneka will be back in the lineup. See ya then.

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Watching Stanford Play Texas

2011-11-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

So here we are, us Stanford Women’s Basketball fans, our appetites whetted from the two exhibition games sprinkled with healthy doses of freshmen and Stanford getting ready to start the season against a ranked opponent, and WE CAN’T WATCH THE GAME! Well, not unless we fly to Texas. It’s like pulling the rug out from under us while meeting the queen, which Liz Cambage did recently (sorry, getting off topic)! C and R thought the Pac-12 deal meant we would see more Pac-12 stuff on TV, including women’s sports?

But thanks to a tip from a Texas fan, of all people, there is a way (and it doesn’t involve Gametracker). The game is being carried on the Longhorn Network, (something we are hoping to see from the Cardinal Network one of these days). Normally, out West, we wouldn’t get this, but it just so happens the Longhorns are offering a free weekend, starting Friday, just in time for the Stanford-Texas game. Caution, this is still the Longhorn Network dot com, so you are watching on the internet, but still, it should be a TV feed, right? Anyway, just go to the Longhorn Network website at game time to watch live. Now we just need to figure out what time zone. ESPN says 8PM Eastern Time, yet Austin is in Central time, which would mean, let’s see, carry the one, game time 5 PM Stanford time? You do the math, you’re so smart.

(Special thanks to Texas Fan Babhorn for alerting us. Read his preview of the game from the Texas side, followed by Stanford’s side).

In other Stanford Women’s Basketball news, when the Stanford faithful DO get to see their team back at Maples, (Sunday Nov 13th against Gonzaga) there will be a half time celebration of the 1992 Stanford National Champs. Also honored will be Trisha Stevens’ Stanford Hall of Fame induction and Tara VanDerveer’s National BB HOF induction. Don’t miss it.

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Stanford vs Vanguard

2011-11-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team used their second and last exhibition game of the season to further test drive their freshmen. C and R were surprised to see two freshmen starters in the announced lineup Saturday afternoon. Granted, Stanford was playing Vanguard, but still, how long have the freshmen been playing Stanford ball? Granted, one of the freshmen starting might have had to do with sophomore guard Toni Kokenis resting her wrist as a precaution and not playing at all.

Well, you’re asking C and R, how did they do? Well, freshie Amber Orrange (not a typo) handled point guard duties first, and she definitely brings speed and confidence to the position. Is she point guard ready? Well, she moves fast but she goes so fast that it is almost as if she says, “I don’t see someone open so I’ll just drive to the basket full steam ahead.” R says she needs to slow down and direct the traffic more, be a decision maker and play maker.

Taylor Greenfield was the second freshmen that got the start, and C and R know she can shoot the three, but we must admit, we didn’t see much from her in the first half. She did hit a three and then when she shot again, had a nifty move back inside when they came out to contest her three, so maybe she can add more to that.

Jasmine Camp was the third freshie in and the second to handle point guard duties. She also showed speed and good ball and body control. She had pretty much the same speed as Orrange but seemed to look to pass or create for her teammates more. Both guards were super quick on defense, and played full court man-to-man, even denying the entry pass after a basket. And when was the last time we saw a Stanford guard steal the ball in the back court and get an easy lay-up? We saw it not once but twice in the first half by both speedy freshmen guards. It definitely gives Stanford a new look and something else for other teams to think about.

C and R were very impressed with three point specialist Bonnie Samuelson. She made five 3-pointers again this game. Many have commented on her shot, ugly, coming from the chest area, but heck it goes in. Nate of Swish Appeal even tweeted, “I have no clue how Stanford freshman Bonnie Samuelson's shot goes in with that shooting form...but it does. A lot.” A good friend commented it looks like Kate Starbird’s, and Tara shouldn’t try to fix Bonnie’s just as they eventually left Kate’s alone. But dang, C and R are worried quicker teams will be able to block or alter that shot. (We’re just sayin’). However, for someone so thin, she got rebounds and had a great spin move/put back on offense, showing she’s more than that 3-point shot!

Freshmen forward Erica Payne is in the mold of Jillian Harmon. All around good at everything, very athletic, nose for the ball and scrappy. Gets a rebound even though others are taller. Will get you a basket come heck or high water. We like her in with a taller, bigger Tinkle or Boothe. In fact, at one point, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer had four freshmen and Tinkle on the floor. Tara REALLY wants to see what the freshmen can do in a game situation.

Rounding out the freshmen was guard Alex Green, coming off ACL surgery. She also has speed and more ability to create shots for her teammates. C and R get so nervous when she is in there because we keep reading she is JUST coming off ACL surgery although she tore it in high school. It’s probably been awhile since the surgery, but we wince every time we see her drive up the floor.

C and R would be remiss if we didn’t mention the veterans. We mentioned Toni was resting her wrist and Mikaela Ruef is still resting her planter fasciitis. Nneka Ogwumike still looks head and shoulders above the rest, but the crowd was bummed she had very limited minutes (15 of them).

But let’s talk about Chiney for a moment (Sure she’s never heard that before!) Chiney Ogwumike looked more mature, calmer, and dished off unselfishly to her sister even though she was open. In that case, she knew how to assist her sister. She also rebounded, especially offensively. And for the second game, Chiney outscored Nneka 11 to 6, although it because Tara doesn’t need to see Nneka right now, she knows what she can do.

Big shout out to Joslyn Tinkle (did we hear Tinkle Bells? Oh, that was mostly us shaking them) for getting Stanford to 100. We were just betting our little girls team if they would do it or not and Tink sank two free throws with 2.1 seconds left. Whew, that was close. Final score, Stanford 100, Vanguard 54.

One of the great things about going out to the games instead of watching them on TV or following on electronic devices (Gawd awful Gametracker on the computer) is you get to see so many friends. Big shout out to old friends S and T. (When we golfin’ at Stanford?). Sorry we didn't sit with Twitter Buddy SC (were with little girls team and not enough seats!). We were supposed to meet up with Nate the Great from Swish Appeal, who was in the stands as a fan as opposed to working. He even called R’s cell phone, but we didn’t get the message until we were in the car (technology is hard for C and R). He said he saw us walking away but we missed him. Sorry Nate, please forgive us and let’s go out after the game next time! Also big shout out to Facebook Fan MC!

Well, Tara has almost a week to look at what she saw these last two games and come up with a starting lineup and game plan against Texas. Are we a 3-point shooting machine (14 made out of 35 attempts), or will we push an inside game (Ogwumike sisters) or will we use speed (freshmen guards) to blow past everyone? Or some of everything?

We’ll find out Friday. Follow C and R on Facebook and Twitter, too!
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Stanford's First Exhibition Game

2011-11-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

Last night against UC San Diego, C and R couldn’t wait to see what the six Stanford Women’s Basketball freshmen could do, and apparently, neither could head coach Tara VanDerveer. Tara wasted no time in inserting the freshmen into the lineup, usually at a pace of 3 freshmen to 2 veterans, which is the configuration she used on the court. What C and R took away from the game was the freshmen are talented and bring a different skill set to the team, some of which have been missing for awhile, but boy, are those rookies raw.

Freshmen guards Jasmine Camp and Amber Orrange (not a typo and pronounced O rahnge, not orange the fruit) both had blinding speed and were not afraid to drive to the basket, usually beating the defense, skills we haven’t had in a point guard since, well, Candice Wiggins. Tara also has some tall freshmen in the line up, but they were not brought in to bang around and play center, witness Bonnie Samuelson, who probably weights 98 pounds soaking wet. They were both brought in as 3-point specialist and Bonnie wasted no time going off. She made five, count ‘em, five 3-pointers, three in the space of two minutes. Very quick release, although C and R wish she shot the ball a little more from her shoulder, not her hip. She might be easy to block with a quicker team, but hey, you can’t argue her accuracy; she made her five out of seven shots, all taken from the 3-point range.

But there were rookie mistakes. A lot of rookie mistakes. Mostly in the form of ill advised passes.

Veterans shined early on, when they got to touch the floor. The first few minutes or so, it was the Nneka and Chiney show, not that Maples minded. The Ogwumike sisters scored 36 of the 105 points. (Oh, did we forget to mention that Stanford broke a hundred? They did, even with the freshmen getting ample playing time. Final score was 106-56. Well, Tennessee won their first exhibition game by 65 points, and we only won by 50, but who’s counting?). Senior Nneka scored 17 and sophomore Chiney got 19, one of the few times Chiney outscored Nneka. Chiney also gobbled up 14 rebounds, 12 of them defensively. Junior Joslyn Tinkle was third in scoring with 16 and grabbed 11 rebounds, eight of them defensively, although if you look at UC San Diego’s size, we don’t think they even tried to rebound on offense, instead using quick play to try and dislodge the ball whenever they could, even after Stanford might have secured the rebound. Tinkle also had two crowd-pleasing blocks, sending one ball well into the first row. Emboldened by the blocks, she took more chances on swiping on defense and then got called for two quick fouls. Coach won’t be happy with that.

Speaking of fouls, Sarah Boothe fouled out in just 12 minutes of play, scoring just two points, and oh, C and R wouldn’t like to be in Sarah’s shoes after Tara breaks down the game film (Oh yes we would, good or bad, to hear Tara impart her wisdom, even if dressing you down… priceless).
Mikaela Ruef was the only Stanford player not to see any action. She looked like she was limping a little. Hope her injury is minor.

One last thing, want to give a big shout out to the UC San Diego supporters who painted their stomachs with their former high school teammates names. Oh, did we forget to mention they were all young ladies. They had painted stomachs and sports bras and C and R aren’t sure if they lost some bet or just felt empowered and a little bit crazy. Usually the painting of stomachs at sporting events is displayed only by beer-bellied men, so hats off to them for showing their support in a festive way.

Second exhibition game Saturday, 2 PM vs. Vanguard. Bet we get to see even more of the freshmen.

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Stanford Season Starting

2011-11-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, it’s finally, finally November, and finally, finally time for women’s basketball! Stanford has an exhibition game, let’s check here, oh, tomorrow! They play UC San Diego at Maples at 7 PM. And we finally, finally get to see the six freshmen! C and R can’t wait.

And, C and R want to apologize for not writing more blogs in the off season, as we have been sucked up by Twitter, which we kindly tried to let you have access on our website. It’s just really easy when find an article on Stanford Women’s Basketball to post the link on Twitter, or a photo on Facebook, which then goes to Twitter. (Just as it was easier to post Stanford is 5th in preseason polls, Nneka is a preseason All American, Nneka and Chiney are preseason Wooden Favorites, and Stanford is favored to win the Pac-12, preseasonly). We have noticed Stanford’s official site has been leaning towards Facebook and Twitter, as well. But we will try to write more in depth on the blog in the future now that the season is actually here.

In fact, we had one fan write in to say Stanford’s site was lacking in content and C and R were lacking in coverage. Did you hear that? We have a fan! No seriously, we can we, (and Stanford say), the world seems to be transitioning to social media. It will be interesting to see how Stanford and other sites handle media output this season (and just as interesting to see how Stanford season’s going to go with the 6 freshmen).

That’s it for now, see you at the game and back here afterward.

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Stanford Women's Basketball Preseason Awards

2011-10-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Women’s Basketball seems like it is taking FOR-ever to get here, so we can only be tantalized by some preseason awards for the Stanford Cardinal.

First, Stanford Senior Nneka Ogwumike and her sophomore sister Chieny Oguwmike earned some preseason love. They were both named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 30 list. They are the only players from the Pac-12 on the list and one of seven schools with at least two players, facts we cribbed from the official Stanford article.

The list is “based on last year’s individual performance and team records, and are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious honor,” according to the Wooden website.

Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer also won an award, following up her fun summer of being inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. This award is the Athena Award. The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce selects it. The award is for an "exceptional woman who demonstrates excellence, creativity and initiative in her business or profession; contributes time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community; and actively assists women in realizing their full leadership potential," according to a news release and from the Palo Alto Online story. Sounds like that fits Tara to a Tee.

Congrats to all, and C and R are watching the minutes SLOWLY tick by until the first Stanford Women’s Basketball Game!

PS- Red shirt junior Sarah Boothe is cleared to practice. She is coming off shoulder surgery. Incoming freshmen Alex Green, who tore her ACL in high school, has also been cleared to practice with the Cardinal.

(Get even more Stanford Women’s Basketball chatter on C and R's Twitter.)

October Happenings

2011-10-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

October has been a busy month. Women's college basketball practice officially started, Breast Cancer Awareness month is in full pink-force and Candice Wiggins finally has a major championship.

First, Candice Wiggins. Candice Wiggins, who plays for the Minnesota Lynx, stayed healthy this year and provided that Candice-like-Spark off the bench. The Lynx has one of the most talented benches, along with Rookie of the Year Maya Moore in the starting lineup and swept the Atlanta Dream in the finals. In 2008, Candice’s senior year at Stanford, she led Stanford to the championship game, Stanford’s first Final Four appearance since 1997, but they could not defeat a Candace Parker led Tennessee team. Candice won many individual awards while at Stanford, but never that elusive college championship. Now she has one as a pro. C and R could not be happier for her! (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Lynx Facebook page)

October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a worthy cause to be sure. It promotes education and empowerment for all. In the last few years, big institutions have jumped on the pink bandwagon, promoting BCAM by wearing or selling token pink things. NFL football “celebrates” Breast Cancer Awareness month by letting players and coaches wear pink gear, then auctioning it off. Cool, brings a lot of attention to breast cancer to a demographic that might not be as in touch with their inner pink.

But let the buyer beware. The campaign “Think Before You Pink,”started by Breast Cancer Action, makes it their mission to point out hypocrisy of companies that put a pink ribbon on their product yet donate a fraction (or none) of the profit. They ask some good questions about products with pink ribbons and so should you. Here is the shorten version:

Critical Questions to Ask Before You Buy Pink
1. How much money from your purchase actually goes toward breast cancer? Is the amount clearly stated on the package?
2. What is the maximum amount that will be donated?
3. How are the funds being raised?
4. To what breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?
5. What is the company doing to assure that its products are not actually contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?

In other Basketball news, Women’s basketball practices started last week around the country, Stanford included. Curious, Geno Auriemma and Brittney Griner are overseas with the US Women’s National Team. Strange time to go, especially with the start of season and some of the best US players still participating in the WNBA finals. (And even stranger to C and R, trying to start another internet rumor, that Geno is helping his rival’s best player get better).

With basketball practices underway around the country, and now the WNBA over, C and R are even more anxious for college basketball games to officially start!

September 19th- Stanford Women’s Soccer V Santa Clara

2011-09-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

With Stanford Women’s Basketball still a world away, C and R have been enjoying other women’s college sports, most notably volleyball and soccer. So when C saw that number one ranked Stanford soccer team was playing number 18th ranked Santa Clara at Santa Clara’s Buck Shaw Stadium, which is a mile away from R’s house, well, she knew they had to go.

The game was set for 8 PM on Sunday, September 18th, which happens to be a school night and late for a soccer game, but since the stadium was only a mile from R’s house, as she likes to point out every time we think about going to see Santa Clara, we were still in. When we heard they would retire Brandi Chastain’s number at half time, we knew were would be there early to get a good seat!

It was a beautiful balmy night, the day having been warm for our Bay Area neck of the woods, and we go there to watch both teams warm up. Now, C’s only dilemma was who to root for. See, when she, okay me, hate the pronoun thing, when I was coaching my daughter in recreational soccer, there would be special Santa Clara Women’s Soccer games where tix would either be inexpensive for groups or free for youth if you wore their soccer shirt. So we would pile the whole team in a few minivans and spend the glorious fall afternoons in the bleachers cheering on the Broncos and making up creative cheers for them! The girls loved it. One year I caught a T-Shirt flung into the stands and got it autographed by the whole team after the game. That year they went on to win the National Championship!

When we were going to those games, there was one Santa Clara player that did a throw-in in a crazy way. She would run to the line, then bend and place the ball on the ground, then place her head on the ball and flip herself over the ball, landing back on her feet. As she came upright bringing the ball from way behind her head she would fling it forward. The extra strength would make it sail halfway across the pitch. It was an amazing feat to behold and the girls loved it. “Look, look, she’s going to do the flip again!” they would nudge and tell each other.

One year, an opposing coach placed her defender an inch inside the boundary line, lined up just where the flipping throw-in player would land. She was to stand there and see if she could either disrupt the throw or get collision and a foul called on the player. The girls and I stared with horror as we realized what she trying to do as the throw-in player began her run. With hands over their mouths, we all held our breath, the flipper came upright and threw the ball and stopped her body from colliding with the other player. The girls sighed relief. I was more interested in the other player. Would she flinch or duck when the ball came around? (I know I would!). Amazingly, she held her ground and didn’t move, the only exception was she closed her eyes when the flipper went upright and threw it over her head, as if preparing for a crash. Do you know what kind of muscle control it would take to tell your body to not move a muscle when perceived danger is coming at it? Well, a lot! Just try not to flinch or protect yourself if someone is throwing a hard baseball at you! I dare you. So, I give that player huge kudos for braving that!

Anyhoo, the stadium and C have a long history of rooting for the Broncos. When C and R took their seats, a Stanford fan was trying to get the Stanford troops fired up by starting the “Go! Stanford!” chant. Then we saw Brandi Chastain right before the game started and nudged each other like the little girls! Also, big kudos for Santa Clara for getting a lot of students to walk over to the stadium and cheer loudly for the team.

So to solve our cheering dilemma, we tried to stay neutral, which was easy to do because both women’s soccer teams feature amazing athletes. It is such a joy to watch women compete at such a high level. Both teams played a similar possession-type game, although Stanford was more patient in holding the ball and waiting to pick their time to attack. They were rewarded with a goal in the 30th minute. Then Stanford did a quick free kick to a streaking player and got another goal at the 36th minute. It was 2-0 at the half.

Brandi came out at half time. They announced her number was retired, and listed her accomplishments, and dang, she is accomplished as a player! Then back to soccer.

The half resumed (with no rain and thunder and lightening of the Notre Dame game) and, we are sorry to report, Stanford got sloppy, making mental mistakes and unforced errors, and getting the ball stolen. So different from when we saw them play Notre Dame a few weeks ago where they played about as technically perfect game as you can imagine. With about 10 minutes left in the match and Santa Clara still down by 2, they started hustling after every ball and pressuring Stanford. The result was Santa Clara winning a lot of balls, or Stanford making mistakes to give them the balls. And, Stanford looked tired and just stopped chasing down balls. Santa Clara didn’t, so you got to admire them for never quitting. Unfortunately, SC’s plan of attack was speed, and Stanford could counter that on defense, so Santa Clara remained scoreless, with the game ending 2-0. We were also glad to see Stanford goalie Emily Oliver back in goal, when the last time we saw her vs. Notre Dame, she had banged her knee on a ND goal and was removed from the game.

Santa Clara is playing again this coming Saturday, and their opponent is NOT Stanford. Hmm, we might have to go and cheer for them outright, especially since the stadium is a mile from R’s house! Let’s just take a peek at the opponent…it’s Cal! Oh, now we really have to go!

Follow C and R on Facebook and Twitter, too!

Stanford Women’s Basketball News

2011-09-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

Stanford Women’s Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer, who was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, received the Phyllis Bailey Career Achievement Award from Ohio State's Varsity "O" Women's Alumnae Society, as reported by Stanford’s Official Site.

Phyllis Bailey holds a special place in Tara VanDerveer’s heart. Bailey was the first one to give Tara a position as an assistant basketball coach fresh out of college, as well as helping to advance women’s collegiate athletics. In fact, the award is in part given to someone who advances women’s athletics, which we all know TVD has done throughout her career.

In other Stanford news:
Stanford is inducting nine members into their Athletic Hall of Fame, most notable (to C and R, anyway) are beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh and Women’s Basketball players Trisha Stevens. Kerri Walsh led Stanford to two National Titles in indoor Volleyball and won back-to-back gold medals in beach volleyball in 2004 and 2008. Trisha Stevens was a member of Tara VanDerveer’s first National Championship in 1990. She led the team in scoring.

And oh, Stanford Women’s Soccer is playing Santa Clara at Buck Shaw Stadium, about a mile from R’s house, on Sunday, September 18th at 8 PM. You know C and R will be there! If you can’t, follow our live updates about the game on Twitter.

Super Stanford Sports Day Recapped!

2011-09-10T22:06:00.000-07:00

C and R just had the most enjoyable Friday night at Stanford that didn’t involve women’s basketball. What we did see was the Stanford Women’s Volleyball team beat four-time defending champs Penn State and the Stanford Women’s Soccer Team beat defending champs Notre Dame. Glorious weather on campus, supporting two women’s sports teams and two victories, what could be better? Let’s recap, shall we?

When we got to the Stanford campus, as we mentioned, it was a warm sunny Nor Cal day. (And we discover women’s field hockey is also playing, but there are only so many games we can see! They beat Indiana 3-2 in their home opener). A long line was waiting to get in the soccer stadium for two games in the Stanford Nike Invitational. We love so many were here to support women’s soccer. Local team Santa Clara was getting ready to play UC Irvine, then the second game of Stanford and Notre Dame. The Stanford men’s played in a game right before and as it was ending, we talked to an usher who said that game was free, because there wasn’t any demand for the men’s tickets, but the women’s games were sold out, so they had to clear the stadium to let in the paying customers. Wow, we never thought we would see that day coming!

We saw the Santa Clara team warming up outside the stadium, and our first thought was, “Look for Brandi Chastain!” She is married to the Broncos head coach and is an unofficial coach for the team. We thought we saw her helping the team warm up, but she still has her playing day physique, and most of the players have the blonde pony tails, so we couldn’t tell if it was wishful thinking on our part or not. So we tweeted we saw her anyway!

While we were marveling at that fact, we met the proud dad of the goalie for UC Irvine, the team getting ready to face Santa Clara. She was a true freshmen and the dad was so nervous he said he wasn’t sure if he could watch. After wishing him good luck, we made our way to Maples and settled in for our first non-basketball event as Maples, women’s volleyball, also tweeting to give them exposure, too.

Both Stanford and Penn State looked good in warm ups, and both teams were nervous hitting some balls out of bounds early on in the match. Volleyball uses the rally scoring method, and we won’t tell you just how old C and R are, but when we both played high school volleyball, they used “side outs” and you could only score when your team served the ball. Nowadays, your team scores a point if the other team makes an error, regardless of who served, and games go to 25 points.

Penn State takes an early lead in the first game but Stanford battles back, mostly on the strength of hitter Rachel Williams. Stanford gets to game point but can’t put it away. Then Penn State has game point and they make an error. It’s Stanford’s serve, and they serve it into the net giving Penn State the point that wins the game. Devastating!

Stanford comes out strong the next game, and both teams trade leads and it goes down to the wire but Stanford prevails. It becomes apparent to C and R, who revert to coaching mode, and therefore critically assess the team rather than enjoying their athleticism, that Stanford has Rachel Williams to kill and Carly Wopat to block, and do not rely on much else. So if Rachel is off, the whole team is off, hence allowing Penn State to stick around.

Plus, Stanford had a hard time covering the dink! (We would drill and drill on that in high school). The dink is a soft shot hit just above the blocker’s arms and falls almost directly behind them. Usually a player is assigned to be behind then for this very reason. But Stanford did not have a dedicated player to cover this, so Penn State took advantage. In the second game, when Penn State did a dink, the space was still empty so three Stanford players would throw themselves at the floor. They either missed, or if someone got a hand on the ball, no one was on their feet to get the second hit up. Finally in the third game Carly just blocked the heck out of them and Penn State stopped dinking.

Don’t worry, Penn State was not without fault. Their Achilles Heel seemed to be net play. If the ball was close to the net, Stanford usually won that battle. And some of Penn State’s hits were into the net and the setter couldn’t adjust in time to make the play. There were a lot of points off of that for Stanford.
So with each having won one game, the match continued to the best out of five. The third game was indeed another nail-biter, with Stanford having multiple game points but not being able to close it out. Finally Stanford prevails 27-25. Now they are ahead two games to one, but it is nearly time for Stanford soccer, so we bid Volleyball and Maples ado and head back outside.

The night is still gloriously warm and when we get to the stadium and ask who won between Santa Clara and UC Irvine. We are told they are in a 1-1 tie and they are starting a ten minute overtime period. Darn, we could have stayed and watched volleyball after all! After a restroom and food break and seeing the Santa Clara – UC Irvine game was still scoreless and were starting another 10 minute overtime period, (And that poor dad of the UC Irvine goalie!) we decide to head to Maples. We see people coming out and we are told the beat Penn State in the fourth game, to win it 3-1. Yay!

So finally Stanford and Notre Dame take the field for soccer about an hour late. The stands are sold out and everyone is cheering. We are over in the new stands right above both teams that put us practically on top of the action. While at the top of the stands, we can see lightening off in the distance in the East, a rare sighting in the Bay Area. C remarks if we were back East, they would cancel the game because of said lightening. We are so close to the field that we get to hear the player’s on field chatter all night long and Stanford Coach Paul Ratcliffe yell instructions to his team. And these women are so amazing!

Each half is 45 minutes long with a running clock. In the first 10, 15 minutes, Stanford plays a ball control offense and keeps the ball on Notre Dame’s side of the field. Then around 20 minutes in, Notre Dame goes in the offensive and tests goalie Emily Oliver. About 25 or so minutes in, with the game scoreless, it starts to rain! What, rain in September in Northern California? We are under a metal awning so are safe from the drops, but most of the fans think they might melt and start moving. Then the drops get BIG and some say it is hail! The field and ball are slick, and Notre Dame gets off some good shots. Then we hear thunder, and Notre Dame is making their own thunder getting off shots, but luckily none have gone in the net. Then actually flashes of lightening and thunder. Hmm, we think, we are under a metal awning, and the stadium is surrounded by big metal light poles, this is not good. Others agree and the game is stopped with 1:07 left in the first half and we are told the game will start again in half an hour.

We retreat to R’s car and think they should just forget the one minute and 7 seconds left and call it half time and let this be the half time break. Finally, about 49 minutes later, the rain has cleared, no more lightening and the teams take the field. For the minute and 7 seconds. Then a 15-minute half time. Sigh. Most of the crowd has left.

The game resumes and in the 66th minute, Notre Dame gets a shot to the far post. Stanford goalie Emily Oliver bangs her left knee getting to the post to stop the ball but is too late. Notre Dame is on the scoreboard and she is removed from the game, carried back to the sidelines, in obvious pain. The back up goalie, Ali Gleason, does not look prepared, just has on her gray T-Shirt. Notre Dame wisely takes advantage, running after any ball she touches to try to rattle her. They also launch some hard shots, but they either go wide or she corrals.

Then in the 80th minute of a 90-minute game, Lindsey Taylor for Stanford is left alone in the box and she blasts a rocket between the goalkeeper and right goal post to tie the game. Tied 1-1 and everyone is thinking, don’t let this already late game go into overtime! Minutes later, Notre Dame makes a great shot and the back up goalie Gleason does her best Hope Solo imitation and dives left for the save. Then in the 88th minute of the 90-minute game, Lindsey Taylor launches a corner kick to the far post and Mariah Nogueria does her best Abby Wambach imitation and heads it home for the second score!

One-minute left, Stanford is trying to stall, and keep the ball away from Notre Dame and any shots on their goalie. Thirty Seconds left, Stanford clears it to the opposing goal. Ten seconds left, Stanford clears it to the sideline. Three seconds left, Stanford clears it out of bounds as the horn goes off. They beat Notre Dame 2-1, exacting revenge for the loss to them in the championship game. Not many are left to see it, but it was a wonderful game. Epic!

Wow, we are glad we were able to bear witness and now really can’t wait for the drama of women’s basketball!

Super Stanford Women’s Sports Day!

2011-09-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, Stanford Women’s Basketball has not started yet but there are other women’s sports we can watch, and this Friday, September 9th there is a perfect storm of Stanford Sports on the Farm. The Stanford Women’s Volleyball team is taking on defending champs Penn State and the Stanford Women’s Soccer team is taking on defending champs Notre Dame.

First up, the Stanford Women’s Volleyball team takes on defending champs Penn State in the annual Nike Volleyball Big Four Classic. And not just any defending champs. Penn State has won the title four times in the last four years. They are the UConn of basketball. In 1997, Stanford beat Penn State in the final for the title. In 1999, Penn State got their first title with a win over Stanford in the finals. In 2007, Penn State won the title in a close match against Stanford and met them again in 2008, Penn State once again prevailing. To say these two have history is an understatement.

Stanford and Penn State have met each other 12 times. Six victories to Stanford and six to Penn State. Someone is walking away with bragging rights. Game starts at 5:30 PM at Maples Pavilion.

Next on the bill is Stanford women’s soccer playing on Cagen Stadium as part of the Stanford Nike Invitational. They are meeting last year’s champs, Notre Dame. Who did ND beat in the championships game? Oh, only previously unbeaten STANFORD! Could this get any better? Stanford is coming off a rout of Northwestern in the tournament, beating them 6-0.

So remember, Friday, September 9th:
-Stanford Women’s Volleyball 5:30 PM at Maples against defending champs Penn State.
-Then Stanford Women’s Soccer against defending champs Notre Dame at 7:30 at Cagen Stadium, right near where we park for basketball, at 7:30 PM.

Perfect storm for Stanford women’s sports.

If you can’t make it to the fields of play, go the Stanford website and you can view it online on God-awful Gametracker. Look for the two nuts cheering their heads off. Cuz that will be C and R! Oooo maybe some Stanford Women's basketball players might be there, too!

Two Stanford Women’s Basketball Players Named to Preseason “Wade Watch”

2011-08-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

On to lighter news. Stanford Senior Women’s Basketball player Nneka Ogwumike and her sophomore sister, Chiney Ogwumike have both been named to the preseason “Wade Watch” list. The Wade Trophy is given to the player who embodies the following criteria, according to the Stanford Women’s Basketball site: "game and season statistics, leadership, character, effect on their team and overall playing ability." And also the player that best embodies the Spirit of Margaret Wade, the three time national champion at Delta State University. Or as the Wade Trophy Wiki says, for the best women’s basketball player in NCAA Division I.

Either way, we wish the best of luck to the sisters Ogwumike. BTW, Stanford is one of six schools to have multiple candidates. UConn's Maya Moore was the last winner, and the previous two before that, and so, of course, is the only 3 time winner. Who was the last winner before Maya Moore? Our very own Candice Wiggins!

Stanford season starts November 11th!

Pat Summitt Shocks Women’s Basketball World, Diagnosed with Early Dementia

2011-08-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Women’s Basketball World was shocked today with news that legendary coach Pat Summitt has been diagnosed with early onset dementia (“Alzheimer’s Type”). Writer Sally Jenkins, who helped Pat Summitt write two of her books, wrote a touching article for the Washington Post. You can read it and also watch her interview Pat.

If you can’t get the video, go to the Washington Post Link.

Pat released this video on the Official Tennessee Vols site, stating that she has always been about honesty. And then she was brutally honest. And very calm and classy. The Pat Summitt way.

Go to the You Tube site if you cannot get the video.

She wants “No pity party” and will continue to coach with much help from her staff, with the blessing of her University. Classy lady gets a classy act right back at her. That’s the way it should be.
The Twitter world explored with an outpouring of support and love and good wishes from anybody who cares about women’s basketball, and the name “Pat Summitt” was a trending topic. Many major news media orgazations picked up on the AP feed and placed it on their websites and Tweeted about it. C and R only wish the mainstream media would give as much coverage to women’s basketball when something good happens, too. (Incidentally, R noticed last year that Pat Summit seemed “out of it” and let her assistants do all the talking in huddles. We’re sure others who were closer must have noticed, too).

Stanford Women’s Basketball coach Tara VanDerveer released this statement on the Official Stanford Women’s Basketball Facebook Page:
"Hearing today's news about Pat Summit's diagnosis was numbing to me," said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. "Pat is not only a great coach but she has been an outstanding mentor and friend. She has shown great courage in announcing this news. I know that she has the best support group around her that anyone could ask for, and I know that Pat will fight this development with the strength, spirit and determination that she has shown throughout her Hall of Fame career. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."

As is the whole women’s basketball universe. All the best to you, Coach Summitt.

Women’s Basketball Go Undefeated to Win Gold Medal at World University Games

2011-08-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Summer is not traditionally women’s basketball time, but the World University Games held in Shenzhen China this August gave us some basketball sunshine. The World University Games host a variety of sports and are held every other year. The women’s basketball team, made up of college all stars including Stanford’s very own Nneka And Chiney Ogwumike, went undefeated. In the Gold Medal game, they beat Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) by a score of 101 to 66.

Nneka certainly saved the best for last, scoring 24 points to lead all scores and added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Chiney chipped in 10 points and 6 rebounds. It was Nneka’s third USA Basketball Gold Medal, having won gold at the U19 World Championships in 2009 and the U18 FIBA Americas Championship game in 2008. Little sis Chiney has two USA Basketball Gold Medals, this one and the one she earned at the U18 Americas Championship game in 2010.

Here’s what USA coach Bill Fennelly had to say about Nneka, culled from the USA Basketball site, along with all photos:

“We wanted to go to Nneka (Ogwumike) early and often, and we did,” said Bill Fennelly, USA World University Games Team and Iowa State University head coach. “I think (tonight’s game) was even better than the game she played two years ago (in the U19 World Championship gold medal game). I think that says a lot about her, not just her talent, but her commitment and focus. You want your best players to step up at the biggest times, and a gold medal game is a good time to step up and do the things you can do.”

It certainly helped that Team USA had a distinct height advantage over their opponent. Taiwan averages 5’9 and USA over six feet at 6’1. They kept throwing it inside, mostly to Nneka and Team USA outscored them 62-22 in the paint.

What motivated Nneka in this game? Listen (or read for yourself, from USA Basketball):
“Yesterday against Australia, I was in a lot of foul trouble, but my teammates held it down. Today I wanted to redeem myself and let them understand that they can lean on me. I just really wanted to play hard. Play for four quarters and to win the gold medal.”

Nneka was also asked what it was like to play with her sister. She said to play on team USA and win a Gold Medal with her sister “was great.” We know what you mean. See both of you back in the US and in the Fall.

Stanford Women’s Basketball 2011-2012 Schedule is Here

2011-08-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

Stanford Women’s basketball released their 2011-2012 schedule today. Most notable, for C and R anyway, is the December 20th match-up with Tennessee here at Maples. Get your tickets early. (Notable away game is UConn November 21st). For those of you who remember 1997, Stanford meets Old Dominion this year, so try not to hyperventilate (quoting twitter-buddy @SGC72). We had to be reminded of history-ODU knocked Stanford out of the Final Four in a heartbreaking overtime loss in 1997, and it would be 11 long years of no Final Fours until Candice Wiggins!

Also, this year starts Pac-12 play, and this article explains the confusing formula for playing 8 teams twice and 4 teams once, and how that rotates through the years. C and R thought they created the Pac-12 to have two “flights’, such as the SEC with 6 teams in the “Eastern” and six teams in the “Western” divisions. Then they have a reason to have the end of the season tournament to determine who is the conference champion. But what do we know? Maybe all the teams want to play Stanford and couldn’t bear the thought of being in the division without Stanford! Hee hee

See ya at Maples. Soon. Very Soon.

Tara VanDerveer’s Hall of Fame Speech

2011-08-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Couldn’t make it to Springfield to see Stanford Women’s Basketball coach Tara VanDerveer get inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on August 12th? It’s okay, C and R couldn’t either. Well, now due to the modern marvel of technology, you can watch the video of Tara’s acceptance speech from NBA.com. (We can’t embed it, but you can see it on the NBA link.) Let’s go to the replay booth. Love the audience energy for her-We got goosebumps watching it! Enjoy.

Tara-isms: Words of Wisdom From a Hall of Fame Bound Coach

2011-08-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

Stanford Women’s Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this Friday, August 12th. She is currently only one of seven women to be inducted into that hallowed Hall, so that makes it even more special. You can watch Live Coverage if you get the NBA channel (hint, our good friend P does, please tape it for us), starts at 3 PM Stanford time, with enshrinement Ceremony starting at 4 PM Stanford time.

Former and current Stanford players and coaches have been reminiscing on social media, mostly Twitter, about “Tara-isms.” Tara-isms, or Taraisms are sayings only Tara VanDerveer’s creative mind could come up with to “school” her players.

Taraisms are not new. First of all, Tara has been coaching for 32 years and counting, so there ya go. Plus, C and R are veterans of many Senior Night tributes and the players like to share their favorite Taraisms.

Jilllian Harmon (class of 2008) shared our favorites. She was the original storyteller, at least to our ears, of “Prayer Basketball!” She said in one of her first Stanford practices, she was making a long pass (and she claimed her arm was bumped) and it didn’t go as planned and Coach Tara yelled out, “Jill, this isn’t Prayer Basketball. We don’t just throw the ball and PRAY someone will catch it!”

Jill also told the crowd about, “don’t be a squirrel caught on the wrong side of a tree!” But so many other former players have quoted this, perhaps she says it to all defensive players who are on the wrong side of the offensive player, and does that happen a lot in practice?

Assistant Coach Kate Paye has had the benefit of being a player to receive Taraisms as well as a courtside seat to them, so to speak. She shared the most on her Twitter account. (Acknowledgements to players and coaches who give Taraisms on Twitter are listed below-comments from C and R in parentheses) .

Taraisms from former Stanford player and current Stanford coach Kaye Paye
-The “S” doesn’t stand for stupid. (Several players remembered hearing this one!)
-Mind over mattress.
-You don't have to be best friends, but you do have to be best teammates.
-It's not the start of the race but the finish.
-Mental is to physical as 4 is to 1. (Several different players liked to point out that Tara wanted to prepare them for the “thinking part” of basketball)
-You want to have fun, try winning.... that's fun! (Again shared by several and so apt!)
-Sometimes you're the dog and sometimes you're the fire hydrant. (Okey-dokey!)
-Basketball is a team sport. If you’re into individual things, take up tennis!
-Basketball was invented as a team sport, it’s always been a team sport, and it always will be a team sport. (Along the same vein-must have been some hot doggers she needed to take care of!)
-This is not a democracy. (Love this one and will use it on kids and students)
-Christmas is over; quit standing around like a decoration. (hee hee)
-Excuses are like belly buttons…everyone has one.
-FINISH! (Not sure if a Taraism, but several players said you just had to hear her voice)
-Got to put the hammer down.
-Sleep nights. (C always says you can sleep when you’re dead. Plus the players are so young and have boundless energy, why are they tired?)
-I was born at night, but it wasn't last night! (Tara’s no dummy!)

Former Stanford player Jayne Appel
-Don't be running like a station wagon if you have the ability to be like a Ferrari on the court. (Wow, that is so cool! Also probably why Jayne ran so hard on fast breaks!)
-You can't be a light switch and turn your game off and on, it has to be on all the time (Very Good!)

Former Stanford Player Angela Taylor
-Why use a water pistol when you have a cannon?

Former Stanford Player and Assistant Coach Charmin Smith
-A repetition of error shows a lack of intelligence (We all could use this quote-many other players remember this one, too, such as Vanessa Nygaard, so it must have occurred a lot!)

Former Stanford player Ros Gold Onwude was on fire with her Taraisms. We think she appreciated Tara’s wit the most!
-They already made the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and you’re NOT in it! (Remembered by Ros Gold-Onwude and JJ Hones)
Don’t be a pig and hog the ball!
LESS is More.
-When I was playing I used to love guarding weak Wilma because I could help in and get steals!
-You have to be more than a one trick pony! (On having more than one “go to” move)
-There's too much mustard on your hotdog. (Ros said this was said on showoff/fancy moves)
-You don't want to be “the nice girls from Stanford.” (Ros said Tara was telling them to be tough)
What offense are you running? Mumbo Jumbo?!!! Be a point guard! Run the play! (I think that was specific to Ros!)
-That play’s not for you! The play is called money! Not funny! (For Ros only?)
-This play is called “Motion”….not “SLOW Motion” (For Ros only again?)
-No, no no, Candice, just play dummy D on her, she's not ready for real D yet. (We are sure Ros and Tara had a great relationship!)

Former Stanford Player Jeanette Pohlen
-Even a blind squirrel can find a nut (Guess Tara likes the squirrel and nut thing!)
Former Stanford Player Melanie Murphy
-You’re making million dollar moves but taking nickel shots (We can only imagine)

Former Stanford Player JJ Hones
-If there’s a fire in the house, get off the porch! (JJ said this was in reference to the ball in the key and helping in, and it took her “a sec to get it.” C and R still don’t get it, maybe meaning if the other team has the ball is in the key, you better go and get it before they score?)
-JJ shared this one, not so much a Taraism, but a way of life, “Tara would yell ‘YOU CAN’T DO THAT!’ Cue sub asap”

David Siegel at Hoop Feed.com gathered several former players and got them to talk on his show Dishin & Swishin to give “A Tribute to Tara VanDerveer.” Several Taraisms were mentioned. Here, due to the modern marvel of modern technology, you can listen to the Tara podcast your very own self.

In the Tribute, Candice Wiggins talked about quotes that motivated her, “Hungry lions hunt best,” (about drive) and “Pressure creates diamonds.” The latter helped her in Stanford NCAA playoff runs.

Vanessa Nygaard shared many gems. One she remembered was when Tara would shout, “get your big toe off the line,” in reference to stepping on the three point line and making the shot go from 3 points to 2. “Worst shot in basketball, worst shot in basketball!” Tara would call out, Vanessa remembered.

In the Tribute, Vanessa Nygaard (we think that was her voice) shared she was not a great student and one day she was jawing with teammates about how far away she could hit a shoot, from off the court, from the doorway, and then Vanessa bragged, “I like to shoot from the library!” And Tara quipped right back, “you don’t even know where the library is!” Fast thinker, that Tara.

And great coach. Acknowledged basketball genius, and funny to boot!

* Special thanks to these player and coaches (And there Twitter handles)
Ros Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21)
Candice Wiggins (@CandiceWiggins)
Kate Paye (@KatePaye)
Jayne Appel (@JayneAppel
Mel Murphy (@melmel0)
Jeanette Pohlen (@JFP32)
Charmin Smith (@21Charmin)
JJ Hones (@jj_hones)
Angela Taylor (@AFTAylor22)

**PS
Don’t forget to check out Tara VanDerveer through the 2000s, including pictures, from the Official Stanford website.

Tara VanDerveer Going to the Basketball Hall of Fame!

2011-08-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been awhile since we wrote a blog (apologies to good friend P). Just, we’re on summer vacation and Twitter is so much easier to blurt out somethin’ short and silly. Or just retweet what others say so we don’t have to think of anything original. (We got our chops busted for that recently!). However, it is fun to follow what those youngster Stanford players are saying and doing. Keeps us young, too, and Goodness knows we could use some of that youth elixir!

Anyhoo, Stanford University Women’s Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer is set to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this Friday, August 12th. Stanford is doing their best to promote the heck out of it, and we surely appreciate that. So check out the special Tara VanDerveer page they created. It will chronicle her 32 years and counting of coaching, one “that has featured Olympic Gold, NCAA titles, conference titles, and national coach of the year honors.” (Don’t forget the 800+ college wins!) The page also includes the “bittersweet” morning when she found out about the HOF induction, that day in April last year right after her team was eliminated in teh Final Four by Texas Tech.

Highlights of the page include pictures of Tara throughout the decades. The first installment features pictures form the 1970’s and C for one is glad to see the tall socks. So cool, so retro, so ahead or behind the times, C can’t take her eyes off them! Probably because they remind C of her basketball playing days (and how the high stirrup socks would slip out of her Converses because she had flat feet and no arch to anchor them to her feet!). But we digress…

Keep checking back to the page to get more photos throughout the decades and other goodies. Oh, there has been a call through social media to publish “Tara-isms.” Those are sayings only Tara could come up with to “teach” (torture) a player. Such as the one Tara told Jillian Harmon on her first day wearing a Stanford uniform. “Jill, this isn’t prayer basketball. We don’t just throw the ball in the air and pray someone will catch it!” And Jillian has also shared this classic about being on the wrong side of a screen. “Jill, don’t be a squirrel on the wrong side of a tree!”

Or this one remembered by Ros Gold-Onwude and JJ Hones; “They already made the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ and you’re NOT in it!” Ros had many memories of Tara-isms such as: “Don’t be a pig and hog the ball” and “LESS is More.” To all point guards everywhere: “What offense are you running? Mumbo Jumbo?!!! Be a point guard! Run the play!”

To quote Ros Gold Onwude again, “Along with basketball genius, she’s said a lot of funny things over the years.” And won a lot of games. And mentored a lot of young women. And is going to the Hall. Congrats to the one and only TVD!

Candice Wiggins Interview

2011-07-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

And now, thanks to modern technology, you can have Candice Wiggins right in your living room (or computer room, or on your phone). Here she is giving a radio interview on Minnesota Public Radio the other day. And we loved one of the links pointing to the interview said all the other Minnesota Pro teams had struggled the past year but the Lynx are currently in first place in their division!

Highlights:
Three words
Healthy healthy healthy

Life after basketball:
When you get advice from Condoleezza Rice, you tend to follow it.
(plus, that is not a typo, those really are all the consonants and vowels that belong in Condoleezza’s name).

Listen for yourself, unless modern technology has failed you and there is no button to click.

If so, then go directly to the MPR website and try your luck there.

We look forward to the second half of the WNBA season, coming near you on your favorite media of means!

No Guarantees in Life…

2011-07-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

In sports, nothing is certain. Just ask the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, fresh off losing the Women’s World Cup (or winning the silver medal, take your half of glass). Or just ask the Brazilian Women’s National Soccer Team, who lost to the United States in overtime-penalty kicks in the semi-finals, after Brazil lead for 122 minutes.

So we were looking forward to seeing the Summer SF Pro Am championships this coming weekend, secure that the “Stanford-lite” team would be there. First they had a play-off game the week before, and what with injuries, one star shooter out of town (Tinkle went to Vegas), overtime and players fouling out left and right and playing with four, and bada bing bada boom, Stanford is out of the championship game (See Judy Richter’s account). Dare we say shades of last year? No we don’t dare because this game had completely different set of circumstances.

So back to our original premise, in sports, nothing is certain. When the US Women’s National Team lost such a roller coaster, overtime-penalty kick game in the World Cup Finals, Stanford Women’s Basketball player Nneka Ogumike posted on her Twitter account “Those women battled hard. It's not over and it's not done, but this fight was worth the run. I know the feeling.” Apt words from someone who felt their pain. (You know we would bring up social media sooner of later, what with our adolescent infatuation with all things Twitter or Facebook).

So even though Stanford was a perennial top 5 team last year, there are no guarantees for the upcoming season. Stanford fans have gotten used to the Cardinal having their way in the Pac-10, oh excuse me Pac-12, that it could be a year of ups and downs. Preseason polls have been non-existent, we think all the sports writers are still recovering from Women’s World Cup Fever, but at the end of last year, everyone was touting Baylor and barely had Stanford in the top ten. We’ll see how that shakes out in the fall. But with a huge crop of rookies for Stanford (six) we are not so sure of things as in past years. And that’s exactly why we follow sports. Nothing is certain, nothing is guaranteed, but we love watching talented, hard-working athletes try their hardest.

Tweetering, We Mean Teetering on the Brink of a Championship

2011-07-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

C and R are so excited, we can hardly stand it. Tomorrow the United States Women’s National Soccer Team plays in the Women’s World Cup final against sweetheart Japan. Never mind that the whole world is supporting the plucky Japanese team that are playing for their country after a devastating earthquake and Tsunami and the Americans are being viewed as big bullies, we are still rooting for Team USA.

And the coverage! Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we barely get any mention of the two professional women’s leagues, the WNBA and the Women’s Professional Soccer league. Heck, the WNBA just released their All Star Lineups and our paper didn’t even mention it at all.

But a USA Team in a final is a USA Team in a final, and the late bandwagon jumper-on-ers are out in full force, thank you very much NY Times. But what’s been fun for C and R has been the social media we just became a part of (talk about being in the right place at the right time). Facebook has been kinda tame with straight reporting of news-type articles. So it’s been Twitter where the excitement is!

It’s so funny, because when we joined Facebook and Twitter (@StanfordWBBBlog), we thought Twitter was pointless, 140 characters at a time. But it turns out people (and athletes we like to follow) feel freer to express quirky and humorous thoughts. And the best part is we can tailor what we see on Twitter to our tastes. Take that mainstream media. We like sports, men’s and women’s don’t get us wrong. We just didn’t want to fall into a rut be following the traditional mainstream media outlets that ignore women’s sports most of the time. ESPN and Sportscenter? Nope, not following you on Twitter. EspnW and US Women’s National Team? Sign us up.

Tall Abby Wambach with her awesome headers joined Twitter today and in five hours had over 13,500 followers and counting. Wow, it was like watching the National Debt counter roll up and up. And then people got cute. We are also following Abby Wambach’s head (not affiliated or endorsed by the real Abby Wambach you understand, just someone’s idea of a lark, and Fun-nay!). This lead to discovering not one, but two people tweeting as Megan Rapinoe’s hair. They had us lmao, well, laughing anyway. Then there’s Amy LePeilbet’s headband, jealous of her hair. Silly, funny, playful. And tailor-made for us. Yes, we’re digging the social media scene.

Well, see ya tomorrow at the Women’s World Cup. No, we won’t be in Germany, but you can turn on the game and then Twitter and hear fan reaction from around the Twittersphere.

If you prefer the old-fashioned way, connect live:
If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to get together, Brandi' Chastain's Foundation, BAWSI is having a viewing party for the Women's World Cup, details below and on BAWSI’s Facebook page:

Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative (BAWSI)
There's been lots of excitement about BAWSI's Women's world Cup viewing party on Sunday morning, and it looks like we may even have some media joining us. We're hoping to have some painted faces, American flags, and red, white and blue home-made signs rooting the team on. Game coverage begins at 11:00 am at Neto's Market & Grill: 1313 Franklin St, Santa Clara, CA 95050. Join us! All are welcome.

Most. Thrilling. Soccer. Game. Ever.

2011-07-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

How’s your summer going? C and R are exhausted from watching the USA’s Women’s World Cup quarterfinal victory over Brazil today! (And we just sat on a couch. Those soccer players had to play123 minutes.) Yes that’s right, the game went into overtime, with penalty kicks and everything. Dramatic as all get out. Bad refs, yellow cards galore, tall headers and Solo saves, it was amazing.

We can’t really do the game justice, nor add any superlatives to what has already been written. But that won’t stop us from blabbing on about the game.

To open the game, Team USA scored in the second minute. Abby Wambach, who we were chiding on Twitter for being the unluckiest forward at the World Cup this year, scored. Or did she? Replays showed the Brazilian defender accidentally kicked it in. (We have joked for years that in other soccer-crazed countries they shoot you for it, based on real life incidents in Central and South America, but then R said this is women’s soccer, so she is safe. Don’t know whether to laugh at that one or not). But a goal is a goal and it inflated the Americans 1 - nil, to use the correct terminology.

Then, in the second half, the center referee got involved. Yellow cards were been given out indiscriminately (By our count, eight yellow cards and one red). There was flopping on both sides to be sure, but eight cards?

Now, Marta for Brazil is very dangerous, and Team USA was using two players to track her. When she got loose in the box, the US’s Rachel Buehler tangled with her and brought her down. Probably was a penalty kick, at worst a yellow card for Buelher. But the ref went all the way to red. Buelher was sent off the field and the US was not allowed to replace her. Watch and judge for yourself.

To make matters worse, US goalie Hope Solo stopped the point-blank penalty kick. But the ref said she moved off the line, or else one of the US players moved in the box too early, she was not clear which. Either way, Brazil got to retake the penalty kick. Solo argued the call and got a yellow card for the effort. So Brazil sent up Marta and she drilled it home. The score was tied and Team USA had to play a man down, ten versus eleven for the next twenty minutes. Against the best scorer in the world. “Pressure Makes Us”, says Team USA in the commercials? But what will it make?

Team USA played inspired ball. They were the ones on the attack for most of the second half even though they were short a player. After 90 minutes the game was tied and the rules stated they would play two 15 minutes periods and whichever team was ahead would win. Minutes into the first overtime period, Marta put her team ahead with an amazing backward lob to the far post. Replays show that Brazil was just a teeny bit off sides on the pass into Marta, but since C and R hate the off sides rule anyway, what can you do? Now Team USA was up a creek without a goal, down 2-1.

Okay, you had to see the flopping and stalling the Brazilians were doing, it was bizarre. At one point around the 117th minute, a defender went down (the clock still runs) and they brought out a stretcher, strapped her down and carried her off. As soon as the stretcher got out of bounds, she unstrapped herself and got up. A soccer miracle! She was given a yellow card and the ref said she was going to add extra minutes to the end of the game. (Remember that)

With the time running out, the 30 minutes passed with the USA losing still 2-1. They have now played one hundred and twenty minutes, fifty of them with only ten players. The ref gave three extra minutes for Brazil's stalling. One hundred and twenty one minutes, one hundred and twenty two minutes… With seconds left, Megan Rapinoe kicked a long ball towards goal. Tall, tall Abby Wambach fearlessly leaped in the air a second before the Brazilian goalie’s outstretched hands could get there and headed the ball squarely in the net. She tied the game with seconds left.

Here, watch for yourself:

Make sure you watch the third replay; it shows just how slam-bang it was over the goalie’s outstretched hands.

Now, penalty kicks. “Did we mention this was the 12th anniversary of soccer great Brandi Chastain’s penalty kick winner in the Women’s’ World Cup in 1999?” said the announcer. And Brandi was in the booth now? Oh yeah, good karma for Team USA. Both teams make their first two goals. Then, just like in 1999 against China, on the third shot, goalie Hope Solo correctly guessed which way the Brazil player was going and blocked the shot. Team USA up 3-2. Each team makes another goal, so the penalty kick score is 4-3. If this last USA player makes it, it’s over. She calmly places the ball in the corner. Team USA wins. Ali Krieger becomes this decade’s Brandi Chastain, although she didn’t take off her shirt. Team USA back from the dead, wins the match. It was the most amazing and bizarre thing we have ever seen.

To top it all off, we won wristbands from Brandi Chastain’s charity, Reach Up and Facebook (knew social media would pay off!). Take a gander here. They look like cookie cutters of the iconic moment when Brandi scored the goal and whipped off her shirt, but they are rubber bracelets you wear on your wrists. They are popular with all the kids, and now C and R have them. Jealous much? We have extras; maybe if you are nice to C and R we will send you some, too.

Summer (Sports) Days

2011-07-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

How’s your summer going? Are you beating the heat in the Bay Area? One way to do that is to go to San Francisco on the weekends to see the Stanford freshmen play in the summer Pro Am. (You know, the freshmen class that was ranked sixth in the nation). C and R couldn’t make it this weekend to Saturday’s game, but the Fast Break Club’s Judy Richter was there. The standout stats read like a repeat from last week. Stanford Veteran Joslyn Tinkle led the way with 38 points. (Last week it was 37 points). Judy also has more stats for you about the freshmen and the one notable is Erica Payne was in action after sitting out last week with a sore ankle.

Women’s World Cup:
Team USA continues to win. They are now 2-0 and play again Wednesday. Show them some love (and some ratings) by tuning into ESPN local time to see the game.

To counteract the time we waste indoors on Twitter, C and R got bikes and have been tooling around the Bay Area. Email us any good (easy, cool weather) Bay Area biking trails you like.

Before they had Fans (And Twitter and Facebook…)

2011-06-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry C and R haven’t written a blog for a while. We stuck our head in Twitter and didn’t emerge for a breath for three days. Heard it was Social Media Day today so we decided to use all our avenues of communication. Ahh, we see the sun is shining (heard it rained in the Bay Area) and we are back to blogging, ignoring the hash tag symbols whenever we close our eyes.

Anyhoo, always loved Mariah Burton Nelson. She played basketball at Stanford “before Tara” and helped get Title IX enforced and has written some great pieces about that experience. Now when she is out lecturing, people want to talk about Stanford basketball. They ask about Stanford in the here and now, not in her early struggles. She was just trying to get uniforms and access to the “good gym.”

Here is a quote from her blog on her piece “Open Letter to Stanford Women’s Basketball Alums” dated June 6, 2011.
Funny, we never thought about fans in the seventies. We never anticipated your popularity. We just wanted access. Equal coaching, training, recruiting, scholarships, uniforms, and travel. Equal rights. Equal respect.

Well, a big thank you to her and others on the team. They opened the door, and many women have run through it. So ask her what it was like, not how it is, it’s best not to forget the past, else doomed to repeat it…

Weekend Sports Tips:
Go see the Stanford Freshmen (and Joslyn Tinkle) play Saturday, July 2 in the SF ProAM league. Game time is 12 noon. Watch Team USA play in the Women’s World Cup beforehand starting at 9 AM Stanford time.

Have a happy and safe 4th. Don’t go blowin’ off any fingers with fireworks. You will need them all for Twitter and Facebook and such.

Saturday in the City Watching Some Basketball

2011-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

So C and R got to see some Stanford basketball this weekend. We went to the SF ProAm women's basketball summer league and met up with Twitter buddy S and her buddy K. It was nice to see they were real people and not automatons just typing away on a keypad!

The Stanford players and alumni were on the South Bay team. The other team didn’t have enough players so four of the South Bay team went over to play. Boy C and R were impressed with Markisha Coleman, an old Stanford alum. She was one of the players who went over to the other team, but man was she fast and fearless and often popped the ball from many a freshman’s hands.

The remaining players on South Bay were four healthy freshmen and veteran Joslyn Tinkle, plus a couple others we did not know. So wait a minute, C and R wanted to know, was this a forfeit? Results were inconclusive. Well, we asked two people and one said yes and one said they didn’t know, so that is the extent of our reporting skills.

But we did get the scoop about the injured freshmen from a real reporter, Judy Richter of the Fast Break Club, who said two of the freshmen are hurt, Alex Green tore her ACL in November and Erica Payne had a sprained ankle. Chiney Ogwumike is not playing this summer to save herself for the World University Games in China coming up in about a month. Read more of Judy’s report on the day for the Fast Break Club.

So when the game started, we, C and R and Twitter Buddies, noticed Tinkle had two things in mind to work on that day. One was to shoot some threes (Kayla Pedersen is now gone). She shot three three-pointers in her first three touches on the ball. All missed, unfortunately, but stay tuned for the second half. Then she worked on point number two, drive to the basket and finish strong, which she did well. Freshies were a little intimidated to start the game and their team was down by 11 points at half.

Then the second half became the Tinkle Show (and here C and R were without their Tinkle Bells). She worked the ball inside again and could not be stopped. She finished with her right hand, she finished with her left hand. She threw a hook. She stepped back and shot some threes (this time they went in and soon her team were ahead by 1 with two minutes to go). It went down to the wire and South Bay pulled out the win, and Tinkle had 37 points. She was on fire, as R said.

We all were impressed with Stanford freshmen guards Amber Orrange (not typo, double "r" is correct, will give C fits) and Jasmine Camp. They pushed the ball quickly. Especially Amber, and both drove to the basket aggressively in the second half, something Stanford will need in the upcoming season.

All in all it was a fast paced game and fun to watch. It definitely had the feel of a pick up game, albeit one played at an extremely high level. Man, the young ones were fast. And oh, we actually got to see Britney Spears in person. She is the baller that played for the University of Colorado and shares the same name as the pop star. She played on the other team. She was chosen in the second round of the WNBA but didn’t make the Mercury. She is listed to play in Spain this coming year. She was good on Saturday, and we wish her the best of luck. While at Colorado, Britney also played with Whitney Houston. Small world.

Come out next Saturday if you missed all the fun. South Bay plays July 2 at 12 PM again.

More Basketball Voting

2011-06-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

More Stanford Facebook voting. Go to Stanford Athletics site on Facebook to vote for your favorite newcomer to Stanford this year, (C and R vote Chiney Ogwumike hands down) and for favorite Stanford game of the year. (C and R vote Stanford Women’s Basketball snapping UConn’s 90 game winning streak hands down, too, but we are biased). Go to the Official Stanford site to get a small description of the games of the year, and we must admit all of them are pretty darn deserving. Then go to Facebook to vote.
While you are in a voting mood, make sure you go over to WNBA.com and vote for your favorite 2011 All-Star. Pick two forwards, two guards, and a center from each conference. And you can vote every day. (Although scared to know how they track that.)

And now in honor of the WNBA’s 15th anniversary, you can vote for the WNBA’s top 15 players of all time!

So rock the vote (s).

PS
Happy Anniversary Title IX

Vote for Favorite Stanford Female Athlete of the Year

2011-06-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Stanford Athletics is using social media (read Facebook), to conduct a poll on your favorite Stanford female athlete of the year. Cool! Some pretty good names in there. Vote for your favorite today. C and R did, and you have to go to the website to see. And this poll is only being conducted on Facebook (glad we joined although good golly, it takes up a lot of free time!). The social media experiment continues…

Calling All Basketball Players… For Reality TV!

2011-06-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

So this just came in to C and R's mail bag. Radical Media, a casting company wrote to us and said they are looking for basketball players for a reality TV show. They claim it is a "dream opportunity for highly skilled amateur and semi-pro basketball players." Here is what they are looking for:
Radical Media is a TV production company in Los Angeles. We're currently casting a new television show where we are looking for skilled basketball players, age 21 and over, who have the ability to compete at the highest level but were never able to pursue their dreams of a professional career. This is a great opportunity to give amateurs a chance to play alongside legends of the game…We’re going to choose a handful of lucky players, provide them with pro coaching and mentorship, and film them as they test their skills in a series of exciting challenges.

All qualified applicants must be over the age of 21 as of June 30, 2011.

Applicants should submit a photo and brief bio to radicalbasketballshow@gmail.com. Our casting staff will contact them for further information. We are accepting applications from both men and women.

All applications must be received by June 24th.

C and R are in no way affiliated with the company Radical Media nor were paid any money for this promo, but we can relate to the line “have the ability to compete at the highest level but were never able to pursue their dreams of a professional career.” There’s gotta be a hundred stories like that out there. If you are one, apply; if you know of one, please forward. Would love to see someone from the Bay Area represent.

San Fran Pro Am

2011-06-17T12:41:00.001-07:00

What are you doing with your summer weekends in the Bay Area? Well, come on down (or up) to the beautiful city of San Francisco and see some Stanford Women’s Basketball (or at least some of their newer players). C and R are talking about the San Francisco Pro Am, traditionally used by the incoming Stanford freshmen to get a taste of what it is like to play against college-caliber players. Right now, returning Stanford players scheduled to be on the South Bay team include Chiney Ogwumike, and Joslyn Tinkle with the caveat rosters and availability are subject to change. Incoming freshmen for Stanford scheduled to be on the team are Amber Orrange, Jasmine Camp, Erica Payne, Bonnie Samuelson, and Taylor Greenfield.

Bob Kinder reporting on the Stanford Fast Break Club website says that this is the weekend the freshmen move in and traditionally don’t play. Maybe come on up next weekend.

Follow C and R on Twitter

2011-06-16T12:44:00.001-07:00

Okay, now you can follow C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog on Twitter at the account name @StanfordWBBBlog (Bet you saw that coming!) Now we have three ways to bore you, blog, Facebook, Twitter. And all the people we follow or like all subscribe to the same women’s basketball sites as everyone else, so we are all retweeting, sharing, posting the same stuff. How fun! Although we do get some new tidbits here and there from Twitter. How does anyone have time for all this? And yet, C and R Still don’t know how to link any of this to a phone! Well, the social media experiment continues….

Jeanette V Kayla-Two Former Stanford Players Go Head-to-Head in WNBA

2011-06-15T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, social media let C and R down. Live chat with Jeanette Pohlen didn’t go as planned. Instead they switched it to Erin Philips (She has six cats and two dogs, and she likes Words with Friends). Sigh, wanted to hear what Jeanette thought about playing against Kayla. Speaking of which…

Last night Jeanette’s Indianapolis Fever team played Kayla Pedersen’s winless team, the Tulsa Shock. Tulsa actually took a one-point lead into the locker room and the announcers said that was the first time all season they had a lead at the half. To be fair, Tulsa’s 6’8” center Liz Cambage was out with a concussion, and Tulsa only had 8 players suited up for the game.

Highlights. Kayla started, played the whole game and scored 13 points. She usually played center on defense and also handled the ball sometimes as the Shock are thin at guard, and the ones they do have are small. She was only one from three from the free throw line, though; so don’t make us get Tara VanDeveer to get after you!

Kayla usually inbounded the ball because she is the smartest player on the floor, except when Jeanette came in, then they are tied. Speaking of which...Jeanette played about 17 minutes and didn’t score any points, attempting two three-pointers. It seems her coach has her standing on the wing right outside the three-point line waiting for a pass. She doesn’t move around the court at all. Seems a waste if you ask us, but what do we know? Liked Jeanette’s nifty fast break where she and another guard, we think Erin Phillips did a drill-perfect, touch-passing-no dribbling ball movement to the basket. The announcers remarked what unselfish play Jeanette had to give the last pass so Erin could make the basket uncontested. Huh? Isn’t that just good basketball and shouldn’t everyone do that in that situation?

The lowlights. Okay, we have been reading how bad, and how, well, UN-productive Tulsa’s offense is, and we saw it last night. They looked stagnate and confused. Their half court offense seems to consist of the point guard bringing up the ball and the other four players in a straight line around the top of the circle. Yuck. Then some guard, usually Amber Riley would selfishly bomb a three, with no rebounders. One time she was practically out of bounds and shot. C and R don’t think this Tulsa coach is a good fit for the WNBA. Thought he was supposed to play a run and gun type offense.

We got to hear the Tulsa coach, Nolan Richardson, in a time out with about three minutes left and he said something like play hard, play with your gut. What about some strategy, coach? What about, with three minutes left, play this offense and do this defense, and if it gets to be two minutes left and we are down, push the ball? So with two minutes left and Tulsa down, there is guard Amber Riley WALKING the ball up the court. Took up the whole shot clock. Tara VanDerveer would not have wasted a time out like that. We’re just saying…

Fever won 82-74, on sharp shooting by Katie Douglas, a leftie three-point specialist. Here's Kayla's take on the game, from WNBA.com: “We left our hearts on the floor," Pedersen said. "We played well until the end. Lots of shot clocks. Everything went well until the end. We need to finish.” She is talking about the offense not being in a rhythm, with some guard dribbling around near the half court line and then looking up to see they have 5 seconds left and then having to rush a shot, usually a long-range one that missed.

Sorry to be so harsh, but since this is the WNBA, and everyone is a pro and does this for a living, C and R feel they can be tougher and more critical on them.

Well, we are disappointed we didn’t get to hear Jeanette’s thoughts on playing against her old teammate of four years (and at one point Jeanette was trying to box out Kayla during the game), but we have a picture of three former Stanford Women's Basketball teammates getting together after the game, picture compliments of Jeanette Pohlens’ twitter account. That’s Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen and Sarah Boothe in Indy.

Live Chat with Jeanette Pohlen

2011-06-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

So check out this cool event. You can chat live with Fever rookie (and former Stanford Women’s basketball player) Jeanette Pohlen, Wednesday, June 15 · 10:00am - 11:00am EST, which means 7 AM Stanford time, but who cares? And how did C and R find out about this cool event? Why, through Facebook, of course! WNBA has been good at using social media to bring in fans and help them feel like they are connecting more personally.

So here’s more detail from the site promoting the event:
Fever rookie Jeanette Pohlen will chat live with fans this Wednesday, June 15, at 10:15 am ET. She will be interviewed by Fever Broadcaster Chris Denari featuring your questions as it is broadcast live on FeverBasketball.com. Fans can submit their questions in three ways: 1) On FeverBasketball.com, 2) On Facebook commenting on this event, 3) On Twitter using hashtag #FeverLive.

Yes, they say 10 AM, 10:15 AM EST, make up your minds. Did you catch the three ways to submit questions? Us C and R geeks already submitted two on Facebook:

Live chat question: You went from your last college game to the WNBA draft to training camp in a hurry. What has been the some of your challenges transitioning from college student to, well, grown up!
And
Live chat question: Hey, you're about to play against the Tulsa Shock and your old Stanford teammate of four years, Kayla Pedersen. What was that like? And have you ever played against Kayla? Last part-did you hang out after the game?

So if you want to ask your questions, go to the website or Twitter or Facebook. Don’t have a Facebook account? (Like us three days ago?) Oh, then email them to us and we will post them for you, because that’s the kind of people we are.

Oh, BTW, Jeanette squares off against former Stanford teammate Kayla Pedersen tonight at 4 PM Stanford time. Good luck to both. (And don’t tell us the outcome, we are taping it to watch later!).

WNBA Rookies Gone Wild

2011-06-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

So, C and R admittedly admit that we do not follow the WNBA that closely. It’s in the summer and we are easily distracted by shiny things. Plus you can’t beat our Nor Cal weather and we are usually outside tending to our rogue tomato plants surrounded by our high maintenance cats. That, and WE HAVE NO WNBA TEAM TO FOLLOW! Yes, there is some key marquee games broadcast on ESPN, and we thank them every day for the coverage. And yes, we know even more games are on the Internet "live access" but don’t even get us started on our hate of computers.

But seeing the games on a screen cannot compare to seeing them live. Incidentally, we popped in the DVD of the game where Stanford beats UConn to end their streak (hee hee) and it just wasn’t the same. We got nearly one tenth of the thrill, the excitement as seeing it live and feeling the crowd and sharing all the tension and emotion of the moment. One tenth. That’s why we love Stanford Women’s Basketball so much, we can see most of the games live and up close and personal. Not so with the WNBA and with no team in the women’s-basketball-obsessed Bay Area. It is hard for us to get excited when a game is on TV at 3 PM on a Sunday and the sun is shining and we can go for a bike ride.

But back to our original point, the one in the headline. Another reason C and R have been so ho-hum about the WNBA is that we haven’t had that many Stanford players to follow. Yes, there has always been Nicole Powell, although she was before C started following Stanford. Things did change with Candice Wiggins, so we would have our ear out for her Minnesota Lynx team, but that was about it. And didn’t help that Candice’s career has been in fits and starts due to injuries. Then we were so excited to get ready to follow Jayne Appel’s career with San Antonio last year. She was hurt throughout the season and had a disappointing rookie year in terms of stats.

So this year, we had two more fave Stanford players to follow in Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen. It’s only week two, but both made their respective teams and are contributing. Kayla scored 15 points in a her Tulsa team’s loss to the UConn Sun (yes we are making a joke) and Jeanette had 14 points off the bench for the Fever, including 4 for 4 from downtown, with her final 3-pointer being the dagger in the New York Liberty’s heart.

Interestingly, two rookies that have connections back to Stanford also had great weekends. Rookie Guard Courtney Vandersloot, who rose to national attention when her Gonzaga team lost to Stanford in the NCAA tournament, scored 18 points, four of them 3-pointers and had five assists in Chicago’s home opener against the Sun. Not bad for someone who was not even on the WNBA radar a year ago.

Another notable rookie with a great game this weekend was San Antonio’s Danielle Adams. Last year, Danielle and her Texas A & M team knocked off Stanford in the Final Four and eventually won the NCAA championship. C even questioned her conditioning and if she could keep pace in the WNBA. Well, she scored 32 points. Marked a franchise record for most points for a rookie, meaning Jayne didn’t even come close to that as a rookie last year. Half of Danielle’s points came from three-pointers, too. One eyewitness report said she was clearly exhausted when she subbed out, so hopefully she can get in even better shape and contribute more. She and Jayne and the rest of the Silver Stars are currently undefeated.

And then there is Maya Moore. Four games played, four games started, averaging 14.5 points a game. Not bad for a rook.

Gee, that was just week two of the WNBA, Can’t wait to see what week three brings. Maybe the weather will be cloudy this weekend.

C and R’s Social Media

2011-06-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hold on to your hats, batten down the hatches and hide the children! Sell all your worldly possessions and buy pet insurance cuz the world must be comin’ to an end because…
Dunt… dunt… dunt….
C and R have joined the 21^st century and got a page on FACEBOOK!

Check us out at C and R’s Stanford Women’s Basketball Facebook Page.

We still have no idea what we are doing, so any kindly help would be appreciated. And oh, make sure to like us or friend us or write to us or whatever the devil you kids are into today because we need all the friends and like buttons we can get and need you to otherwise artificially inflate our sense of self worth. Plus now you can instantly communicate with us, helpfully point out any typos, correct our “facts,” remind us of game times so we don’t miss them, and state your favorite player for all to see.

So if we ignore this blog, scoot on over to Facebook and check us out, kinda like what the Official Stanford Women’s Basketball site did. Not that we are calling them on the ignoring part, just that they have transitioned over to Facebook so quickly! It was and is still a shock to us.
Look forward to interacting with all of you on Facebook. Get a sneak peek here:

Stanford’s Social Media

2011-06-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

So okay, C and R found out a little bit more about the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team’s new assistant coach, Trina Patterson, with a little Q & A article. We mentioned she had a lot of head coaching experience, and came to learn at the feet of the master Tara VanDerveer. The article also hints she was brought in to help develop our post players. C and R particularly like the section when she talks about her family, being five deep and they can “zone you up or play you man-to-man!” Our kind of family.

But here’s the thing, the thing is, the article wasn’t posted on the Stanford Women’s Basketball website, a site we visit daily, but instead on the Stanford Women’s Basketball FACEBOOK page! Well, we don’t really visit the Stanford website daily, we have a little RSS feed featured above our original blog that we check daily. The RSS feed is a syndicated feed of Stanford headlines and gives links to the Stanford articles that the school puts on their website. We noticed they weren’t updating it much this summer, and we just thought it was a slow off-season. Turns out they were putting all their updates on FACEBOOK! So okay, there’s no reason to put Facebook in all caps, but, darn it, we hate how pervasive and all-powerful Facebook has become. (And our spell check is so old, it refuses to recognize “Facebook” as one word.)

And then we were updating all the URLs of the player’s twitter accounts (Why twitter, why, did you have to insert that little hashtag in the address?) and we found a link to another article posted on Facebook via Twitter NOT on the official Stanford site. This time the article was about what motivates Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer. Of course, in her usual humility, she says her players motivate her. Great read, but we had to discover it through the player's Twitter accounts.

And of course, you can comment on the articles on Facebook and “like” them and insert yourself a little bit into the written words. C and R must admit, that is kinda cool.

It’s lookin’ like C and R are gonna have to join the 21st century and get them one of them-there Facebook pages and Twitter accounts thingies (C doesn't even have a phone that reaches the Internet). Sigh, we hate change.

WNBA Player a No-Show

2011-06-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

Did you see this one? New York Liberty player Janel McCarville didn’t show up for training camp so the team suspended her for the season. And she’s not some bench warmer, either. She averaged over 11 points as a center for NY. Heck, if a WNBA team like the Liberty has a spot free, C and or R volunteer to take it! To get paid to play pro basketball... well, paid a small amount for summer basketball, we would jump at the chance.

Not sure what happened with Janel, no other news stories have surfaced. She had been playing overseas, and her Twitter account has not been updated since May 12th. Ditto for her Facebook page, just mentions her Italian Championship in May. (Twitter and Facebook now being the new journalism, apparently, according to everyone under 30). Maybe she made enough overseas she can skip the WNBA season? Like we said, we would hate to pass up any opportunity to play women’s pro ball.

Women's Basketball Rule Changes

2011-06-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, did you see the new rule changes for NCAA basketball? The biggest one that will affect the women’s game is the one that moves the three-point line back to the men’s line. In other words, the distance for a three-point shot will go from 19’9” to 20’9”, or a whole foot of difference.

One NCAA site lists the rationale as; “Two lines are causing confusion and data indicates that a majority of three-point shots are being taken from behind the men’s line and the shooting percentage of those shots is higher than those taken from behind the women’s line only.” Huh? Where did they get this data?

Anyhoo, the point C and R wanted to raise is this: does the rule change mean they will start over on keeping records for three-point shots? Take for example Jeanette Pohlen. She made 96 three pointers out of 230 attempts for a .417 made percentage during her last year at Stanford. But she made them at 19’9”. When a women’s player makes a three-point shot this year do they start over at one because the distance is different?

And then that makes C and R scratch our heads about the new Pac-12. Will everything be new record? If anyone knows the answer, please notify C and R.

WNBA play has started. Look up your favorite team or (Stanford Women’s Basketball) player.

Title IX Turns 39

2011-06-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Annnnn-I-verse-ahhh-ree Tiii- tle Ni-iiine!

President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 into law on June 23, 1972.
Title IX states: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. Although Title IX is best known for its impact on high school and collegiate athletics, the original statute made no explicit mention of sports, and, did not mention the word “female” or “male.”

Let’s play Fact or Myth from the Title IX info website:
Fact or Myth? Title IX forces schools to cut men's sports.
Myth. Title IX in no way requires schools to cut men's sports. "Nothing in Title IX requires the cutting or reduction of teams in order to demonstrate compliance." (DOE) All federal courts to consider the question have agreed. Some schools have decided on their own to eliminate certain men's sports, but the law is flexible. There are many other ways to come into compliance. Some schools have cut sports, like gymnastics and wrestling, rather than controlling bloated football and basketball budgets, which consume a whopping 72% of the average Division I-A school's total men's athletic operating budget. For example, San Diego State University decided to address its $2 million budget deficit by cutting its men's volleyball team instead of cutting slightly into the $5 million football budget. But there are other options: A recent GAO study found that 72% of schools that added teams from 1992-1993 to 1999-2000 did so without discontinuing any teams.

Fact or Myth? Title IX applies only to females.
Myth. Both male and female students are protected by Title IX.

Fact or Myth? Title IX is only about athletics.
Myth. Most people who know about Title IX think it only applies to sports, but Title IX applies to every aspect of Federally funded education programs. In fact, athletics is only one of 10 major areas addressed by the law. These other areas are: Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing, and Technology.

Think Title IX is not important? Talk to Tara VanDerveer about the dark old days of women’s athletics sometime. Or ask former Stanford player Mariah Burton Nelson who remembers playing at Stanford in "pinnies", in front of 20 fans and no athletic scholarships. This was AFTER Title IX. She had to still ask Stanford to comply.

Stanford Stuff--Coaches and Players

2011-05-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

Lots happening in the off-season for Stanford Women’s Basketball. First of all, they hired Trina Patterson as assistant coach. Patterson has a ton of head coaching experience, so at first C and R couldn’t figure out why she would step back to an assistant role. But then half the coaching world would give their right arm to learn at the master’s feet, those feet belonging to Stanford Head Coach Tara Vanderveer. Oh hear, let Trina tell you in her own words and more elegantly, quoted from the official Stanford website:
"Tara is one of the finest coaches in the country and I could not be more excited to work with her, the players and the staff. I will embrace the culture at Stanford which highlights a world-class education with world-class athletics. I look forward to working hard and bringing energy, knowledge and passion."

In other basketball news, sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike were named as finalists for the USA Basketball World University Games Team. They will return to the Olympic Training center in late July to finalize the roster and go to the World University Games in China in mid August. They will be hanging around with (or as C and R like to think of it, spying on) other college standouts and such as Skylar Diggins of Notre Dame (if only she chose Stanford!) Jackie Gemelos of USC (current Pac-12 foe), Shekinna Stricklen and Glory Johnsonof Tennessee (What’s Pat Summit really like?) and Odyssey Simms of current consensus number one Baylor. Hmm, notice no Texas A&M players in that mix of finalists.

May and June starts the graduation season all over this land and C and R would be remiss if they didn’t give a little shout out to our good basketball friend P’s niece for graduating from nursing school at San Jose State! Congrats!

Poor Stanford Tree

2011-05-24T19:15:00.001-07:00

Poor Stanford Tree!

Jayne Appel Injured

2011-05-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

AHHHGGGHgghghghgh, C and R just jinxed Jayne Appel, ala the Sports Illustrated Cover, by recently writing she is finally healthy and looking forward to an injury-free WNBA season.

Well, we just have confirmed reports that the former Stanford Women’s Basketball player and current San Antonio Silver Star had surgery to repair a meniscus tear in her left knee and will be out three to four weeks. Sorry Jayne. Get well soon.
C and R

Pedersen and Pohlen Preseason Previews

2011-05-21T12:21:00.001-07:00

So, biding or time until the women’s college basketball season starts back up, C and R are trying to keep tabs on our recent Stanford grads Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen and how they are faring in the WNBA.

Even if we can’t see them live and in person the way we used to, we are trying to keep up with their press clippings. The Tulsa World compared Kayla to Larry Bird, even though Kayla was three when Bird stopped playing, and boy don’t that make C and R feel old! (Yes, R, I know this is bad English but I am doing it to make a point or have personality or somethin'). But the good news is her new coach, Nolan Richardson, likes her. He typically likes to play a run and gun style pace and likes that she ran at Stanford. Hope she will crack the starting line up. They open May 29th at Seattle.

The great women’s basketball writer Mechele Voepel, caught up with Kayla and Jeanette and wrote a long, in-depth interview about what life is like right out of college for a basketball player, and right out of a program that made four final-four appearances and never once came away with college’s top prize of a basketball championship.

Interesting reading about both of them being aware of social media and to not say anything too controversial and to stay a role model. Wish some more pros would think that way.

For people of a certain age like C and R (read, before cell phones) the cell phone part was a little chilling. Not about Kayla and Jeanette themselves, but just the fact college-aged kids get together to hangout or have dinner and bring their cell phones to text other people not present and then ignore/not connect with those that are present. Jeanette’s an old fashioned gal who leaves her cell phone at home when out with the folks. Now, is that a role model or what?

C and R wish them both good luck. Got a little nervous when Mechelle wrote, “Admittedly, with 12 franchises and 11 roster spots for each, making a WNBA team in 2011 is exceedingly difficult. The vast majority of players who compete in women's college basketball will not play in the WNBA.” Yikes. Looking forward to the start of the season, as we are sure JP and KP are, too.

Maya Moore Hecka Smart

2011-05-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Boy that Maya Moore sure is smart. Much as we hate to admit it, C and R have always (begrudgingly) admired the former UConn women’s basketball star when she gave interviews. She seems very bright and articulate. We mean, she was thinking to apply for a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, for goodness sakes!

So it should come as no surprise the WNBA rookie got tapped to write an article for the Huffington Post. In the words of the article, “Moore shared her thoughts with The Huffington Post on unions, fair pay in athletics and what is soon-to-be the ‘Maya’ brand.” Very good reading, makes you believe male basketball players are entitled to and worth all their millions. Too bad some women only make, in Maya’s words, “$36,570.” Fair pay indeed.

And, speaking of the “Maya Brand,” the-just-a-month-out-of college-young-twenty-one-year-old just signed with Jordan Brand, a division of Nike Inc. Jordan. As in Michael Jordan. Now she can clearly say she is on Team Jordan. Now that’s smart.

Maya also wore number 23 in college and identified with Michael Jordan and relishes the chance to be mentored by him, although she didn’t say a mentorship of basketball skills or of his endorsement skills. Can’t go wrong with either one. Terms were not disclosed yet the Hartford Curant reports, “There may even be a sneaker made with her name on it.” C and R hope she got Michael Jordan Money to augment her low WNBA rookie salary.

Curious, the headlines announcing this endorsement deal state: “1st female basketball player to join Jordan’s sportswear brand.” Not to rain on Maya Moore’s parade, but Zachary Rymer of the Bleacher Report asked the 64 million penny question, “why did it take this long for the Jordan Brand to align itself with a female basketball player?”

See Maya Moore talk about her first day of WNBA practice with the Minnesota Lynx (With our girl Candice Wiggins). Is she wearing number 23 for the Lynx?

Jayne Appel Back in Shape and Ready to Play

2011-05-16T17:14:00.001-07:00

Well, first day of WNBA training camp happened, so let’s check in with former Stanford Women’s Basketball Player Jayne Appel

Jayne, playing for the San Antonio Silver Stars is just happy to be able to participate in training camp. Last year coming off the NCAA title game loss, she revealed she had a broken foot and severely sprained ankle, and needed to take a month off. During the WNBA summer season, she really wasn’t herself all season long. Now, a year later and after a month’s rest and some super-Stanford-NASA-workout, she is healthy and just able to play basketball, a blessing. Check out how healthy and trimmed down she looks.

Spring Basketball Just Isn’t the Same

2011-05-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

May (Friday the )13th- Spring Basketball Just Isn’t the Same
Has this been the slowest women’s college basketball off-season in the history of the world, or what? Maybe because we had such high hopes last year and knew we had a potential title team, and feel a little cheated we didn’t even make it to the championship game. But lets not dwell on the negative, and you can reread all the great things the Stanford Women’s Basketball team accomplished the past season. (Psst, it’s a lot!)

So the best way to fix a basketball jones (somebody set a pick for me on the free throw line…) is to find out what the players are up to in the off-season. Former Stanford players and newly drafted WNBA players Kayla Pdersen and Jeanette Pohlen will hit training camp May 15th. And here are 15 reasons to be excited about the upcoming 15th season for the WNBA, courtesy of the WNBA. (Warning, there is no mention of any Stanford players in the article, well except for our girl Candice Wiggins gets a shout-out.).

Sigh, and yet… it’s hard to get excited about pro training camp because, well, we don’t have a pro women’s team within 500 miles of us. We can‘t go see training camp or hang out and watch the players at training camp or ask for autographs after training camp because even though the Bay Are has 11teen million people crammed together on the peninsula and has a devoted core group who watch women’s basketball with tons of disposable income to buy a $25 dollar t-shirt and a five dollar hot dog, we can’t get a team. Oh sure, we can live vivaciously through the WNBA puff pieces and the players’ twitter accounts, whatever that is, but its not the same as seeing your team live.

Speaking of twitter, a little birdie told me that Kayla Pedersen called a certain young fan on her 10th birthday and made her day! And speaking of Kayla Pedersen, which we actually were, she has a new website coming out soon called kaylapedersen.com. Stay tuned to C and R to find out when it goes live (Because why should you check the actual source or anything, hee hee.)

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaayne
Speaking of pros, as we were a while ago, the WNBA and Team USA basketball veterans had a three-day training camp in Vegas with head coach Geno Auriemma. Here, let’s let former Stanford Cardinal player Jayne Appel tell you about it. As to what she did in Vegas… she slept.

So what are the current Stanford women’s basketball players up to, you ask C and R? Well, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike get what amounts to free high level coaching and training by being invited to USA basketball to represent the US at the World University Games. They have represented USA basketball a bunch of times already. They go May 22-25 to work out with the other collegians, follow Chiney on twitter, if you can understand any of it.

Sadly, that’s all we have to report. Fall can’t get here quick enough!

Pac-10 (Pac-12) Off-Season

2011-05-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

A lot is happening in the off-season for the Pac-10. For starters, there is no more Pac-10, it's now the Pac-12, but you knew that already.

The second thing is the coaching changes. Joanne Boyle went from Cal to the University of Virginia and was replaced by former Cal Assistant Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Arizona State’s Coach Charli Turner Thorne, former Stanford player, is taking a leave of absence this year to spend time with her family and Joseph Anders will run the team for the upcoming season.

UCLA lost Nikki Caldwell to LSU soon after the end of the NCAA tournament. She is replaced by Cori Close, who was at Florida State in the SEC. There also was a player change at Cal; Cal's leading scorer in DeNesha Stallworth left Cal to go to Kentucky. These last two events are related in C an R’s mind. LSU and Kentucky both play in the SEC and have a lot more of their games televised.

First of all, DeNesha said Joanne Boyle was too laid back for her tastes, and she has a point when Cal would play inspired basketball and knock off a talented opponent one week and then give a lackluster effort the next week and lose to a lesser team. But Joanne Boyle is gone, so will DeNesha stay? DeNesha (or her Dad) gave another interesting quote saying by going from West Coast basketball and playing for barely 1,000 people, they go to the SEC and play for 6,00 a night. Reading between the lines, we guess Nikki Caldwell left UCLA for the SEC and LSU because she gets instant respect and more attendance. Hmmmm, are you listening Pac-12? (C and R wonder, conversely, how former SEC coach and current UCLA coach Cori Close will like coaching out west?).

Which brings us to our last point. The Pac-12 WAS listening! The Pac12 signed some huge TV revenue deal worth a bazillion dollars or some mind-boggling sum and they promise much much more exposure of women's basketball and televised games, like they do back East. (Wonder if DeNesha or Nikki would have stayed if they knew this was in the works).

Let’s hope the games are televised on channels we already get and not on some pay-to-watch-site. And let’s hope Pac-12 women's basketball is worthy of this new-found exposure.

VanDerveer honored at BAWSI’s Sportsapolooza

2011-05-07T12:14:00.001-07:00

Stanford Women’s Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer was honored at the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative’s first annual Sportsapolooza. Also honored was BAWSI co-founder and soccer legend Brandi Chastain. Sportsapolooza was a fundraiser for BAWSI held at Santa Clara’s Leavey Center May 4th of this year.

BAWSI (pronounced "bossy") “create avenues for strong, talented and accomplished women athletes and coaches to inspire girls, women and families with their leadership skills and community service,” according to their website, and no one can deny VanDerveer is an inspiration to girls and women and beyond. Congrats!

Sportsapalooza at Santa Clara

2011-05-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

C and R’s favorite non-profit, BAWSI (pronounced Bossy) is having a big fundraiser May 4th (Yes we know it is tomorrow, whoopsies, we just found out about it, darn it, but wanted to pass the info along).

First, BASWI stands for the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative and was started by soccer stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy along with Marlene Bjornsrud, former general manager of the San Jose CyberRays women's professional soccer team. Two, BASWSI is a public benefit, nonprofit corporation with a mission to create programs and partnerships through which women athletes bring health, hope and wholeness to our community. BAWSI provides a meaningful path for women athletes to become a more visible and valued part of the Bay Area sports culture.

Yes, a cause near and dear to C and R’s heart. C and R have volunteered for them over the years.
Details: The fundraiser is Wednesday, May 4th, 2011, from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Leavey Center at Santa Clara University. Enjoy great food and beverage and try 12 different sports along with celebrated female athletes and coaches from the area’s college women’s’ teams. This just in, this is your chance to meet soccer stars Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy, AND Stanford Women's Basketball coach Tara VanDerveer! Plus… plus, a video stop over by none other than America’s worst coach, Sue Sylvester from Glee!! Maybe she will sing a song or two.

Try to make it if you can. If not, contact them and ask how you can volunteer.

USA Basketball is Vegas Bound, Baby

2011-05-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

So with WNBA training camp starting May 15th, what are the veterans doing to get ready for training camp. Well, if you are a select few, you are practicing with Geno Auriemma on the US National Team’s traing camp May 10-12. In Vegas (what happens in Vegas….).

And just who is practicing? Only our two faves, former Stanford Women’s Basketball players Candice Wiggins and Jayne Appel. And twenty-two other women, none of any importance….

Here’s an interesting side note. Last year right after the NCAA tournament ended, Geno wanted some competition to scrimmage against his US team so he invited a full squad of some WNBA players and some collegiate players. Stanford’s’ very own Kayla Pedersen was on that team last year. C and R wondered at that time why Brittney Griner was not included. We wanted to start a totally unsubstantiated rumor that Geno didn’t want to bring in Brittney because he still considered her a work in progress and he didn’t want to be the one to give her pointers to get her better because his UConn team was going to play her the following season (hee hee). Well, we have to kill that rumor before we start it because this year he DID invite BG to training camp. Also invited was Courtney Vandersloot, whose stock has risen in the basketball world from that NCAA play-off game vs. Stanford. Both Brittney and Vandy are “special guests” and could play their way on to the team and the Olympics next year.

Here’s Geno talking, quoted from the National Team Website.
“I can’t wait to get these guys on the court in Vegas,” said Geno Auriemma, 2009-12 USA National Team and University of Connecticut head coach. “This is going to be the first time we’ve had this many together and healthy at a training camp, and it’ll be interesting to see how bad some of these guys want to make the Olympic team, how much they hustle, fight for rebounds, I’m really looking forward to that.

“Then you add in the two new kids, Griner and Vandersloot. I’m anxious to see how they interact with some of the veterans. Certainly they’re a couple of great players, but I’m excited to see them go up against our National Team and try to earn their spot in our pool.”

Ah, turning it in to a competition and pitting the women against each other, eh Geno? Well, C and R wish all of them a healthy training session and a successful upcoming basketball season no matter what their level.

Grete Waitz

2011-04-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, C and R were very saddened to hear that the great marathoner Grete Waitz passed away from complications from cancer. She was only 57 years young. She was a personal hero of R’s, and admired by both of us.

Super pen pal TH was also saddened and so wrote to us:
“I was a competitive runner in college (and a bench warmer on the basketball team in high school!). So when I heard the news of Grete Waitz's death, I was heartbroken and felt compelled to write a piece about it.”

She sent it into the Oregonian Newspaper, and they published it online. It puts Grete’s accomplishments in context with her times. Last month, during my track and field unit with my middle school students, I shared that the “powers that be” wouldn’t let women run more than a few miles in Olympics races for fear they would “hurt themselves.” Never mind that they thought women would hurt their reproductive organs and not be able to bear children, that discussion would be saved for another day. I shared with them the fact the first Olympic Marathon for women was held in 1984. The students were incredulous about the olden days, the dark ages. That was only 27 short years ago. And Grete was at the forefront of history. Oh, why don’t I let TH tell you all about it.

Here is her gracious and gracefully written article, reprinted with permission from the author. (Okay, hear that everyone, we got permission!)

Why we’re lucky to have known Grete Waitz

Some athletes arrive at a time when the world is still too small to fully appreciate their enormous physical talents. But instead of shrinking away from their calling, these giants make the world bigger, and we grow to love them for it. Athletes like Jackie Robinson, Babe Didrikson, and Jim Thorpe are a few who come to mind, but so does the lesser known Grete Waitz, a high school teacher turned marathon runner who died of cancer earlier this month at age 57. Her domination of the sport of marathon running includes nine wins between 1978 and 1988 at the elite New York City Marathon, a feat no other human being has replicated.

In the early 70s, at the beginning of Waitz’s running career, the International Olympic Committee enforced an antiquated ban against women running any race longer than the 1500 meters—a distance just shy of four laps around the track. As history would soon show, the 1500 meters was about 25 miles too short to be Waitz’s optimal racing distance, making her appearance at the 1972 Olympics that much more impressive.

By 1978, Waitz was ready to retire from track as a relative unknown and return to teaching full time. But first, as a lark, she agreed to appear at the New York City Marathon as a “rabbit,” to set an early pace for the “real” contenders. Instead, she crossed the finish line ahead of 99% of the 8,000 men entered in the race, won the women’s competition, and set a world record. Astonished crowds looked for the racing bib pinned to the blur in pigtails--“Go number 1173!”

The 1978 marathon was the beginning of a beautiful marriage of talent and opportunity and undeniable proof of what women could do if they were allowed to do it. In 1978, there were no “running shoes” marketed to women. It would take another five marathon wins by Waitz, speeches on the floor of the U.S. Congress, and a concerted effort by women around the world before the International Olympic Committee agreed to let women run long distances—including the marathon—at the 1984 summer Olympics. That year, Joan Benoit, the American, won the gold; Grete Waitz took the silver. When the two met again at the New York City marathon in 1988, Waitz finished first.

Grete Waitz was a fantastically gifted runner. She had an elegant, efficient stride and never looked tired, at a moment when women athletes simply could not afford to. The times she posted in the marathon do not have the faded and remote look of historic stepping stones. Her winning time in the 1980 NYC marathon would be fast enough to have won last year, or in 2009, or in 2002.

In 1992, Waitz came out of retirement to jog the NYC marathon alongside Fred Lebow, her friend and the head of the New York City Roadrunners Club who first invited her to take part in the race. Lebow had been stricken by brain cancer and the two crossed the finish line together holding hands. According to one New York Times contributor, the friends returned to the finish line at dawn the next morning, “after Central Park had been cleared of any hints of a marathon race,” to roll out a finishing tape for a disabled athlete, the last entrant to complete the race.

Grete Waitz demonstrated year after year that the American running craze was more exciting if everyone was included. It’s hard to underestimate her role in making the neighborhood mom’s or the 10th grade girl’s 5-mile jog from home an utterly unremarkable event.

Grete Waitz’s modest and dignified brand of competition stood out among the flamboyant firebrands who achieved fame in the sporting world of the 1970s and 80s. She was, in many respects, miles ahead of us, but gracious enough to pull us along. We’ll miss her.

-- Tiffany Harris competed in middle-distance and distance running in high school and college. She is a lawyer in Portland.

WNBA Off-Season

2011-04-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

In the college basketball off-season, C and R like to look towards the WNBA for our basketball fix, especially now that two of our favorite Stanford Women's Basketball players that we have been following for the past four years, Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen are in the big show. Too bad the WNBA is in their off-season, too. Training camps open around May 15th, we think, and opening day is June 3rd. Still a lonnnnng way aways…anyway, the WNBA did make some news by finally picking a president to replace Donna Orender.

Thinking strategically, they went with a “veteran marketing executive” in hiring Laurel J. Richie. She most recently served as the Chief Marketing Officer for the Girl Scouts. (Got cookies? Will players have to raise their right hand and promise to be loyal and trustworthy? Will they all go camping for a team bonding experience… actually, that last one is not such a bad idea…C and R love camping. Who wants s’mores?) Back to Richie, her resume is impressive for “branding” and marketing, two things the WNBA needs to promote itself and make money to keep having teams, but….. What does Richie know about basketball? If we have another on-court brawl like the last few seasons, is she going to give them all a time out (Here, have some thin mints and promise to play nicely). Perhaps she should have been vice-president in charge of branding and marketing and making money and keeping the league afloat and partnered up with someone who has more basketball cred. Former prez Donna Orender was a former collegiate and professional basketball player. We’re just sayin’.

In other WNBA news. R found this really strange article states that some professional gamblers love the WNBA since no one pays any attention to it, they can make small fortunes betting (?!) I know, right? One gambler estimates he made $100,000 betting on the WNBA.

One gambler thinks it is easier for the mafia to come in and bribe a woman to throw a game! Okay, there are just so many things wrong with that statement, but ya know, you can always argue that the WNBA has really hit the big time if the mafia is paying attention to it! (Wonder if our former Girl Scout exec is aware of the mafia hovering around the WNBA gyms, a mini black sox scandal in the making! Hee hee).

-This just in, C and R give up their day jobs and now make living gambling on WNBA.-

Gee, spending hours poring over statistics and analyzing players tendencies and reading box scores (When you can find them) and surrounding ourselves with multiple monitors tuned in to all the women’s WNBA games on satellite TV every day in the summer and then making money. Sounds like a dream job!

Now, In Honor of Earth Day...

2011-04-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

"The Stanford Tree Takes a Spill on ESPN's Campus."

Preseason Basketball Favorites

2011-04-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so C and R are in a bit of a lull, a daze, if you will. Still partway shell shocked from Stanford’s final four loss, and half-way dreaming of November yet hoping for warm weather soon so we can plant our tomatoes.

So imagine our surprise and, well, excitement, when we saw a preseason women’s college basketball ranking! Bold and brave move by Charlie Creme, ESPN specialist. He predicts the top 25 teams for next season.

C and R get down to business. We instantly scan for the Stanford “S”. There we are, number five. He mentions the “new order” trio of Nneka, Chiney and Toni (Ogwumikes and Kokenis). Yes, C and R agree, but what about the other two spots? He gives us a glimpse by flashing a freshmen’s name, Amber Orrange. (And no, that is not another one of our infamous typos, it is really how her last name is spelled, thank you very much, which is a cruel trick to play on us typing challenged, and oh, my spell check is going to hate me for the next four years).

So, anyhoo, fifth. Now that’s out of the way, lets take a peekie-weekie at who or whom he has in first. Baylor!? Didn’t Texas A & M prove them to be defeatable? And speaking of the reigning champs Texas A & M, he has them fourth, one above Stanford, and UConn, hee hee sixth, one below Stanford. Hee hee again, proving UConn was very Maya-Moore-heavy last year. Okay, okay, we’re feelin’ ya dog, to quote the young people, but who is second and third? Tennessee and Notre Dame. Okay, we’ll give you Notre Dame who made it to the championship game and still has Skylar Diggins coming back, but Tennessee!? Tennessee, the same team that lost in the elite eight? Tennessee, the team that just lost Kelly Cain and freshmen Lauren Avant? Second?

Wait, what was that about two players leaving Pat Summit’s program? Mechelle Voepel reports red-shirted Kelley Cain will forego her final season of eligibility at UT. She is set to get her degree this spring and her knee is just not up to going another year. MV always says the freshman is leaving because “things didn't click this season in Knoxville.” Hmmm, seems like it will be hard for Tennessee to stay in the top three. (Incidentally, Mechelle also agrees with Baylor as the early number one team for next year, darn it).

Well, it was fun to daydream about women’s basketball, even if only fleetingly. Who’s in you preseason top ten?

Stanford’s Kelsey to Wisconsin

2011-04-13T14:25:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to former Stanford assistant coach Bobbie Kelsey, who was hired as the new head coach of Wisconsin’s women basketball. We are sorry to see her go, but at least she won’t be coaching in the PAC-10 against Stanford.

What are Kelsey’s qualifications? Well, in the four seasons she was as assistant with Stanford, the team went 137-14, with four trips to the final four. Yeah, it helps to have a genius for a head coach in Tara VanDerveer, but Bobbie related well to the players and got them emotionally fired up, at least that’s the view we had from our seats. Tara’s legacy is rock solid, already getting enshrined in the Naismith and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and joining the 800 wins club. Now the last puzzle piece to further cement her place in basketball history is to see how well her assistant coaches, and players who have become coaches, do in a coaching role. Tara has already said her two graduating seniors, Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen would make great head coaches.

C and R wish Coach Kelsey continued luck.

Stanford Goes Seven and Nine in the WNBA Draft

2011-04-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Stanford Women’s Basketball player Kayla Pedersen was selected seventh by the Tulsa Shock in the 2011 WNBA draft. Another Stanford star, guard Jeanette Pohlen was selected ninth by the Indiana Fever. Top Ten for each, baby! Wow, congratulations to the women for all their hard work and for Stanford and Tara VanDerveer’s program to get them “pro” ready. Now they just have to make the team, although top ten picks are expected to. (C had a little bet with R about where Jeanette Pohlen would be drafted, and, well, let’s just say, C failed miserably and R had every faith in Jeanette).

And it was great when Kayla’s name was announced, after hugging her parents, she got a big hug from Jeanette at the next table. We are sure Kayla would have returned the favor when JP was drafted two spots behind her, but she was probably busy doing interviews and posing for pix and stuff.

A huge surprise for C and R was Gonzaga’s Courtney Vandersloot getting picked third and going to Chicago. Congratulations to her, we look forward to following her WNBA career. She looked incredible in her highlight reel.

First pick, of course, was Maya Moore, who was selected by Minnesota. Minnesota also got the fourth pick and selected Xavier’s Amber Harris, a big post player who can dribble, much like Kayla. We are excited for former Stanford player and current Minnesota player Candice Wiggins, whose team went from cellar-dweller to play off team with just those two picks.

And now C and R can officially say we LOVE Maya Moore. They were showing her highlights again and she is just amazing. Such a pure jump shot. And they showed her playing on the USA National Team, and said how she held her own on what is essentially a WNBA all-star team and against other country’s veterans. We are looking forward to her long and illustrious pro career.

So the second pick selected by Tulsa, was an Australian National Team player, Elizabeth Cambage, who did not come to the US to play college. We have been hearing about her the last few days as draft day counted down, especially since she is 6’8. We figured she must be a seasoned veteran in her 20’s. Turns out she is 19.

Now, the WNBA has this really great rule saying that a player cannot be drafted until their graduating class has made it through four years of college. This is to prevent players from jumping early to the pros, like in the men’s NBA. Essentially, colleges with men’s teams are “renting” male players for a year or two until they turn pro, or else they skip college altogether, (Kobe, LeBron). It is rare to see a college senior on a men’s team, and it also decreases the graduation rate (Maryland’s Men’s Basketball team only graduated 8% of its players this year).

Not so in the women’s game, which has a far higher graduation rate, probably because of the WNBA rule. One notable exception is Epiphanny Prince who left college a year early to play in Europe and get a paycheck for her family. She came back to the WNBA the following year when the rules said she could.
Actually, this is a more complete explanation of the WNBA’s eligibility: you must have turned 22 years old, graduated from college, completed your eligibility to play or played at least two seasons for another professional league. So Lizzie played for 2 years in an Australian professional league, starting when she was 17. So she gets to come to the WNBA when she is 19? But other 19 year olds can’t be drafted? Seems like they should stick to the 22-year-old rule for everybody.

Well, Lizzie can always room with Kayla Pedersen in OK. And now Kayla can say she’s not the tallest player on her team.

(Stanford) Draft Day Dreaming

2011-04-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

The 2011 WNBA draft will be televised live Monday, April 11th on ESPN at 3:00 PM West Coast time.

Chris Hansen of HoopGurlz online has Stanford Women’s Basketball Player Kayla Pedersen projected as a number five draft pick. He says she could have gotten her numbers up but unselfishly did whatever the team needed rather than worry about statistics. Always praises her “good decisions on the floor and should have a long career.”

BTW, Minnesota Lynx have the first pick and everyone and their brother says to take Maya Moore. We spoke informally to our girl Candice Wiggins and she said she is excited to get a chance to play with Maya. However, what we really wanted to point out is the Los Angeles Sparks have the fifth pick, so wouldn’t it be cool if Kayla went to LA (Where we could take a road trip and see her) and play with Candice Parker?

Chris Hansen has another Stanford player, Jeanette Pohlen, listed as number 16. He recommends she go to a team that will put her back in her “natural” positions of off-guard instead of point.

Now Frank Della Femina of WNBA.com ran a mock draft and has Kayla Pedersen going eighth to the Atlanta Dream, and Jeanette Pohlen going 12^th to the Seattle Storm, so you just never know how these things are going to go.

Now we checked out the WNBA official mock draft and they have Kayla going fourth to… Minnesota! To be reunited with Candice Wiggins and play with Maya Moore. Oh to dream! They have Jeanette going ninth to Indiana, and that is a heck of a road trip for C and R!

Okay, Ben York of Slam Online has Kayla going sixth to the San Antonio Silver Stars, where she would be reunited with Jayne Appel! Unfortunately, he doesn’t’ have Jeanette Pohlen in his top twelve. C and R think they should quit dreaming while they are ahead and just tune in Monday.

Other notables, Gonzaga point guard Courtney Vandersloot is in the top ten of most mock drafts, and C and R were amazed by her, and wish her luck. Playing for a “smaller in stature” team then a traditional powerhouse, she received a lot of exposure in Gonzaga’s NCAA run, and most notably when her team was trying to knock off Stanford.

So Texas A&M’s Danielle Adams is in the top twenty. She led her team to its first National Title, knocking off Stanford in the Final Four along the way…ungrind teeth and keep typing… and C and R are going to make a bold prediction. A bold prediction that is in no way fueled by bitterness and supported by the Courtney Paris model. We believe Adams will get drafted but will not make the team’s starting day roster.

Courtney Paris, you’ll recall, had a stellar college career, setting rebounding records and “double-double” records, points coupled with rebounding records, etc. She also battled weight issues her whole college career, and her weight caused her to be out of shape and have trouble keeping up with the pace and flow of the game. Sound familiar? She was drafted but couldn’t lose enough weight to enable her to keep up with the WNBA players and was cut. She has since been signed again by the LA Sparks and it remains to be seen if she will make this year’s team.

Danielle Adams had similar problems with weight and with making it up and down the court in both the Final Four games we saw her in. In fact, her team would have to walk the ball up the court to allow her to get up the court. If she cannot keep up with the pace of play in the WNBA, she will not make her team, and perhaps teams might remember how Courtney didn’t pan out and might not want to waste a valuable draft position on her. With only 11 roster spots on the 12 WNBA teams in the league, jobs are at a premium. Even if you are drafted, there is no guarantee you will make a team.

One last notable, they have Brittany Spears getting drafted! Oh baby, baby…hee hee...Hit me baby, one more time...

Congratulations Are in Order

2011-04-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Stanford Head Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer for being named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. (Note, this is not the “Women’s” hall of fame, which Tara was elected to in 2002, but the “basketball” hall of fame, so read “men’s.” To tell you how rare this is, she is the ninth women’s coach inducted). She is joined by former Warriors star Chris Mullin, Bad Boy Dennis Rodman, Artis Gilmore, Arvydas Sabonis, Herb Magee, Tom "Satch" Sanders, Teresa Edwards, Tex Winter and Harlem Globetrotter Reece "Goose" Tatum. Tara coached Teresa Edwards to one of her four Olympic Gold Medals in 1996.

Congratulations again to Stanford Head Basketball Coach Tara VanDerveer for being named the Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year. It is her third National Coach of the year award this season and second Naismith honor in her career (C and R don’t understand the distinction, can’t we just have one award?). Tara also won WBCA and Associated Press National Coach of the Year Awards this season, although she had to share the AP award with Geno Auriemma and Miami's Katie Meier.

Congratulations to Kayla Pedersen for being named to the Pac-10 women's five-player all-academic team for basketball, and for being named Pac-10 scholar athlete of the year for women's basketball.

Congratulations to Stanford's Sarah Boothe, Lindy La Rocque, Melanie Murphy, Nneka Ogwumike, Jeanette Pohlen and Mikaela Ruef for being named honorable mentions to the Pac-10 all-academic team for basketball.

Congratulations to Nneka Ogwumike for being named to the State Farm Coaches' All-America Team for the second consecutive season.

Congratulations to Kayla and Jeanette for all the records they set this season and we wish them more basketball luck and success as they try their hand at the WNBA.

Congratulations to the Women’s NCAA tournament and to ESPN who broadcasted it, for increasing their average viewership for the entire tournament to almost 1.9 million people from more than 1.6 million.

Congratulations to the Women’s National Championship game for increasing their viewership from 3.5 million last year to 3.8 million this year. Wait, last year was the Stanford-UConn final. C and R guess the rumors we read out on the internet are true that people get tired of “traditional” power houses always playing out in the final game.

Congratulations to TG for winning the Women’s Talk Sports Bracket!

Congratulations to Joanne Boyle being named Virginia Women’s Basketball Coach and condolences to Cal.

Congratulations Stanford….
For a wonderful season.

It's Root Root For…

2011-04-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

C and R asked who Stanford fans were going to root for in the Women’s Championship game. Let’s go to the ol mail bag to see what people said, shall we?
---------------------
Hi C and R:
The only way I have been able to feel better is to declare the two upsets a victory for women's basketball and celebrate the fresh faces coming in to the final game.
Let's face it, Notre Dame owes a debt of gratitude to Stanford for showing them that UConn could be beat and how to do it. How many times did Muffet McGraw watch that game film for ideas and inspiration? She seems like a good coach and a good person. If she wins, let's hope she calls Tara to tell her thanks.
I guess, if pushed, I am rooting for Notre Dame, only because I am becoming more gender biased in my old age and I know that over 50% of Div. I women's teams are now coached by men and it would be nice to see a woman take home the prize. That being said, the Texas A&M kids seem really neat and they played wonderful defense against our beloved team (trust me-- it pains me to say it), so if they win, it would be well deserved. You have to credit them with coming out so strong in the regionals against Baylor, their home town oppressor.
Sigh.
TH
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After much consideration and deliberation, I'm rooting for Notre Dame tonight. Too much chest bumping from the Aggies for my liking. I know it's better to lose to the eventual winner but I'm still mad at them for beating Stanford.
ML
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I’ll be rooting for the Aggies
It’s little consolation to be able to say you lost to the national champions, but A&M’s run is a good story, Gary Blair seems like a good guy, and I generally root against Notre Dame no matter the sport (Sunday night against UConn excluded). Skylar Diggins is one heck of a player. The men’s championship game certainly isn’t a tough act to follow.
SA, From Rule of Tree
-----------------------
I left Indy on Monday am. Don't care about final so much, but will cheer for ND because Diggins/Wiggins are friends, and I'm not a fan of A&M's 'style" of bball.
M
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Getting over it
The nice thing about losses like this are that in 15 or 20 years, the pain will subside and we'll hardly even think about it anymore. Like that awful overtime loss to Old Dominion in 1997, Nicole Powell hitting the front iron on a three that would have beat Tennessee in 2004, Candice Wiggins getting called for charging into Seimone Augustus in 2006 as Krista Rappahahn swished what would have been a game-winning 3-pointer, Tennessee breaking us with pressure in 2008 when in looked like it was our year, Jayne's ankle in 2010....

Almost never bothers me anymore!

I guess it's the nature of the sport - even with 4 straight years in the Final Four, unless you win it all, the whole season - 33-3, the win over UConn, undefeated Pac-10 season, Regional championship - somehow feels like a colossal failure! (It isn't).

And, you know, I'm already starting to think that next year is looking very bright...
TG
--------------
who am I rooting for?
I'm rooting for A&M. They were staying at my hotel in Indianapolis and could not have been more pleasant. They made it a point to say "hello" as they passed in the hall. When I wished them good luck (maybe I shouldn't have now that I think about it), they were so gracious. At their pep rally, you could really see the excitement about their first Final Four. They shook hands with fans and their coach spoke about what a class act he wanted everyone to be…"no booing in the stands," he said. I attended the Stanford pep rally also. I was surprised by how bored they seemed about it all. The committee was there cheering Stanford on as they arrived. The only time the team smiled was for the team picture. I was so excited to see them and called out to Chiney. She looked up and practically glared at me. I was so surprised by this. I left very disappointed in my team, but still rooting for them on Sunday. Perhaps they were just giving off their "focused" vibe. Still, it came off wrong and I felt sorry for the committee for all the work they put into the event. I will say that Melanie Murphy seemed to be the most pleasant of the bunch. She posed for pictures and took several herself.
MR
----------------
Ouch that last part of the final letter hurt, but maybe it needs to be pointed out, it’s not an automatic to go to the final four every year…

Well, congrats to Texas A & M. Now we can say Stanford lost to the champs. C and R still rooted for Notre Dame and Skylar Diggins. Every time they said, “Diggins makes a play,” we kept hearing “Wiggins”, as in Candice Wiggins. Brought but a flood of memories, so we know what TG means when he says, facetiously, the pain goes away and no one remembers the errors.

Looking forward to next year.
C and R

Now What?

2011-04-04T21:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think the sole reason for the existence of sports is to break one's heart.

This was written by our friend, LM, who is also a Cal fan but we don’t hold it against her.

C and R were so bummed last night we couldn’t even enjoy Skylar Diggins tearing up UConn. Incidentally, did you see our girl Candice Wiggins rooting for Skylar? She got to know her on a recruiting trip to Stanford. And could you have imagined if Diggins came to Stanford. She’s only a sophomore. At least UConn also losing eases the sting and erases some of the stigma the media was set to heap on Stanford.

So, the question has arisen for C and R; whom do we root for in the final final four game? Do we root for Texas A & M so we can say at least Stanford lost to the eventual champions? Or do we root for Notre Dame to “exact our revenge” on Texas A & M and say, see they didn’t belong there. What are your thoughts Stanford nation? And let us know if you are a Cardinal fan stuck with plane tickets to come home Wednesday and have to stay until the bitter end.

Stanford Final Four Loss

2011-04-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

3.3 seconds left, at least put the ball in one of your player’s hands...
I like Toni up the court in a blaze of glory…

Stanford Final Four

2011-04-03T18:38:00.001-07:00

NOOOOOOOooooooooooo!!!!!

Basketball Sisterhood

2011-04-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

C and R knew it! We knew there was a special connection between the Stanford sisters, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike. We’ve been saying it all year. Now a great article by Mechelle Voepel confirms it.

We have seen them always find each other on the court, gravitating to each other for a high five or “it’s okay” word of encouragement. And since the start of the tournament they seem to not only finish each other’s sentences, they finish each other’s baskets. We weren’t imagining it, Mechelle says they have sisterhood and “twin speak,” or sister speak. We knew it, they are just that connected.

Ands now they have incorporated Kayla Pedersen into the fold. She grew up with all brothers like C, and is welcoming this new-found sisterhood. Cutest quote:
"I can define 'sister-speak' like this," Chiney said. "They'll call a play, and I never have to say, 'What?' Because Kayla will say automatically, 'Chiney, don't worry, go here.' And that's what Nneka has been doing all season.
Here’s more from Chiney:
"Nneka and I can just look at each other and communicate without saying anything. We can do that with Kayla, too. I think the whole team is starting to get it, but Kayla's really got it down."

You go sisters. All you sisters.

Cal’s DeNesha Stallworth to Transfer

2011-04-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

No April Fools Joke, DeNesha Stallworth is leaving Cal, according to her father.
From the ESPN site:
"She has a signed release and we're communicating with some schools and setting up some visits," Chris Stallworth said. "It wasn't a bad break, it just wasn't a good fit."

Uh Oh, what’s going on across the Bay?

Tara the Terrible's Sense of Humor

2011-03-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Whenever C and R run into Stanford women’s basketball fans, we inevitably talk about Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer. And for those who have been lucky enough to meet her, all remark on her sense of humor, something that does not show when she is on national TV sitting on the bench.

But if you don’t believe, all you need to know about Tara’s sense of humor can be seen in this video for Stanford wrestling, in which Tara proudly wears the Stanford singlet. And they also showed this clip on national TV!

Cheap thoughts…

2011-03-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

So much great women’s basketball on TV, a big thank you to ESPN for showing it. Hey, Mechelle Voepel says the ESPN brass listens when people write in and say they like to see more women’s basketball, so take a moment today and let them know you like it and want more!

And a big bouquet of roses to Texas A & M.

Heard its snowing in indy… pack your warm things, it jus tmight be a frozen four.

Did you see and hear “I Got Bounce” on National TV! Mel Murphy, you’re a star!

Best Geno Quote…. Best thing Maya does is not listen to me

Our NCAA bracket went to heck (way to represent, PAC-10! Said sarcastically) but C is beating R and that’s all that matters.

Although we must give shout out to super fan TG, who is sitting at the top of the bracket! He correctly picked the Texas A & M win over Baylor, the Gonzaga trip to the elite eight, and Notre Dame knocking off Tennessee to get to the final four. TG, we are taking you to Vegas or having you buy lottery tickets or somethin’!

Awarding:
Both Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen have tied the record for most Stanford career games at 149. They broke Ros Gold Onwude’s old record of 148. It’s fitting that the seniors are doing it together. Pedersen and Pohlen are 1-2 on the career minutes played list with 4,722 for Kayla and 4,316 for Jeanette. Kayla has 1,256 career rebounds, and is seven away from tying Jayne Appel (Jaaaaay-nneeee) for the Stanford and Pac-10 career rebounding record, while Pohlen is second all-time in Stanford history with 265 3-pointers made. Kayla also has a career-high 119 assists this year.

Kayla was also awarded the Pac-10 Scholar Athlete of the Year for basketball. She has a 3.53 GPA and is majoring in communications/psychology. We knew she was smart!

Jeanette and Nneka Ogqumike have been named to both the John R. Wooden All-America Team and the Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-America Teams. Congrats, you two deserve it!