Happy New Year to you (And it is indeed a happy one, as we are still basking in the glow of Stanford beating UConn). The folks over at California Golden Blogs sent us some Stanford Women’s basketball questions in honor of Stanford traveling to Cal to start PAC-10 play. Here are their questions and our long and rambling answers. At the end are our questions back to them, which we will post in part II.
1. Jeanette Pohen has always been a good player, but after averaging about 10 points per game over the last two years, she's suddenly averaging over 15 per game and shooting around 45% from 3. Is this just an isolated hot streak, or has her game taken a big step forward?
That is a good question. A great question. My what a handsome question… Any questions? Next question.
No, we were modeling a cartoon TV show’s smarmy politician to avoid answering that question because… we don’t know either. After the UConn game, you can say the new and improved Jeanette Pohlen is here to stay, with her career 31 points and her determined game face. She wants a championship, and has improved her game. But can she sustain it? Only time will tell. However, stats don’t lie (although you CAN manipulate the heck out of them) and she is averaging 17 points a game, which does show some consistency. C and R hope if it is a hot streak., it lasts until the championship game.
2. Chiney Ogwumike: talk about her strengths and weaknesses 11 games into her career.
C and R, in particular C, had such high, high hopes riding on Chiney. She thought for sure she would lead the world in scoring by now! In retrospect, perhaps they were unrealistic. Her sister did not have a break out year until her sophomore year, and Chiney is about where Nneka was her freshmen year. It is a big adjustment to the college game. We saw her play in the SF summer league before she got any Tara tutelage, and she was still playing as a high school player, the best athlete on the floor which could let her gamble on defense and usually recover quickly. In man-to-man coverage in the games we saw, she often left her man and went for the steal. She would often miss, probably a new experience, and the other players with college experience found her wide-open man. We thought that was a weakness and coach Tara VanDerveer would “beat it out of her”. Lo and behold, to our surprise, Tara took Chiney’s weakness and turned it into a strength and unveiled a new 1-3-1 defense, with Chiney on the point. Her job was to run around like crazy chasing the ball and use her long arms and leaping ability and go for a steal. If she missed, then there were 4 Stanford veterans behind her to make sure it did not result in a basket. Did we mention we think Tara is a genius? Weaknesses, how many games has Chiney fouled out of? UConn was no exception. She has to corral that instinct to reach out and touch someone. We think her biggest contribution to a disciplined Stanford team though, is her ability to create her own shot. Once Tara gave her sister Nneka the green light her sophomore year, even moving out established senior post Jayne Appel to give her room to create, she flourished. We believe next year Tara will do the same for Chiney and she will be incredible on offense.
PS sometimes big sis Nneka looks for Chiney and forces the ball to her inside where it is stolen, just trying to be all nice and sisterly and everything.
3. A 20 point loss to DePaul was shocking to see, particularly that Stanford allowed DePaul to go for 91 points. But they bounced back by routing Xavier. Was DePaul a fluke? How much did missing Kayla Pedersen impact things?
Geez, you ask good questions! If you strictly compare the DePaul game to Xavier and UConn, you can easily vote fluke. But in context, having one player go down, in this case Kayla Pedersen being out of the DePaul game and not 100% for Tennessee, Stafnord is just not the same team emotionally. She is their security blanket because she can rebound on both ends of the floor, make a big defensive stop, create a shot or handle the ball. Last year when teams pressed us because our guards were suspect on ball handling and were running for their lives in the back court, if they got a pass into Kayla’s hands, no matter where Stanford was on the court, you could see them visibly relax. Oh good, Kayla has the ball, we’re okay. That is a huge dependency to take away. And we didn’t count on the team feeling the same way about Jeanette this year. When she fouled out of the Tennessee game early in overtime, the team just deflated. So we rely on one or two people, much like UConn relies on Maya Moore. If you can stop or limit a team, any team’s “security” you have a shot in beating them (Witness the UConn victory).
4. How has Stanford been coping with the losses of Jayne Appel and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, particularly from a defensive perspective?
Well, we were going to say it’s hard to replace PAC-10 defender of the year in losing Ros Gold-Onwude, but after the Uconn game, our defense is juuuuuuust fine. What that says is Tara has great defensive schemes, teaches the fundamentals well, and can tailor a game plan to any individual team like no body’s business. And smaller Nneka was on tall tall Xavier’s post players, and gave up about 3-6 inches, yet her quickness allowed her to play deny defense and her leaping ability took away the back door pass. Tinkle (Jayne Appel’s doppelganger) also looked really good in her defense at the UConn game.
5. Predictions for Sunday?
Oh, let’s not spoil our friendship with a little thing like picking sides, now shall we?
However, a different question would be who will win the rebounding battle? We are picking the Stanford Trees.
C and R’s Questions for California Golden Blogs
1. How much does this team miss Alexis Gray Lawson? Who has stepped up to fill her scoring shoes?
2. How do the incoming freshmen look? And why did Joanne Boyle only recruit guards?
3. Cal beat Illinois for their first road win. Why is it hard for this team to win on the road?
4. Compare and contrast centers DeNesha Stallworth and Talia Caldwell. Which one will give Stanford fits more?
5 One of Stanford’s new interns this year is Cal’s Lauren Greif, who was a senior on the basketball team last year.
Do you think:
A: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew freely and easily?
B: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew only after being tortured by being shown those Stanford Women’s Basketball videos wherein they had supernatural powers of no use on continuous loop?
C: She gave up all of Cal’s secrets to Tara VanDerveer and crew but made them all up. (And for their out of bounds play, they like to inbound it off the backside of the opposing player… and oh, in man to man coverage, they plan to have all five players guard Lindy, even if she is sitting on the bench, because, you know, she can really bomb some threes!)
6. Predictions for the amount of available parking spots in Berkeley on Sunday?
Showing posts with label Alexis Gray-Lawson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alexis Gray-Lawson. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Chiney Ogwumike is A-Okay and Wins Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year!
This just in, Stanford recruit Chiney Ogwumike (and current Stanford player Nneka Ogwumike’s sister) won the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year. Yes, we know she was already honored as the Gatorade Player of the Year in Basketball out of 50 states, but now she is the top female athlete according to Gatorade (she was picked among the 12 Women Gatorade National Players of the Year). In addition to athletic excellence, the award recognizes academic achievement and exemplary character on and off the field. She got to meet Lisa Leslie and Brandi Chastain at an ESPN sponsored luncheon and walk the red carpet at the ESPN ESPY’s and be on TV! Cool. Hope it increases interest and coverage in women’s basketball, says C and R.
Wait, when did she find time to go to the awards ceremony? First she lead the USA Women's U18 National Team to a Gold Medal in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in June, dominating in scoring and praised for her leadership skills, and also competing in the San Francisco Pro-Am league on weekends. Does the girl sleep?
So speaking of Chiney and the SF Pro-Am League, and we were, C and R haven’t been able to get to San Francisco to watch the Chiney and the Stanford freshmen and almost freshmen play in the SF Pro-Am League, but that doesn’t mean our intrepid readers haven’t gone. MM reports that “Chiney’s length is incredible” and “even quicker off the floor than Nneka and gets higher than almost any Div 1 player”. He also had great things to say about Sara James and her long outside shooting (good, we need that). “She set and released in a split second - high arching shots that all hit the back of the net the same way. She made some successful forays into the paint”. SJ, Shooter and slasher, love it. We have to get up there.
Ms. MC reports that in her game she got to see Mikaela Ruef (The Roof is on Fire), Sarah Boothe (Booooo-th), Sara James (SJ), Toni Kokenis (nickname pending), and Chiney Ogumike (is A-Okay) play for Golden State. She also reports the pro-am games featuring the Stanford gang are well attended by Stanford alums. And last weekend, about 10 minutes in, who should walk in to the stands but current Stanford team members Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pederson and Nneka Ogwumike, giving some sister love. She also said she was impressed by the former and current Cal players (very diplomatic of you, MC). She said Alexis Gray-Lawson was very fan-friendly. She also invited us and everyone else to come on out.
Well, we just might take you to heart, as it is on our calendar to go this Saturday, unless we play golf… ahhh! Tough Choice!
Wait, when did she find time to go to the awards ceremony? First she lead the USA Women's U18 National Team to a Gold Medal in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in June, dominating in scoring and praised for her leadership skills, and also competing in the San Francisco Pro-Am league on weekends. Does the girl sleep?
So speaking of Chiney and the SF Pro-Am League, and we were, C and R haven’t been able to get to San Francisco to watch the Chiney and the Stanford freshmen and almost freshmen play in the SF Pro-Am League, but that doesn’t mean our intrepid readers haven’t gone. MM reports that “Chiney’s length is incredible” and “even quicker off the floor than Nneka and gets higher than almost any Div 1 player”. He also had great things to say about Sara James and her long outside shooting (good, we need that). “She set and released in a split second - high arching shots that all hit the back of the net the same way. She made some successful forays into the paint”. SJ, Shooter and slasher, love it. We have to get up there.
Ms. MC reports that in her game she got to see Mikaela Ruef (The Roof is on Fire), Sarah Boothe (Booooo-th), Sara James (SJ), Toni Kokenis (nickname pending), and Chiney Ogumike (is A-Okay) play for Golden State. She also reports the pro-am games featuring the Stanford gang are well attended by Stanford alums. And last weekend, about 10 minutes in, who should walk in to the stands but current Stanford team members Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pederson and Nneka Ogwumike, giving some sister love. She also said she was impressed by the former and current Cal players (very diplomatic of you, MC). She said Alexis Gray-Lawson was very fan-friendly. She also invited us and everyone else to come on out.
Well, we just might take you to heart, as it is on our calendar to go this Saturday, unless we play golf… ahhh! Tough Choice!
Friday, June 18, 2010
We Miss Women’s College Basketball!
Sigh. When does college basketball start up again? We here at C and R are counting the days, as we are going through basketball withdrawal. Here is a little fix to help tied you through. There is a summer pro-am basketball league in San Francisco at Kezar Pavilion featuring the Stanford rookies, to give them more playing experience. Games are on the weekends and starts the 19th of this month. Best of all, games are free. You can see the Stanford stars and future stars….the tentative line up includes old timers Sarah Boothe and Mikaela Ruef, along with soon to be Stanford players Chiney Ogwumike, Sara James and Toni Kokenis. (Well, Chiney will join after her stint with the National Team).
C and R just checked out all the rosters and saw there are a lot of Cal and former Cal players, too. Former Cal standouts Alexis Gray Lawson is back in the Bay Area, as well as Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton. And hey, Courtney and Ashley Paris are back together on the same team. It is a shame Courtney, with all her blocks and rebounding records in college couldn’t catch on in the WNBA.
Let’s hope the Stanford players get good experience for the fall! When basketball season will finally start.
C and R just checked out all the rosters and saw there are a lot of Cal and former Cal players, too. Former Cal standouts Alexis Gray Lawson is back in the Bay Area, as well as Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton. And hey, Courtney and Ashley Paris are back together on the same team. It is a shame Courtney, with all her blocks and rebounding records in college couldn’t catch on in the WNBA.
Let’s hope the Stanford players get good experience for the fall! When basketball season will finally start.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Jayne Appel's Debut
C and R’s favorite ex-Stanford player, Jayne Appel made her WNBA debut this weekend, playing for the San Antonio Silver Stars. Well, it was really Friday, May 28th. She played 2 and a half minutes and had one assist to help tie the game. We think assists will be a big part of her WNBA game in the future. Unfortunately, San Antonio would go on to lose to ex-Stanford Nicole Powell’s new team, the New York Liberty.
In Jayne’s second game with the Silver Stars, played on Sunday, she scored 2 points in 13 plus minutes. Let’s hope she sees more minutes and sinks more shots.
We know, we know, not great numbers, but she is coming off a debilitating injury and at least she is in the WNBA. All the Cal players got cut, (Alexis Gray Lawson, Devanei Hampton, Ashley Walker) as well as Ashley and Courtney Paris. Courtney Paris, a perennial all-American, holds the 2009 single season rebounding record, single season and career double doubles, and consecutive games with a double double, among other records. She only lasted a year in the WNBA. So hats off to Jayne.
She also wrote a great article about what it was like in the whirl-wind days following the loss to UConn in the title game and becoming a pro basketball player. And did you know Jayne is now wearing number 32 instead of her Stanford 2?
In Jayne’s second game with the Silver Stars, played on Sunday, she scored 2 points in 13 plus minutes. Let’s hope she sees more minutes and sinks more shots.
We know, we know, not great numbers, but she is coming off a debilitating injury and at least she is in the WNBA. All the Cal players got cut, (Alexis Gray Lawson, Devanei Hampton, Ashley Walker) as well as Ashley and Courtney Paris. Courtney Paris, a perennial all-American, holds the 2009 single season rebounding record, single season and career double doubles, and consecutive games with a double double, among other records. She only lasted a year in the WNBA. So hats off to Jayne.
She also wrote a great article about what it was like in the whirl-wind days following the loss to UConn in the title game and becoming a pro basketball player. And did you know Jayne is now wearing number 32 instead of her Stanford 2?
Monday, April 12, 2010
Life After Basketball--Includes a lot of Basketball
So how’s your life now that Stanford Women’s Basketball is over? C and R’s is awful, or maybe it’s the rain that is depressing us. It’s April, we don’t get rain in Northern CA in April!
Not only are we depressed; we are lethargic and lazy, too. So skipping back to last week, R wanted to point this out
Did you notice the only other pac-10 player drafted (besides our Jaynie-Jayne) was Alexis Gray-Lawson - in the 3rd round? Also, the only other West coast team that had anybody drafted was San Diego State (Oops-don't forget Gonzaga) - okay, the West gets NO respect…
Good Point. No Rodney Dangerfield Respect.
More depressing, JJ Hones has microfracture surgery on her knee (and Mel Murphy will soon). The surgery creates tiny fractures in the bone and, in theory, new cartilage forms and will strengthen the bone. She will know in six months if she can play basketball for Stanford again.
In other basketball news, Team USA, the National Team that plays in all our international tournaments, including the Olympics, has no international tournaments scheduled for a long while, so Team USA head coach Geno Auriemma (you know, that pompous guy that gave NO credit to Stanford for holding his UConn team to 12 points, the worst performance in school history in a half, that guy?), um, lost my train of thought. Oh yeah, Geno has no competition for the National Team to play against so he came up with the idea of a Team USA “Select Team” to play against this week. Think of it as the junior varsity to the varsity team. Anyway, Stanford’s Kayla Pedersen has been invited to play for the select team. Yay! Nneka Ogwumike is already on the select team, and we thought she was asked to the varsity team, so what do we know? And we are glad to find out that although Jayne Appel is too injured to play (stress fracture) she is at camp to watch and learn for when she is better. And we think she is slated for the National Varsity Team.
Oh, they listed Kayla’s National Team accomplishments as a 2010 All-Final Four selection and three-time USA Basketball gold medallist. Kayla has USA Basketball experience with the “Age Groups” teams, meaning she played on the U18, U19 Teams, and at the USA Basketball World University Games Team in July, 2009. She won gold medals all three times.
C and R fully expect to see Kayla on the big girl team someday.
More Stanford Basketball at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
Not only are we depressed; we are lethargic and lazy, too. So skipping back to last week, R wanted to point this out
Did you notice the only other pac-10 player drafted (besides our Jaynie-Jayne) was Alexis Gray-Lawson - in the 3rd round? Also, the only other West coast team that had anybody drafted was San Diego State (Oops-don't forget Gonzaga) - okay, the West gets NO respect…
Good Point. No Rodney Dangerfield Respect.
More depressing, JJ Hones has microfracture surgery on her knee (and Mel Murphy will soon). The surgery creates tiny fractures in the bone and, in theory, new cartilage forms and will strengthen the bone. She will know in six months if she can play basketball for Stanford again.
In other basketball news, Team USA, the National Team that plays in all our international tournaments, including the Olympics, has no international tournaments scheduled for a long while, so Team USA head coach Geno Auriemma (you know, that pompous guy that gave NO credit to Stanford for holding his UConn team to 12 points, the worst performance in school history in a half, that guy?), um, lost my train of thought. Oh yeah, Geno has no competition for the National Team to play against so he came up with the idea of a Team USA “Select Team” to play against this week. Think of it as the junior varsity to the varsity team. Anyway, Stanford’s Kayla Pedersen has been invited to play for the select team. Yay! Nneka Ogwumike is already on the select team, and we thought she was asked to the varsity team, so what do we know? And we are glad to find out that although Jayne Appel is too injured to play (stress fracture) she is at camp to watch and learn for when she is better. And we think she is slated for the National Varsity Team.
Oh, they listed Kayla’s National Team accomplishments as a 2010 All-Final Four selection and three-time USA Basketball gold medallist. Kayla has USA Basketball experience with the “Age Groups” teams, meaning she played on the U18, U19 Teams, and at the USA Basketball World University Games Team in July, 2009. She won gold medals all three times.
C and R fully expect to see Kayla on the big girl team someday.
More Stanford Basketball at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Quick Notes From LA
A quick hello again from LA where we have no idea what time it is! Daylight Savings happened sometime last night and although we remember “Spring Forward, Fall Back”, that means the clocks…..um, we don’t know. All we know is the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team plays in the PAC-10 Tournament Championship Game today at 3 PM. Let’s hope we can figure out what time it is before then. Meanwhile we are going to Fat Burger for breakfast and or lunch.
Stanford plays UCLA today, the best team that has a chance to upset Stanford. Although UCLA played in a spirited semi-final game against USC and won, C and R are hoping they will be emotionally and physically drained.
In other news, we checked up on the news about Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson. She went down hard on the court in the game against Stanford in their semi final game and was taken off by stretcher. Cal’s coach, Joanne Boyle, visited Gray-Lawson in the hospital after the game and said she was joking, talking and having "normal" conversations with everyone. Good to hear, hope she can go home today.
Stanford plays UCLA today, the best team that has a chance to upset Stanford. Although UCLA played in a spirited semi-final game against USC and won, C and R are hoping they will be emotionally and physically drained.
In other news, we checked up on the news about Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson. She went down hard on the court in the game against Stanford in their semi final game and was taken off by stretcher. Cal’s coach, Joanne Boyle, visited Gray-Lawson in the hospital after the game and said she was joking, talking and having "normal" conversations with everyone. Good to hear, hope she can go home today.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Stanford Beats Cal For a Third Time
Hello from LA, CA! C and R here reporting from the Galen Center on USC’s campus, flying in just in time to see the Stanford Women’s Basketball team play Cal (again) in the semi-finals of the PAC-10 tournament. The neat thing about being here (and not watching it on TV) is all the friends we are making!
We want to give a special shout out to D and C, our delightful friends from CAL! Yes, that’s right, they were Cal fans but sat next to us and were a lot of fun. C, the new one, is from Ohio, just like original C, so Original C said we would say hi to them in the blog. Hope they know how to use a computer! (boom-roasted!)
Okay, next order of business, we want to assuage your worries, C and or R were not the fan that was almost kicked out of the game. Repeat, C and R were not kicked out, and no one bothered us about our tinkle bells for Joslyn Tinkle.
So let’s back up a bit. Stanford was beating Cal handily, thanks to Jayne Appel’s appearance and no thanks to the bad refereeing. Two of the refs we recognized from previous Stanford games, and we were not fans of them then. They didn’t make any friends in this game, either. They certainly “Let Them Play” and there was a lot of rough pushing and fouls not called.
Jayne came in around the 14 minute mark of the first half and Stanford just feels better having her there. With her still bum ankle, she looked like she was limping and it affected her ability to jump. When the pushing and non-calls were getting out of hand, we watched Jayne get shoved to the ground out of bounds on a rebound under Cal’s basket, and no call. Coach Tara VanDerveer had seen enough and took her out in the final two minutes of the half to protect her. The score was 29-17 at the time, and we never looked back. We used our tenacious D and a Nneka Ogwumike catch and release shot in the final seconds to take a 35-19 lead into the half.
At the start of the second half, Cal tried a full court press and although it gave us fits at times, we figured it out pretty quickly. And hats off to Tara VanDerveer for not being complacent, as she whipped out a Stanford half court trap we have only seen once this year. It only lasted for a few minutes, though, as Kayla Pedersen got called for a reach in foul going in for a steal and a charging foul after our trap stole it and she was trying to get a fast break off the steal. Enough of that said Tara.
There was a very scary moment right before the 5 minute mark in the second half. Stanford was up 56-32. Michelle Harrison blocked Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson and she hit the deck. Stanford grabbed the rebound and hustled down the court while Alexis lay motionless on the floor. Play keep continuing and the refs did not stop play for an injured player.
Now, it is unclear to C and R of the refs have discretion to stop play whenever a player goes down or if they have to wait for a dead ball to check on the injured player. Or if they just didn’t know she was laying back there in the back court. So the game continued on for 12 seconds until there was a break in the action and the refs finally called an official time out to check on Alexis.
Sooo, from the fans point of view, the refs were either heartless or clueless.
Soooo, as the medical crew was checking on Alexis and both teams were huddled by their benches and it was very, very quiet in the building, a female fan (not us) yelled, “You refs are stupid!” That’s it, one sentence, no curse words, no badgering. Unfortunately, the lady ref we don’t like heard her and said, “I heard you call me stupid.”
Sooooooo, the ref, let’s cal her Melissa, called over security and wanted the fan thrown out. Two big guys went to the section and were unsure what to do, who was it, was it that bad, was it this little old lady, so they just told the section to be quiet. The ref kept wanted someone thrown out and the staff didn’t want to throw anybody out. The fan seemed pretty pacified by this point. (BTW, if you know who that fan is, please email us so we can buy her an adult beverage!)
Sooooooooooo, then, as that drama was going on, the camera crew (remember, the game was actually televised) got a cameraman to bring his camera on the court and got about three feet from where Alexis lay motionless. Fans started yelling to get the camera man out of there. Then many jokes ensued about getting kicked out of the game for yelling and then one person in the crowd said, “Boo to the camera man“, so then the rest of the crowd started to just boo. So the Cal huddle looks at the stands and probably thinks we are booing Alexis on the floor. Finally they get Alexis stabilized on a back board and take her away in a stretcher to the waiting ambulance. The crowd stood, as well as the Stanford bench, as she left.
We found out later she fell on her neck and shoulder and they are going to keep her in the hospital over night for observation but she should be okay. We wish her well.
Stanford would go on to win by 20, 64-44, same margin as last time.
Well, been a long but fun day. C and R signing off. See ya tomorrow from LA.
We want to give a special shout out to D and C, our delightful friends from CAL! Yes, that’s right, they were Cal fans but sat next to us and were a lot of fun. C, the new one, is from Ohio, just like original C, so Original C said we would say hi to them in the blog. Hope they know how to use a computer! (boom-roasted!)
Okay, next order of business, we want to assuage your worries, C and or R were not the fan that was almost kicked out of the game. Repeat, C and R were not kicked out, and no one bothered us about our tinkle bells for Joslyn Tinkle.
So let’s back up a bit. Stanford was beating Cal handily, thanks to Jayne Appel’s appearance and no thanks to the bad refereeing. Two of the refs we recognized from previous Stanford games, and we were not fans of them then. They didn’t make any friends in this game, either. They certainly “Let Them Play” and there was a lot of rough pushing and fouls not called.
Jayne came in around the 14 minute mark of the first half and Stanford just feels better having her there. With her still bum ankle, she looked like she was limping and it affected her ability to jump. When the pushing and non-calls were getting out of hand, we watched Jayne get shoved to the ground out of bounds on a rebound under Cal’s basket, and no call. Coach Tara VanDerveer had seen enough and took her out in the final two minutes of the half to protect her. The score was 29-17 at the time, and we never looked back. We used our tenacious D and a Nneka Ogwumike catch and release shot in the final seconds to take a 35-19 lead into the half.
At the start of the second half, Cal tried a full court press and although it gave us fits at times, we figured it out pretty quickly. And hats off to Tara VanDerveer for not being complacent, as she whipped out a Stanford half court trap we have only seen once this year. It only lasted for a few minutes, though, as Kayla Pedersen got called for a reach in foul going in for a steal and a charging foul after our trap stole it and she was trying to get a fast break off the steal. Enough of that said Tara.
There was a very scary moment right before the 5 minute mark in the second half. Stanford was up 56-32. Michelle Harrison blocked Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson and she hit the deck. Stanford grabbed the rebound and hustled down the court while Alexis lay motionless on the floor. Play keep continuing and the refs did not stop play for an injured player.
Now, it is unclear to C and R of the refs have discretion to stop play whenever a player goes down or if they have to wait for a dead ball to check on the injured player. Or if they just didn’t know she was laying back there in the back court. So the game continued on for 12 seconds until there was a break in the action and the refs finally called an official time out to check on Alexis.
Sooo, from the fans point of view, the refs were either heartless or clueless.
Soooo, as the medical crew was checking on Alexis and both teams were huddled by their benches and it was very, very quiet in the building, a female fan (not us) yelled, “You refs are stupid!” That’s it, one sentence, no curse words, no badgering. Unfortunately, the lady ref we don’t like heard her and said, “I heard you call me stupid.”
Sooooooo, the ref, let’s cal her Melissa, called over security and wanted the fan thrown out. Two big guys went to the section and were unsure what to do, who was it, was it that bad, was it this little old lady, so they just told the section to be quiet. The ref kept wanted someone thrown out and the staff didn’t want to throw anybody out. The fan seemed pretty pacified by this point. (BTW, if you know who that fan is, please email us so we can buy her an adult beverage!)
Sooooooooooo, then, as that drama was going on, the camera crew (remember, the game was actually televised) got a cameraman to bring his camera on the court and got about three feet from where Alexis lay motionless. Fans started yelling to get the camera man out of there. Then many jokes ensued about getting kicked out of the game for yelling and then one person in the crowd said, “Boo to the camera man“, so then the rest of the crowd started to just boo. So the Cal huddle looks at the stands and probably thinks we are booing Alexis on the floor. Finally they get Alexis stabilized on a back board and take her away in a stretcher to the waiting ambulance. The crowd stood, as well as the Stanford bench, as she left.
We found out later she fell on her neck and shoulder and they are going to keep her in the hospital over night for observation but she should be okay. We wish her well.
Stanford would go on to win by 20, 64-44, same margin as last time.
Well, been a long but fun day. C and R signing off. See ya tomorrow from LA.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Stanford Beats Cal In Last Regular Season Game
Let’s see what would make a good sub heading?
-Nneka To the Rescue (Well, Kayla Pedersen did score that last second basket to end up with 23 points to Nneka’s 22. Did they have a little side bet going on to see who would be high scorer? However, it WAS Nneka Ogwumike’s ability to elevate and score when we seemed nervous and stuck offensively that saved the day. Although we saw Jeanette Pohlen looking for Kayla when she was pressured, and Kayla was so calm and collected when pressured and dribbled out of many jams so I guess they both saved the day and that is not an accurate headline.)
-Surprise, Stanford wins by Defense (Yes, Stanford is not known for their defense, but their defense was phenomenal in stopping Cal and making them miss when they did get a shot at the basket-more on that later-but that makes for a boring headline.)
-Kill off One Head of the Three Headed Monster and the Other Two Will Rise to Eat You (No, too obscure, because then we would have to explain that with our Jayne Appel out, one part of the three trees, or monster heads, we still have Kayla and Nneka, and you can’t stop them, too, and oh never mind if you have to explain it it’s just not funny…so how about…)
-Jayne Appel on Sidelines with Sprained Ankle. C and R Have Heart Attacks! (That’s more like it for a sub headline. Wait, hold it, we are getting ahead of the story, and whenever C and R go anywhere, like Cal, there’s always a story, and this is no exception. So let’s start at the beginning)
Perhaps a headline should be "Surprise, Surprise, Stanford fans find parking in Berkeley". After we find our parking space, C and R stop for a snack and R has a breakfast burrito and C has a falafel with extra tahini sauce, in an only-in-Berkeley Greek/American restaurant. Food was excellent BTW.
So C and R continue our walk in to Haas Pavilion for the game between the Cal Bears and The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team. A large and spirited crowd is outside Haas Pavilion and it is a carnival-like atmosphere.
Once inside, the place is about 3/4 full with and an announced attendance of 5,137. We try to figure out where our general admission ticket allows us to sit, while eyeing seats we could possibly move down to… (I know, we are shameless. C blames R). While moving around, R sees her friend from Cal, who we will call P (I know, R has a friend. A friend not named C). She introduces C and R to her other Cal friends. We make it a point to promptly forget their names. No hard feelings, just C and R are old and forgetful. Then P says what’s up with your girl Jayne in sweats with that boot? You could have knocked C and R down with a feather. We stare at the blonde women in black sweats and a gray T-Shirt (she didn’t want to give in totally to the black sweats of injury). You would think we would know that Jayne was injured. We excuse ourselves and say we need to go find out.
C spots a lot of reporters at press row. She thinks she could go down there and ask, say she is part of the press, find out what happened. She starts down the stairs (which are angled a little too steeply, if you ask her, what’s up with that, Cal?) when a big Usher appears before her and C abruptly alters course down a tunnel. Rats, foiled again. They are checking tickets before anyone can move into the closer sections.
C and R locate the one section where Stanford fans are allowed to sit with their general admission tickets. We figure we will be safe here and can even break out our tinkle bells. Another group of Stanford fans has theirs already out. They look like Christmas bells from the tree. C congratulates them on the bells and smiles inwardly. We see a large group of people across from us courtside, so large that they take up an entire section to themselves and are all wearing the same red shirt. Must be more Stanford fans.
While sitting in the Stanford section, C sees the Ushers are distracted with something, so she quickly moves, jumping over rows of seats and winding her way down to the front row. Unfortunately, Haas pavilion has a sunken floor, so the first row of seats stops at a railing and then drops away 10 feet to the floor. On Stanford’s court, courtside means you are sitting on the floor and can reach out and touch the players (and R once touched the ref as he ran up and down the floor). So even though the Ushers have not caught her and C is on the front row, she cannot easily get to the reporters. A group of fans blocks her access to get closer to them to shout so she is stuck on the side, right behind the Stanford bench. C sees assistant Coach Bobbi Kelsey alone. She figures this is her one chance. She yells, “Hey, what’s the matter with Jayne”. Bobbi looks up and says, “She’ll be all right.” Translated, she means, “Get away, crazy person”. C asks again and Bobbi gives the same answer, and is now wondering where security is when you need them, and the Stanford Tree gets protected from fans, why can’t I? C finally catches on and skedaddles out of there before the Ushers discover her.
Walking back to the Stanford section, a Stanford fan asks what she said to Bobbi. C says she was trying to find out about Jayne Appel’s injury. The fan says Jayne sprained her ankle in practice and it is not that bad, and head coach Tara VanDerveer is just resting her as a precautionary measure and to have her ready for the Pac-10 Tournament. C repeats that to R when she is seated and another fan says, oh no, it was quite bad and almost broke and she will be out indefinitely. Just goes to show you can’t believe everything you hear from fans, and can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, especially if it is from us.
(No, we watched the taped game and the annoucers confirmed she rolled her ankle in practice doing a lay-up-by herself and she could have played today but Tara did want to keep her for the tournament. Jayne packed her gear just in case Tara changed her mind. She didn’t. Also read in the paper that a tour of 40 little girls were watching practice at the precise moment Jayne rolled her ankle and was hugging the basket post and trying not to swear and/or faint in front of them… poor Jayne!)
So anyhooo, thinking fast, C quickly texts our blogging partners at California Golden Blogs and asks if they can revise their prediction of the final score of this game. Actually, C and R are nervous about Jayne being out. She is our emotional leader and if she does well on the court, our team does well and vice versa. We could very well lose this game.
Cal does a very nice senior tribute before the game for the Cal seniors. Alexis Gray Lawson is everyone’s favorite and the Stanford section even stands up for her. They also thank the Cal seniors in the band and on the spirit squad. We thought that was classy. They gave flowers to the Stanford seniors, too. Then they introduced the Stanford starters. Freshman Joslyn Tinkle gets the nod to start in Jayne’s place. Maybe Tara thinks Cal might think Joslyn is Jayne out there, they do look alike. Then they do a lot of theatrics with lights and stuff for the Cal starters. Reminded us of an NBA game. It was fun and certainly energetic, but we know Tara would never stand for that at Maples.
We win the jump but we look nervous. Cal is pressuring point guard Jeanette Pohlen, just one guard on her, not a full court press and yet she turns it over. When we do get it to our basket, we have no inside presence and it is clear we are missing Jayne offensively. It’s like four players are on the court and the fifth is missing from the middle. What do we do? This does not look good. Then our defense kicks in.
When we are on the defensive end of the court, it is like Stanford mentally says, okay, this is what I know how to do. I don’t need Jayne, just cover my assignment. Every PAC-10 coach’s pick for defender of the year, Ros Gold-Onwude is on Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson like glue.
C and R have been watching Stanford for years and C has even written a post conveying her surprise that Stanford is holding PAC-10 foes to low scoring totals because we are not known for our defense, but she sees she has clearly been off the mark all season long. Our defense, while not flashy, is stifling. They just do it so effortlessly you forget it is there. UConn likes to defend by stealing the pass and quickly taking the ball the other way for points. That creates highlights you see on ESPN. Stanford really just shuts you down. They shut down your leading scorer. They shut down your passes. They shut the door on getting any rebounds. They might guard you for the whole shot clock and make you take a bad last second shot or get the shot clock violation. Those plays might not make the highlight reels, but they consistently stop offenses from scoring. How could C have been so blind all season? Oh, they do one more thing on defense really well, something C has never seen another team do, and that is defend the screen really well.
So let’s say Ros is guarding Alexis at the top of the three-point line, Ros’ back is to the basket. A Cal player comes up and makes a wall on Ros’ right shoulder. Alexis will continue moving to Ros’ right and get around both bodies and either pull up and shoot uncontested or dribble around both bodies and head to the basket. This usually works. What Stanford does in a case like that is double team the ball handler. So as the Cal player on Ros’ right shoulder is holding her in place, Nneka is behind the Cal player, now on Ros’ right side, too. As Alexis dribbles to Ros’s right, Nneka comes out to meet the ball as Ros fights over the top of the screen. Alexis cannot shoot uncontested or drive to the basket. If Alexis crosses over to her other hand away from Nneka, she meets Ros. So the most logical thing to do is…dribble backwards away from the basket. Now, in that fleeting moment Nneka and Ros are both on Alexis, the screener is open. But the guard cannot see her or get a clean pass to her because of Ros and long-armed Nneka. It is a little thing, but done well and stops the scoring. All the Stanford bigs do it well: Kayla, Jayne, Joslyn, Nneka. Cal tried to screen all night and could not get their best scorer, Alexis, free. Around the second or third play of the game, Nneka came out to double team off the screen and harassed the ball handler so much she stole it. She was alone with a path to the basket. Unfortunately she had to dribble the ball half the court. Did we mention Nneka is not the best dribbler? She lost it, of course. Hmm, might want to work on that in the off-season!
Just under the 15-minute mark left in the first half, Nneka committed her first foul. C and R held their collective breath. Tara takes her out of the game. Nooooo, not with Jayne on the bench. I mean, we hate it anyway when she takes Nneka out any time, but we need Nneka and Kayla if we are to win this game. Tara agrees with us because a minute and a half later she puts Nneka back in. Whew. It was just a token punishment. Later Nneka dribbles off her foot. Nneka, off-season.
With about three minutes left in the first half, the score is 17-20, Stanford. We have held them without a basket for 6 minutes and then 4 minutes. So yes, this is a low scoring game for both teams, and we are only up 3 points. Tara puts in veteran Micelle Harrison with 4 minutes left. We like the fifth year veteran, and even though she might not score a lot, she can add her maturity and poise to Stanford. She gets a lay-up, a rebound, an assist and a block, followed by another rebound in her four minutes of play. She also looked aggressive and gave us a spark off the bench. We go into the locker room with a 26-19 lead. Seven points is great, but had we had Jayne in there, you could probably add about 8 more to that total. We are still not out of the woods yet.
We wander around at half time and see that group of Stanford fans with the matching red shirts. They say “House of Jayne” and “UnstoppAppel” on the back and a picture of Jayne on the front. We find out it is about 60 of Jayne’s family and friends who came out to support her. We figuratively cry that Jayne could not play this last game of her regular season. We later find out from the TV broadcast that Jayne didn’t know about the shirts and said to her Dad a typical teenage, “Oh Dadddd,” when she saw them. We also read later that Jayne had missed only one other regular-season game, the first one of her freshman season. She had played in 138 straight games since, the most by any female player at Stanford. More than Candice Wiggins! What an incredible career!
Then as we where coming out of the bathroom, R says to a woman in a Jayne shirt, “You’re Jayne’s Mom, aren’t, you?” She answered yes and we would have bugged her more, but another stranger was already talking her ear off and asking about Jayne’s ankle as we eavesdropped. She confirmed it wasn’t that bad. Cool, we got to see Jayne’s mom!
Than in the closing seconds, as we were getting ready to go back to our seats R says, “Hey, there’s Jayne Appel!” Sure enough, Jayne, Sarah Boothe and assistant coach Kate Paye were heading to the women’s bathroom. (What, Cal, you don't have enough women’s facilities in your visitor’s locker room?).
C and R, like the good stalkers we are, follow. Okay, R hates when C says we are stalkers, we are just fans who get star-struck and don’t really stalk or break the law or hide in bushes and take photos or anything, but this was stalking. C starts meticulously washing her hands. R announces loudly, “Boy I sure like those ‘House of Jayne’ shirts that group was wearing.” C embarrassed, looks at her and mouths, “Shut UP.” R announces again that the picture on the front sure was cool or some such nonsense, C can’t remember because she is thoroughly mortified and staring daggers at R. The women emerge from the stalls and surround C to wash their hands. R hides behind a wall mostly because she knows C wants to kill her. C says, “Give ‘em Heck,” to the trio, well, what she really said rhymed with tinkle bell, but the trio just want to get out of there as fast as they could. So Jayne and Sarah and Kate, that was us, those two idiots in the bathroom grinning like, well, idiots. Hi, we are usually not so dorky. We text the California Golden Blog Boys “Sorry we couldn’t meet, we were too busy stalking Jayne Appel and family!”
The game blessedly begins again so we can’t make ourselves into fools anymore and Cal comes out in a full court press this time. They pressure Pohlen and they pass quickly to either Nneka or Kayla, our two remaining trees. We break the press and get some fast break points. We said it at the top of this (very long) blog, Nneka to the rescue, but we’ll say it again, she rescues us offensively again and again. We are up by 15, with the score 45-30 with 10 minutes gone in the second half. That means Cal has only scored 11 points in 10 minutes.
At one point Nneka makes a great basket and gets fouled and looks to the Stanford beanh and screams and pumps her fist. We love the attitude! Wait, we recently wrote a post saying we didn’t like Brittney Griner’s attitude when she blocked our dunked on people. The difference is Brittney would look at them and make the gestures to intimidate. Nneka did the gesture to her bench and it was a celebration, not an intimidation play. That’s what we think about our polite and precious Nneka, anyway.
Tinkle gets s a three and a lay up to go with her other 3 in the first half for a total of 8 points and our tinkle bells were busy.
All game long during breaks the Cal spirit squad has been throwing T-Shirts to the crowd. C instinctively stands up and waves her arms, but for some reason when they see the sea of red, they don’t throw any our way. Now in the closing minutes of T-Shirt tossing, C stands up because it is an in-joke now with the Stanford fans, wink, wink, we know they won’t throw one our way. The guy in blue looks at C for a long moment…Will he….
He does.
He lets it fly and it lands right in C’s hands. She doesn’t’ even have to climb over anybody!
Someone says, “throw it back” like in baseball when the opposing team hits a home run ball. But no, C is keeping this. First, she breaks out her knife, because what good Stanford fan doesn’t travel to Cal with their knife? No, just kidding, just kidding! Really! C was a former Girl Scout and Boy Scout Leader so she is always prepared and carries one of those mini pocketknife all-in-one-tools around with her everywhere. You never know when you might need to unscrew a Phillips head screw (no serousily, she bleives that). So her little pocketknife thingie has scissors and she cuts the sleeves off the Cal shirt. Then she gets out her sharpie marker (remember, always prepared) and scratches out anything Cal on it and writes Stanford and “Fear The Trees!” (She forgot to get to Stanford to buy the real deal shirt) She was going to then draw pictures of a healthy Kayla and Nneka and a forlorn Jayne in her boot when she realized she really should pay attention to the game. Tinkle blocks the heck out of Cal. The TV announcers said that Tinkle contributed well with her rebounding. She had 9 for the game.
She put the shirt on over her Stanford shirt so her red sleeves stick out. She watches Kayla gets that last basket as we mentioned to send Stanford home with a 63-48 victory. Kayla and Nneka combine for 45 of those 63 points and each had double figures in rebounds. Joslyn, our baby tree had 8 of those 63 points, so the those trees combined for 53 of the 63 points. Wow! Oh, those three trees had 33 of the 42 rebounds.
Fun , fun , fun although tense game. We liked our adventure so much that we are going to try and get down to LA for some of the PAC-10 tournament. Look for us with the ripped up, crossed out Cal shirt!
More Stanford (but not Cal) Stuff at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
-Nneka To the Rescue (Well, Kayla Pedersen did score that last second basket to end up with 23 points to Nneka’s 22. Did they have a little side bet going on to see who would be high scorer? However, it WAS Nneka Ogwumike’s ability to elevate and score when we seemed nervous and stuck offensively that saved the day. Although we saw Jeanette Pohlen looking for Kayla when she was pressured, and Kayla was so calm and collected when pressured and dribbled out of many jams so I guess they both saved the day and that is not an accurate headline.)
-Surprise, Stanford wins by Defense (Yes, Stanford is not known for their defense, but their defense was phenomenal in stopping Cal and making them miss when they did get a shot at the basket-more on that later-but that makes for a boring headline.)
-Kill off One Head of the Three Headed Monster and the Other Two Will Rise to Eat You (No, too obscure, because then we would have to explain that with our Jayne Appel out, one part of the three trees, or monster heads, we still have Kayla and Nneka, and you can’t stop them, too, and oh never mind if you have to explain it it’s just not funny…so how about…)
-Jayne Appel on Sidelines with Sprained Ankle. C and R Have Heart Attacks! (That’s more like it for a sub headline. Wait, hold it, we are getting ahead of the story, and whenever C and R go anywhere, like Cal, there’s always a story, and this is no exception. So let’s start at the beginning)
Perhaps a headline should be "Surprise, Surprise, Stanford fans find parking in Berkeley". After we find our parking space, C and R stop for a snack and R has a breakfast burrito and C has a falafel with extra tahini sauce, in an only-in-Berkeley Greek/American restaurant. Food was excellent BTW.
So C and R continue our walk in to Haas Pavilion for the game between the Cal Bears and The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team. A large and spirited crowd is outside Haas Pavilion and it is a carnival-like atmosphere.
Once inside, the place is about 3/4 full with and an announced attendance of 5,137. We try to figure out where our general admission ticket allows us to sit, while eyeing seats we could possibly move down to… (I know, we are shameless. C blames R). While moving around, R sees her friend from Cal, who we will call P (I know, R has a friend. A friend not named C). She introduces C and R to her other Cal friends. We make it a point to promptly forget their names. No hard feelings, just C and R are old and forgetful. Then P says what’s up with your girl Jayne in sweats with that boot? You could have knocked C and R down with a feather. We stare at the blonde women in black sweats and a gray T-Shirt (she didn’t want to give in totally to the black sweats of injury). You would think we would know that Jayne was injured. We excuse ourselves and say we need to go find out.
C spots a lot of reporters at press row. She thinks she could go down there and ask, say she is part of the press, find out what happened. She starts down the stairs (which are angled a little too steeply, if you ask her, what’s up with that, Cal?) when a big Usher appears before her and C abruptly alters course down a tunnel. Rats, foiled again. They are checking tickets before anyone can move into the closer sections.
C and R locate the one section where Stanford fans are allowed to sit with their general admission tickets. We figure we will be safe here and can even break out our tinkle bells. Another group of Stanford fans has theirs already out. They look like Christmas bells from the tree. C congratulates them on the bells and smiles inwardly. We see a large group of people across from us courtside, so large that they take up an entire section to themselves and are all wearing the same red shirt. Must be more Stanford fans.
While sitting in the Stanford section, C sees the Ushers are distracted with something, so she quickly moves, jumping over rows of seats and winding her way down to the front row. Unfortunately, Haas pavilion has a sunken floor, so the first row of seats stops at a railing and then drops away 10 feet to the floor. On Stanford’s court, courtside means you are sitting on the floor and can reach out and touch the players (and R once touched the ref as he ran up and down the floor). So even though the Ushers have not caught her and C is on the front row, she cannot easily get to the reporters. A group of fans blocks her access to get closer to them to shout so she is stuck on the side, right behind the Stanford bench. C sees assistant Coach Bobbi Kelsey alone. She figures this is her one chance. She yells, “Hey, what’s the matter with Jayne”. Bobbi looks up and says, “She’ll be all right.” Translated, she means, “Get away, crazy person”. C asks again and Bobbi gives the same answer, and is now wondering where security is when you need them, and the Stanford Tree gets protected from fans, why can’t I? C finally catches on and skedaddles out of there before the Ushers discover her.
Walking back to the Stanford section, a Stanford fan asks what she said to Bobbi. C says she was trying to find out about Jayne Appel’s injury. The fan says Jayne sprained her ankle in practice and it is not that bad, and head coach Tara VanDerveer is just resting her as a precautionary measure and to have her ready for the Pac-10 Tournament. C repeats that to R when she is seated and another fan says, oh no, it was quite bad and almost broke and she will be out indefinitely. Just goes to show you can’t believe everything you hear from fans, and can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, especially if it is from us.
(No, we watched the taped game and the annoucers confirmed she rolled her ankle in practice doing a lay-up-by herself and she could have played today but Tara did want to keep her for the tournament. Jayne packed her gear just in case Tara changed her mind. She didn’t. Also read in the paper that a tour of 40 little girls were watching practice at the precise moment Jayne rolled her ankle and was hugging the basket post and trying not to swear and/or faint in front of them… poor Jayne!)
So anyhooo, thinking fast, C quickly texts our blogging partners at California Golden Blogs and asks if they can revise their prediction of the final score of this game. Actually, C and R are nervous about Jayne being out. She is our emotional leader and if she does well on the court, our team does well and vice versa. We could very well lose this game.
Cal does a very nice senior tribute before the game for the Cal seniors. Alexis Gray Lawson is everyone’s favorite and the Stanford section even stands up for her. They also thank the Cal seniors in the band and on the spirit squad. We thought that was classy. They gave flowers to the Stanford seniors, too. Then they introduced the Stanford starters. Freshman Joslyn Tinkle gets the nod to start in Jayne’s place. Maybe Tara thinks Cal might think Joslyn is Jayne out there, they do look alike. Then they do a lot of theatrics with lights and stuff for the Cal starters. Reminded us of an NBA game. It was fun and certainly energetic, but we know Tara would never stand for that at Maples.
We win the jump but we look nervous. Cal is pressuring point guard Jeanette Pohlen, just one guard on her, not a full court press and yet she turns it over. When we do get it to our basket, we have no inside presence and it is clear we are missing Jayne offensively. It’s like four players are on the court and the fifth is missing from the middle. What do we do? This does not look good. Then our defense kicks in.
When we are on the defensive end of the court, it is like Stanford mentally says, okay, this is what I know how to do. I don’t need Jayne, just cover my assignment. Every PAC-10 coach’s pick for defender of the year, Ros Gold-Onwude is on Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson like glue.
C and R have been watching Stanford for years and C has even written a post conveying her surprise that Stanford is holding PAC-10 foes to low scoring totals because we are not known for our defense, but she sees she has clearly been off the mark all season long. Our defense, while not flashy, is stifling. They just do it so effortlessly you forget it is there. UConn likes to defend by stealing the pass and quickly taking the ball the other way for points. That creates highlights you see on ESPN. Stanford really just shuts you down. They shut down your leading scorer. They shut down your passes. They shut the door on getting any rebounds. They might guard you for the whole shot clock and make you take a bad last second shot or get the shot clock violation. Those plays might not make the highlight reels, but they consistently stop offenses from scoring. How could C have been so blind all season? Oh, they do one more thing on defense really well, something C has never seen another team do, and that is defend the screen really well.
So let’s say Ros is guarding Alexis at the top of the three-point line, Ros’ back is to the basket. A Cal player comes up and makes a wall on Ros’ right shoulder. Alexis will continue moving to Ros’ right and get around both bodies and either pull up and shoot uncontested or dribble around both bodies and head to the basket. This usually works. What Stanford does in a case like that is double team the ball handler. So as the Cal player on Ros’ right shoulder is holding her in place, Nneka is behind the Cal player, now on Ros’ right side, too. As Alexis dribbles to Ros’s right, Nneka comes out to meet the ball as Ros fights over the top of the screen. Alexis cannot shoot uncontested or drive to the basket. If Alexis crosses over to her other hand away from Nneka, she meets Ros. So the most logical thing to do is…dribble backwards away from the basket. Now, in that fleeting moment Nneka and Ros are both on Alexis, the screener is open. But the guard cannot see her or get a clean pass to her because of Ros and long-armed Nneka. It is a little thing, but done well and stops the scoring. All the Stanford bigs do it well: Kayla, Jayne, Joslyn, Nneka. Cal tried to screen all night and could not get their best scorer, Alexis, free. Around the second or third play of the game, Nneka came out to double team off the screen and harassed the ball handler so much she stole it. She was alone with a path to the basket. Unfortunately she had to dribble the ball half the court. Did we mention Nneka is not the best dribbler? She lost it, of course. Hmm, might want to work on that in the off-season!
Just under the 15-minute mark left in the first half, Nneka committed her first foul. C and R held their collective breath. Tara takes her out of the game. Nooooo, not with Jayne on the bench. I mean, we hate it anyway when she takes Nneka out any time, but we need Nneka and Kayla if we are to win this game. Tara agrees with us because a minute and a half later she puts Nneka back in. Whew. It was just a token punishment. Later Nneka dribbles off her foot. Nneka, off-season.
With about three minutes left in the first half, the score is 17-20, Stanford. We have held them without a basket for 6 minutes and then 4 minutes. So yes, this is a low scoring game for both teams, and we are only up 3 points. Tara puts in veteran Micelle Harrison with 4 minutes left. We like the fifth year veteran, and even though she might not score a lot, she can add her maturity and poise to Stanford. She gets a lay-up, a rebound, an assist and a block, followed by another rebound in her four minutes of play. She also looked aggressive and gave us a spark off the bench. We go into the locker room with a 26-19 lead. Seven points is great, but had we had Jayne in there, you could probably add about 8 more to that total. We are still not out of the woods yet.
We wander around at half time and see that group of Stanford fans with the matching red shirts. They say “House of Jayne” and “UnstoppAppel” on the back and a picture of Jayne on the front. We find out it is about 60 of Jayne’s family and friends who came out to support her. We figuratively cry that Jayne could not play this last game of her regular season. We later find out from the TV broadcast that Jayne didn’t know about the shirts and said to her Dad a typical teenage, “Oh Dadddd,” when she saw them. We also read later that Jayne had missed only one other regular-season game, the first one of her freshman season. She had played in 138 straight games since, the most by any female player at Stanford. More than Candice Wiggins! What an incredible career!
Then as we where coming out of the bathroom, R says to a woman in a Jayne shirt, “You’re Jayne’s Mom, aren’t, you?” She answered yes and we would have bugged her more, but another stranger was already talking her ear off and asking about Jayne’s ankle as we eavesdropped. She confirmed it wasn’t that bad. Cool, we got to see Jayne’s mom!
Than in the closing seconds, as we were getting ready to go back to our seats R says, “Hey, there’s Jayne Appel!” Sure enough, Jayne, Sarah Boothe and assistant coach Kate Paye were heading to the women’s bathroom. (What, Cal, you don't have enough women’s facilities in your visitor’s locker room?).
C and R, like the good stalkers we are, follow. Okay, R hates when C says we are stalkers, we are just fans who get star-struck and don’t really stalk or break the law or hide in bushes and take photos or anything, but this was stalking. C starts meticulously washing her hands. R announces loudly, “Boy I sure like those ‘House of Jayne’ shirts that group was wearing.” C embarrassed, looks at her and mouths, “Shut UP.” R announces again that the picture on the front sure was cool or some such nonsense, C can’t remember because she is thoroughly mortified and staring daggers at R. The women emerge from the stalls and surround C to wash their hands. R hides behind a wall mostly because she knows C wants to kill her. C says, “Give ‘em Heck,” to the trio, well, what she really said rhymed with tinkle bell, but the trio just want to get out of there as fast as they could. So Jayne and Sarah and Kate, that was us, those two idiots in the bathroom grinning like, well, idiots. Hi, we are usually not so dorky. We text the California Golden Blog Boys “Sorry we couldn’t meet, we were too busy stalking Jayne Appel and family!”
The game blessedly begins again so we can’t make ourselves into fools anymore and Cal comes out in a full court press this time. They pressure Pohlen and they pass quickly to either Nneka or Kayla, our two remaining trees. We break the press and get some fast break points. We said it at the top of this (very long) blog, Nneka to the rescue, but we’ll say it again, she rescues us offensively again and again. We are up by 15, with the score 45-30 with 10 minutes gone in the second half. That means Cal has only scored 11 points in 10 minutes.
At one point Nneka makes a great basket and gets fouled and looks to the Stanford beanh and screams and pumps her fist. We love the attitude! Wait, we recently wrote a post saying we didn’t like Brittney Griner’s attitude when she blocked our dunked on people. The difference is Brittney would look at them and make the gestures to intimidate. Nneka did the gesture to her bench and it was a celebration, not an intimidation play. That’s what we think about our polite and precious Nneka, anyway.
Tinkle gets s a three and a lay up to go with her other 3 in the first half for a total of 8 points and our tinkle bells were busy.
All game long during breaks the Cal spirit squad has been throwing T-Shirts to the crowd. C instinctively stands up and waves her arms, but for some reason when they see the sea of red, they don’t throw any our way. Now in the closing minutes of T-Shirt tossing, C stands up because it is an in-joke now with the Stanford fans, wink, wink, we know they won’t throw one our way. The guy in blue looks at C for a long moment…Will he….
He does.
He lets it fly and it lands right in C’s hands. She doesn’t’ even have to climb over anybody!
Someone says, “throw it back” like in baseball when the opposing team hits a home run ball. But no, C is keeping this. First, she breaks out her knife, because what good Stanford fan doesn’t travel to Cal with their knife? No, just kidding, just kidding! Really! C was a former Girl Scout and Boy Scout Leader so she is always prepared and carries one of those mini pocketknife all-in-one-tools around with her everywhere. You never know when you might need to unscrew a Phillips head screw (no serousily, she bleives that). So her little pocketknife thingie has scissors and she cuts the sleeves off the Cal shirt. Then she gets out her sharpie marker (remember, always prepared) and scratches out anything Cal on it and writes Stanford and “Fear The Trees!” (She forgot to get to Stanford to buy the real deal shirt) She was going to then draw pictures of a healthy Kayla and Nneka and a forlorn Jayne in her boot when she realized she really should pay attention to the game. Tinkle blocks the heck out of Cal. The TV announcers said that Tinkle contributed well with her rebounding. She had 9 for the game.
She put the shirt on over her Stanford shirt so her red sleeves stick out. She watches Kayla gets that last basket as we mentioned to send Stanford home with a 63-48 victory. Kayla and Nneka combine for 45 of those 63 points and each had double figures in rebounds. Joslyn, our baby tree had 8 of those 63 points, so the those trees combined for 53 of the 63 points. Wow! Oh, those three trees had 33 of the 42 rebounds.
Fun , fun , fun although tense game. We liked our adventure so much that we are going to try and get down to LA for some of the PAC-10 tournament. Look for us with the ripped up, crossed out Cal shirt!
More Stanford (but not Cal) Stuff at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Stanford vs Cal Preview Part II
Last post, we answered questions about the upcoming Cal vs. Stanford Women’s Basketball game posed by the TwistNHook and Nor Cal Nick of California Golden Blogs. Today they answered our Q’s. The answers were surprisingly intelligent! Hee hee. No, really!
Check out the link below to the story about the Stanford Tree! It’s a classic and they have won a special place in C and R’s hearts, even though they are still from Cal. BTW, C once bet R that she wouldn’t touch the ref as he ran up and down the court when we were sitting court side. She grabbed his pants twice before we had to stop her. He didn't notice but C was sure we were all going to get kicked out. Funny the Tree gets special protection at Cal games!
Here we go (and of course C and R can’t be quiet for more than a paragraph, so we added some comments in parenthesis).
1) A lot was made about the incoming freshmen crew Cal recruited. We have been too busy paying attention to Stanford to notice. Give us a run down on how have the Fab Freshmen have been this year and what they can improve upon for next year.
A: Inconsistent, but not in a way that’s particularly surprising. Unfortunately, one of the seven, Tierra Rogers, was diagnosed with a heart condition prior to the season and will never suit up again. But besides that setback, most events have been positive. The names you’ll hear most often would be Layshia Clarendon and DeNesha Stallworth. Layshia is the best guard of the class and can look pretty great at times, especially when she’s attacking the basket. DeNesha has impressive post moves for a frosh and dropped 30 points on USC earlier in the year. Gennifer Brandon is a great rebounder and is gradually learning to control her explosiveness. Eliza Pierre has great defensive instincts and has been a solid distributor when she plays the point. Talia Caldwell and Brenna Heater are the other bigs. Talia is a solid all-around player with the exception of her free throw shooting. Brenna’s season has been derailed by a number of injuries and her main goal for next season will be to not get concussed again.
(We were very saddened to hear last fall that Tierra Rogers was diagnosed with a heart ailment and could not continue her career in basketball- C and R)
2) This explanation of the PAC-10 standings and the place Cal could end up for the PAC-10 tournament in is form the Cal website: Cal enters the week in sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 standings, holding a half-game advantage over the USC Trojans. Cal and USC both have six losses, but Cal has 11 wins. USC will play a pair of games this week, hosting Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday. If Cal and USC end up in a tie for third, USC holds the tiebreak advantage over Cal and would earn the three seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, pushing Cal into the fourth seed. If Arizona State wins both of their games and Cal loses, then ASU and Cal would be tied for third. Once again, Arizona State owns the tiebreak advantage and Cal would be seeded fourth. Cal could also end up as the five seed if ASU, USC, and Cal tie for third place (with a Cal loss, two ASU wins, and a USC victory over Arizona) Between this, the infield fly rule in baseball and the biased way soccer refs call off sides, which is easier to understand?
A: Well, I’m a gigantic basketball nerd, so the only thing I don’t understand about the scenario is the necessity for conference tournaments. I’ll say that the infield fly rule probably causes more confusion. It’s easy to understand soccer calls, but only if you have connections with the Italian mafia that dictate the calls. This question also reminded me that Cal lost to ASU and USC on two different buzzer beaters. So I guess what I really don’t understand is why the cruel hand of fate mocks me so!
3) At the same moment, the Stanford band leaves Stanford by train for the PAC-10 tournament in LA at USC and the CAL band leaves Berkeley by bus for the very same tournament and the train from Stanford is moving at speed of 40 miles per hour, and the bus from Berkeley is moving at speed of 60 miles per hour, except when they got pulled over and ticketed for doing 60 in a 45 MPH construction zone and the distance to LA from Stanford is 370 miles and Berkeley is about 40 more miles up the road and a plane takes 6 hours to fly from San Francisco to New York, and 5 hours to return back. What is the name of the guy in the Stanford Tree outfit?
A: Twistnhook is the most qualified to answer this question, based on his up close and personal relationship with the Stanford tree. And since I majored in Geography my ability to answer a math question died upon my alleged graduation from high school. So I’ll have to make a wild guess…Condleezza Rice?
(No, sorry, we were going for Dayton, Ohio, and Jeff Tedford, but keep that last part a secret-C and R)
4) PAC-10 SCORING RACE- Going into the final game of the regular season, Alexis Gray-Lawson leads the race for the Pac-10 scoring title. Gray-Lawson is averaging 18.1 points per game with Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike at 18.0. Gray-Lawson has scored three more points this season, with 508 to Ogwumike's 505. In Conference games, Gray-Lawson is averaging 20.6 ppg to Oregon's Taylor Lilley's 19.7. Ogumike is in third with 17.9. How long will it be before Nneka gets a foul and Tara VanDerveer banishes her to the bench? Bonus points for correctly guessing the minute mark and estimating how many points she would have scored if not on the bench!
A: Man, Ogwumike burned us for 24 last time, and unless the high pitched cheering of a few thousand children sway the refs, Cal will have their hands full. Hopefully Gennifer Brandon and DeNesha Stallworth are feeling aggressive on offense, because foul trouble would be the best way to take the Appel/Ogwumike/Pedersen monster out. If the Bears can hold Nneka below 20 I’ll be thrilled…but only if nobody else from Stanford scores over 20 to make up for it.
(Ohh, good point. You can stop one of the three trees, but there is always another to take its place-C and R)
5) Predict how many points Alexis Gray-Lawson will drop on Stanford.
A: Well, she scored 37 the last time in Berkeley, but only 9 earlier this year in Maples. Average that out and we get…24? Hmm, that sounds high when she’ll be the complete focus of the Cardinal defense. Lexi is unusual this year in that she tends to score either 35 points or 15, but rarely in between. When she knows she’s on she’ll keep shooting, but when she knows she’s off she usually doesn’t force up a bunch of shots. Cal had better hope she’s on, but I’ll predict a conservative 17 points.
(We’ll take the 17! C and R)See ya Saturday at Cal. Anyone know of a good place to eat in Berkeley?
More Stanford and Cal and Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my, at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog
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