Stanford Beats Gonzaga, Honors Coach

Sorry this blog posting is so late, but C and R had an “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party” to attend last night after the Stanford vs. Gonzaga game. And boy, it’s harder to find an ugly Christmas sweater than you think. C and R spent all of Friday night in stores searching until we saw a red reindeer fleece bathrobe. C reasoned even though not a sweater, she would get to attend a party in her bathrobe and how many times can you do that? But when she found some Homer Simpson Christmas pants, with Homer saying “D’oh-ho-ho” the die was cast…or set, or whatever. Pajamas it is. And it was a good thing they were fleece as C and R spent most of the night outside in the bocce ball court. C was winning until R got all four balls next to the white one for a four point sweep to win the game, set and match (speaking of which, sorry to hear Stanford Women’s Volleyball lost to #1 Penn State in the Elite Eight).

Anyway, back to basketball. As C and R were shopping for the afore mentioned sweaters Friday, we were worried Gonzaga, ranked 23 rd would give #4 or 6 Stanford Women’s Basketball team (gotta get those keywords in there) a good game. We needn’t have. Stanford won handily, 73-45. (Oops, spoiler alert).

Let’s go back to the action. First of all, Stanford great Nicole Powell was in the house! Except she was coaching for Gonzaga. Stanford made a classy move by acknowledging her right before introducing the players and showed a video with her highlights from her days playing at Stanford, listing her accomplishments (Did you know she owns four of Stanford’s six triple double?).

Amazingly, her own players didn’t really know her back-story. Gonzaga forward Sunny Greinacher said. "I didn't know all her success. I knew she was a great player in the WNBA and overseas. To watch what she did at Stanford was amazing." *Sigh* Youth, wasted on the young.

The game started out like a typical Stanford game. Throw the ball to Chiney Ogwumike in the low post, and no one can stop her. She scored the first six points in a minute and a half. Oh yeah, C and R nodded at each other, what were we worried about?
But Gonzaga is a good team, and clamped down on her. And here is the rub on Stanford; can someone else step up when Chiney is stopped? Chiney had two long stretches without scoring. The answer, it wasn’t one person, but a lot of people chipping away. Eleven of the 13 Stanford players that played scored. Stanford went on a 12-0 run early on to go from a small 9-8 lead to a big 21-8 lead, extending that to a 33-19 halftime lead and never looked back.

Freshie Kailee Johnson scored the last five in that run of 12. KJ set season highs with 11 points and eight rebounds, including two 3-pointers in the game. Jasmine Camp scored a season-high six points and hit two 3-pointers. Guard Amber Orrrrange added 10 points for Stanford.

Taylor Greenfield and Erica Payne played for the first time this season, each returning from injury. Although Epayne, with her fluffy hair all bundled up on top of her head making her almost unrecognizable, only played 2 minutes and was one of the players who did not score. Tess Picknell was the other player not to score, but she also saw limited minutes (four), and has a mind-set to set picks to help others to score instead of her.

Stanford can play some pretty good defense themselves, so while Chiney was struggling, The Zags missed all nine of their first-half 3-point tries and all 14 overall and shot 34 percent for the game. The last time Stanford held an opponent without a 3-point field goal was on Jan. 18, 2013 against UCLA. The Bruins went 0-for-2 from the 3-point line in that contest. Gonzaga’s total of 45 points is the lowest by a Stanford opponent this season. The previous low was 48 by UC Davis on Nov. 17.

Back to Chiney, her career rebounding total is 1,220, six behind older sister Nneka Ogwumike's third-place figure of 1,226. Chiney is also 46 behind Kayla Pedersen's Pac-12 and Stanford record of 1,266. AND, Chiney is also five points away from becoming the fifth member of Stanford’s 2,000-Point1,000 Rebound Club. Whew, makes me tired just thinking about it.

Tara VanDerveer and Chiney Ogwumike celebrate #900. (Photo The Associated Press)

After the game, Stanford honored their Hall of Fame Coach Tara VanDerveer for winning 900 career games while at a tourney in Mexico. (With the Gonzaga win today, she is at 902). The school gave her a jersey with the number 900 on it. 

"It's a little hard for me to wrap my head around 900," VanDerveer said to the crowd that stayed. "This is the only way I could get a Stanford jersey, as a coach. ... Let's get some more!" Chiney Ogwumike also spoke for the team and said, “Here’s to another 900!”

Follow C and R for another 900 on Facebook and Twitter, too!

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WNBA Rookies Gone Wild

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.

Who Are You Rooting For in the WNBA Playoffs?

So C and R have been taking in the WNBA playoff games, when televised on a channel we actually get, even though we have no vested interest, meaning we have no home team to root for, thank you very much Sacramento and the Moo-oaf brothers. So the next best thing is to root for teams that have ex-Stanford women’s basketball players and after that, players we just admire.

We were delighted Jayne Appel’s team, the San Antonio Silver Stars, were in the playoffs. Unfortunately they had to play Phoenix, which is lead by Diana Taurasi, who falls under the category of players we admire. We admire the heck out of her.

Predictably, Phoenix beat San Antonio two games to none, but we did get to see Jayne Appel play, and C and R must admit, for the first time all season it finally looked as if Jayne belonged in the WNBA.

For those of you not in the know, Jayne had a stellar career at Stanford and in her senior year lead her team to the championship game, where, hampered by a painful stress fracture in her foot plus a sprained ankle, went scoreless and left college with a bad taste in her mouth. Her summer in the WNBA has not gone well either, and it is hard to tell if it is the lingering effects of her injuries or the higher level of play or a combination.

Anyway, she looked good in the loss. At one point, Jayne was being guarded by another former Stanford women’s basketball player, Brooke “The Hook” Smith. They were guarding each other so C and R took turns punching each other on the arm and saying, “Look, Brooke’s guarding Jayne, Jayne’s guarding Brooke!” We noticed both women play very similarly, but we believe Jayne is just better. Not that we have anything to back it up with, we just believe that!

Well, at least we can now root for Nicole Powell on the NY Liberty.

WNBA All Star Vote

Hey, vote for your favorite WNBA all stars! Well, it is a little different this year. Coach of the National Team, Geno Auriemma, wants some quality games for the USA National Team, so since the All Star game is being held in Connecticut, where he is the UConn coach, he worked out a sweet little deal. Have the Team USA players play the WNBA ALL Star players. See the best US stars play each other. Trouble is, most Team USA players would normally be on the all star roster. Fans vote for 10 of their favorite players, regardless of league or position, the top ten players go, and if the players were all ready selected for Team USA, they play there. C and R are a little confused. What if 8 of the 10 players are Team USA players? Would it then by 8 on 2? (okay, C and R read something about the coaches making the other picks to round out the teams.)

Well, go here to register; you have to give email address and stuff, but if you are like C and R, you have that one fake one you use that collects all the spam. (ummm spam sushi…arrrrgh—okay that was our Homer Simpson imitation). Plus this vote is one that you can do every day. Just think if we ran our government elections like this!

And this just in, former Stanford player Jayne Appel is one of the top vote getters! It’s weird, she had a great four-year career as a collegian with Stanford and her WNBA debut has been limited by a stress fracture and sprained ankle, so she’s not tearing up the WNBA like, say, Tina Charles, the former UConn player and current WNBA rookie who IS tearing it up. Yet Jayne was highly prized by Geno for Team USA, picking only Tina Charles and Jayne Appel for his centers this spring. Well, we would love a healthy Jayne Appel to be on the National Team and get all that free training and coaching, too.

Vote for Jayne, (And Candice Wiggins and Nicole Powell)!

WNBA Weekend

A lot happened over the weekend; R celebrated her birthday and the WNBA started its season.

The Candice-less Minnesota Lynx won, and Jayne Appel’s San Antonio Spurts lost. Neither former Stanford players played, mind you, due to injuries. Candice Wiggins is recovering from knee surgery and Jayne Apple is still healing the stress fracture in her foot. The other two former Stanford players in the WNBA did play. Nicole Powell scored 11 points and helped the New York Liberty to a victory and Brooke Smith of the Phoenix Mercury played four minutes and did not score.

The new team in the WNBA, the Tulsa Shock opened to a sell out crowd of 8,000. Seattle Storm had a sell out of 9,686. Wow, glad to see the sellouts and the support in Oklahoma. C and R weren’t sure if women’s basketball would get a lot of support down there. We hope it keeps up. I know coach Nolan Richardson has a lot of support from his coaching stint of the men’s team at the University of Arkansas, and there is the curiosity factor of ex-sprinter Marion Jones on the team (she played four minutes in the opening game and did not score).

Wish we could report we are on our way to see a WNBA game, but with the Sacramento Monarchs gone, it will be a hard stretch for us to see a game. (BTW did you see Joe Maloof’s bizarre plan to beg the WNBA for the Sacramento Monarchs back? When pigs fly). Might have to travel to LA to see a game.

Stanford Vs. Arizona in the PAC-10 Tourney

So the Stanford Women’s Basketball team takes the floor against Arizona for their first PAC-10 tournament game. No Jayne Appel, of course, still bum ankle, so Joslyn Tinkle starts. Then, we lose the jump ball. We NEVER lose the jump ball. So much so that C has a superstition if we lose the jump ball, we will lose the game. Not sure how scientific it is, but C is nervous.

For the first three minutes or so we offensively try to work it inside to Tinkle standing in Jayne Appel’s spot in the low post, but she is still a freshmen and is not able to drive aggressively to the basket as Jayne does so effortlessly. Tinkle does pass quickly and seems to be on par with Jayne’s court vision and ability to assist. Unfortunately, Stanford is cold, cold, cold and missing everything. Our top scorer, Nneka Ogwumike, is especially missing everything. Is she too tight?

At the first media time out, they announce they will show senior tributes to the seniors playing in their last games. Stanford goes first and of course they lead off with Jayne, who is not playing this game. She mentioned it was neat to travel to the PAC-10 schools and loved the history of playing on their courts. Then they show Ros Gold-Onwude. RGO was aware how as a student-athlete kids looked up to her and was always amazed little kids wanted her autograph. Well, that was C and R’s little girl’s basketball team most of this year!

Back to live action, Tinkle sets a nice screen to free Jeanette Pohlen for her second three and we go up 10-5. Now Michelle Harrison comes in for Tinkle and C and R like having the fifth year veteran in there. JJ Hones comes in at 11-minute mark, in what is still a low scoring game. Stanford is up 12-7. Lindy LaRoque gets into the game, too, and C and R are glad to see  Head Coach Tara Van Derveer using her bench to give rest to the veterans and experience to her second string. Lindy gets to experience fouling Arizona, too. Mel Murphy gets in as well and we almost didn’t recognize her, as she does not have her black tights.

Arizona’s Ify Ibekwe and Nneka are guarding each other, each being the other’s dopple ganger. Then it looks like our Nneka is going top take over the game like she did with Cal but it is their Nneka, Iky Ibekwe, who takes over.

Then our Nneka says, “Oh not you don’t” and tries to match her baskets. But Kayla Pedersen says, “Don’t forget about me, ladies,” and gets a hot hand. Those three will score most of the points in the first half.

At the half, Nneka has 15, and their Nneka has 15 points. Kayla has 6 and Jeanette Pohlen says, “Don’t discount the three”, going 4-6 from behind the line and she has 9. So with the score 34-24 at the half, oh, don’t make me do math… Those four players have combined for 45 of the 58 points scored.

When the second half starts, Nneka gets her second personal foul at the 16:45 mark but credit to Tara for leaving her in the game instead of yanking her out. She knows how important she is to us offensively. Nneka later drains 2 free throws and Nneka is 100% from the free throw line, 7-7 with just under 15 minutes left. The PAC-10 tournament record is 11 made, attempts are 13 and Nicole Powell has the free throw percentage record of 100% (8-8).

As we are contemplating records, Arizona gets a three and are within 3 with 13:27 left. The score is 43-40. What the heck happened? Must have been losing that jump ball in the beginning of the game.

OMG then Tara must be nervous because Jayne Appel comes in the game! We have been told all week long she would not play in this game, or practically any game in this tournament, yet one little scare and there she is. Tara needn’t have worried as we drain 2 three-pointers and are back to up by 9. Tara would say later in the post-game press conference that having Jayne relaxed us (and her). No doubt, Jayne is our emotional leader.

Their Nneka scores a basket around the 6 and a half minute mark and C and R realize it is her first points in the second half. Wow, great D on her, Stanford. She would end up with 18 for the game, after 15 in the first, with no one else from her team getting into double digits. Hard to win if you don’t have a supporting cast.

Our Nneka is fouled at the 5:02 mark. Oh goodie! With Stanford firmly in control of the score again (58-46), we can concentrate on her record, or attempt of being a perfect 8-8 from the line to tie Nicole Powell’s record. She is now 7-7. She was fouled as she made her basket, so she gets one attempt to tie. She lets go… She misses! Arrgh!

Jayne looks ragged, not jumping much for rebounds or a lay-up. She would get fouled several times going to the basket. She would score 7 points and comes out after 10 minutes when we have a 13-point lead. She did give us the confidence we needed, though.

Nneka makes two more free throws now that the record is no longer there. She would end up 9-10 on free throws. The tournament record is 11 made. Maybe next game. Nneka did end up with 25 points for the game, than Jeanette with 15 and Kayla with 11.

Our subs come in and we go on to win 72-52. But the game was closer than it needed to be. Tara said her the post game press conference that we need to play better if we want win in the PAC-10 Championship. She’s not one to sugarcoat things, is she?

Next up is a repeat with Cal. This time Jayne Appel will be in the mix!

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

Stanford Seniors

Sorry for posting this story so late but C and R finally stopped crying. It was senior night and Jayne Appel’s last game at Maples in the regular season. (There’s a chance she and Stanford could play the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Maples).

Four other seniors were also honored, although three of them could come back. Strange, I know. The true seniors are Jayne and Ros Gold-Onwude. The other “seniors”, JJ Hones, Michelle Harrison and Melanie Murphy, each have a year of eligibility left, although only JJ hinted she would be back.

Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer finally figured out after Jayne’s freshmen year that the seniors get too emotional to do the tribute before the game and don’t play as well, so they have wisely moved the senior tribute to after the game on the Maples floor. Then the real fun begins as a smaller party moves a building over to sit down with the families and listen to them tell funny and embarrassing stories about the seniors. Last night most of the stories involved golf carts and Jayne’s flip-flops.

But first there was a game to be played against Oregon State. So, remember how C and R said when the Stanford Women’s Basketball team played Oregon and Oregon pushed the ball up court and played a quick game, we enjoyed it and responded with a lot of energy and baskets? ‘Member? Well, Oregon State came out slower and more plodding and we did too, missing Oregon’s energy. We took an 11-1 lead with five minutes gone in the game and with 10 minutes gone it was 21-7 Stanford. We know, we know, we are spoiled and we should be happy for the lead, but it just seemed so…routine. Every time we spotted Jayne one-on-one, we gave it to her and she scored. Nneka Ogwumike couldn’t be stopped or even held to the ground, except when she was all alone on a fast break, and we mean ALL alone, no one from Oregon State even in the front court with her and she did a stutter step without dribbling to get the traveling call. Who was she trying to fake out? The cheerleaders?

Jayne ONLY scored 12 and got 10 rebounds, a double-double, but around the 8 minute mark she got her 2,000th point. That, coupled with her over 1,000 rebounds puts her as only the third Stanford women’s basketball player to get to the 2,000-1,000 club. The other two are Val Whiting and Nicole Powell. What’s more astounding to C and R is the fact she is 13 rebounds shy of Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 career record. Jayne has 3 road games left, so we are confident she can do it. Wow, to pass Lisa Leslie is fantastic!

Oh, the win in the game (you didn’t doubt the outcome, did you? Final score 82-48, Stanford) gave us a tie for the PAC-10 regular season title, and a win in any of our next three road games will clinch it outright. But as we said, our opponent was lacking in energy and made us feel slow, too. In the first half Oregon State could only muster 26% shooting percentage for 21 points. Contrast that with 70% shooting percentage for Stanford and 46 first half points and you can see why we won.

It was interesting when they did the senior tribute on the big video screen. They showed still pictures and video of the women in action. The song playing in the background had the lyrics “Here comes the rest of our lives”. Basketball has been a big part of these players’ lives for so long. Will they be able to walk away from it? Jayne Appel has a good chance to be drafted by the WNBA. We wonder if she really wants to go? She has mentioned she would love to go to law school and give back to the community by being an advocate for the mentally and physically challenged. Maybe she should get on with “the rest of her life” and go to law school. Then again, a few years in the WNBA might enable her to build up tuition for law school. With her eligibility used up, she can’t keep attending Stanford for free, ya know. Still, it’s nice to know she has options.

We’ll get to see Stanford again at Cal’s senior night in two weeks!

Stanford vs. USC on Super Sunday

I just want to say this about the Stanford Women’s Basketball game vs. USC on Sunday… Peyton Manning looked so good until that one and only interception! Okay, it was a banner day for sports fans in that there was a Stanford women’s basketball game on Cable TV no less, and the Superbowl, a culmination of six months of football.

For a basketball game that was changed to the Sunday of the Superbowl, it was a pretty good turn out of over 4,100. Of course, Stanford was also honoring their 1990 team that won Stanford’s first National Championship, a team that has a special place in Stanford fans’ hearts.
Before the Stanford game, both C and R worked hard to get our Superbowl party preparations in order. Here’s all you need to know about C and R. R went to the local farm by C’s house to buy fresh veggies (twice) and C went to the store (twice) to make sure she had enough salty chips and dip. In fact, C forgot the dip mix and had to rush back to the store and R forgot fresh cauliflower and rushed back to the farm. But we had the dip a chillin’ and the bugs scrubbed out before we left for the Stanford game at 1 PM.

The game opened with Nneka Ogwumike on fire, rebounding and scoring, then it seemed her knees were bothering her and she leveled off. USC had some cool road uniforms, all black, but had the worst luck shooting we have ever seen a team have. The first half stats said USC shot 9.7% from the field and made zero threes. The score at the half was Stanford 29, USC 10. Yes, that’s right, they only mustered 10 points by half time. It was the lowest scoring half in USC’s program history. The 10 points they scored in the first half surpassed the school's previous-low of 15 on Jan. 27, 1990. And it was not that Stanford over powered them. They got great looks and made great shot selections. They hustled the ball up the court. Just nothing fell through. Boy, we bet USC coach Michael Cooper was wishing he never left the WNBA and Candace Parker.

Plus, the whole 1990 Stanford National Championship team sat right in front of our seats. (Every day C thanks R for maintaining those season tickets!). Look, there’s Jennifer Azzi, there’s Katy Steding, now they are hugging Molly Goodenbauer.

Also in the first half, Jayne Appel surpassed Nicole Powell to become Stanford’s rebound Queen with 1,153. She would finish the game with 13 rebounds and 15 points. Our other twin towers also got a double double. Nneka finished with 13 boards and 16 points, and Kayla Perdresen had 14 boards and 18 points. It’s nice to see our three tall trees have a great game and spread the scoring around. When you have three players that can score and rebound like that, you are hard to beat.

The only negative for Stanford was when they pressed us we made turnovers. We had 10 in the first half. When they pressured Jeanette Pohlen, they picked her pocket and forced her into a bad pass on consecutive plays. We have to improve on the press if we want to have any realistic shot at beating UConn. Oh, wait, make that two negatives. We missed a lot of free throws in the first half, too. For the game we were 12 of 19, about 63%. This ain’t high school and we need to make those.

We do want to give a special shout out to USC’s Jacki Gemelos. This kid has torn her ACL FOUR times. She has had five knee surgeries. She first came to USC in 2006. She has two years of college eligibility left after this year. Her first game back was at Cal on Thursday. She played on Sunday and scored 13 points in her team’s loss. Pretty remarkable in that the team made only 12 for 67 baskets in the whole game.

The only drama was could our subs, who came in around the 3 minute mark, keep them under 40. We did, the final score being 77-39. See UConn, we can (almost) beat teams by 40 points, too.

Oh, we mentioned to the announcer of the game, you know, the guy who sits next to Lisa Leslie and told him we shake the Tinkle Bells when Joslyn Tinkle comes in the game. He said last game he would mention it on the air. So we reminded him again. WE shook them hard when Joslyn came in. We forgot to tape the game, so we wonder if her kept his promise. Did anyone hear if he mentioned the tinkle bells?

Impressions against Oregon

C and R are impressed, and that is not an easy thing to do. We are impressed with the Oregon Ducks Women’s basketball team, the game they played on Saturday and the turn around in one short season, really just in six short months.

First year Oregon coach Paul Westhead installed a philosophy of shooting the ball within the first 7 seconds on the shot clock. And that they will live and die by the three (more on that later). Simple philosophy yes, but for it to work, you have to have the right personnel to do this, mainly all your players must be shooters, and accurate ones at that, not an easy feat in women’s college basketball. And oh, if you play Stanford, press the heck out of them (more on THAT later, too)

C and R were also impressed with the way Stanford shot their threes. Some of them were three or four feet beyond the arc. And every time we scored a basket, we were impressed with how well Oregon quickly brought the ball up and scored as well. We kept trading the lead in the first half, and we could not relax for a second with their relentless scoring drive and their defense.

We were impressed the game was on cable TV, and also thankful. We watched the first half and then had to tape the second so we could coach our little girl’s game, which was a nail biter as well, with us winning by one basket and our center doing her best Jayne Appel impersonation. To leave in the middle of the Stanford game, a nail biter, witness another nail biter and come back to watch the second half of the Stanford game was almost too much for C and R to take. We thought one or both of us might have a heart attack before the day is through, and C hoped it would be R because she knows CPR and R does not and her insurance is not the best!

Oh, BTW (texting lingo), did you see that last play of the first half? As C and R are preparing to leave, we see Stanford has the ball in the final seconds. Who will they go to for the last shot? Who is their “go-to” player, and since getting the ball inside is not working, who is going to take the three? Will it be one of our guards, Ros Gold-Onwude or Jeanette Pohlen, even gimpy JJ Hones, or maybe three-point specialist Lindy La Roque. Why, it’s Joslyn Tinkle, our big 6-4 freshmen who has taken, I think, three in her short career. Yes, Tinkle shoots the three and it goes in. A good omen for Stanford and tinkle bells all around.

We were NOT impressed, however, with Stanford’s ability to handle a full court press. We turned the ball over so many times in the frontcourt! There were times we couldn’t get it out of the front court, and times we couldn’t even inbound it! How did we turn it over? Let us count the ways. We threw it inbounds and had it stolen. As we dribbled, we had it stolen. We inbounded the ball, then threw a pass and had it stolen. We threw it out of bounds. And C and R’s personal favorite, we got a five second count because we couldn’t find anyone open to throw it to! The announcers said Stanford worked for a week on full court pressure and how to handle it all week. Oregon forced 10 turnovers in the front court, seven in the first half. Think what would have happened if we HADN’T worked on it!

But C and R were MOST impressed by Stanford’s Nneka Ogwumike! She scored a career high 30 points. She was everywhere on the boards. She got 23 boards and set Stanford’s single-game rebounding record, which was 21 by Nicole Powell, ex Sacramento Monarch. Nneka also scored 30 points. And her boards and points were very impressive. She skied, she caught and shot in traffic she had fast breaks, and she played strong under the basket.

OMG (more texting lingo), her best play of the day? Her catch and shoot on the two-second inbounds play. And thank goodness the play was on TV, because in the final highlights they showed not one, but two different camera angles on that spectacular play. Stanford had the ball out of bounds under their basket with two seconds left. Followers of Cal will remember that the rules state it must be a catch and release without landing, a stupid rule that makes sense in the men’s game but hard to do in the women’s game (Cal had a similar play but with 1 second left in the whole game, and they caught, landed then shot and made the basket in the final second of an NCAA playoff game, only to have it disqualified and they lost the game). Back to live action, C immediately yells “Give it to Nneka.” Now if C knows this is coming, shouldn’t Oregon put a body on Nneka? No, they are business as usual in a zone. JJ Hones lobs the ball to the middle of the key where Nneka jumps, catches and shoots straight in the basket. It was amazing! Not many women’s basketball players can do that. Oregon, how did you not see that coming!

It was funny, watching the game, it seemed like Oregon was just bombing threes like crazy. Two of them were step back threes! But the stats say Oregon only made 9-28. Stanford, in contrast, made 13-35, the most attempts we have ever tried! So Oregon, live by the three and die by the three, as Stanford out shot you at your own game.

When C and R finally got back to watching the second half, we couldn’t relax until the last nine minutes, in a game that seemed to go on forever! We finally got a ten point lead with our crazy threes and Nneka’s rebounding and Jayne Appel. Jayne had a good second half and scored 17 points for the game. We finally broke 100 and the subs got to come in with under a minute left. The final score was 100-80. It felt like we outlasted them rather than out-played them.

R got the best line of the night when she said, “I would like to see Oregon play UConn!”

Depaul is Delovely

C and R hurry to Maples for two reasons: one, to dodge the rain drops and two, they are eager to see Stanford again after that two week break for finals. Geez, Stanford, what are you doing placing academics before athletics? Next thing you know you are going to say they are true student athletes. Speaking of which, lo and behold, what do C and R see but the Stanford football team, all suited up, breaking up from practice. Boy, they are in shape, C and R note. Is Toby Gerhart there? He came in second for football’s Heisman Trophy in the closest race ever and much was made of him being a true “student athlete.” Makes you wonder about the other colleges and what they think of their athletes, doesn’t it?

Before C and R jumped out of their car to make a run for it to Maples, C gets a feeling, more of a hunch really, that Joslyn Tinkle might have her boot off and be back in the line up. And she forgot her bag of Tinkle Bells. Wait, R has hers in the passenger door of her car. C snags it just in case.

After dodging raindrops and football players, we walk in and see Tinkle IS in the line up, suited up, not booted up, warming up. C is so ecstatic. But wait, Michelle Harrison is wearing the “black sweats of injury”. C and R wonder what happened to her? We also see Jayne Appel yakking non-stop to JJ hones while the team is shooting free throws. Hope they don’t get in trouble with head coach Tara VanDerveer. R hopes Jayne will have a good game today. We wonder if she is back full strength yet?

Nneka Ogwumike wins the jump ball, although it takes a smart Kayla Pederson to go after it and take it way from a smaller DePaul player. When we win the jump ball, we win the game… (Of course, we are undefeated).

They are playing Jayne one on one, and when one on one, Jayne can take anybody. Instead, we work it inside to Nneka. Not a bad choice, but let’s get Jayne involved, ladies.

We were worried having al that time off would cause Stanford to be rusty and lethargic. Instead, we notice right off the bat Jeanette Pohlen pushing the ball up court quickly, establishing a quick tempo. We like that!

DePaul’s strategy seems to be “shoot the three”, conceding the inside game to Stanford’s triple threat of trees lead by Jayne, Nneka and Kayla. They make the first three then miss the next five. The strategy only works if the ball goes in. Stanford goes up 11-3 on their lone basket.

The announcer announces Jayne got her 1,000 career rebounds, and is only one of three Stanford players to do it. C hears a woman in the next row telling her companion that one of the others must be Val Whiting. C wants to yell out that she thinks Nicole Powell is the other but restrains herself. Later fact checking reveals both the woman and C are right. Welcome to an exclusive club, Jayne!

Next we note that Pohlen takes the rebound and goes coast to coast, driving in on a slow-to-get-back DePaul. She does it twice. She misses twice. But there must be something that Tara saw about DePaul and not getting back quickly that she wants to exploit. We see JJ Hones do it later with success, and it is uncharacteristic of us, maybe to throw Tennessee off and give them something to think about?

Depaul has trouble in bounding the ball, with Jayne doing acrobatics to keep the in bounder from seeing who is open. They get a five second count and turn over to Stanford. We wish the little girls we coach were here to see this, both as a cautionary tale when we inbound the ball and to see that you can pressure the other team.

During a time out, they have the contest where two fans have thirty seconds to shoot as many free throws as they can, with the winner getting a prize. The shooter on our end makes 7 in thirty seconds. Impressive, and we think an unofficial record as the most we have ever seen. We hope Stanford was watching from their huddle, as Nneka has already missed on one of two free throws (she would go on to be 6 for 9 from the line). This ain’t high school, or even a game at a time out!

Then our offense stalls and instead of working it inside to anyone, we do that “hand off offense” with our center out on the three point line. C and R hate it, it is predictable, and oh, we have Duke in two days and Tennessee coming up. That won’t cut it. Depaul makes it 20 to our 29 points. As soon as C points this out to R, Stanford works it inside to Jayne, one on one, and she converts.

Which leads us to our next question, is Jayne healthy? She looks slow getting up and down the court, either out of shape or bothered by knee/leg injuries. She doesn’t go for the rebounds with her usual gusto. At one point Jayne screens for Lindy La Rocque’s three and gets pushed out of the way, but not before Lindy makes her sky high three pointer.

After we, and Tara, sees that, Joslyn Tinkle comes in to spell Jayne. C shakes her Tinkle bell, much to the confusion of their seatmates. After shaking it whenever Tinkle touches the ball, they get the idea. Then Tinkle fouls and Tara pulls her out. C and her tinkle bell go silent.

Tinkle comes in once again with 2 minutes left and gets a rebound, a block and an assist. Not bad for 2 minutes work. We are up 45-25, but it seems much closer to us.

Half time is about dogs. Hot dogs for us, the agility dogs on the floor of Maples for the crowd. The half time show features the show dogs that run through tunnels, leaps over jumps and weaves in between sticks. The cutest is this tiny, tiny poodle, who doesn’t need to weave, just prance, as she is so small! And the Stanford tree finally shows up at half time, a little late, thank you very much.

When the game resumes, Stanford goes back to the hand-off offense and Depaul is ready for them. They practically intercept the hand off; they are so sure what is going to happen. Finally they just give it to Nneka in the low post to create, and create she does, scoring easily. The next time Jayne lines up in the low post, and they feed it to her, and in one on one situations, well, you know the rest. Depaul calls a time out and we can imagine the coach saying, “What is happening? What did we talk about at half time?” and the players are saying, “But coach, they stopped running that predictable hand off offense and now are just giving it to their talented tall players and we have no answer for that!” Or so we like to imagine.

We do want to point out Kayla’s play. She made some smart decisions, as always, but really scarified her body. The stats say she didn’t score until a free throw at 2:24 in the first half. She ended up with 11, below her average. But we counted in the space of about a minute she hit the floor three times. She did a “Lindy Slide” to go after a ball bouncing out of bounds, got knocked down for a rebound, and dove for a loose ball, surrounded by blue DePaul players (And why didn’t anyone call timeout to rescue Kayla?)

Tinkle comes in with Jayne and Jayne feeds her the ball and she made a reverse lay up. C shakes her tinkle bell. The other seatmates are now jealous. C will have to remember to bring enough for everyone next time. And by the way, Stanford, we counted no less then 8 attempts at reverse lay ups, some successful, some not. Was that the move de jour in practice the other day?

The subs go in around the 7:30 mark, and C and R wonder if our subs could beat Depaul? For some Stanford players, there is still a wide disparity between the starters and the subs. They are going to have to step it up to crack the starting line up. The other freshmen Mikaela Ruef (Roof) goes in. DePaul decides to press the subs. Roof inbounds the ball to a guard and they get trapped and throw it back to….Roof, who is not a point guard. She starts dribbling, but it is clear this is not a good idea. She is slow to get it into a guard’s hands. Tara inserts Kayla in, figuring if a “big” is going to dribble, it should be Kayla.

With about a minute left, Lindy streaks for a lay up and the DePaul player purposefully fouls her hard, sending her sliding, this time not so happily. Lindy looks rattled. They give the DePaul player a technical for a flagrant foul and the ball back to Stanford. Lindy gets two foul shots and misses the first but makes the second. We forgive her the miss. Then Kayla does a reverse lay-up. Say what?

Stanford wins 96-60. Nneka was high scorer with 24. Ros Gold-Onwude had a really good game. Good defense, five boards, four coming defensively and 12 points.

No red victory balls thrown our way, but afterwards we visit the auction Stanford is having to raise money. As we are leaving, we see Joslyn Tinkle. C can’t resist. She takes her tinkle bell out of her pocket and shows Joslyn and tells her she shakes it every time she touches the ball. She gets it right away and laughs good-naturedly. C says she will bring a bunch for the Tennessee game and Joslyn says that’s great! Now C has to remember to bring them!

R spies Michelle Harrison and asks her how she got hurt. Michelle told R she is fine and will be back Tuesday for the Duke game. R asks what happened ands she said it is just a concussion. C, always butting in, asks who did it? The answer: Jayne. Further research reveals Jayne gave her an elbow in practice. Ouch. Next time duck!

Look out Duke!

Monarchs Really No More

Say Good Bye To Nicole Powell and Courtney Paris. The Sacramento Monarchs have folded and the players are going in to a “Dispersal Draft”. I guess there is no interest in women’s basketball in the Bay Area.

No, strike that. There IS interest in women’s basketball in the Bay Area, at least on the fans’ part. Just look at any Stanford or Cal game. Just no interest in the people with money, whether they be a NBA owner, an arena owner or a Silicon Valley Millionaire. If I only woulda won the lottery… Strike that, if I only hadda played the lottery….

Maybe we will get a different team in 2011, says the WNBA. I still say they could have played at Santa Clara University, in a small, intimate venue. Honestly, who do we have to talk to?

The Game!

Okay, let’s back up a minute now that we have had some time to catch our breath with our fantastic experience getting a press pass to watch the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs play their final regular season game against the Minnesota Lynx.

On the loooong car ride up to Sacramento (Why, oh why, can’t they bring a WNBA team closer to the Bay Area, where women’s basketball enjoys so much support?), C turns on her computer so C and R can think of some non-lame questions to ask the players. Her computer instantly crashes and she frantically tries to restore it to an earlier, happier time when everything worked while hurtling 80 MPH in a white Toyota Corolla. And the only questions they can think of are lame indeed.

We get in and the Monarchs staff could not have been more professional or courteous to us. We marvel at the free parking, free food, and free admittance to the game with front row seats. We are in heaven.

We briefly visit the Monarchs locker room before they kick us out (looks a little small compared to all the locker room shots of Michael Jordan and gang seem to enjoy). We sit next to a beat writer for Outward Magazine who has been following the team for years and she gives us a lot of insider information. The first of which is we can’t cheer while sitting at press row. R is so totally bummed. The worst thing for C is she can’t pick up on the freebies. Some fans have the bang sticks with tassels. She is jealous.

Although this game means nothing to either team, both are out of the play-offs, we are keeping our eye on ex-Stanford grad and current Monarch Nicole Powell. She needs 5 points to break the franchise record of 545 set by Yolanda Griffith. Early in the game she misses her first three, but connects on the next two to get the record.

Both teams are playing for pride and are hustling down the court. The refs are not calling a lot of fouls and they game is getting rough. We notice Minnesota Lynx Candice Wiggins, another former Stanford player, is not playing point. More like an off guard. She is having a cold shooting night, as are most of the Lynx.

In one series Candice gets three straight rebounds, which means she keeps missing easy put backs. Where is the box out, Sacramento? Finally she gets the rebound and tenaciously puts it in. We want to cheer for Candice even though we are not supposed to, and this is Sacramento’s home game. Nicole Powell keeps firing away, though.

The t-shirt squad comes out and we are dying to stand up and yell for one. We watch them sail over our heads and it is killing us!

We see Courtney Paris come in the game. We are sorry to say she still looks out of shape, and this is the end of the season. She does look tough inside on defense, getting rebounds, but disappears on offense. We talk again to our seatmate on the right, and we a have discussion about her weight. Our seatmate has been following the team for years and she says Courtney has a hard time fitting in to Sacramento’s system, which is tough defense with lots of movement.

We see the Sacramento Monarch mascot come out during a time out. So what kind of mascot is Monty, anyway? Is he a cross between an elephant/hippopotamus/dinosaur? During a time out, he comes out with the rap crew in a psychedelic swimsuit and flashes the crowd. Sigh, is that proper mascot behavior?

It is half time, and so far it is all Sacramento. Our seatmate said Sacramento was going to give non-starters a chance to play, but you can tell the coach wants to win this by keeping in most of his starters and all of Nicole Powell. She has 18 points at the half.

C and R have one mission at half time. We want to meet up with the great Michelle Smith. She wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle about women’s college basketball, not sports, but exclusively women’s basketball, and then last year the paper axed her to “save money”. Well, okay, we have two missions, to meet up with the great Michelle Smith and find our way back to the media lounge for more cookies.

We see Michelle at the other end of press row and introduce ourselves. We talk women’s basketball. We ask what she is up to. She has a new contract to write about women’s basketball at Fanhouse, which is part of AOL. See Michelle Smith’s writing for yourself. She also is getting another blog up to write more content. She is one busy lady and we are glad she has landed on her feet after the Chronicle so rudely puling the rug out form under her.

The game starts back up and Nicole Powell has 25 points with 4 minutes to go. The Lynx are only making 25% of their shots, and that is unacceptable at the pro level. The Monarchs easily win 88-66 and sends the crowd home happy.

We go to Minnesota’s locker room and use our press privilege to request a private, one-on-one interview with Candice. To our surprise, they say yes and as we wait in the hallway, we feel like kids playing grown ups and about to be caught and thrown out any second. We see Minnesota’s Head Coach, Jen Gillom, and listen in as the Monarchs media staff interviews her. She instantly rubs her feet ands says, “these high heels are killin’ me!” And it is all C and R can do to not interject with how we hate that coaches of women’s teams have to dress “feminine” when coaches of men’s teams, such as football, can wear more comfortable team gear, such as a polo shirt with the team logo. She praised her team for their heart and effort. She seemed to connect with her players while on the court, too.

The media relations man bangs on the door several times calling for Wiggins, as she has another event after us. Turns out she is going to speak to the Stanford Women’s Basketball Fast Break Club group that made the trip from the Bay Area.

Then Candice comes out in all her smiling and personable glory. We introduce ourselves and tell her we have been following her from her days at Stanford (And wonder if she recognizes her old stalkers from the Stanford days!). We ask what she is going to do in the off season and she said is headed to Greece for pro ball and keeping herself open for the National Team try outs, (we wished her luck) and trying to get batter at playing basketball.

C and R have seen dominate college players, such as Candace Parker, but still to this day they marvel at how Candice took just an above average Stanford team and willed them into the National Title game on her charisma and personality alone, not just her basketball ability. That was very rare and awesome to witness. We mentioned this to Candice and she said the women were awesome to lead, and gave all the credit back to the Stanford players. We read between the lines that they were also willing to buy into Candice’s optimism and confidence. We asked her how the WNBA was different, and she answered that everyone here is at a different phase in their life, in terms of basketball experience and life experience. Again, we are reading between the lines because her teammates are older, or at different points in their life she cannot lead them on her confidence and optimism like she did at the college level.

Candice’s schedule was tight, so we walked with her to pick up friends and go to the Fast Break Club. R watched the LA Sparks final home game, and the final home game of Lisa Leslie’s career a few days ago. The Lynx were the opponent and Candice was quoted as saying Lisa Leslie was the face of the WNBA and she admired that Lisa is the face of the WNBA and was still feminine. So R asked Candice about that.

Candice was eager to talk about how great Lisa was, and here she was in the final game, 37, a mother, yet still setting screens and banging around with everyone. Here are more comments from Candice about Lisa.

We followed her on the elevator (like the good stalkers we are) and watched her walk into the Stanford Fast Break Club and receive a warm welcome. Someone asked what was the hardest thing about being in the WWNBA and Candice said the travel. She said in college, they would talk the whole week before they were going to the East Coast and how important it was to get on East Coast time, and in the WNBA you are in a different city practically every night and the main focus is don’t miss the bus. She said it gets very wearing.

Nicole Powell also showed up and thanked everyone for coming, talked about her life as a Monarch, as Candice had to go catch her bus. It was a perfect end to a prefect night. We had so much fun covering a women’s basketball game.

It was great to see Candice, and she did tell the Fast Break club that whenever she sees someone with a Stanford shirt that means something to her, because Stanford always will hold such a special place in her heart. With Candice you can believe it.

Halftime!

Here courtside at the Sacramento Monarchs Game vs. the Minnesota Lynx. It's half time and Nicole Powell continues to light it up. She got her 5 points ands more to set the single season franchise record for scoring. She currently sits at 18. Sacramento is ahead 41-34. Minnesota seems to be in a scoring slump, and Candice Wiggins is not doing much to help that. Found the press room again and got more cookies and popcorn! They sure do take care of the press! More later.

Sacramento Monarchs

OMG, we almost forgot, C and R are going to the Sacramento Monarchs last game of the regular season Sunday. It will probably be the last game of the year for Sacramento, as they are currently in sixth place, and the top four teams go on to the play offs.

But we don’t care; they will be playing the Minnesota Lynx, and our favorite hometown girl Candice Wiggins, and the game will probably mean something to the Lynx, as they are currently tied for fourth place with San Antonio and are trying to secure that last playoff slot.

But none of that matters much to us, either, as C and R and this blog are going to be issued their first press pass!!

We were invited to view a Sacramento game in August and write about it for our blog (free publicity for everyone), and we talked to the Media Relations director and asked if we could attend the last home game of the season with a press pass. Much to our surprise, she said yes and showed us around press row. There was a stodgy gentleman already there who gave us the evil eye, probably because he was “a real journalist”, sniff, and we were just bloggers. Either way, we are gonna have us some fun!

So what if we don’t have to hold ourselves to the same journalistic standards as members of the journalistic press do, and we can exaggerate and use hyperbole to our hearts content? Is that our fault we like to write our opinions about something we love (women’s basketball in general, and Stanford Women’s basketball in particular)? Our blog was once asked to participate in a survey about sports bloggers and many of the questions dealt with, “Do you think bloggers should be held to the same standards as newspapers? I know what they were trying to get at, but we answered no. As long as we are up front that we are a blog, stating our opinions in a legal way (libel and slander are still out, bloggers), and do not pretend to represent an official entity (speak for Stanford, or any of its players in any official capacity), then I think we are in the clear to give our opinions, and yes, sit at press row. We give the “experience” of seeing a women’s game. Anyone can open up the paper and get the box score….well, anyone whose hometown newspaper actually happens to post a box scores of women’s sports, our two local papers don’t do a good job of it. We tell you what it was like to be there as a wide eyed, admiring fan, and not some jaded journalist….whoops, just kidding ‘bout the “jaded” part. You get he idea. Stay tuned for our blog of the whole ordeal and whether or not we get the cold shoulder or any nasty comments directed our way, and if we get into the locker room to see Courtney Paris, Nicole Powell, and Candice Wiggins!

Went to Sacramento and What Did We See?

So, as we said in our last post, we are going to Sacramento to watch the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs take on the LA Sparks. We finagled our way to free tickets because we are SO popular with the women’s basketball crowd. (So do us a favor, book a WNBA game after reading this! Show we are relevant!)

It is also “Women of Inspiration Night” and Misty May Treanor (MMT) is giving a speech and Q & A before the game, as well as appearing at half time. We can get in early, starting at 5:30 to see her. We are so there. MMT, for those of you who not in the know, is a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner for beach volleyball, partnering both times with former Stanford Grad and local girl Kerri Walsh.

On the long drive to Sacramento (Why can’t the Bay Area get a WNBA team of their own?) we think of questions we want to ask MMT. R says, after all that training for 8 years to get the two gold medals, how do you injury yourself dancing? Dancing, of all things!? For those of you further not in the know, right after the second Olympic Gold Medal, MMT went on the popular TV show Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) and promptly tore her Achilles tendon (AT). MMT tore her AT on DWTS. But we digress.

We bear the long walk through the parking lot through the oppressive Sacramento heat (another reason to stay in the Bay Area) and hear a great women’s band warming up to warm up the crowd. It is a Saturday night, women of inspiration are going to talk, and the opponent is the LA Sparks, featuring Lisa Leslie, the former face of the WNBA and Candace Parker, the new face of the WNBA. This is also the LA Sparks’ last game of the season in Sacramento and therefore Lisa Leslie’s last game here as she is retiring this year. We hope it will be a good crowd.

So far it is a good crowd of young girls and their parents lining up to hear MMT. It is almost 95 degrees outside and we are standing in the heat that is how much we love MMT! We finally get let in to air-conditioned Arco Arena and immediately see Candace Parker warming up. We make a beeline courtside. On our way we meet Kimberly Knight, Director of Marketing & Business Operations, and also a former Stanford Grad. She tells us to enjoy the game but C is fixated on watching Candace Parker. In the few short minutes we have been there, she has not missed a shot. Kimberly says to put a hex on her, and C doesn’t get it, admiring how graceful she looks and forgets she is the enemy to anyone Sacramento. R explains it to her later.

We finally get courtside and close up to Candace. Two young boys are waiting there with pictures of Candace and a sharpie. R asks if they are here to get autographs of Candace and they say yes, and they printed pictures off the Internet for her to sign. Young boys, not just girls! And if that is not proof of the power Candace Parker has as the new face of the WNBA is, then we don’t… wait, we got stuck on this sentence, you know what we mean…. pulling in boys because she is a great athlete and role model is fantastic and not possible even 10 years ago.

Misty May comes out and instead of having the audience ask questions, the two co hosts ask her preplanned questions. The crowd loses focus a little bit. The Monarchs have come out to warm up and now the rest of the LA Sparks are at the other end warming up. Most are watching Candace Parker. The acoustics are bad, it is hard to hear, and not intimate or inviting at all. We find out she needs ayear to rehab from her injured AT from DWTS and is has just graduated to being able to walk for exercise. That does sound like a bad injury. One thing C hears Misty say that when training and it’s raining out, don’t skip it, go out in the rain ands the elements and train. Then think about your opponent who stayed home and you are now one day ahead of them. It must take a lot of discipline and training to be the best at your sport, and get to number one, but also to keep up that intensity for eight years is amazing. So hear that, young girls, get up out of bed and train, or practice, practice, practice!

You can see some highlights here, and even the cameraman loses focus and keeps zooming in on Candace Parker. Whoops, sorry, got caught up in looking at all the great highlights of MMT and Kerri Walsh. Back to the Monarchs and Women of Inspiration Night.

Misty gets up to leave and R jumps up and gets close to get a picture with her fancy phone. Others want to do the same and at first MMT starts to pose for pictures and then the media handlers tell everyone she has to go. Little girls look disappointed and moms look MAD. Uh oh. They announce she will be here after the game to give autographs. Most moms look appeased, but suspicious.

Afterward C and R meet with Rebecca Brutlag, manger of media relations for the Monarchs. We are trying to set up a way for our blog to get credentialed and then have us sit on the media row and blog live. She is very interested and asks us when we can do it. We tell her we want to blog for the Minnesota Lynx game, so secretly we can see Candice Wiggins, former Stanford Grad and C’s all-time favorite player. She thinks it is a good idea and agrees. Can’t wait for the game in September! And we are now members of the press, hee hee, look out everyone!

Rebecca is very courteous and professional. So far everyone we have met surrounding the Monarchs have been a class act. We do tell her that the audience for MMT did not get to ask questions or get autographs and a lot of people were disappointed. She said that is good feedback to know and unfortunately, Misty had to be at a prior engagement and had limited time for the Q & A, so they thought they would ask the prepared questions and they tried to think of ones most people would want answered. And they did, they hit all the major ones, but by the audience not being involved, they lost them. She saw our point and said she would rethink next time. Wow, we got to give constructive feedback without sounding like whiners and we actually got to talk to someone in the organization who might be in a position to do something. The trip up from the Bay Area is worth it just for that!

Then we head to the Skyline restaurant inside the Arena to eat an incredible gourmet buffet meal. When offered the choice of bananas foster or vanilla ice cream topped with a brownie we take one each. Wait, I mean R got the ice cream and C got the bananas and they were both incredible. Stuffed, we waddle down to our seats just in time for the pregame introductions…and discover our seats are practically courtside to the opponent’s bench. The opponents are in this case Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker. Oh darn.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, and the free courtside seats. Yes, C and R are ALL about the free stuff. Oh, don’t know what thunder sticks are? Try plastic oblong Mylar balloons you blow up and then bang together so it makes this crashing noise (and hit your seatmate with). They are also shiny and the fans on the ends of the arena wave them when the opponents are shooting free throws.

While we were watching the Sparks warm up, R liked how “hands on” assistant coach Marianne Stanley was. She spent time talking to them one-on-one and was very relationship oriented. Michael is going to leave the WNBA to coach at USC and Marianne will take over as head coach. Did you know Stanley was a co-head coach at Stanford? We didn’t either, or else we forgot. So, during the 1995-96 season, Stanley was co-coach with Amy Tucker at Stanford. They both earned UPI national and Pac-10 Co-Coach of the Year honors that year, and coached Stanford to a 29-3 record during Tara VanDerveer's one-year absence to coach the U.S. Olympic team. While coaching at USC, she sued them for sex discrimination and equal pay for equal work and retaliatory discharge. She does not back down from a fight and is a trailblazer. We wish her much success with the Sparks.

Hey, look there’s Courtney Paris. We are ringside watching the Sacramento Monarchs warm up minutes before the game. Rebekkah Brunson jumps high and almost dunks. These women are so strong and powerful. This is going to be fun.

After the prerequisite light show and big build up for announcing the players, it’s time for tip off. C bets Lisa Leslie will jump. R says no, Candace Parker will, Lisa has bad knees. Sure enough Candace lines up to tip it off, but Rebekkah Brunson out jumps her. She tips it backwards but the long arms of Lisa Leslie steal the ball! Anyone else would not have been able to steal that ball, except your tallest player, who normally would be jumping. I wonder if they drew it up that way on the whiteboard?

Monarchs come out in the first quarter intense. Monarchs play tenacious defense. They are on a mission. LA is having trouble scoring.

Candace Parker blocks Sacramento’s shot.

Geez, that takes the air out of Sacramento’s inside game. Nicole Powell (former Stanford) hits a three and we can sit down now, as the rule states everyone has to stay on their feet until the Monarch’s make their fist basket, and everyone who knows C, knows a rule is a rule. We sit.

Monarchs are getting lots of steals. They pick on the LA Sparks guard. She gets yanked for little Shannon Bobbit. Shannon played with Candace Parker at Tennessee and won national championships with her. And she IS little, only 5’2. She protects the ball better and moves it up the court faster. She also puts in a ton of effort on defense. And effort will win your way in to C and R’s hearts.

Parker does a two-hand stuff of the Monarchs.

At the end of the quarter, they show a MMT video with highlights of Olympic Glory. Way better than the talk. R jumps up and gets a photo of Lisa Leslie in the huddle without getting arrested or thrown out by the many attendants.

The game starts back up and it really is amazing. These women are well trained in the fundamentals of their sport and put out great effort and intensity. Shannon Bobbitt gets kicked in the face going after a loose ball and has to come out. The game is very physical and the refs are not calling anything. It is the most entertaining and empowering thing we have seen in along time and even more inspirational than the talk we saw early, no offense to MMT.

Courtney Paris (former Bay Area Gilr) comes in for the Monarchs and Candace Parker is guarding her. Candace steals a pass to her. Candace continues to harass and dominate Courtney the short time she is in. Courtney needs to get in better playing shape to hang with these WNBA All-Stars.

The crazy looking Sacramento mascot, Monty we think his name is, walks around and get in our way of the game. What kind of mascot can you have for a “Monarch” anyway? A king? A queen? Or this hairy gray dragon-hippopotamus thingie now blocking our view of this most excellent game. A young fan jumps up and says, “Monty, pose for a picture with me”. They stand right in front of our seats! C is rocking from one side of her seat to another to see around them, looking like a tennis game spectator on steroids. The young fan is holding her camera or phone out in front of her to take a self-portrait but the lens is not wide enough to get both of them. She looks directly at C and says, “Excuse me, will you take our picture?”

Now, people ask C all the time to take their picture. Perhaps she looks trustworthy. She does have a degree in photography, although you wouldn’t know it to look at her. Once, at the Seattle Space Needle in Seattle, even though her own camera was stolen while she changed her baby’s diaper, she patiently helped a tourist family unwind and reload their film (in the days before digital cameras) She has even seen people getting ready to make a photo-faux-pas and even offered her services whether help was wanted or not. But she has never, ever, turned down a request to help someone take a photo.

C, without taking her eyes off Candace Parker, announces, “I am trying to watch this game and you are in my way,” and then caranes her neck around them. That is how R knows this is a special game, because C never, ever forgoes a request for help. The fan takes another self photo and more fans jump up around C and R for a photo and Monty, perhaps sensing C’s single-mindedness attempt to see the game quickly gets the heck out of there.

It is almost half time and one of the Monarch players comes on the jumbo-tron advertising…. lipstick! She even shows us how to expertly apply it. C and R are horrified. The jumbo tron says Mary Kay Cosmetic’s representatives are in the lobby right now ready to take you order. C and R look at each other dumb-founded. The Monarchs player says for every tube of lipstick sold a portion will go to help end domestic violence. Now C and R are conflicted. That’s good, they guess. Then the music starts up and the free squad is giving out free…. something. C and R must have it. They yell and scream and stomp their feet. The guy in the red shirt gives us the freebie. It is a free sample of moisturizer from Mary Kay. C is disappointed and disgusted. R tears open the packet and applies the moisturizer to her face and neck. C gives her the evil eye and R says, “I can’t help it, it is so dry in here.”

It is half time and C and R go walk around the arena for exercise after that fattening meal. C sees necklace beads. “Are the free?” she asks. “Free for a dollar donation.” Comes the reply. A dollar later and C now has red beads, to remind her of Stanford.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, free courtside seats, free moisturizer, and free-for-a-dollar beads.

We see the Mary Kay Cosmetics representatives and they say register to win a free gift basket. R says she hates to give out her email and phone number. C whispers, “don’t put your email and give a fake phone number.”

“Right,” R whispers back, while scribbling her fake identity. C puts R’s cell phone number just in case she wins. She does like the free stuff!

At the start of the second half, Sacramento looks even more lackluster after the first quarter burst of intensity on defense. They cannot score or even get the ball inside due to the height and athleticism of LA. Sacramento is losing.

However, Rebekkah Brunson has not given up. She fights for every rebound and loose ball. At one point she flies in for a rebound, grabs it and three Sparks players try to dislodge the ball. She shakes them off like a terrier keeping possession of his tennis ball.

Now everyone on the court is getting mad and upset. Lisa Leslie is beating up Nicole Powell inside. Candace Parker is playing point to protect the ball. Sacramento’s Demya Walker, who is similarly built like Rebekkah Brunson, also decides to go for every ball. They get the defensive rebounds, but LA keeps them out on offense. These two Sacramento players are putting out such intensity, and yet the other three Monarchs players don’t seem to be matching it. And no one from Sacramento can score from the inside and Nicole Powell now can’t hit her threes. Plus LA can’t miss. They end up shooting something like 56% from the field. Sacramento gets down by as much as 20 at one point.

At the end of the third quarter the music starts up and the free squad comes out throwing… light up super balls. C’s eyes get big. She has a collection of super balls. She must have this freebie. Super balls are flying in the air. None are coming to her. One bounces down from somewhere in the rafters and rolls past their seats all the way down to the LA bench. C spies it and runs after it. Several attendants eye her and make a move to stop her but realize she is a woman on a mission… to get a super ball and not bother the LA players. They watch her grab the ball and go back to her seat and the crisis is adverted and now C has another freebie. She is so happy she doesn’t even get upset when the next two freebies, a T-Shirt and a coupon for chicken wings, don’t go their way.

For those of you keeping score at home, so far the score is: two free thunder sticks, one free purple towel with the Monarch’s logo, free courtside seats, free moisturizer, free-for-a-dollar beads, and a free light up super ball. Lost are a t-shirt and coupon for chicken wings. Not a bad haul.

The Winner: everyone who saw this game, because although the hometown team lost, it was so entertaining and such a display of female power and athleticism. C and R feel truly fortunate.

After the game, we see Candace Parker start talking to someone in the crowd. She mimics going to sleep. All eyes on this end are on her. She is talking, of course, to her husband Shelden Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and unknown relative holding HER BABY. C and R get a closer look and we get to see her little girl. Cute, cute, cute. Candace pours her heart out on the court and then goes right to her little girl. It brings a tear to the eye….

C and R get in the car for the long haul back to the Bay Area. They just had the best day with women’s sports.

All Stars All Entertaining

OMG….. and no, I am not practicing my texting or posting to twitter or whatever, I am flabbergasted about the WNBA’s All Star game. Man, if they played ‘em like that every night, they would fill the arenas. A record high scoring game, a dunk, old teammates hooking up, Diana Taurasi’s high socks….

It helped they played the game in the women’s basketball capital of the world, Sun Arena, in Connecticut, the heart of Uconn. Speaking of which, five former Uconn players were at the game and four played a significant part. Even UConn head coach Geno Auriemma was there.

The West’s coach put Charde Houston, Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi in the line up at the same time. They were running Uconn plays! Taurasi got 18 points, Charde, in her first All Star game got 16, and Sue Bird set a record of 10 assists, beating the old record of 9 by Taurasi. She also finished with 16. Swin Cash scored 22 and got the MVP. Poor Asjha Jones. She missed the fun, playing for the East and only got 6 points, without the great supporting cast.

Last minute replacement (and former Stanford gal, at least there was one of us) almost got the high score. She was the first to get to 21 points, breaking the old record of 20, but Swin got a basket in the closing minutes to get to 22, and the MVP honors. The West would go on to win 130-118, also a record.

Sylvia Fowles was the dunkee, although she messed up the first time. The East was kind enough to give her another chance. It looked good, too.

With the All Star weekend out of the way, the teams are back to the grindstone. Candace Parker is just starting to get in playing shape down in LA. Candice Wiggins’ team, the Minnesota Lynx, has dropped to third after the great start they had. Taurasi is all business after serving her two game suspension for a DUI. Indiana is rallying behind their second year coach leads the East.

All Stars

Ex-Stanford player and current Sacramento player Nicole Powell is in her first WNBA All-Star game. With an injury to LA Sparks starter Lisa Leslie, Nicole was added to the team, although the coach still has to pick who starts. Maybe Lisa injured herself appearing on the ABC show The Superstars. No, it was previously taped? Okay. Read her funny blog about it here. And what was up with the bad basketball stategy on that show?

But we digress….

C and R was surprised that Candice Wiggins wasn’t tapped for the All Stars for the last month she had, but that is kinda the point, you have to play all year ‘round like an all star. Even the great Candace Parker, last yeaers MVP and Rookie of the year didn’t make the all star team, what with missing most of the first half of the season on maternity leave. Two of our Candice’s Minnesota Lynx teammates went, though, Nicky Anosike and Charde Houston. With fewer WNBA teams and great talent, it is getting harder and harder to make the all star team.

Watch them all play Saturday, July 25^th, 3:30 PM Eastern Time.