Stanford Players in the WNBA at the All-star Break

The end of July marks the half way point for the WNBA, and that means the All-star game. Hats off to former Stanford Women’s Basketball player Nneka Ogwumike for making her third straight All-star appearance for the West in four years in the league. She was named as a reserve, mostly due to her slow start this season because of injuries.

photo Courtesy of Chiney Ogwumike

The other former Stanford players didn’t fare nearly as well. Little sis Chiney Ogwumike, who was drafted number one last year (same spot as Nneka in 2012) and won Rookie of the Year (same as Nneka in 2012), suffered a knee injury while playing overseas (and trying to make more money). She had knee surgery and will sit out this WNBA season. Drat, we really wanted to see her growth from rookie to seasoned vet. She has, however, found ways to occupy her time, making many appearances on TV, including a half time stint at the All-star game (It was on her home court of the Connecticut Sun, and she was photo-bombed by big sis Nneka. We saw you steal a sip of her water, sisters have no boundaries!).

What about other Stanford alum in the WNBA? Jayne Appel, playing for San Antonio started the season injured, and just found her way back into games. Kayla Pederson remains with former teammate Chiney Ogwumike in Connecticut. Nicole Powell retired before the season started, but has landed on her feet coaching for the Oregon Ducks, a Pac-12 foe for Stanford!

Jeanette Pohlen returns to Indianapolis after missing the 2014 season due to a torn left Achilles tendon. She won a WNBA title in 2012 with the Fever, but it was bittersweet as she was injured in the playoffs and did not play in the championship game. Candice Wiggins, also a WNBA champion with the Lync in 2011, started her eighth season in the WNBA (my, how time flies!). It is her first season with the New York Liberty (if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere). Wiggins was the 2008 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year, and has averaged 9.6 points in her career while playing for Minnesota, Tulsa and Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, Amber Orrange, drafted by the Liberty with the 23rd overall pick in April of this year, was waived by the team in May.

Overall Stanford has had 27 players play in a regular-season WNBA game since the league's inception in 1997. Tara VanDerveer’s program boasts 11 first-round draft picks and has had six players win a total of seven WNBA titles.

Oh, the West side (the best side) won, 117-112.

Looking forward to seeing basketball in the Fall and Winter.

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Stanford in the Elite Eight

By now, everyone has heard the story of the Penn state coaches hanging out with Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer in the offseason to pick her brain on the triangle offense. Guess Tara forgot to show them the back door option.

Stanford played their best ball in a long, long time. Perhaps the long season wore on them, but the last quarter of the Pac-12 season was a little lackluster. Not today. And not when playing in Maples.

Penn State and the Stanford Women’s Basketball team were playing in the Sweet Sixteen, held on Stanford’s home court. Much has been written about having neutral sites, but the truth is fans don’t come out if their home team is not playing, the site loses a lot of money, and a lot of empty seats happen. So while this is an inelegant solution, the powers that be are still scratching their heads on how to make this better.

Penn State came out powerful and athletic, and kept it close for about half of the first half. Then Stanford got hot, All-Everything Chiney Ogwumike got going, and Stanford played shutdown defense. Stanford outscored Penn State 25-7 to end the half and held Penn State without a field goal for nearly six and a half minutes.

Bonnie Samuelson, Mikaela Ruef and Lili Thompson play good D on Lucas (Photo Courtesy of Kelley L Cox )

Stanford’s Lili Thompson got the assignment to guard Penn State’s great scorer, Maggie Lucus. She averages about 21 points a game. Lili held her to 6 points in the fist half. And for the game? Six points. That’s right they shut her down in the second half. Lucas was scoreless. Tied her career low, too. She was 3-for-14 from the floor, including 0-for-5 on 3-pointers. Her last points were nine and a half minutes left in the first. Wowsa! 

Penn State set screens, and even double screens, to try to free up their outside shooter Lucas, but nobody prepares for a game like Tara Vanderveer. Stanford knew the screens were coming and either got over them or switched personal on her so she never got an open look.

Shout out to Mikeala Ruef. Ruefie helped on a lot of those switches on Lucas and played intense defense. She also contributed 11 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two steals. She was one of two Stanford players that got a double-double. The other was that beast Chiney Ogwumike. She had 29 points and 15 rebounds. That marked her 25th double-double of the season, and 83 for her career. Double Wowsa! Amber Orrrrange was second in scoring for Stanford with 18 points.  Lili Thompson and Mikaela Ruef both finished the game with 11 points. That’s four, count-em, four in double figures. Stanford will need that kind of effort from everyone from now on.

Shout out to former Stanford alums Nneka Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen, Lindy Larocque and Sarah Boothe in the house. Noticed Toni Kokenis was sitting in the stands with them. Wonder if it was a NCAA rule she couldn’t be on the bench?

Come back to Maples Tuesday night at 6PM Stanford time when they take on North Carolina (Oh yeah, number one seed South Carolina didn’t even make it to the elite eight, go figure).

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Stanford Flattens Oregon State

So two years ago, Stanford’s inside player Nneka Ogwumike decided in her senior season that she needed a mid range game to make her more versatile for the WNBA. She developed a nice shooting touch, and although she wouldn’t beat you with a three, if you stopped her from going inside, she could pull up for a nice jumper. She got herself drafted #1 and won the WNBA rookie of the year.

Flash forward to today and little sis Chiney Ogwumike is following in her footsteps. She is a danger inside, and if you leave her one on one in there, even against your best defender, she usually will score (UConn seeming to be the only exception). So Chiney has been working on her outside game for when she runs up against the UConn’s of the world, but it has been a little slower in developing then Nneka’s was. Mostly, it is the arch that is missing. Her outside shots beeline it for the basket.

Now, usually when the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team beats you, it’s because Chiney Ogwumike beat you inside. And that was certainly true today against Oregon State. Chiney scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Except today was different in that Chiney Ogwumike also beat OSU outside. Her shots still beelined towards the basket, But they went in. and when Chiney can hit for the outside, everything is going Stanford’s way. Stanford as a team went on a 29-4 run in the first eight and half minutes, and Chiney scored 17 of those points, and they never looked back.

Stanford's Lili Thompson (Ben Margot / AP Photo)

Oh, OSU had a few runs of their own, and shot the three ball in a timely matter just to keep pace, but that 20-point cushion could not be bridged. The final score was 89-67 Stanford. 

Four Stanford players scored in double figures. Freshmen starting guard Lili Thompson scored a season-high 19 points, made three out of four 3-point attempts, stole the ball twice and matched season bests with five rebounds and five assists. She also threw her body around on the court and was intimidating to OSU. Mikaela Ruef finished with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists. Taylor Greenfield had 13 points and made two 3-pointers. Bonnie the Bomber made a three with an assist from her younger sister Karlee (yes, sisterhood runs deep at Stanford). Speaking of threes, Stanford was 7-10 on 3-point attempts, and correct C and R if they are wrong, but that is a whopping 70% accuracy.

Said Oregon State’s coach, "Stanford set the tone tonight. They came out and punched us in the face basically for the first 10 minutes of this game." And punch they did, as for the second game in a row, an opposing player had to get medical treatment for a bloody nose. No more “Nice Girls from Stanford”, Pac-12.

Chiney Ogwumike posted her sixth 30-point game and 10th double-double of the season. She also passed out a career-high six assists. She passed Jayne Appel (2,125) for fourth place on Stanford's career scoring list. By season's end, Ogwumike also could overtake Kate Starbird (2,215), older sister Nneka Ogwumike (2,491) and possibly even Candice Wiggins’ conference record of 2,629 points (although coach Tara VanDerveer might not want that to happen, adoring Candice, LOL).

Next up Stanford travels to Utah and Colorado for more Pac-12 action.

Follow C and R for more scores on Facebook and Twitter, too!

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Stanford Crushes Ducks, Ogwumike Gets Record

They say defense wins championships. Well, the best offense in the nation went against an under-appreciated defense and the defense won. Well, couple the Stanford Women’ basketball Team’s defense with Pac-12 foe Oregon’s LACK of it and you get a 96-66 Stanford win.

Oregon came into Maples leading the country with 105.3 points. They were also the only women’s team averaging over 100 points. Then they met Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike. Chiney suffocated Oregon’s Chrishae Rowe, who was averaging 24.5 points a game (about the same amount Chiney averages, 25.8). Rowe was held to just five points in the first half and 11 for the game, five of those with the Stanford starters including Chiney on the bench.

Chiney Ogwumike blocks a layup-attempt from Oregon's Lexi Petersen. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Chiney received plenty of help on defense from her teammates. Stanford held run-and-gun Oregon to a season low 66 points, 39 below its nation-leading season average of 105 per game. Oregon’s 41 percent  of made 3-pointers plunged downward when Stanford held them to 23 percent (6-of-26).

When C and R saw the two teams line up for tip off, we thought Stanford was going to have their way rebounding and inside, as the Card looked taller. Imagine our surprise when Stanford Head Coach Tara Vanderveer dialed up a first half game plan of threes. Stanford used quick perimeter passing to counter Oregon’s zone and when the first Stanford player behind the line was a little bit open, they launched. And launched they did, hitting 12-24 behind the arc. Stanford also stopped Oregon from launching their own threes. Oregon missed their first nine 3-point tries and wound up 6 for 26 on 3-point tries for the game.

Stanford’s Bonnie Samuelson matched a career high with six 3-pointers and scored a career-best 21 points in just 17 minutes. Younger sister Karlie Samuelson (1), Taylor Greenfield (2), Jasmine Camp (1) and Lili Thompson (2) all hit triples as Stanford matched its season high with 12 makes from behind the arc. BTW, the bench scored 47 points, something that has been lacking all season.

The half ended Stanford up 51 to 33, (the official scorers table would change it to 34, something we didn’t know they could do). So Oregon came out of the break and employed a typical coaching move when the other team is making threes. They went to a man to man defense. And what happens, Stanford fans, when you leave Chiney one on one inside? It’s Chiney all day. Chiney had a quiet first half for her, only scoring 14 points and going 10 minutes without a basket, and then suddenly in the second she is stepping around her one defender. She ended up with 33 points and 14 boards for her ninth double-double of the year, before Tara took her out with five and a half minutes remaining.

Speaking of Chiney, she also set the Pac-12 and Stanford rebounding record in this game. She needed just ten to set it. Heck she could do that in her sleep. Hats off to Oregon, who boxed her well, and held her to just six rebounds in the first. C and R were counting on their fingers to see when she would get #10 for the record. She grabbed what we thought was the tenth rebound only to have an Oregon player tie her up for a jump ball. The announcer said it was her 10th and we cheered. Turned out it wasn’t, so the NEXT one was the record. Either way, she grabbed 14 boards to seal the deal.

Chiney passed former Stanford player Kayla Pedersen’ mark of 1,266 for the Pac-12 record. Earlier in the game she passed another Stanford great, Jayne Appel. Last game, she passed her sister, Nneka Ogwumike, who now stands fourth on that list. So Stanford holds the top four spots of the conference rebounding record. Chiney is at 1,271 and counting, with a whole season of Pac-12 left to play. This record might stay for a long, long time.

One thing Oregon did do well was push the ball in transition. One player grabs the rebound and goes the length of the floor as fast as possible without passing. If you don’t stop ball, they go all the way to the glass. And Stanford let too many of those go by. Goes to show you, always room for improvement.

Looking forward to the rest of the Pac-12 season.

Follow C and R for the rest of the Pac-12 Season on Facebook and Twitter, too!

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Stanford Beats USC, Gets No Respect

Just a quick note on the Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s 75th home win, 69th Pac-12 win and 18th consecutive win overall tonight. They beat USC 69-52. Nneka Ogwumike lead all scorers with 22 points and 8 boards and sister Chiney scored 21 and had a double-double with 12 rebounds. She also had a career high 6 blocked shots. And she was a master at getting position to get those 12 rebounds.

Stanford started out quickly and was easily up 21-9, 10 minutes into the contest. Then all-everything Nneka had a seat, what with 2 fouls and all. Head coach Tara VanDerveer thought she could afford to rest her. And you guessed it, Stanford’s offensive went stagnate without her. At one point Chiney looked for someone to pass to on offense and when no one seemed to want the ball, she put her head down and drove to the basket to make her own points. All we can say is Chin-ney saved the day. Toni Kokenis played the third string and got 15 for the game, and that was it for Stanford scoring (La la la la la, we can’t hear you naysayers and detractors... more on you later).

Half time Stanford was up 33-22, and surprisingly, USC held a 20-19 rebounding edge. They did that by primarily focusing on boxing the heck out of the sisters Ogwumike. Did we mention USC is one of the many Pac-12 teams that also have sisters? They have Briana and Stefanie Gilbreath, who scored 11 and 9 respectively for USC. But you can only stop an Ogwumike for so long, and around the 13-minute mark in the second, the Ogwumikes made their move, opening up the lead with their athleticism and ability to find the basket. They just wear people out. Final score 69-52.

Subplots:
Tara VanDerveer left in the scoring sisters until the end. Why? Stanford had an 18-point lead with 4 minutes left. Why not rest your starters and give the youngsters a chance? Well, because Tara VanDerveer is having a feud with all of the East Coast. Think of it as an East Coast-West Coast thang.

Seems ESPN analysist Carolyn Peck dissed Stanford and the Pac-12 by publicly saying the Pac-12 is weak and Duke deserves to be the number 4 seed instead of Stanford when the NCAA tourney starts. Tara took umbrage to that (hey that’s twice in a month we’ve used such a big word) and said to SF Chron "Duke loses at home to Connecticut and loses to Kentucky," VanDerveer said, "but they should be the No. 1 seed because they play in this great ACC? What's so great about North Carolina?"

She pointed out that the No. 22 Tar Heels (17-5) are ranked even though they lost to Connecticut by 51 and Duke by 40 and their RPI is 101st in the country. "That's crazy," she said.
Stanford, by contrast has an RPI of 4. RPI stands for rating percentage index or what we think of as strength of schedule. Duke’s is 8.

If Tara is outraged, then Stanford fans are outraged and C and R are no exception, and we took to Twitter:

@StanfordWBBBlog
Coach Tara VanDerveer is mad at @CAROLYNPECK for picking Duke as #4 seed over Stanford, no respect for Pac-12

Due to the magic of twitter, Carolyn Peck wrote back to us. Little ol C and R. Here’s her tweet:

@CAROLYNPECK
@StanfordWBBBlog No disrespect 2 Stanford but the ACC has 4 teams in the top 10 & total of 6 in top 25. Committee has 2 consider that.

I think that’s Tara’s point. At least half of those ACC teams shouldn’t be in the top 25, and maybe some of the Pac-12 should. (Tara has said publicly Cal should be top 25). Message boards around the Pac-12 (or Pac-10 as Carolyn kept calling it) were lit up all day.

Subplot #2:
Nneka Ogwumike moved past Another Stanford fave, Jayne Appel, into third place all time scoring for Stanford. Ahead of her is Kate Starbird and another, nother C and R fave Candice Wiggins. Candice has 2,629 and Nneka has around 2,143or so, so not sure if she can pass her.

Subplot #3-Big Head Nneka:
When C and R sat down opposite the opposing team’s bench like we do every home game, quite a few fans had blown up photographs of Nneka. C instantly coveted one, as she does all things Stanford and all things free. She spied twitter buddy @SGC72 amidst them. Moving her thumbs quickly, C ascertained that SC had some extras and that C should come over at half time. The minutes couldn’t tick by fast enough.

At the half, SC introduced C to the Glue-Stick lady of section 4 (we didn’t ask permission to use her name, so she is now Glue-Stick lady, but she was very, very nice). She gave out the pictures for free and asked if C wanted hers glued to a piece of cardboard for waving, on the condition she wave it the rest of the half. Deal.

On the way back to her seat, C spotted the announcers (a rare televised game) with the camera pointed at them with the red light on so she snuck behind them and held up Big Head Nneka and said “vote for Nneka for Senior Class award.” Let me know if that made it out to TV land.

After the game, when NO victories balls were thrown our way, C and R gave the picture of Nneka to a young fan that sits behind us and just loooves Nneka. We made her night, just as ours was made. You know, pay it forward and all, C and R’s motto…

So next game is UCLA Sunday, which is a Play4Kay game, so wear pink for breast cancer awareness. Michelle Smith of Left Coast Hoops is of the opinion Stanford needs to remain undefeated in Pac-12 play to keep the number 4 seed, so come on out to root them on. Seems like Stanford is not playing just against one team, but against all of the East Coast bias.

Follow C and R Twitter and see if the get in a feud with Caroly Peck, too!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Jayne Appel Injured

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

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

Jayne Appel Back in Shape and Ready to Play

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

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

Spring Basketball Just Isn’t the Same

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USA Basketball is Vegas Bound, Baby

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ding Dong, the Streak is Dead!

The first, the last, and UConn was everything in between. C and R are of course talking about the amazing UConn Huskies women's basketball streak of consecutive wins and Stanford’s small part in it. Stanford was the last team to beat them in March 2008, and the first team to beat them since they got the all-time men’s or women’s streak record of 89, stopping them at 90.

This win was so great; let’s savor it minute by minute, shall we?

40 minutes before the game, tons of scalpers on the sidewalks next to parking lots, which themselves are choked with cars. Tickets like the seats R has are going for $125 a pop!

35 minutes before the game, C and R get in Maples early to watch the teams warm-up, but only UConn is out there. Where is Stanford?

30 minutes before game, the countdown clock stops. This game is being televised after a men’s college game. Are they waiting for men’s’ basketball to be over? Stanford waits to come out to warm up, too.

15 minutes before the game, a friend walks up to Stanford box office and gets 3 general admission seats at face value. Say what, Stanford? You advertised the game was sold out and many of our friends who did not have tickets (And yes, you who did not heed our warnings know who you are) friends without tickets stayed away and yet they could have gotten in? Why didn’t you advertise, “Limited seats left?” You might have gotten even more fans here. Official attendance is 7329. Why is it when Tennessee women’s basketball has a sellout, it is 14,136?

10 minutes before game, both teams are now out and warming up. UConn is intense in warm ups, and to our untrained eye, Stanford looks half hearted, kinda going through the motions. UConn has purpose and drive on their lay ups to the basket, Stanford, well, not so much.

5 minutes before game, time for the National Anthem. Maya Moore tells a teammate, “The flag is this way.”

3 minutes before the game, C and R see former Stanford players Jayne Appel, Candice Wiggins, Ros Gold Onwude and… JJ HONES? Wow, she is the guard who got kicked off the team at the end of last year with one year of eligibility left for drinking and driving… a golf cart (Lord, what a thing to live down) and would be starting this game if not for that. It would be hard to show up back at the farm, yet here she is which says a lot about her character, wanting to support her friends and Stanford. Let’s hope she is not bitter.

Pregame introductions

Maya Moore gets a healthy round of applause. Geno gets booed. C and R hate when anyone boos players or coaches, we just feel it is bad sportsmanship. Anyone who is out there playing or coaching is dedicated and putting forth a high effort, and let’s face it you have to respect the streak of 90 straight winning games, nearly 2 and a half years worth of not losing.

Game time-tip off, Stanford’s Nneka Ogwumike loses the tip, not a good sign.

18:42 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen makes a three. (C leans to R and says, look, were winning! Little did she know Stanford would not give up the lead for the entire game!)

18:29 minutes left in the first half, Kayla Pedersen gets a defensive rebound. She would be tough on the boards all night. In fact Stanford would go on win the rebounding battle 43-36.

18:02 minutes left in the first half, UConn makes their first basket, a two pointer

(C: look, were still winning!)

15:59 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen makes another of her five threes and Stanford is up 6-2.

14:08 minutes left in the first half, Lindy La Rocque hits the first of her two three-point shots, glad to see running, gunning Lindy shooting. And she has a great, great defensive game. Was on Maya Moore for part of the night, was very determined and focused.

14:00 minutes left in the first half, the Jumbotron shows the Quattro of friends (Jayne, Ros, JJ and Candice), for the first of umpteen million times.

13:31 minutes left in the first half, Jeanette Pohlen post up over a smaller guard and makes a lay up, first practiced two days ago against Xavier, and finds success again.

13:31 and 12:27 minutes left in the first half, Stanford goes up by 13 points!! Thirteen points! The largest lead of the night, but still, 13 points!

Oops, wait we did it again at 4:21, too.

10:36 minutes left in the first half, or thereabouts, National Player of the Year Maya Moore shoots an air ball. The crowd chants the “Air-ball” refrain. Look, not that we are making fun of Maya Moore, it’s just that Maya Moore has the best pull up jumper in the country and has been so outstanding and so consistent during the two and half year streak, we are sure that was very uncharacteristic of her, and hopefully can be attributed to Stanford’s tough defense on her.

3:16 minutes left in the first half, Maya Moore makes her first basket, a three. Her first basket of the night with almost 17 minutes gone by in the game. That’s got to be some kinda record. Stanford’s defense is great. Chiney Ogumike is doing most of the defending of Maya Moore now, except when she and then Nneka get two fouls and both go to the bench in the closing few minutes of the half. Now we do not do so well defending Maya and hence the 3-point shot. Maya Moore hits another one at 1:52, but Stanford holds her to just 6 first points half. Also must be some kinda record.

Stanford fouls with 32 seconds minutes left in the first half and with one second left in the first half. Yes one second, UConn threw a half court pass and Lindy undercut Kelly Faris. She should have let her catch and shoot, odds are she wouldn’t have made it anyway.

0 seconds minutes left in the first half, and Stanford leads 34-30.

Halftime, as C races to the concession stand and gets two hotdogs, R gets stopped by the floor crew letting UConn pass to the locker room. R looks right at Geno and says, “You’re awesome!” He looks right at her and says “Thanks.” He then spies one of the half time performers; a monk in a karate suit and lunges low in a karate stance to challenge him two feet in front of R. R is too late to get the photo!

C and R meet with super fan TG and give him his “Fear the Trees” shirt, a prize for knowing who the other coaches were in the 800 career-wins club. C shows her “Hecka Necka” shirt to the cameras but is sure they didn’t show it.

20 minutes left in the second half, C and R just get back to their seats.

17:56 minutes left in the second half and Jeanette scores the first Stanford basket of the second half, what else, a three! Stanford goes back up by seven.

17:11 minutes left in the second half, UConn scores their first points of the second half, also a three. The last time Stanford beat UConn, it’s not that Stanford stopped them, it’s just that Stanford (And Candice Wiggins) outscored them. Let’s hope this game Stanford just stops them, because this year, sometimes Stanford is not good at scoring.

13:22 minutes left in the second half a three by Jeanette Pohlen….lead is nine!

13:21 minutes left in the second half, Jumbotron shows a live action shot of Jayne, Ros, JJ and Candice Wiggins…

10:52 minutes left in the second half, Maya Moore makes her first basket of the second half, (got to be some kinda record), what did she make? What else, a three, she would have no lay ups, a huge defensive statistic. But wait, her three makes it a four-point game. Stanford needs a basket and cannot let UConn back into this game!

10:44 minutes left in the second half, Kayla makes a lay up, thank you very much Ms. Reliable. (Old Faithful?)

9:12 minutes left in the second half, a friend texts R and tells her she thought she saw C and R on TV!

8:05 minutes left in the second half, jumper by Moore.

7:26 minutes left in the second half, three pointer by Moore. Oh no, is this the start of an UConn come back? Little did anyone know, this would be the last points for Maya Moore all night.

7:05 minutes left in the second half, no, no comeback, a lay up for Joslyn Tinkle, who also is having the game of her young life. She played great defense, also asked to guard Moore several times and did a great job. C and R hearTinkle bells in the audience, even though we haven’t promoted it as much this year. Thanks, Stanford fans! R also starts to say, “we’re going to win, I can feel it!” C has a sour pit in her stomach. She can’t handle the stress (You can’t handle the truth!)

6:44 minutes left in the second half, missed three-pointer by Moore. R pounds C’s knee.

Kelly Faris for UConn makes 2 three-pointers at 5:59 and 4:49 to cut the lead to six. Yikes.

3:35 minutes left in the second half, Maya More is being guarded by Tinkle, who gets screened and hands her off to Lindy, who gets screened, hands her off to Kayla who defends her tough and although Moore gets a three point shot off it misses badly.

Tinkle to Lindy to Kayla

Tinker to Evers to Chance

(go ahead and look that one up, especially the sad poem part about breaking opposing fans hearts! C’s head is full of useless trivia like that, just swimming around in her head, waiting to surface at parties to annoy people and mostly beat R at Jeopardy).

2:19 minutes left in the second half, two UConn free throws narrow the lead to six points again, and C is worried, worried, worried. Little did she know this would be the last time UConn would score on the Maples floor that night!

1:42 Chiney would foul Maya Moore and also foul out of the game. Maya misses the front end of a one and one. Again, uncharacteristic of her.

1:37 minutes left in the second half, timeout with Stanford still leading by six and R all smiling and happy and pessimistic C still cannot let herself believe lest she jinx it for Stanford and it is the longest 1:37 minutes of C and R’s life!

1:20 minutes left in the second half, another timeout. Time seems to be agonizingly suspended.

1:14 minutes left in the second half, Nneka would score again to end up with 12 points and have 6 sky-high rebounds.

53 seconds left in the second half, Reliable, Old Faithful Kayla misses the front end of a one and one! And we were just saying about Maya Moore… (To be fair, Kayla got knocked to the floor and possibly hit her head and got her wrist banged so much she grimaced in pain for the final 23 seconds.) Kayla would finish with just 8 points but 11 timely rebounds.

But wait, Tinkle got the rebound and was fouled. They have another chance to pad the six point lead.

51 seconds left in the second half, Tinkle would miss the front end of a one and one… C is about to have a heart attack.

42 seconds left in the second half, 34 seconds left in the second half, 17 seconds left in the second half, Jeanette is fouled, and she would sink all six shots! She would finish the game with a career high 31 points!

4 seconds left in the second half, UConn’s Kelly Faris shoots a three pointer and misses and Jeanette Pohlen grabbes the rebound.

1 second left in the second half, Jeanette Pohlen throws the ball in the air.

0 seconds left in the second half, Stanford wins 71-59, a margin of 12 points! R predicted they would win by 10, so C is taking R to the track next weekend.

2 seconds after the game ended, Candice Wiggins, Stanford great, who is NOT on the team currently stormed the floor and hugged Pohlen, Pohlen still had her game face on and hurriedly pulled away, probably wondering if it was a violation of game rules or something for her to even be on the court and wanted to do nothing, nothing to jeopardize this incredible win. Jeanette wanted this one. She wanted this so badly and has stepped up her play. Kara Lawson on ESPN said Jeanette Pohlen was the best guard on the floor tonight. Maya Moore was held to 14, 10 points below her average, and credit Stanford for being in her face and not letting her have good looks all night. Credit Stanford Head Coach Tara Vanderveer for having the exactly right game plan and Stanford for executing it.

5 minutes after the game, the team came back out, lead by a leaping Nneka.. Tara spoke to the crowd, thanking them for helping to make Maples a good environment to win (and keep their home streak alive at 52) and asked that everyone come back for another game. Then she thanked The UConn team and coach and staff.

R said she feels bad for Geno. Heck, C figures, Geno must feel relieved. He got the streak in the record books, and now the pressure and the daily questions will go away and he can focus on basketball, league play and the March tournament. Hey, same for Stanford.

15 minutes after the game at the post game conference on national TV Tara said, “We didn’t win a national championship.” We have a lot of basketball left.

Yes, good to keep it in perspective, Tara, but it sure makes those losses to DePaul and Tennessee easier to swallow, and gives much hope for the future.

UConn - Stanford Game Sold Out!

Thursday’s Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s game vs. number 1 in the country UConn is sold out. However, if you did not secure your ticket like C and R (well, R, she has the season’s tickets), we have seen scalpers outside of Maples during big games like this, so maybe you will get lucky. And, if you can’t go to the game, this one is being televised on ESPN 2.

So, the national papers were kinda hum ho about Stanford’s win against Xavier. It seemed to C and R they already discounted that game and were looking ahead to the UConn game. The game where Stanford played their best game all year. The game where number 9 Stanford knocked off number 4 Xavier. A game where number 9 beat number 4 by 37 points. You can’t discount a game like that.

C and R were encouraged by that win because it means at least we have a chance with UConn with the team that showed up Tuesday. And remember, this is essentially the same team that held UConn to 12 first half points in the championship game. (The two Stanford players missing from that game are defense specialist Ros Gold-Onwude, and center Jayne Apple, who went scoreless for the first time in her college career). Annnnnd, Stanford’s Jeannette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen were the last two players to beat UConn in 2008!

Travel safely to the game, come early, and expect long lines at the concession stands. Plan on eating out for dinner.

Stanford Loses Two in a Row, This Time to Tennessee in OT

So faithful readers of the C and R’s Stanford Women’s Basketball blog will know C and R often give advice to 2-time national championship and Olympic gold medallist coach Tara VanDerveer. Never mind that we have never won a gold medal or a college basketball game or well, anything: we just feel qualified to give advice to the coach that has won 799 college games (and holding).

So our advice the last few years has been to stop taking out a player when they commit a foul. The trend seemed to start with Jayne Appel in her freshmen year. If she fouled, she came out of the game. It is a negative reward, the stick instead of the carrot, if you will, to teach her not to foul. Since Jayne has graduated, Tara, if we may call her by her first name, has kept the traditional alive this year.

In the game Stanford lost to DePaul on Thursday night, Stanford fouled a lot (Sarah Boothe fouled out in 17 minutes, which has to be some sort of record) and with the constant subbing, they never found thier offensive rhythm. And C and R scream and yell and rant and write not to take the starters out and lo and behold, in Sunday’s game against Tennessee Tara listened. (Yes C and R flatter themselves into believing Tara VanDerveer even pays attention to this blog!)

So, back to Tennessee, Tara left her starting five in when they fouled to give them a chance at unity and cohesiveness and then it came back to bite her in the behind when two players fouled out in overtime (note to Tara, never listen to C and R!) In fact, three of the starting five players had four fouls in the final minutes of regulation, and one was at three fouls, so it was inevitable we were going to get in trouble.

Unfortunately, it was Jeannette Pohlen who fouled out first early in the overtime period and it sunk us. Stanford self destructed in OT (sticky post it note to Tara all over her office, never, ever listen to C and R and always take out players when they foul to save them for the end). To be fair to C and R, the refs were up to some home cookin’ by calling ticky-tacky fouls against Stanford then letting Tennessee knock us to the ground for non-calls. We thought the game was horribly called.

Rewinding a bit, Kayla Pedersen was back in the line up against Tennessee after suffering headaches from hitting her head taking a charge against Fresno State. They kept saying she didn’t have a concussion because she passed the concussion tests, yet had headaches for days afterward. Isn’t that the definition of a concussion? And Kayla is good at taking tests. Just what were those concussion tests? What day is it? Who’s the current president? Can you solve for X in the polynomial x2 − 4x + 7 using non-negative integer exponents? What’s 2X times 4 where X is your score? (Insider joke for Stanford fans who sit by the band).

C and R cheered when we saw she was back in the line up, the team needed her. But she responded by missing her first seven shots. She was ice cold. Rusty. She would shoot 3-16 from the field, definitely not Kayla-like. And the refs started on some home court advantage in calling fouls and we were down 10 points early in the game.

To Stanford’s credit, near the end of the second half, they started to claw their way back. They did it with the veterans Jeannette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen and Nneka Ogwumike. They took the ball to the basket in transition before Tennessee was set in defense, and before Stanford would go into that stale half court offense where everyone stands in precise spots (Oops, we are giving free advice to Tara again and we all saw how that worked out). We felt lucky Stanford was only down 31-39 at half time.

Then Nneka showed up for the game (Hello Nneka, welcome to the Summit, now please score a basket) and we even took the lead with 9 minutes left on a Jeannette Pohlen three. She had another 20-some point game, too bad she fouled out. We even put some distance between us and Tennessee, going up by 6. Then Nneka disappeared, and when Stanford tried to make several passes to Nneka down low they were flat out stolen. And Stanford had some defensive lapses and their lead disappeared. After trading leads, Jeanette hit a three with one minute left to go up 70-67, but their freshmen countered and it was tied.

Then suddenly there are 5.1 seconds left in a tied-at-70 game and it is Stanford’s ball and they call time out. The first thing C and R say to each other is, did we set the Tivo to record overtime? Then the second thing we say is, remember that time against Xavier when there was 4.4 seconds left and Jeanette Pohlen raced the length of the floor and made the game wining lay up? But that would be too obvious. Then the third thing we say to each other is give it to freshman speedster Toni Kokenis, and since we know we have a direct ESP link to Tara, that’s exactly what Stanford does. Toni takes it up the court, dribbles behind her back to lose her defender but runs into two or three Tennessee players around the three point line and gets a weak shot off. She may be fast, but she is still a freshman and does not know how to finish like a Jeannette. (The ball hit the bottom of the net, and C and R instantly stood up and thought it had gone through the net, but it didn’t and we had to settle our hearts back down).

So now it is overtime and we have Boothe, Jeanette and Toni with 4 fouls and Nneka with three. Jeanette goes for a steal and fouls, is out of the game around the 4 miute mark and that sunk us. It’s funny, we thought we could play without any player but Kayla, but now we see we need Jeanette, too. Then Boothe loses the ball and fouls in frustration sixteen seconds later and we are just doomed. We lose 72-82 (the only points in OT came on Kayla’s free throws).

Tara will have to wait on win number 800 (and congratulations to Barbara Stevens, the DII coach of Bentley college who got her 800th win today and becomes the fifth college coach to join the 800 win club). If Tara does it Wednesday against USF and her favorite ex-player Jennifer Azzi, she will be the sixth coach.

See everyone up in SF.

Stanford vs Utah

Yes, yes, yes, we knew former Stanford women’s basketball player Michelle Harrison is now playing on the Utah women’s basketball team, thanks to all who wrote, it’s just been a busy end of the week and C and R didn’t get time to write!

So, Michelle Harrison, who has a special place in C’s heart because she studied art at Stanford and C studied art in… palookaville, and Michelle played college basketball for Stanford and went with them to the final four several times and C played college basketball for her intramural team which won the championship trophy T-Shirt her freshmen year, and Michelle was a three time letter winner in golf in high school and C once got a par, so yes, you can see they have a lot in common. The similarities are endless! Hee hee.

No wait, let’s start again. Michelle Harrison played high school ball in the Provo area, and was much heralded and recruited locally. She chose Stanford in 2006, but blew out her ACL in the early part of the season in 2007 and then sat out. Spent 2008-2010 with Stanford, had an incredible ride, and last year was part of the Stanford team to beat Utah 60-41.

Now fast forward to the 2010-11 season. Michelle had to apply for a waiver from the NCAA to get one more year of eligibility, and she won, but Stanford had two other fifth year players returning and new recruits coming, so she was the odd man out. She has no hard feelings and still likes and respected Stanford head basketball coach Tara VanDerveer immensely. She even keeps in contact with some of her former teammates. But she had this year of eligibility left, and was still working on her masters of arts so… she contacted Utah, a school that recruited her heavily and said was there a place for her? And they said, “Come on down!”

Having a player with four years of coaching from a high level coach like VanDerveer, and a teaching coach to boot, it was like get a player and assistant coach all rolled in to one. With the added advantage Michelle knows how to win and what it takes to create a winning environment. We are sure she is going to be a tremendous asset to Utah. How cool!

And it paid off early on with a game against Stanford Friday night. Oh, the scoreboard will tell you Stanford won 62-53, but for Utah, they won a huge moral victory. They came within a point in the second half, and rebounded and played defense well, holding Stanford to 23 first half points. (Unfortunately Utah only got 15 first half points themselves) Michelley scored 14 points against her former teammates.

But wait, this is a Stanford Women’s Basketball Blog, not Utah’s so let’s get back to basics. Jeanette Pohlen led Stanford with 19, followed closely by Kayla Pedersen with 13 and Chiney Ogwumike with 12. Stanford was able to score or get fouled nearly every time they threw the ball inside in the second half, and C and R like that game plan.

And big sis Nneka Ogwumike was sorely missed, sitting out the game with a very vague “ankle injury”. The official Stanford website called it an “undisclosed medical problem”. Hmmm, C and R are skeptical, after the whole Jayne Appel “sprained-ankle-but-really-a-painful-stress-fracture-gate” at the end of last season. Let’s hope it is nothing serious.

We wish we had more to report about the actual game itself, but since it was not televised in our area, we didn’t see it. So of course we get an email first thing this morning saying, “Did you see the game?!” And "what the hecka is wrong with Nneka?" (Okay, the joke came from our bball friends, but they like Cal, so we are stealing the joke and giving no credit).

And how did they see the game? R actually called Comcast, our stupid cable company to see if we could get the “Mountain Channel” or whatever the channel was that supposedly had the Utah-Stanford game but Comcast said we don’t get it. And the next game against Gonzaga also is listed as being on TV, but Comcast said you could only get it if you have a HD-3D TV! C has HD, but they said no, it is only broadcast to the Sony HD-3D TV sets?! What? Someone, please help C and R and tell us if that game is televised or not? And they shouldn’t advertise the game is on TV if it is a channel no one gets! Or else we will start advertising fictitious games on our C and R channel. Sorry, we’re a little cranky.

Anyway, a win is a win for Stanford. Best of luck to Michelle for the rest of the season, but we are on a mission, and we need to get Nneka healed before… UConn!!

Stanford Says "An Guard Vanguard"

The day dawns bittersweet, as this is the first, albeit it exhibition, game of the Stanford women’s basketball season, yet R cannot make it due to her broken wing. She graciously gives up her ticket to C and R’s good friend, P, a dyed in the wool Stanford Women’s basketball fan.


Granted, Stanford is only playing Vanguard, which confuses me because my retirement fund is with Vanguard, the investment company, and I bet the college loses today as much as I lost last year with the retirement company, or something like that, you know what I mean, I make a similar joke like that every year.

P, decked out in her finest Stanford gear, shows up around noon to attend the game with C. She brings a story. She was shopping this morning and the clerk, noticing her Stanford shirt, asks if she is going to the game today. She replies yes-indeedy, and the clerk says she hopes they beat Arizona. Arizona? Oh, she meant the MEN’S football team, not the women’s basketball team. C and R hate when that happens.

P and C make it to Stanford with plenty of time for the 2 PM game, but with the men’s football team set to play at 5 PM, traffic is fierce and parking is nil. We end up parking far away in some residential area and hoofing it to Maples. We make it in time for the National Anthem.

We see them warming up, Kayla Pedersen looks the same, and look, there’s Chiney Ogwumike, C wonders how she is going to contribute in her rookie season, and what the hecka is wrong with Nneka!! (Okay, kudos to P for giving me that joke.) Nneka is wearing the black sweat-suit-of injury and looking dejected along with Mel Murphy (knee surgery), and Hannah Donaghe (torn ACL). We later read she is nursing a left ankle sprain. We will need her for Rutgers in a week.

The first thing P notices as we sit down in R’s seats is that Vanguard looks so short. Why, we think P is taller than their center. The second thing P notices is that Jayne Appel is sitting courtside, in all her blond-haired-and-booted-foot glory. Soon Ros Gold-Onwude joins her, and we wonder what the former Stanford players think and feel not being a part of the Stanford line up for the first time in four years? Well, they were all smiles.

Starters take the floor, and it’s seniors Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen, of course, along with Sarah Boothe, Joslyn Tinkle, and, oh, Chiney Ogwumike. Good, head coach Tara VanDerveer likes what she’s seen in the 30 or so days of practice they have had.

We win the tip off, what with 6-5 Sarah Boothe against their 5-3 center (Well, she certainly looked 5-3). And from the first play we discover Chiney is a beast! She grabs the offensive rebound and puts it back up. She looks hungry for the ball and wants to score points. She misses her first free throw and C resists the urge to yell her age-old anthem, “this ain’t high school!”

Tara lets everyone in the game, giving freshmen Toni Kokenis a taste of point guard, and Sara James a shot at the off guard spot. At one point, it was a true freshmen-to-freshmen connection, with Toni running a fast break and passing to Sara for the score, and Sara passing to Chiney as she out-maneuvered her defender for the score. How much will we rely on our freshmen this year?

Even Lindy LaRoque gets in the game, which is surprising since we last heard she was hurt and might be out for the season.

With our height of trees, we out rebound them 67-27, especially offensively, and freshmen Sara James bombs a three to get us to 100 points. Where’s the free pizza, Stanford? Oh, BTW, what was up with poor Hannah doing the “three-point” duty? You know, when Stanford hits a three-pointer, someone from the end of the bench runs to the head of the bench and high-fives everyone. Poor gimpy Hannah, missing her ACL had to hobble down the line 14 times! Shouldn’t we get someone who has two good knees to do that job?

Wanna hear the box scores? You should, they are impressive. Kayla had 25 points and Chiney had 24. Jeanette Pohlen and Sara James each got 16, and Tinkle and Boothe each got 10. Granted it was against Charles Schwab, I mean Vanguard, but still. Oh, final score was 116-65.

One more exhibition game then on to Rutgers to start the season. Boy, Stanford doesn’t waste time testing themselves, do they?

Basketball Women are World Champs

The US Women are World Champions. They won the gold medal at the FIBA World Championships. Former Stanford Women’s Basketball player Jayne Apple was on the team. She played two minutes of the final game. Didn’t score.

It’s weird, Head coach Geno Auriemma, of the school that shall not be named, picks her to be on the team even though she did not have a good WNBA rookie year, defending his pick saying he needs her size and the intangibles she brings and then doesn’t use her. She averaged just  7.4 minutes per game in the nine game tournament. Maybe he and the team just like having her around. C and R did when she played for Stanford!

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If a Game Is Not Reported in the Papers, Did It Happen?

Well, the Seattle Storm ran the table and won the WNBA championship, not that you would know it be reading the San Francisco Chronicle. Oh wait, nobody reads papers anymore anyway, do they? C and R can understand the Chron wasn’t interested in the championship series because the home WNBA team wasn’t in it. Oh wait, there is no Bay Area home team. In fact, there is not Northern California home team.

Okay, newspaper readership is dwindling, and the mainstream interest in the WNBA isn’t there, but it is one of the few professional women’s leagues and the finals should have gotten at least an article in the middle of the paper. C and R had to read about the championship game on the last page, in a three-sentence blurb. How can the WNBA build interest with sports fans if the game is not reported? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Seattle went undefeated at home, went undefeated in the playoffs, set all kinda records and Lauren Jackson, the league’s MVP was the finals MVP. The other team in the finals was the Atlanta Dream, an expansion team that lost 30 games two years ago and found themselves battling it out in the finals in its third year of existence. Last year’s first round draft pick for the Dream, Angel McCourty, played out of her head, and twins, yes twins are helping the Dream cause. Although the Dream went down 0 for 3, they fought hard each game and each game was exciting and went down to the wire and was won by less then 5 points. SOoooo many angles the news writers could have hit this one from. But no, back page blurb instead.



In other women’s basketball news, the US National Team lost to Australia. Again, didn’t get it from the local papers, had to read about it online. Jayne Appel, former Stanford Women’s Basketball Player is on the team, but no, the papers ignore this game, too.

Oh, BTW, The Seattle Storm became the first all-female ownership group to win a professional sports title.

What does it take to get coverage around here?

A Perfect Storm of a Schedule

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team finally announced their schedule. (And what took them so long? Everyone else has had theirs out for weeks?)

So let’s just take a peeky weeky at December 30^th. Oh, it UConn, coming West to face us! UConn will enter this season with a 78 game winning streak, 10 short of the men’s record for consecutive victories D-1 basketball. Just 10 games away from tying the record. Stanford will be game number 11. They have to beat Stanford to get the record. Yes, way.

Stanford was the last team to beat them. Stanford held them to just 12 first half points in the title game last season. UConn barely beat them 53-47 in that game. Stanford star scorer Jayne Appel, who averages about 10 points a game and was playing with a broken foot, went scoreless. She scores seven points…. Wait, sorry, was day dreaming again….

As I was saying…this is a perfect storm, UConn coming west to play us at home is a big game. Stanford being the last team to beat them makes for a big game. Stanford actually having the tools and players to beat UConn, coupled with them losing Tina Charles, makes for a big game. But to get the most sacred record in all of basketball, not just the “women’s” record, but the UCLA men’s record, UConn has to beat Stanford… well….we’re just out of our heads here!!! And you should be, too!

So, you know C and R are set for tickets, thank you very much, courtesy of R, who has been a season ticket holder for twenty bazillion years, through all the dark days and not so very good seasons, and C just showed up when Candice Wiggins joined the team so she has known nothing but perfection. Wait, what was my point? Oh yeah, if you don’t have tickets yet, here is a sweet deal. You can get a five pack. It includes the UConn game and four others of your choice. C and R recommend Rutgers, Xavier, UCLA and Cal. You remember Xavier, don’t you? That was the team Stanford played in the NCAA tournament regional finals and were tied in the closing seconds and Xavier missed not one, but two, two lay ups and with 4.4 seconds Jeannette Pohlen dashed the length of the court for a scoop in! Yes, that cardiac game will be rematched at Stanford. Get the five pack, now!

See ya on the court.

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.