Stanford Blows Out UC Santa Barbara

Stanford blew out UC Santa Barbara 90-34. The undersized gauchos only shot 20% the first 20 minutes, resulting in 13 points at the half. And what exactly is a gaucho, you ask? Well, we learned from a helpful person wearing a UC Barbara shirt that a gaucho is an Argentinean cowboy, and not stylish short pants.

Brittany McPhee (12) rebounds next to teammate Amber Orrange (33) (GEORGE NIKITIN — AP Photo)

With the lopsided score, Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer got to rest her starters and play all 15 Stanford players, and 12 of them scored. Even with the limited minutes, four players were in double figures. Lili Thompson lead Stanford with 12, Karlee Samuleson and Briana Roberson each had 11, and freshie Brittany McPhee had 10. Loved Brittanys hustle, diving after balls, making blocks, and doing the little things to help her team. Bonnie Samuelson added nine. Speaking of the sharp-shooting Samuelson sisters (say that five times fast), each made three 3-pointers, going a combined 6-9 from downtown. Shout out to Erica McCall with a career high 12 rebounds and eight points. Double shoot out to Jasmine Camp who scored her first basket of the season, a three. She followed that up with a second three pointer.

And yet…

Here, let’s let our guest blogger, D, tell you about it (She got to take R’s place, who is out of town for the holidays).
D: Two things I noticed. When the Stanford posts screen, they are not effective. The other team sees them coming and can slip by the screen.
C: I heard the other team shout our “screen” as it was being set.
D: Exactly, the screen is telegraphed too much.
C: And you can’t discount the fact Stanford has been doing this high screen all season long and teams are noticing this on game film. What was the other thing?
D: Remember that cheer. BE aggressive, B-E aggressive!?
C: Yes.
D:  The post players are just not aggressive, in my opinion. They are not absolute ball hounds going for rebounds and when they catch the ball outside the paint, they are not a threat. They catch the ball and are on their heels looking for the next pass. They do not look like a threat to shoot or drive. The other team can back off of them on defense. They should be able to hit a shot outside the paint to keep the defense honest.
C: Yes, the lack of post play has been a concern of many who follow Stanford. Let’s hope they can keep working on this as Pac-12 play starts.
D: And what is up with the Stanford Tree?
C: That's three things, and I think he is supposed to be a palm tree.
D: I prefer the more Christmas-tree look of past seasons.
C: You gotta admit he is a great dancer.
D: That he is. Let me go take some video…


Enjoy the rest of 2014. We will see everyone back at Maples in 2015 for Pac-12 play (look out for Oregon State).

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Stanford Seniors Remain Unbeaten at Home

Just got back from watching the Stanford Women’s Basketball beat…Seattle? A rare non-conference game during conference play. The two teams have never played each other. Stanford has a 79-straight game wining streak going on at Maples, longest in the country. Seattle is making the three-year transition from Division II to Division I. C and R were so confused when Betty, the Maples announcer, kept saying Seattle’s team name, we thought she was saying “The Red Hots” instead of Redhawks, all one word.

Subbing in for the Red hots….
Foul on number 11 of the Red Hots...
30-second shot clock violation on the Red Hots….
You get the idea.

Even though senior night already happened on Saturday, there was no way the Stanford seniors were going to lose this last home game of the season. In fact they built a 14 point lead with 7 minutes to go on the first to make it very clear who was boss. But Seattle didn’t get the memo. Maybe not being beat year in and year out by Stanford, they were not intimidated. They hustled after loss balls (while Stanford seemed flat-footed) and applied a trapping half court defense that exposed the Card being a little too casual with the ball. In fact Stanford recorded 9 turnovers in the first. Seattle would cut Stanford’s lead to 6 before Stanford woke up and realized they were for real.

The score at the half was 43-29, Stanford. Freshmen Amber Orrrrange had a great first half scoring 8 points by attacking the basket. She would finish the game with 10 points and a season high 9 assists. She added 5 rebounds and 1 blocked shot, too.

The second half was all Ogwumike. Senior Nneka Ogwumike, who was seemed a little off in the first would come to life in the second. In the first 10 minutes of the second half, Nneka scored 5 points and sophomore sister Chiney scored 6 straight to go on a 14-5 run and extend their lead 59-36. Chiney would end the game with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Nneka would have 19 points and 11 rebounds, for a double-double. That would make her 15th double-double of the season and 47 th of her career.

Again, though, C and R do not like the offensive set in the first half. We saw that one-four, the guard bringing the ball up and 4 in a line near the three-point line. Every once in a while Nneka or Chiney would break to the basket and Amber would hit them. When Seattle went to their half court trap, Stanford went to 3 perimeter players with Nneka and Chiney taking turns flashing from the block to the free throw line. Options looked pretty limited but in the second half as Seattle tired, and Nneka and Chiney scored at will, hence the 14-5 run. Still, as one fan yelled out to the perimeter players who stood in their spots instead of moving without the ball, “You won’t beat Baylor that way.” Forget Baylor, we still have to get past Cal on Sunday, and then the Pac-12 tourney.

To stop our harping for a moment, Stanford did hit 7 of 16 three-pointers, for 43%. Noted three-point specialist Bonnie Samuelson hit 4 of them herself for 12 total points. Jos Tinkle hit 2 out of 3 from beyond the arc, and ended up with 14 points. Once again, Stanford had 4 players, all starters, in double figures. And that will beat Baylor.

Visibly hurt was the fifth starter Toni Kokenis. She rode a stationary bike when not in the game and seemed to walk with a limp. Last game she had a heating pad (or ice) on her thigh. She would still turn on her jets when needed, but she doesn’t seem right. Hopefully she can rest for a few days.
Cute Game Note:

Sometime in the second half, mini tree came out to dance, and danced just like Poppa tree. The Stanford Tree Mascot has a cone of wires strapped to back pack frame (we surmise) and min-tree was wearing an inverted tomato cage with green leafs. It was A-Dor-able! See SGC72’s photo:



Happy Leap Year and see you at Cal! Expect some Questions from Cal Golden Blogs soon.

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Stanford Starts Slow, Then Beats Washington State

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Stanford Starts Slowly, then Finishes UC Davis 93-44

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Poor Stanford Tree

Poor Stanford Tree!

Now, In Honor of Earth Day...

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