Stanford, Relying on Amber Orrange, Hangs On to Win Pac-12 Championship

Chiney Ogwumike scored the first basket for the Stanford Women’s Basketball team in the championship game over UCLA. Little did anyone know, or could guess, All-Everything Chiney Ogwumike would not score another basket in the game. After hitting a foul shot (And she missed three out of four free throws), she went 38 minutes without a another basket or point.

Yes, yes, Stanford went on an 8-0 run in the first five minutes and sent UCLA star Markel Walker to the bench with two fouls. UCLA scored their first point at the 12-minute mark. Come on, I mean, Chiney went scoreless in the first 11 minutes of the previous game vs. Colorado, but not her whole team. It was 11-2 Stanford over UCLA at the 11:52 mark. The casual Twitter fans of the Pac-12 called this game ugly and were ready to crown Stanford and turn the channel.

Then, something strange happened. Chiney got her second foul and went to the bench with 7:56 left in the first. Stanford was up 14-4. Flash back to last year, when Chiney would get two quick fouls and go to the bench for the rest of the first half, and her sister Nneka would have to score and rebound everything. It was a weird flash back, because we couldn’t remember Chiney going to the bench in the first half all year. The Pac-12 announcers confirmed she has not had two fouls (and therefore be forced to sit by Stanford head Coach Tara VanDerveer) all season long.

Only this time there was no Nneka Ogwumike to score. Who would step up and score for Stanford? And could the team survive without their leading scorer, rebounder and defender on the bench? The answer: No.

Stanford, without Chiney, looked stagnant on offense. That ten-point lead became nine, then eight. Stanford, without Chiney, could not stop UCLA from getting offensive rebounds and second and third chances to score.  Seven, Six. Stanford did foul UCLA as they were shooting their misses. UCLA also decided to play their star Markel Walker with two fouls and it paid off for them. The lead now three. Oh, three-point Bonnie Samuelson hits one. UCLA answers, Bonnie hits another three. UCLA answers, then they hit a shot with 27 seconds left in the first to go up by one and take that momentum into the locker room.

Granted, the second and third leading scores for Stanford in Amber Orrrrange and Mikaela Ruef were sitting right beside Chiney on the bench in that same time period. That certainly didn’t help matters. UCLA took advantage of Stanford bench players who normally don’t play in tense situations.
It’s okay. Keep calm and carry on… with Chiney Ogwumike. She can’t be stopped for long, can she? Oh yes she can. UCLA would push her and double and triple team her. Granted, the refs didn’t call much, and the frustration showed when Chiney was yet again tripled teamed and knocked around and got called for traveling. She slammed the ball to the floor in a rare display of temper. But C and R were worried all year that Stanford was one-dimensional and without Chiney to score, and would not have anyone step up. It never happened, until now, a championship game.

But Stanford guard Amber Orrrrange decided she would do whatever it took to score. And C and R were so impressed with her game we have decided to spell Amber's last name correctly for the rest of this blog. As we have mentioned, Orrange doesn’t get many assists per game (none in this one) but she can drive and she can pull up and hit a jumper. And she did. She scored a career high 20 points and was the only Stanford player in double figures. Bonnie would get a third three in the second half for nine total points, and Ruef scored eight, none bigger then a big, tough shot in traffic with 51 seconds left to put Stanford up by two, 49-47. Then Ruef fouled out.

Then something terrible happened.
My Twitter feed went down.

Amber Orrange tied the game, then put Stanford ahead with two free throws with three minutes left. And the first lead since the first half for Stanford. Amber Orrange tied it up again with a minute and a half left. Ruef hits that jumper to put Stanford up by two with 51 seconds than fouls out, and I can’t tweet about it! I am about to burst.

Amber Orrange scores the final basket and wins the game. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Amber Orrange, knowing her team needs a basket, dribbles, drives, spins, draws the two taller UCLA superstars in Walker and Brewer and she splits them, double pumps and banks it home with eight seconds left. Stanford leads 51-49. UCLA still gets a shot off, in those eight seconds, misses, fights for the rebound and Chiney Ogwumike knocks it out of bounds as the horn sounds. Stanford players rush the court, but refs huddle, and put .2 seconds on the clock and it is UCLA’s ball. Not a typo, it is point two seconds left.

My twitter is still down, or else I would have informed the Twitterverse that UCLA have to catch and release it, cannot land on your feet. Of course, the Pac-12 announcers also inform the peoples, as that is their job. UCLA catches and shoots, not sure, but I think she landed so it would not have counted had it gone in, and it did not. NOW, Stanford can rush the court, final score 51-49.

Chiney Ogwumike hugged her point guard and cried tears of joy. It wasn’t the team that saved Chiney from her worst shooting game of her career (three points, but 10 boards), it was one person. Chiney still got the Tournament MVP, now called MOP (most outstanding player, and why they changed it I don’t know). Amber Orrange made all Pac12 Tournament and deservedly so. She has been the number two scorer all year long. And Stanford has claim to the bizarre-est trophy ever.

The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team won its seventh straight Pac12 Tournament Title and 10th overall! I don’t know if any of them were this close, though.

Follow more close calls with C and R on Facebook and Twitter, too!

---

.

Pac-10 (Pac-12) Off-Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stanford Dominates UCLA for PAC-10 Lead

“I thought you said UCLA was good!” said C and R’s good friend and basketball teammate, S. Well, you can’t blame her for the statement as it was half time of the Stanford-UCLA game and Stanford was winning 31-15. And that was before she saw the second half where Stanford lead most of the game 30 or more points before winning 64-38. Thirty plus points against number eight ranked UCLA! Wow, they blew them out!

Stanford was just dominating them with their defense, too. UCLA tried setting screens to free up their guards but Stanford was too quick and often switched players for seamlessly coverage and the taller player did not roll towards the basket. C and R were a little surprised at that as one of the Arizona teams analyzed Stanford’s tendency to switch on screens and when the smaller Stanford guard switched to a taller forward, they moved toward the basket and tried to work it inside over the guard. UCLA did not try to work the mismatch or throw it inside. In fact, UCLA had problems getting off a good shot and didn’t score until 5 minutes had gone by in the game and by then it was 8-2. UCLA’s leading scorer Jasmine Dixon did not score until 10 minutes into the contest.

AS C and R have been saying for the last two years, Stanford rises to their opponent’s intensity level, so Stanford should really thank UCLA for the fast start. UCLA did come out fired up and tried some full court press. Coach Nikki Caldwell said they were doing a full court press after UCLA scored, but if you don’t score, then you can’t press. Hmm., good point and maybe you might want to rethink that one, coach!

Speaking of Nikki Caldwell, did you see those shoes? I mean C and R have seen coaches wear some high heels on Maples floor (Hello Kim Mulkey), but I think she needed a ladder just to get in them! (Speaking of Kim Mulkey, special shout out to our Cal friends who are Kim fans and who drove down from Sacto to see the game. They are impressive in all the women’s basketball knowledge they have. C and R have tunnel vision on Stanford and it was great to get the 411 on other teams for a change—although they lost street cred for leaving early when the Stanford lead hit 30!).

It was great to see Kayla Pedersen have a break out game offensively. She scored 18 points and had 10 boards. It was also great to see how she scored. When Stanford was in their half court game, she was calling for the ball, working hard inside, posting up, and cutting back door. C and R haven’t seen her work so hard for the ball in a long time. And then there was the second half Show Time fast break game. Where did that come from? Stanford had 18 fast break points, and Kayla was leading a lot of them. Not their usual way of scoring, and UCLA is fast.

Mel Murphy played in her first game sense off-season surgery and she had a steal and a fast break lay up at the other end, although she was fouled when shooting and it wasn’t called.

In fact, the officiating was just horrible. The game was rough and they simply missed making calls, or when they did blow the whistle the call was late or two plays ago. Poor Nneka Ogwumike got beat up. She was hit in the nose when shooting and fell down and no call. She set a screen and the UCLA player did not see her and totally bowled her over and they both went crashing to the floor and no call. Players often were knocked to the floor when shooting and NO CALL! Sarah Boothe got called for an intentional foul and the replay did not show that at all. Then a few plays later a UCLA player went to stop a fast break basket and it was intentional as she just hit the other player’s hands and body and was not going for the ball. Where is the “intentional” call on that one? To make matters worse, there would be an obvious foul, such as a player knocked to the floor and ignored, and then the next contact made by the team that made the previous foul would draw a whistle, never mind the contact was minimal at best. Yes, make up calls. Which means the officials were aware they “blew” one and were making it up. It happened very obviously three separate times. We have heard from other teams that PCA-10 officials are the worst, but that game was especially called poorly. Does anyone review the officials’ work?

We mentioned UCLA player Jasmine Dixon, and she continues to impress as when we saw her last year in the PAC-10 tournament in LA. She “only’ scored 12, below her average, but lead all UCLA scorers. She is impressive in her ability to create her own shots near the basket. She has as quick as we have ever seen explosive first step to the basket and then can elongate her stride to beat her player to the basket, as well as squeeze out of the double team Stanford put on her. Someone to keep our eye on.

Off to see Stanford take on USC Saturday!

PAC-10 POW and Mail Call

Congratulations to Stanford Women’s Basketball player Nneka Ogwumike for being the PAC-10 Player of the Week (POW) for the week of January 17^th. She helped Stanford take down the Washington Schools and averaged 18 points per game. And sorry we missed Jeanette’s PAC-10 POW honor January 3^rd. (She helped take down UConn that week with a 31 point outpouring in said game).

Mail Call
This just in, C and R have a scouting report for UCLA from superfan TG. He reports:
“Watched UCLA dismember Oregon Saturday on Fox Sports. Very surprised at their offensive discipline to go with their tenacious defense. Last year they were a lot more chaotic and seemed to score mostly on turnovers and offensive put-backs.  Saturday they were patient in the half court, used the extra pass to find the open player, and knocked down a high percentage of mid-range shots.  Very impressive - we will have a tough with them if we give up 23 offensive boards...”

Gulp. Hope Stanford isn’t taking this game lightly.

TH writes in, and no is not UConn’s Tiffany Hayes in disguise writing to C and R, TH asks why Stanford Women’s Basketball is not on TV! Well, how much time you got, Big T? She also asked if the UCLA game was being filmed. A short answer is yes, for the jumbotron and for Tara to study the film afterward, and also I think college basketball service either buys the film or shoots their own and then sells it to any interested party or they have a deal with colleges to provide game film on other teams or something like that, C and R might have it wrong, but the film is not for general consumption. So the bigger question remains why number four Stanford who is playing number eight UCLA at home in an important PAC-10 game is not on any TV channel? (Although you can pay $14.95 a month for the website “ALL Access and see some games).

The long answer is the networks think there is not a big enough following for much of women’s basketball, and certainly not for a West Coast team. The few women’s basketball games the networks deem “Acceptable” are back East and have “name brand recognition, such as UConn, Tennessee, any team with Michigan or North Carolina in their title, any SEC team or any team East of the Mississippi in general. (Okay, at first I threw those last two in as a joke, before we actually DID check to see what’s on TV, and here’s what we found).

C and R checked ESPN3, which is the website name for ESPN and has some coverage broadcast on the web. There IS a women’s basketball game televised the day of Stanford – UCLA. Wanna know who it is? Georgia vs Alabama. Two SEC teams! And Alabama isn’t in the top 25, although Georgia squeaks by in one poll at number 23 and doesn’t appear in the top 25 of the coaches poll.…

So wait, according to Women’s Basketball Online, here is what is being televised on the major networks, not just ESPN. (Comments in parenthesis belongs to C and R, and we didn’t even peek when we said what teams have name brand recognition).
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20^th, 2011
Michigan State at Indiana..........5:30..........Big Ten Network (See, Michigan!)
VCU at Old Dominion..........6:00..........WSKY/Comcast SportsNet MA+ (Two teams East of the Mississippi!)
Tennessee at South Carolina..........6:00..........Fox Sports Net (SEC!!)
Ole Miss at LSU..........7:00..........Cox Sports (SEC again, and one school has Mississippi in the title)
Wisconsin at Minnesota..........7:30..........Big Ten Network (wait, are they east or west of the mighty Mississippi? Ulp, one is east and one is west, so at least they both touch the Mississippi)
Georgia at Alabama..........8:00..........CSS (See, SEC and not ranked and the only game on the internet site as we noted).

What can you do about it? Well, surprisingly, you can do something, and that is to contact ESPN and let them know your thoughts. Let them know you support women’s basketball in general and Stanford Women’ Basketball in particular. ESPN columnist Mechelle Voepel says they listen to the feedback and adjust accordingly and the emails really help. So get writing, Stanford Women’s Basketball fans!

Women's College basketball Pre-Preseason

C and R were surfing that there Internet and found that the pundits are already predicting the top ten women’s college basketball teams for next year, even though most colleges were still unwinding from this season, Stanford included.

Typical themes will be how teams handle the loss of seniors. For Stanford, they lost Jayne Appel and Ros Gold-Onwude. They might lose guards JJ Hones and Mel Murphy depending on off-season knee surgery. However they add red-shirt Sarah Boothe, who is 6’5” and freshman Chiney Ogwumike, Nneka Ogwumike’s sister, plus two strong guards. Here’s an in-depth analysis of Stanford by Jake Curtis of the Examiner. UConn loses center Tina Charles and Kalena Greene, yet have the best player in the country in Maya Moore. However, it helps to have a supporting cast. Stanford fits the team concept/supporting cast better than UConn next year, so many predict the streak will end, including C and R. UConn also comes west next year to play Stanford at home. Mark your calendars for that one!

You can also check out Jake’s preseason picks. He echoes that UConn will be vulnerable, and he picks Stanford above UConn. However, his number one team is Baylor. Say what? We disagree. Brittney Griner has unique skills yet we do not think she has a strong supporting cast. We still pick Stanford above Baylor.

Charlie Creme of ESPN also has Baylor above Stanford. He lists UConn, Baylor, Stanford as his one two three. Jeff Linder of the Gazette Online has the same top three. What? Baylor above Stanford next year. We do not believe it and hope they both eat their words. Picking Baylor above Stanford. Do they know something we don’t? (that’s certainly possible). But C did not like how Baylor’s Brittney Griner was coached and doesn’t think they will use her as effectively as they should, plus her supporting cast is shaky and that’s why she thinks Stanford will prevail over them.

All the analysis’ have PAC-10 foe UCLA on the rise and in the top 15, with Jake placing them 7th, and Charlie 13th and Jeff has them 11th. Let’s not look ahead to UConn just yet, folks.

Well, we wish the Stanford players a healthy and restful off-season, full of hard work and training. Hee hee, can they have both? Well, we wish them a happy time at the awards ceremony. This was a special year and we hope they savor what little remains.

Tournament Odds and Ends

With Stanford busy practicing for the Sacramento Regional Games, C and R thought they would take some much needed time off and let some other people talk about women’s basketball. Because, yes blogging is SO hard, dreaming up our opinions, with no facts or research to back it up, typing with two fingers , so, so very hard!

First up are (sigh) Cal fans who watched a lot of TV and were at the Berkeley Regional for the first and second rounds and saw Baylor in action. Now, Baylor is a curiosity because of Brittney Griner. She’s 6’8”, can dunk with two hands, is setting all kinda records for blocks, and broke an opponents nose because she was fouling her. She also is a freshman and can be maddeningly inconsistent on both ends of the floor. You never know which Brittney is going to show up.

Here D and C’s report:
The Baylor game was ugly: Georgetown shot 17%, Baylor shot 38%; Griner out 12 minutes in first half in foul trouble; Baylor's best freshman scoring threat (Shanay Washington) out with hip pointer in 1st half; Georgetown missed its first 14 shots, was down 19-2 at one point!  Griner did have 13 blocks in the 2nd half (NCAA record).  Jones impressed big-time playing post for Griner (on Georgetown’s 6-6 freshman Sidney Wilson).  Score was 31-19 at the half.

It was really fun to see Kim Mulkey (in fabulous skin-tight zebrah-pattern top, bell bottoms w/Texas-big belt/buckle, and super-sized hair), way out on the floor, gesticulating and yelling like crazy at the refs, who at times had to dodge her.  She crouched much of the game (in stiletto boots)…  You go, Kim!  The Baylor fans in the house loved her. The Cal fans behind us didn't get her at all!

Seeing Griner, even in this raw state, is worthwhile. Her mobility and height gave her the edge over GT's freshman 6-6er, but Griner needs to bulk up (she looks skinnier in person, though her frame is a V, with solid legs). She is impressive defensively - her full-paint coverage really alters the game.  She's hit a slump offensively, but passes and catches well, and runs the floor really well.  The refs seem pretty hard on her, and will need to figure out what to with her (ala Shaq).  The Baylor fans were behind her 100%.

On the other games:
Well, our bracket is utterly blown, but so much good came out of it!  Falling in love with San Diego State (we're Mountain West fans), especially senior guard Jene Morris (a Cal transfer out of San Francisco...?!), AND coach Beth Burns, graduate assistant to Tara at Ohio St!  UCLA kicked butt in Caldwell's first tournament win. Sorry to see them go down to Nebraska (Jasmine Dixon got in foul trouble and that was it).  BOTH of Stanford's potential Big 12 opponents are eliminated....Oh yeah, and "Yay Zags!"
>>>>>>
Thanks, D and second C.

Other Stuff:
Speaking of Gonzaga, they beat Texas A&M, our one question mark we were supposed to have met in the Elite Eight. And we beat Gonzaga this year by 30 points!

It will be exciting to see Baylor against Tennessee. They met in the first game of the season, in Brittney Griner’s first college game, and she was not ready for prime time. Since then she has gone on to set the single season shot blocking record. Will be interesting, as we mentioned, to see which Brittney shows up. Wonder if she will glower at Pat Summit? 'Course, Pat would just glower right back.

Speaking of brackets, R is still winning in our local one… bragging has commenced immensely (C is in last place). But in the Women’s Talk Sports Bracket, if you played, make sure you go to their site and register your name so you can be eligible for prizes. (In that one, R is in the middle of the pack and C is waaaay down below). And if your screen name is Stanford A, currently tied for 9th in the whole NCAA contest, not just WTS, you are killin’ it. Drop us a line to say hi, and be sure to register, I hope they give you a special prize. (One clever fan said it must be Tara!)

And C was so happy her beloved Dayton won in the NCAA tournament for the first time... ever. Well, let’s amend that, they were in the NCAA tournament for the first time ever and won their first game against some sort of frog.  C is from Dayton, Ohio. She first learned to drive in the University of Dayton’s basketball parking lot so many years ago. Her first women’s college basketball game was seeing the Dayton Flyers play (Dayton is the birthplace of the Wright brothers, hence the name—the more trivia you know, the more you forget where your car keys are). To bad the Flyers ran into that buzz-kill, Tennessee. Apparently, no one thought Dayton would make it this year, either, as they gym played host to a bracket, yet the team was sent to Knoxville so Tennessee could have a home game against them.

And Ohio State. When not rooting for UD in basketball, our house cheered Ohio State in Football, because in the fall and winter, it was too darn cold to go outside and do anything else. Ohio State lost to Mississippi State in the second round, even though Ohio State was a number 2 seed and Miss. was a number 7 seed. Darn under-achieving Ohioans.

And how about the DIII basketball champs? None other than my old Alma Mater, Washington University in St. Louis. Although some DII schools looked at me for basketball and other sports (walk on-no scholarships), I decided to go to Washington University to study art. I played intramurals and was always hanging around the gym and one assistant coach was always trying to recruit me, but I thought, “It will take a lot of time and what will I do after college for basketball, being no opportunities for women in the US at the time.” Plus an art major took a lot of time. A lot of time. So I always said no. I could strangle my former 18-22 year old self. Well, congrats to the D III Bears who gave up their free time to dedicate themselves to basketball and won the championship.

One reader wrote in and said they are sick and tired of hearing about UConn. We are too, so we won’t tell you how they destroyed, just destroyed Temple in the second round.

With UCLA, the only other PAC-10 team, out of the tournament, we are now cheering for San Diego State, and Gonzaga, two West Coast teams. Well, if Gonzaga wins over Xavier, we won’t be cheering for them any more because that would be Stanford’s next opponent! Stanford plays Georgia at 6 PM and Zags are on at 8:30 on Saturday.

Oh, if you are heading to Arco Arena, NO BACKPACKS. Thought Maples was bad about the water bottles. No outside food, drink or backpacks. No exceptions, no how. Leave them at home. Trade up in seats at your own risk.

Stanford vs. UCLA-- PAC-10 Championship Game

We run into some UCLA fans in the bar (hey, it was the only place near the arena open for lunch). They say they heard UCLA’s Jasmine Dixon was hurt. That she got hurt in the semi-final game against USC. C and R look at each other. Maybe they are trying to give us false hope.

All C and R can say is if she was hurt, we would hate to see her at full strength. The Stanford Women’s Basketball team led the game against UCLA wire to wire, but it was Jasmine Dixon that impressed. She was everywhere on the court. She would drive in to the basket and try to draw a foul and when Stanford would play off her to prevent her drive, she would pull up for a jumper and make it. She also was everywhere on the defensive side of the court.

The only way we could stop her was when she went to the bench. Luckily for us, she did early and often in the first half. What was UCLA Head and PAC-10 Coach of the Year Nikki Caldwell thinking?

C and R were sitting with a mixed crowd (meaning we were near Stanford and UCLA fans) and our section had fun theorizing why Dixon was not in more. Was she really injured? Was it her foul trouble? (She would eventually foul out of the game in the second half) Was it to give us a false sense of confidence?

One of our faithful readers had a great theory that Jasmine was tired from yesterday’s game and they were resting her a lot in the first half so she would still be fresh for a second half charge. Boy, that was a good theory.

Speaking of the half, we were leading 36-19 after 20 minutes. Can you say “Defensive Battle”? Can you say, "Stanford make your lay-ups for crying out loud?" Good. UCLA kept us on our toes by a half court trap and occasionally a full court press. In breaking the half court trap, as long as we did not panic and remembered we can dribble out of two people guarding us, we did fine.

As for UCLA’s full court press, we could break it but it would take us 15 seconds of the 30-second shot clock. Stanford fans, let’s flash back to 2008’s National Title game when Stanford played against Tennessee (you know, the one that was Candice Wiggins’ last game-- Oh, we just like remembering her!). No, really, we have a point.

At that time, Nikki Caldwell was an assistant coach for Tennessee. She noticed that the strength of Stanford’s offensive was their passing and going through set “reads”. If you are open, you shoot; otherwise you pass to the next player. Pass to the wing, pass to the three point shooter, pass to the high post, wait for the guard to come around the horn of Africa and hand off, back to teh wing… you get the idea. Stanford would be very patient and disciplined and pass until they wore down the defensive and would find a shooter open and shoot. This would take 20-25 seconds of the 30-second shot clock. If you covered that shooter the next time down, Stanford would have another option waiting. It was hard to defend.

So Nikki said, “Let’s take away their strength”, which is using the clock. So Tennessee pressed us and harassed us in the backcourt. Even if we broke the press and got the ball across the half court line, we had used 15 seconds of clock. As we went to our passes and “reads,” we would run out of time and would have to take a hurried shot. We looked disjointed on offensive, never found our rhythm and lost the game.

Well, flash forward to the second half of this game and UCLA comes out in a full court press. We don’t panic as much as we used to and get the ball across half court, right at the 15-second mark. Except this time we have our secret weapon, Nneka Ogwumike. We can just pass it to her down low and she can create and score within 5 seconds. Or else Kayla Pedersen can get the ball and pull up for a three or drive in, all within 5 seconds. Ha, we are not so one-dimensional anymore, are we?

Oh, with UCLA pressing, Tara decided to insert guard Melanie Murphy into the game for her ball handling skills and she did great, and contributed 10 points. Hopefully her knee is up to the challenge of more minutes.
So when we saw UCLA open teh second half with the full court press and Jasmine Dixon playing hard, we thought the prophecy that UCLA was saving Dixon to make an energetic charge was going to come to fruition. But we broke it and scored easily. When Dixon got her fourth foul and went to the bench, no one from UCLA really stepped up scoring-wise, and when she fouled out, that’s all she wrote. (Except for us, we keep writing). The outcome was never in doubt and the final score was 70-46.

One thing we did admire is that UCLA did not give up on their aggressiveness in the closing minutes. They went hard after the Stanford players, and if we got a defensive rebound, they attacked us, a few times slamming down hard on the ball to knock it away. So much so that Stanford Coach Tara Van Derveer said UCLA “took rebounds out of our hands”. She feels we still need some work, to put it mildly.
Nikki Caldwell said she liked when her team was “aggressive and disruptive”, but they did not keep it up for 40 full minutes. C and R are sure in she will correct that in a year or two.

We do want to mention that we thought we had better refs for this game at least more fouls were (rightfully) called. UCLA had two players foul out in the second half, and Jayne Appel was in danger with 4 and Nneka had 3. The UCLA players, in their defense, were playing very aggressively when they fouled.

Now on to the accolades. First of all, we are the first women’s PAC-10 team to go undefeated in PAC-10 play (18-0) and undefeated in the PAC-10 tournament. We were 21-0 during that stretch. Nneka Ogwumike scored 59 total tournament points and was named the tournament MVP. She was the fifth player to be named league MVP and tournament MVP. Kalya Pedersen and Jayne Appel were named to the PAC-10 tournament team.

Incidentally, Swish Appeal has been reviewing women’s basketball teams in preview of the NCAA tournament. Here is one quote about Stanford’s trio of trees.

“Most schools would kill to have one post player as good as any of Stanford's. The fact that Stanford is sitting on three of them is mind-boggling… In case that wasn't enough, they have the co-Defensive Player of the Year in the Pac-10 in senior guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude.”

She forgot to mention Chiney Ogwumike coming in next year… hee hee.

Anyway, Congratulations to Stanford! Enjoy your Monday and look for the women’s bracket!

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

Quick Notes From LA

A quick hello again from LA where we have no idea what time it is! Daylight Savings happened sometime last night and although we remember “Spring Forward, Fall Back”, that means the clocks…..um, we don’t know. All we know is the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team plays in the PAC-10 Tournament Championship Game today at 3 PM. Let’s hope we can figure out what time it is before then. Meanwhile we are going to Fat Burger for breakfast and or lunch.

Stanford plays UCLA today, the best team that has a chance to upset Stanford. Although UCLA played in a spirited semi-final game against USC and won, C and R are hoping they will be emotionally and physically drained.

In other news, we checked up on the news about Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson. She went down hard on the court in the game against Stanford in their semi final game and was taken off by stretcher. Cal’s coach, Joanne Boyle, visited Gray-Lawson in the hospital after the game and said she was joking, talking and having "normal" conversations with everyone. Good to hear, hope she can go home today.

Extra Extra! Jayne Appel NOT Thrown Out of Next Game

Well, we can all breathe a little easier (and C and R will stop with the "extras", we promise). Jayne is not suspended for Sunday’s Stanford Women’s Basketball game against USC. Stanford senior Jayne Appel was ejected from the UCLA game Thursday night for what the refs thought was a flagrant elbow to Jasmine Dixon’s face. The PAC-10 will typically meet the next day review the play and to decide if the player needs to be suspended for the next game.

Both the UCLA coach, Nikki Caldwelll and the player hit, Jasmine Dixon, insist the elbow was not intentional and that Jayne is not a dirty player.

Internet theorists are suggesting two things: One, because the PAC-10 ruled the night of the foul to not suspend Jayne, they did not agree with the refs that it was a flagrant violation. This calls into question whether or not Jayne should have been ejected in the first place. Internet theory number two: UCLA is insisting the foul wasn’t flagrant because they want Jayne to be eligible for the next game, which is USC, a team UCLA is tied for second place in the PAC-10 and UCLA needs Stanford to beat USC.

Okay, that last theory is fun, but C and R place no stock in it. Dixon and Caldwell made those statements immediately after the game and would have to really, really be calculating and manipulative to be thinking ahead to Sunday’s game. Now, for the former, that the PAC-10 didn’t further suspend Jayne, we believe it was a bad call all around (see last post), maybe worth a foul on Jayne, not a technical and not an ejection.

Don’t forget, the game is this Sunday, Superbowl Sunday at 1 PM. Stanford will be celebrating the 1990 National Champion Team and Jennifer Azzi, Katy Steding, Trisha Stevens and Val Whiting will be among the former players expected to be present. Yes, yes, C and R know this is Superbowl Sunday, but with the 1 PM game time, we will have you back in your snug little homes in front of you big screen TVs in time for the 3:20 PM kick off. So come on out!

LATE BREAKING STORY…
Ah, geez, our Internet scouring robots just found out Jayne was NEVER in danger of being suspended. According to Jake Curtis on the San Jose Examiner’s website, the PAC-10 did not need to make a ruling, because:

“(Jayne’s) foul was called a flagrant PERSONAL foul, not a flagrant TECHNICAL foul. A flagrant personal foul, which is excessive contact while the ball is live, is not subject to suspension and does not require a review by the conference office, so Appel was never in jeopardy of being suspended. The penalty is two free throws and an ejection, and that is all.

“A flagrant technical foul involves unsportsmanlike conduct that is extreme in nature during play or excessive contact while the ball is not in play. Fighting is the best example. A player hit with a flagrant technical foul is subject to a suspension, depending on the ruling of the conference after a review.”

So take that, internet crazies… oops, C and R are one of the many crazies.. so what’s new? We like our version of reality better, anyway. Jayne shouldn’t have been ejected!