Ya know, it’s funny; R just asked me if I had heard from our junior bloggers this season. Faithful readers like Mom will know that the junior bloggers are still in school and almost as obsessed with Stanford Women’s Basketball as we are. Almost. And they have even taught C and R a thing or two in the stalking department. So it was serendipitous (it’s okay, they live near Stanford and that radius automatically boasts your vocabulary level by about 20 points on the SAT and they know even bigger words than C and R), serendipitous that I should receive an email from one of them today, taking a break from her algebra homework or facebooking or whatever the devil it is kids do today.
It was on the subject of who (whom?-- I never know, I don’t live in the radius of Stanford and therefore I are dumb) who Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer should get rid of if we have six recruits coming in 2011 and five active seniors graduating, which was the subject of our last post.
It began: Hey Stupid Idiots….
No, no, no, the junior bloggers are waaaaay too polite to begin a letter like that.
So it really began, DEAR Stupid Idiots….
No, no, no, and right now Mama Junior blogger has had a heart attack twice over. No, Junior Mama, just kidding, your daughter is very polite and very nice. In fact, she was so polite she wrote and said she wanted to point out a small detail I forgot. She said there are 15 scholarship spots and we have 14 players on the roster now with one spot open due to JJ Hones being dismissed last year, so we have six spots open.
Isn’t that cute, saying we “forgot” that detail, instead of calling us out and saying you idiots forgot about the void from JJ, which is what really happened (and thank you to other email writers who are not junior bloggers to point out the same thing to us). So although we are embarrassed, we are relieved Tara does not have to make the difficult decision to let someone go before they are a senior.
Well, the season is almost here, although I have to dish that one of the junior bloggers is going to MISS the Rutgers game, and I am so upset I think I might have to revoke her Tinkle bell. But it is okay, she is going to Yosemite, which is R’s favorite place in the world, so she is excused and gets to keep the Tinkle bell and will make the next home game!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
How Many Recruits?
The Good News:
The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team signed six recruits for next year, and the recruiting class was ranked number four in the nation. Read all about their incredible accomplishments. (One is from Jayne Appel's old high school!)
The Bad News:
There are only five seniors listed on the roster. Who is Stanford Head Coach Tara getting rid of?
The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team signed six recruits for next year, and the recruiting class was ranked number four in the nation. Read all about their incredible accomplishments. (One is from Jayne Appel's old high school!)
The Bad News:
There are only five seniors listed on the roster. Who is Stanford Head Coach Tara getting rid of?
Convincing Win
Sounds like the Stanford Women’s Basketball team’s 100-52 win over UC San Diego on Tuesday was a lot of fun. Too bad C and R missed it, what with “Glee” on and all. No, R is still healing from her bionic shoulder, so we skipped this exhibition game. It will be hard for R to make the opening game, but when we saw it is Rutgers, well, she is saving her pain pills for Sunday!
Ogwumike leads the way, but it was Chiney, not Nneka, although C and R were cheered to hear Nneka played after sitting out the first exhibition game with a sore ankle. Hecka Nneka* (registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending) just played 13 minutes. Hope she is going to be okay to go for Rutgers.
Chiney, healthy as a horse, scored 24, almost a quarter of the points, and Stanford shot 75% from the field. Whew! Although the three point shot was not a threat in this game, who needs that when you have rebounders such as Sarah Boothe, Joslyn Tinkle, Kayla Pedersen, Ogwumikes squared… did we leave anyone else out. Fear the TreeS!* (Registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending).
Tara is sure trying out Toni Kokenis at point. It will be interesting to see how the freshman holds up in a game against say, Rutgers. Did we mention Rutgers is coming to town? (BTW, Tara is Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer- registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending… nah, just kidding on that one!)
If you bump into C and R at the “real” game on Sunday, make sure not to bump into R’s arm, as she needs to heal. See ya there!
Ogwumike leads the way, but it was Chiney, not Nneka, although C and R were cheered to hear Nneka played after sitting out the first exhibition game with a sore ankle. Hecka Nneka* (registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending) just played 13 minutes. Hope she is going to be okay to go for Rutgers.
Chiney, healthy as a horse, scored 24, almost a quarter of the points, and Stanford shot 75% from the field. Whew! Although the three point shot was not a threat in this game, who needs that when you have rebounders such as Sarah Boothe, Joslyn Tinkle, Kayla Pedersen, Ogwumikes squared… did we leave anyone else out. Fear the TreeS!* (Registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending).
Tara is sure trying out Toni Kokenis at point. It will be interesting to see how the freshman holds up in a game against say, Rutgers. Did we mention Rutgers is coming to town? (BTW, Tara is Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer- registered copyright!-T-Shirts pending… nah, just kidding on that one!)
Oh, we got an email from a fan that was actually at the game. Her observations were that in the Van Guard game, everyone, and we mean EVERYONE, was told to shoot threes. In this game, it seemed Tara said only shoot twos. In fact, everything should be a lay up. Boy, if any of that is true, we truly ARE a versatile team! Thanks PM!
If you bump into C and R at the “real” game on Sunday, make sure not to bump into R’s arm, as she needs to heal. See ya there!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Pre Season Favorites?
Stanford’s Nncka Ogwumike has been voted a preseason All-American, C and R see, but what about Kayla Pedersen? What, cannot have two players from the same team? Man, that’s cold. To quote someone from the internet, all that matters is how you are voted post-season. Hee hee.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
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?
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?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Dunk School
So, women's basketball player Baylor’s Brittney Griner can dunk, so what, so can our Nneka, and she even takes out cameras! And yes, her hand WAS above the rim in Stanford's gym!
Well, it was all in part for Stanford’s “Dunk Schoool”, cuz, ya kow, those Stanford kids are so smart they are always in school or learnin’ or somethin’—enjoy!
Remember boys and girls,
plant
jump
throw down
rinse and repeat
See ya at the game!
Well, it was all in part for Stanford’s “Dunk Schoool”, cuz, ya kow, those Stanford kids are so smart they are always in school or learnin’ or somethin’—enjoy!
Remember boys and girls,
plant
jump
throw down
rinse and repeat
See ya at the game!
Thursday, November 4, 2010
A Head in the Polls
Well, preseason polls have come out, and although each one is a little different, C and R are seeing a trend; UConn number one, Baylor number 2 and Stanford number 3, or something like that, we are just happy when we place higher than Tennessee, hee hee… And blaspheme to the polls that have us below the top three, what, we are sixth in some of them! Who is better than us? Who?
Yes, UConn is the preseason favorite, since they won the championship and have that 50 gazillion game winning streak going on, but wake up pollsters, they lost Tina Charles and some other people to graduation and injury, (we don’t know if the people they lost were any good, we don’t follow UConn basketball), and they are not the same team. And Stanford, we added recruit of the year Chiney Ogwumike, sister of Nneka, and have Kalya Pedersen who can play all five positions at once, and the X-factor of red-shirted, rehabilitated, and rebuilt 6-5 Sarah Boothe. Pollsters don’t know about her yet, but C and R believe they will soon.
Now take Baylor, please. No, just kidding, Baylor is an interesting case. They have Brittney Griner, the… well, the TALLEST player in women’s basketball. And some pollsters are impressed with that. Yes she can dunk, and she can block shots, but C and R were NOT impressed with how she was coached last year. She was lazy on rebounds, did not box out, and would often run out to the three-point line to block a shot, miss the block, then be out position to get the rebound. And on offense all she had to do is stand on the block and put her hands up and have the guards throw it to her. No one could intercept the pass and no one could block her. And she can dunk, for goodness sakes, give her the ball on the block and let her dunk! But she would disappear, scoring wise, during the game. And who is in her supporting cast? Can you name one ontehr player that supports here? Or was in any of the preseason trophy watches? UConn deposed of Baylor easily in the play-offs, and Brittney did not look good in that game. C and R blame the coaching. So if she was not well used or well-coached last year, what makes the pollsters think she will be well used or well coached this year? We think Baylor is going to crash and burn.
Well, it will be an interesting year for all!
Yes, UConn is the preseason favorite, since they won the championship and have that 50 gazillion game winning streak going on, but wake up pollsters, they lost Tina Charles and some other people to graduation and injury, (we don’t know if the people they lost were any good, we don’t follow UConn basketball), and they are not the same team. And Stanford, we added recruit of the year Chiney Ogwumike, sister of Nneka, and have Kalya Pedersen who can play all five positions at once, and the X-factor of red-shirted, rehabilitated, and rebuilt 6-5 Sarah Boothe. Pollsters don’t know about her yet, but C and R believe they will soon.
Now take Baylor, please. No, just kidding, Baylor is an interesting case. They have Brittney Griner, the… well, the TALLEST player in women’s basketball. And some pollsters are impressed with that. Yes she can dunk, and she can block shots, but C and R were NOT impressed with how she was coached last year. She was lazy on rebounds, did not box out, and would often run out to the three-point line to block a shot, miss the block, then be out position to get the rebound. And on offense all she had to do is stand on the block and put her hands up and have the guards throw it to her. No one could intercept the pass and no one could block her. And she can dunk, for goodness sakes, give her the ball on the block and let her dunk! But she would disappear, scoring wise, during the game. And who is in her supporting cast? Can you name one ontehr player that supports here? Or was in any of the preseason trophy watches? UConn deposed of Baylor easily in the play-offs, and Brittney did not look good in that game. C and R blame the coaching. So if she was not well used or well-coached last year, what makes the pollsters think she will be well used or well coached this year? We think Baylor is going to crash and burn.
Well, it will be an interesting year for all!
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