This just in….at the half, it’s Iowa State 25, Jayne Apple 27.
Yes, that’s right, Jayne Appel of Stanford has single handedly outscored the whole Iowa State team in the first half. How did she do it? Well, it’s more a matter of what Iowa State didn’t do. They didn’t double cover her in the paint. Left in single coverage the whole first half, she scored 15 of the first 18 Stanford points. Pohlen hit a three in there. Then, around the 11 and a half mark Necka got a basket. Lindy got a three, I think. But it was Jayne going left, Jayne going right, Jayne missing and getting her own rebound and putting it back in.
The score was 38-25 at the half, with 27 of the points Jayne’s.
C and R have traveled again to Berkeley to see Stanford in the Elite Eight. We see someone cleaned up the peanut shells under our chairs. Thanks, Cal. Seatmates ask R what Jayne’s career high is, and R, with her fancy phone finds out it is 33.
Iowa State lives and dies by the three pointer and it looks like to C and R the Stanford team is on notice that if your player makes a three, you go to the bench. At least that’s what it seems like with Necka. She gets taken out a few times when her player scores. And all of our players are out on the perimeter, even our big girls of Jayne, Kayla and Necka. It seems to work as we limit them in the first half.
When the second half opens, Jayne goes right back to it and scores the first six points. Iowa State then half-heartedly tries a double team on Jayne. At first she kicks it out to other players and then decides the double team is not that strong and takes it in herself. The double team, instead of stopping her, just fouls her! And she has been struggling at the line of late. But she makes enough to get 33 with 17 minutes left.
Then it’s Jayne 34, Iowa 29, hee hee. The pro-Stanford crowd, while not as big as Saturday’s, is still pretty big for a Monday and is loving the Jayne Appel show.
Another seatmate asks R what the tournament record is. C remembers Candice Wiggins had 44 last year in the tournament, so that is the Stanford record, at least.
Jill is on a mission to get the ball to Jayne. The whole team must want Jayne to get the record, whatever it is. Jill is trying so hard to get ball to Jayne that she keeps forcing it and we keep turning it over. It is actually cute to see Stanford be so uncharacteristically unmethodical and sloppy, and care so much to hit Jayne.
Jayne hits her free throws for 40 points.
We have all our starters still in with 6 and a half minutes to go. C and R wonders if Tara is trying to make some kind of statement, such as, “you gave Duke the number one seed and they lost in the second round and we are still here beating teams by 20 or more points”. Also, if we let off and put in subs, and Iowa hits 3 or 4 three pointers, they are right back in it, or will make the score look respectable. And this game wasn’t even close.
Jayne ties Candice with a hook shot with three and a half minutes left. She gets one more basket to end up with 46, a school record and third best in tournament history and Tara says okay, and pulls her with 1:43 to play. Stanford wins 74-53, so 20 points it is.
The nets come down and Stanford is set for the final four….against…..Uconn.. Gulp.
The good news is we are the last team to beat them! The bad news is no one has beat them all season. Off to St. Louis!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sweet Sixteen for Stanford!
C and R have done the unthinkable. We have ventured into enemy territory. We have gone to….dunt-dun-dun….CAL!
Someone was looking out for the Cardinal when they made sure that if they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen they would play at the Berkeley Regional on Cal’s campus, right up the road. Cal, meanwhile, had to fly to Trenton, New Jersey! Hee hee! (Although C had Cal losing in the second round and now her bracket is all messed up!). Stanford will be playing Ohio State with the winner going to the Elite Eight.
This is our first trip to Hass Pavilion ever, even though it is less than an hour away from us. C and R drive around Cal trying to figure out the parking signs and finally park. The concession stand is a nightmare, as Cal students can’t figure out how to properly pop popcorn. (It’s true, they would fill a single bag in the back, and one person would walk the bag to the popcorn popper out front and place it inside and then go back for another single bag!) While C was standing in line, they ran out of hot dogs and drink lids. Maybe they were not expecting this to be a big crowd for women’s basketball. Stanford fans like their hot dogs and sodas.
C sees they have bags of peanuts for sale and buys one. When she gets to her seat (whoa, steep trajectory to the sunk-in floor, don‘t want to tip over!), she realizes she has no where to put her shells, so C and R take turns piling up the shells under their seats on Cal’s floor! (Hee Hee) We settle in to watch the undercard match, Michigan State vs. Iowa State.
We are with about a dozen friends and we ask V, the person who had enough foresight to buy this block of tickets for us way in advance, who she thinks is going to win. She says she wants Iowa State to win but thinks Michigan State will win. Oh, the old hedging bets routine. C and R have no vested interest in this game as we had both teams losing in earlier rounds in our brackets; although Stanford will play the winner of this game if they get by Ohio State.
Michigan State has a small lead in the final two minutes but plays with no sense urgency and they manage their timeouts wrong. Iowa hits two three pointers at the end to pull off the victory. Michigan State deserved to lose by not playing smart at the end. C and R realize after watching Stanford all these years that Tara has the players ready for any scenario and she manages the clock well. We are, in a good sense, spoiled.
C asks R if she thinks this game will be a sell out. The place is pretty packed, but we notice there is an empty block of seats in the middle front. The place will look empty if the TV camera pans there. C and R have been screaming all tournament about empty arenas. We hope this won’t be the case here, where we support women’s basketball. We wonder if the seats are corporate giveaways and the people they gave them to couldn’t be bothered to show up. As the minutes count down, most of the seats do get filled with Stanford fans. Good, we were worried. They announce a crowd of 6,178. Not bad. That is certainly better than the PAC-10 Tournament at USC and other regional sites.
The bands are regulated to little boxes and the Stanford student bandleader already decides he can’t fit in the tiny box. He stands outside the box with the cheerleaders to be able to move around. When Stanford plays, they move their bodies and swing in time to the beat and those who are not playing their instrument at that particular moment dance. With their red vests and kooky hats and individualized pins and other doo-dads, the band is indeed an eclectic bunch. The Ohio State Band wears matching maroon polo shirts with no individualization whatsoever, sit when they play and do not move a muscle or show an ounce of emotion. Those who do not play their instrument sit quietly waiting to play again. The bandleader is some elderly gentleman with headphones on, all the better to not hear the music. When Ohio State shoots a free throw the whole band spells out "O-H-I-O" in block letters with mechanical precision. It is a little scary!
The game starts and we have our big lineup in, and Jayne actually wins the jump. Repeat, Jayne won the jump! But then we look rattled and nervous and make rookie mistakes, because Necka is a rookie and keeps throwing the inbounds pass away, and we are quickly down 2-8. Their center, lat name Lavender, is 6’4 and their point guard, Sammy something, is quick and pushes the tempo. Necka gets yanked for Ros and Ros hits two threes and brings us some calmness and sanity.
Whenever there is a timeout, and this game, actually being shown on regular ESPN, not ESPN 2 or some shopping network, has a lot of loooong TV timeouts, uh, I lost my train of thought, those timeouts were so long. Oh yeah, whenever there is a timeout the Ohio State bench, who has perfectly good chairs provided by Cal, mind you, brings out these little canvas camp chairs for everyone to sit on in the middle of their half of the floor. They have a little camp out right in the middle of the game, with some s’mores and hot chocolate and the coach telling ghost stories about this giant Jaaayne and the Creature known as Kayla coming to get you….Wait, I digress, but it is funny to see Ohio State camping out on the floor!
Pohlen starts playing like a woman possessed. We pull ahead 9-8 but the Ohio State guard single-handedly pulls them back with her quick drives to the basket, until Kayla draws a charge on her. Kayla is so smart.
Jayne is not having a good half and to make matters worse, she misses a free throw. This ain’t high school, or even regular season, or even the PAC-10 tournament, Jayne, this is the one-loss-and-you-are-out-so-you-better-make-your-free-throws-kinda-game, Jayne! Jayne missed the second free throw.
Jill makes one of her great steals and basket, and is really hustling everywhere. With six minutes left in the first half we have a slight lead, 29-24. Ohio State’s center, Lavender, gets two quick fouls around the five minute mark and goes to the bench, That helps Stanford immensely. Ohio State has another camp out, I mean, timeout.
Pohlen is trying to run fast breaks but Necka seems hesitant to go inside. With 18 seconds left, we knock the ball out of bounds. Ohio State inbounds the ball and Pohlen steals it and Necka runs ahead but not hard enough or fast enough. They steal it back, they can’t get their shot to fall and it is 37 to 35 at half, we have the lead.
After a long stand in lines for both the bathroom and a pretzel, C makes it back with 17 seconds to spare.
We open the half with great defense. Jayne gets fouled as she shoots and the ball gets stuck right between the rim and the backboard. The refs look around for another ball and C yells for Necka and as if she heard, Necka gets up from the bench and looks at Tara to make sure it is okay and then trots out and jumps up to tap the ball free. Hee hee, if that doesn’t intimidate the other team….
Then Jayne misses 2 more free throws.
But to credit Jayne, she is still playing hard. She runs the fast break and Pohlen gives an incredibly long pass, and Jayne and scores and takes out a Stanford Dollie. Slingin’ Sammy from Ohio State keeps up the pressure and slashes and drives in, or dishes off in the last second and Ohio State gets some easy baskets.
Their center, Lavender gets her fourth foul at the 12-minute mark and goes to the bench. She stays out until the 6-minute mark, and that is just what Jayne needs. When she comes back in, Ohio State’s guard, Sammy, wills her team to score and Stanford goes cold. With 5 and a half minutes left, our lead has dwindled. The score is 66-62. C and R are nervous!
Then, finally, with about five minutes left, Jayne and Necka take turns scoring, or passing to each other to score, and we miraculously pull away. Ohio State camps out again to talk about it and /or tell ghost stories, but they have no answer. Jill makes her fourth steal of the game, feeds it to Pohlen on the wing. She gives Jill a give and go right back to her and Jill makes the basket and is fouled. Insult to injury! The crowd roars and roars again as she makes the free throw. The next time down Jill hits a three, and she didn’t make one all season or somehtin’, it’s that kind of magic now.
The final score is 84 to 66, but the game was much, much closer than that. Jayne ended up with 25, most of theme came in the second half. Jill had 16, Necka had 15 and Ros had 10. Ohio State didn’t get much help from their bench, although the freshmen guard had 19 and was very impressive.
We are playing Iowa State on Monday, and from what C and R saw, we can totally handle them! Then off to the final four!! See ya Monday.
Someone was looking out for the Cardinal when they made sure that if they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen they would play at the Berkeley Regional on Cal’s campus, right up the road. Cal, meanwhile, had to fly to Trenton, New Jersey! Hee hee! (Although C had Cal losing in the second round and now her bracket is all messed up!). Stanford will be playing Ohio State with the winner going to the Elite Eight.
This is our first trip to Hass Pavilion ever, even though it is less than an hour away from us. C and R drive around Cal trying to figure out the parking signs and finally park. The concession stand is a nightmare, as Cal students can’t figure out how to properly pop popcorn. (It’s true, they would fill a single bag in the back, and one person would walk the bag to the popcorn popper out front and place it inside and then go back for another single bag!) While C was standing in line, they ran out of hot dogs and drink lids. Maybe they were not expecting this to be a big crowd for women’s basketball. Stanford fans like their hot dogs and sodas.
C sees they have bags of peanuts for sale and buys one. When she gets to her seat (whoa, steep trajectory to the sunk-in floor, don‘t want to tip over!), she realizes she has no where to put her shells, so C and R take turns piling up the shells under their seats on Cal’s floor! (Hee Hee) We settle in to watch the undercard match, Michigan State vs. Iowa State.
We are with about a dozen friends and we ask V, the person who had enough foresight to buy this block of tickets for us way in advance, who she thinks is going to win. She says she wants Iowa State to win but thinks Michigan State will win. Oh, the old hedging bets routine. C and R have no vested interest in this game as we had both teams losing in earlier rounds in our brackets; although Stanford will play the winner of this game if they get by Ohio State.
Michigan State has a small lead in the final two minutes but plays with no sense urgency and they manage their timeouts wrong. Iowa hits two three pointers at the end to pull off the victory. Michigan State deserved to lose by not playing smart at the end. C and R realize after watching Stanford all these years that Tara has the players ready for any scenario and she manages the clock well. We are, in a good sense, spoiled.
C asks R if she thinks this game will be a sell out. The place is pretty packed, but we notice there is an empty block of seats in the middle front. The place will look empty if the TV camera pans there. C and R have been screaming all tournament about empty arenas. We hope this won’t be the case here, where we support women’s basketball. We wonder if the seats are corporate giveaways and the people they gave them to couldn’t be bothered to show up. As the minutes count down, most of the seats do get filled with Stanford fans. Good, we were worried. They announce a crowd of 6,178. Not bad. That is certainly better than the PAC-10 Tournament at USC and other regional sites.
The bands are regulated to little boxes and the Stanford student bandleader already decides he can’t fit in the tiny box. He stands outside the box with the cheerleaders to be able to move around. When Stanford plays, they move their bodies and swing in time to the beat and those who are not playing their instrument at that particular moment dance. With their red vests and kooky hats and individualized pins and other doo-dads, the band is indeed an eclectic bunch. The Ohio State Band wears matching maroon polo shirts with no individualization whatsoever, sit when they play and do not move a muscle or show an ounce of emotion. Those who do not play their instrument sit quietly waiting to play again. The bandleader is some elderly gentleman with headphones on, all the better to not hear the music. When Ohio State shoots a free throw the whole band spells out "O-H-I-O" in block letters with mechanical precision. It is a little scary!
The game starts and we have our big lineup in, and Jayne actually wins the jump. Repeat, Jayne won the jump! But then we look rattled and nervous and make rookie mistakes, because Necka is a rookie and keeps throwing the inbounds pass away, and we are quickly down 2-8. Their center, lat name Lavender, is 6’4 and their point guard, Sammy something, is quick and pushes the tempo. Necka gets yanked for Ros and Ros hits two threes and brings us some calmness and sanity.
Whenever there is a timeout, and this game, actually being shown on regular ESPN, not ESPN 2 or some shopping network, has a lot of loooong TV timeouts, uh, I lost my train of thought, those timeouts were so long. Oh yeah, whenever there is a timeout the Ohio State bench, who has perfectly good chairs provided by Cal, mind you, brings out these little canvas camp chairs for everyone to sit on in the middle of their half of the floor. They have a little camp out right in the middle of the game, with some s’mores and hot chocolate and the coach telling ghost stories about this giant Jaaayne and the Creature known as Kayla coming to get you….Wait, I digress, but it is funny to see Ohio State camping out on the floor!
Pohlen starts playing like a woman possessed. We pull ahead 9-8 but the Ohio State guard single-handedly pulls them back with her quick drives to the basket, until Kayla draws a charge on her. Kayla is so smart.
Jayne is not having a good half and to make matters worse, she misses a free throw. This ain’t high school, or even regular season, or even the PAC-10 tournament, Jayne, this is the one-loss-and-you-are-out-so-you-better-make-your-free-throws-kinda-game, Jayne! Jayne missed the second free throw.
Jill makes one of her great steals and basket, and is really hustling everywhere. With six minutes left in the first half we have a slight lead, 29-24. Ohio State’s center, Lavender, gets two quick fouls around the five minute mark and goes to the bench, That helps Stanford immensely. Ohio State has another camp out, I mean, timeout.
Pohlen is trying to run fast breaks but Necka seems hesitant to go inside. With 18 seconds left, we knock the ball out of bounds. Ohio State inbounds the ball and Pohlen steals it and Necka runs ahead but not hard enough or fast enough. They steal it back, they can’t get their shot to fall and it is 37 to 35 at half, we have the lead.
After a long stand in lines for both the bathroom and a pretzel, C makes it back with 17 seconds to spare.
We open the half with great defense. Jayne gets fouled as she shoots and the ball gets stuck right between the rim and the backboard. The refs look around for another ball and C yells for Necka and as if she heard, Necka gets up from the bench and looks at Tara to make sure it is okay and then trots out and jumps up to tap the ball free. Hee hee, if that doesn’t intimidate the other team….
Then Jayne misses 2 more free throws.
But to credit Jayne, she is still playing hard. She runs the fast break and Pohlen gives an incredibly long pass, and Jayne and scores and takes out a Stanford Dollie. Slingin’ Sammy from Ohio State keeps up the pressure and slashes and drives in, or dishes off in the last second and Ohio State gets some easy baskets.
Their center, Lavender gets her fourth foul at the 12-minute mark and goes to the bench. She stays out until the 6-minute mark, and that is just what Jayne needs. When she comes back in, Ohio State’s guard, Sammy, wills her team to score and Stanford goes cold. With 5 and a half minutes left, our lead has dwindled. The score is 66-62. C and R are nervous!
Then, finally, with about five minutes left, Jayne and Necka take turns scoring, or passing to each other to score, and we miraculously pull away. Ohio State camps out again to talk about it and /or tell ghost stories, but they have no answer. Jill makes her fourth steal of the game, feeds it to Pohlen on the wing. She gives Jill a give and go right back to her and Jill makes the basket and is fouled. Insult to injury! The crowd roars and roars again as she makes the free throw. The next time down Jill hits a three, and she didn’t make one all season or somehtin’, it’s that kind of magic now.
The final score is 84 to 66, but the game was much, much closer than that. Jayne ended up with 25, most of theme came in the second half. Jill had 16, Necka had 15 and Ros had 10. Ohio State didn’t get much help from their bench, although the freshmen guard had 19 and was very impressive.
We are playing Iowa State on Monday, and from what C and R saw, we can totally handle them! Then off to the final four!! See ya Monday.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Duke is Out!
So now Duke lost! Ahg…there goes our brackets all to pieces! I am starting to hate that I got involved in this bracket-picking contest at all. It is keeping me form concentrating on the more important issues, such as the selection committee back East, with its West Coast bias, giving Duke the number one seed over Stanford. And DUKE LOST IN THE SECOND ROUND! They lost to number nine seed Michigan State 63-49. Duke didn’t make a shot for the last seven and a half minutes! Duke was outscored 16-2 in the end! Duke shot 27% from the field! The last time a big-time team like this was eliminated this early in the NCAA tournament was 1997. In the last ten years, the only top-seeded team to lose in the second round was Ohio State in 2006 against eighth-seeded Boston College. Their head coach was booed (well, she did coach at Michigan State for the last seven years before running to oh-so-superior-Duke—who’s laughing now?)
Well, the silver lining is this is good news for Stanford. When they beat Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday on practically a home court, they would face the winner of the Michigan St-Iowa State game. Michigan State is seeded 9th and Iowa State (Iowa State?) is seeded 4th.
Both C and R are tied for second in our basketball buddies bracket. C has dropped down to eighth on Women Talk Sports Bracket. (I made different picks on each bracket). It should be a great weekend for Women’s Basketball!
Well, the silver lining is this is good news for Stanford. When they beat Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen on Saturday on practically a home court, they would face the winner of the Michigan St-Iowa State game. Michigan State is seeded 9th and Iowa State (Iowa State?) is seeded 4th.
Both C and R are tied for second in our basketball buddies bracket. C has dropped down to eighth on Women Talk Sports Bracket. (I made different picks on each bracket). It should be a great weekend for Women’s Basketball!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Women's Basketball Tourney, Round 2
R comes over with pizzas in hand to watch the second round of the Women’s NCAA basketball Tournament. It is on TV three nights in a row, how lucky can a fan of women’s basketball get?
We turn on the TV and see Arizona State is tied with Florida State. “Oh. No!” C shouts at exactly the same time R says, “Go Arizona!”
C looks at R with confusion. If Arizona State wins, it will mess up both our brackets. We both have Florida State advancing. C reminds R of this.
R says she always cheers for a fellow PAC-10 team in the NCAA tournament, bracket picks or no bracket picks. C says normally she would support the PAC-10, too, but she wants to win the bracket competition; a competition is a competition.
A few minutes later, Arizona State wins it, darn it. And we see Cal is winning their game against Virginia. No! We both have Cal losing that game, too!
Hush, now, says C, it’s time for the Stanford-San Diego State game (my daughter got in to that school, too). The media has been saying San Diego will be playing in front of a home crowd and they were so energetic because of that crowd last game, but we see in the camera pans to the stands that they are not even close to being filled. When ESPN 2 shows a flash of the Rutgers game (They won, we also picked them to lose…sigh) on their home court, we see the seats actually filled. Ya gotta pick sites that support women’s basketball, and San Jose, with Cal and Stanford, would have been a good one.
We have our big team in of Jayne, Kayla and Necka. Add Jill and Jeanette, and all of our starters are 6 feet or over. San Diego has one player over 6 feet on the floor.
San Diego fouls Necka on our first possession. She makes both free throws. Fast break to Jayne on the second possessions, she misses but Necka puts in the rebound. They foul Jayne inside on the third, she converts, and they pick Pohlen’s pocket on the fourth. My goodness, this is a fast paced game. C and R can’t even catch their breath. San Diego wanted to come out fast and use their speed. Stanford is matching them speed for speed, even with everybody over 6 feet.
Kayla draws a charge from SDS, and the announcers repeat the mantra that Tara said Kayla has the smartest basketball IQ on the team, if not in the world…well, no, I don’t know if she said the world part, but she did say she is the smartest basketball player on her team.
Then Jayne commits a foul and looks to the bench to be replaced. Tara hesitates, and C and R get hopeful she will leave Jayne in. Ros takes off her sweats and goes in for her the next dead ball, darn! Then Ros gets scored on. Double darn.
Jeannette gets hit in the head. Again. Hope the nine stitches from earlier this year hold her head together. Then Stanford inbounds the ball and she throws a two-handed pass foul line to foul line to a receiving Ros who hits the lay-up. Amazing! And that is why she is playing the point guard. Ros could never make that kind of pass. Then Jeannette fouls again and she has two quick ones and she goes to the bench. Lindy comes in.
Jill makes a patented steal and lay up and we get some breathing room. Jayne comes back in and is money in the bank, hitting from inside. We start to pull away. Then, Jayne shoots, gets two rebounds in the same possession, and can’t make any of the shots. When SDS gets the rebound she reaches in and fouls. Two for her, she gets yanked.
Now both Jayne and Jeannette are on the bench. Arguably our two best players on the bench! Tara, what are you thinking? San Diego is still trying to run on us.
Boothe is in, with Ros and we look a little lost. They cherry pick us for an easy basket. The announcers said Tara told the team, “No cherry picking! We must not let them get easy baskets in transition.”
A great inside pass to Boothe and she sails the ball over the rim to the other side. When Tara sees this, she yanks her and puts in …Lindy? Not Jayne? How long is Jayne going to sit?
Ros is doing point guard duties, and Jene Morris for SDS is applying great pressure on her in the backcourt. She was an all-defensive-player in her conference. Ros goes to make a pass and instead throws in into Morris, who has anticipated this. Morris gets ready to zoom down court but Ros knows she will really, really get yelled at if they make this basket, so she first grabs Morris’ jersey and then grabs her body to keep her near. The foul is fine, anything to keep from getting scored on and the ire of Tara. The whistle and foul is indeed on Ros and she gets yanked, maybe having saved face a little.
Before C and R know it, it is halftime and we have a 38-26 lead. It doesn’t feel like much of a lead because SDS is not letting up. The announcers say we went on a 22-10 run to take control, but again, it doesn’t feel like we are in control at all.
The TV switches to the Cal-Virginia game. C reminds R we need Cal to lose, but R has decided firmly to root for PAC-10 teams. Cal even makes the shot at the buzzer to end their half and go up 51-33. This from a team that only averaged 66 points a game. They practically got that in the first half.
Our Stanford game starts and the starting five are back in, including Jayne and Jeanette. Thank goodness. Jayne only played 6 minutes of the first half. Jayne either hits inside or when double-teamed, finds Necka cutting to the basket. Jill makes another Jill-type steal and the basket, forces them to call a time out. We are suddenly up by 20.
In one of San Diego’s possession, Kayla blocks them twice. C and R consider Kayla the unsung hero of this game. She does it all, anchoring our defense, drawing charges, rebounding. We noticed she is the first one back on defense to stop the fast break.
San Diego keeps pressing us, because everybody knows we are vulnerable to the press. We start to panic a little. Jill gets tied up with a jump ball from the press; they almost steal it from Jeanette, but foul instead. They come back a little, now it is 50-32, Stanford.
Tara calls timeout and tells them to take care of the ball. Time in and the first thing they do is steal it from Jeanette. This time no foul. They press us again and this time Kayla brings the ball up court. She does this several times. Now Kayla drives, sees Jayne and hits her near the basket for an easy two. C and R nominate Kayla for point guard!
Then Jayne spoils the fun by fouling. Her fourth! Good thing we are up 56-32. Jayne goes to the bench.
After a SDS basket, we cannot inbound the ball quickly enough and get a five second violation. Come on ladies, let’s not panic. Speaking of panic, SDS has a desperate air around them, and while it is not panic, they are going all out for steals, usually double-teaming the ball handler. There are nine minutes left in the game and C and R don’t feel safe. Can we hold on to win?
Tara senses this and puts Jayne back in. A San Diego player drives towards Jayne and Kayla runs over, hands straight up to protect Jayne. How cute! Thirty seconds later, Jayne fouls out. Twelve points, 11 boards, a double-double and five fouls for Jayne.
C and R are a little nervous.
Jill and Necka put on a show and get us up by 25 again. We go on to win 77-49. It is a career night for Necka. She has 27 points and 13 rebounds, both career highs. We will need her to play like this every game.
Next game is against Ohio State (C is from Ohio...), at Berkeley, on a Saturday night, no less, and C and R have tickets, having had friends who had the foresight to get the tickets months in advance. Come one, Stanford fans, let's show the TV people we can pack an arena!
In other news, we see Cal scored 99 points and won! This from a team that only averages 66 points a game! I think they only committed one turnover all game or somethin'. All three teams from the PAC-10 are still in it, darn it. We only picked Stanford.
We turn on the TV and see Arizona State is tied with Florida State. “Oh. No!” C shouts at exactly the same time R says, “Go Arizona!”
C looks at R with confusion. If Arizona State wins, it will mess up both our brackets. We both have Florida State advancing. C reminds R of this.
R says she always cheers for a fellow PAC-10 team in the NCAA tournament, bracket picks or no bracket picks. C says normally she would support the PAC-10, too, but she wants to win the bracket competition; a competition is a competition.
A few minutes later, Arizona State wins it, darn it. And we see Cal is winning their game against Virginia. No! We both have Cal losing that game, too!
Hush, now, says C, it’s time for the Stanford-San Diego State game (my daughter got in to that school, too). The media has been saying San Diego will be playing in front of a home crowd and they were so energetic because of that crowd last game, but we see in the camera pans to the stands that they are not even close to being filled. When ESPN 2 shows a flash of the Rutgers game (They won, we also picked them to lose…sigh) on their home court, we see the seats actually filled. Ya gotta pick sites that support women’s basketball, and San Jose, with Cal and Stanford, would have been a good one.
We have our big team in of Jayne, Kayla and Necka. Add Jill and Jeanette, and all of our starters are 6 feet or over. San Diego has one player over 6 feet on the floor.
San Diego fouls Necka on our first possession. She makes both free throws. Fast break to Jayne on the second possessions, she misses but Necka puts in the rebound. They foul Jayne inside on the third, she converts, and they pick Pohlen’s pocket on the fourth. My goodness, this is a fast paced game. C and R can’t even catch their breath. San Diego wanted to come out fast and use their speed. Stanford is matching them speed for speed, even with everybody over 6 feet.
Kayla draws a charge from SDS, and the announcers repeat the mantra that Tara said Kayla has the smartest basketball IQ on the team, if not in the world…well, no, I don’t know if she said the world part, but she did say she is the smartest basketball player on her team.
Then Jayne commits a foul and looks to the bench to be replaced. Tara hesitates, and C and R get hopeful she will leave Jayne in. Ros takes off her sweats and goes in for her the next dead ball, darn! Then Ros gets scored on. Double darn.
Jeannette gets hit in the head. Again. Hope the nine stitches from earlier this year hold her head together. Then Stanford inbounds the ball and she throws a two-handed pass foul line to foul line to a receiving Ros who hits the lay-up. Amazing! And that is why she is playing the point guard. Ros could never make that kind of pass. Then Jeannette fouls again and she has two quick ones and she goes to the bench. Lindy comes in.
Jill makes a patented steal and lay up and we get some breathing room. Jayne comes back in and is money in the bank, hitting from inside. We start to pull away. Then, Jayne shoots, gets two rebounds in the same possession, and can’t make any of the shots. When SDS gets the rebound she reaches in and fouls. Two for her, she gets yanked.
Now both Jayne and Jeannette are on the bench. Arguably our two best players on the bench! Tara, what are you thinking? San Diego is still trying to run on us.
Boothe is in, with Ros and we look a little lost. They cherry pick us for an easy basket. The announcers said Tara told the team, “No cherry picking! We must not let them get easy baskets in transition.”
A great inside pass to Boothe and she sails the ball over the rim to the other side. When Tara sees this, she yanks her and puts in …Lindy? Not Jayne? How long is Jayne going to sit?
Ros is doing point guard duties, and Jene Morris for SDS is applying great pressure on her in the backcourt. She was an all-defensive-player in her conference. Ros goes to make a pass and instead throws in into Morris, who has anticipated this. Morris gets ready to zoom down court but Ros knows she will really, really get yelled at if they make this basket, so she first grabs Morris’ jersey and then grabs her body to keep her near. The foul is fine, anything to keep from getting scored on and the ire of Tara. The whistle and foul is indeed on Ros and she gets yanked, maybe having saved face a little.
Before C and R know it, it is halftime and we have a 38-26 lead. It doesn’t feel like much of a lead because SDS is not letting up. The announcers say we went on a 22-10 run to take control, but again, it doesn’t feel like we are in control at all.
The TV switches to the Cal-Virginia game. C reminds R we need Cal to lose, but R has decided firmly to root for PAC-10 teams. Cal even makes the shot at the buzzer to end their half and go up 51-33. This from a team that only averaged 66 points a game. They practically got that in the first half.
Our Stanford game starts and the starting five are back in, including Jayne and Jeanette. Thank goodness. Jayne only played 6 minutes of the first half. Jayne either hits inside or when double-teamed, finds Necka cutting to the basket. Jill makes another Jill-type steal and the basket, forces them to call a time out. We are suddenly up by 20.
In one of San Diego’s possession, Kayla blocks them twice. C and R consider Kayla the unsung hero of this game. She does it all, anchoring our defense, drawing charges, rebounding. We noticed she is the first one back on defense to stop the fast break.
San Diego keeps pressing us, because everybody knows we are vulnerable to the press. We start to panic a little. Jill gets tied up with a jump ball from the press; they almost steal it from Jeanette, but foul instead. They come back a little, now it is 50-32, Stanford.
Tara calls timeout and tells them to take care of the ball. Time in and the first thing they do is steal it from Jeanette. This time no foul. They press us again and this time Kayla brings the ball up court. She does this several times. Now Kayla drives, sees Jayne and hits her near the basket for an easy two. C and R nominate Kayla for point guard!
Then Jayne spoils the fun by fouling. Her fourth! Good thing we are up 56-32. Jayne goes to the bench.
After a SDS basket, we cannot inbound the ball quickly enough and get a five second violation. Come on ladies, let’s not panic. Speaking of panic, SDS has a desperate air around them, and while it is not panic, they are going all out for steals, usually double-teaming the ball handler. There are nine minutes left in the game and C and R don’t feel safe. Can we hold on to win?
Tara senses this and puts Jayne back in. A San Diego player drives towards Jayne and Kayla runs over, hands straight up to protect Jayne. How cute! Thirty seconds later, Jayne fouls out. Twelve points, 11 boards, a double-double and five fouls for Jayne.
C and R are a little nervous.
Jill and Necka put on a show and get us up by 25 again. We go on to win 77-49. It is a career night for Necka. She has 27 points and 13 rebounds, both career highs. We will need her to play like this every game.
Next game is against Ohio State (C is from Ohio...), at Berkeley, on a Saturday night, no less, and C and R have tickets, having had friends who had the foresight to get the tickets months in advance. Come one, Stanford fans, let's show the TV people we can pack an arena!
In other news, we see Cal scored 99 points and won! This from a team that only averages 66 points a game! I think they only committed one turnover all game or somethin'. All three teams from the PAC-10 are still in it, darn it. We only picked Stanford.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Women's Basketball Tourney, Round 1
So, C and R were happy to find that ESPN has an interactive women’s bracket that you can fill out and it keeps track of who picked what correctly. In most years, we can’t even find the women’s bracket on a website, let alone get to pick and play, so kudos to ESPN.
If you still want to get involved, it’s not too late. You can join the Women Talk Sports group at ESPN's Women Tournament Challenge (top prize is $3,000 gift card through Best Buy).
C and R are also in a private bracket with their basketball buddies. It gives us a rooting interest in teams not named Stanford. And C won’t mention that in the first four games, R missed three of them to make her in last place! (Well, she did come back strong on Sunday.)
But we have one game this weekend we are focused on, the Stanford-UC Santa Barbara game Saturday night.
C and R turn on the TV around 7 PM our time to check in with what is going on with the Women’s Tournament. We see Cal beat Fresno State. Good, we needed them to win in our bracket. We are now watching San Diego State play DePaul. The game is being held in San Diego. The stands are empty, even for this home team. People couldn’t even go to the arena in their hometown. That is sad. I can’t wait until Stanford makes it to the Berkeley region and the Stanford fans drive an hour or so to pack the arena to show the powers that be that you need to have the tournaments in places that support women’s basketball.
The game ends at 7:30 and they spend the next half-hour with recaps, filler, and some game that is not Stanford. C and R’s enthusiasm, so high at 7 PM, is now waning at the 8 o’clock hour.
Finally, we see a shot of the Stanford dollies and we know we are next. Jayne loses the tip but I think the UCSB center hit it way the heck back to Jeanette, so we have the ball. Jill drives in a tiny bit and hits a jumper at the top of the circle, right in her range, for two. Good start.
Then we come out bombing threes. UCSB is shooting air balls. This definitely ain’t high school. Who was the team to go to the National Championship game last year?
All this week the media, looking for their "hook" story, have been concentrating on Jeannette Pohlen, who has emerged as a great point guard for Stanford. She doesn’t fit the mold and doesn’t play it as other, traditional, point guards, but she has been effective. We see her wing it down court, in traffic, to Jayne who finishes for two. Time out, Stanford up 13-4.
UCSB tries to make a mini comeback and we are stuck at 17-11 for a while before Pohlen makes another three. Then Pohlen makes this incredible steal out of nowhere and ends with a lay up and we go up 22-11. Whew!
Boothe and Lindy go in, and C and R are surprised to see them so early. Then Boothe makes a foul and the camera flashes to Tara who mouths "Jayne". Sarah gets yanked. Just like Jayne does.
Stanford continues the hot shooting from the perimeter. In one series at our basket, Jill shoots and misses and Necka, Kayla, and Jayne all rebound and shoot and miss, too. Well, wait, Jayne made her shot. We are dominating the boards.
Now our third string comes in, with Melanie Murphy and Michelle Harrison, and we are winning 14-42. UCSB has not made a basket since the 5:51 mark. Kayla is still in and she is playing excellent defense, hands straight up, no fouls, taking away shots and sometimes the ball from them.
The score at halftime is indeed 42-14 and the announcers state that Stanford went on a 25-3 run to close the half. I think Stanford wants to make a point.
When the half starts again, Stanford is not letting off the gas. They are pushing the tempo and now that Santa Barbara is guarding the three point line closer, Jayne goes to work inside.
Then more subs and Stanford cruises to a 74-39 victory. Jayne gets player of the game. Four Stanford players are in double figures (Pohlen, Necka, Jayne, Kayla), and Jill had 9. Three players have double figures in rebounds (Jayne, Necka, Boothe), and Kayla had 9. Stanford has a double double-double from Jayne and Necka. Jayne had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Necka had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
So, you think everyone would be happy with this performance, yes? Think again. "We hit our shots, rebounded and took care of the ball really well early on," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I think we can play better. We will have to do a better job on Monday." So Tara praises them and said they did everything right, yet the have to do better? Boy, think Tara is a tough taskmaster or what?
Stanford plays the hometown favorite San Diego State Monday night around 6:30 ish, but not to worry about a big crowd.
In other, unrelated Stanford news, Pat Summit’s Tennessee’s team lost! This is the first time Tennessee has lost in a first round, going 42-0 through the years. And it wasn’t even close, they lost 71-55 to Ball State. Tennessee also became the first defending champ to lose in the first round of the women's tourney. Old Dominion won the title in 1985 and failed to make the tournament the following year.
C and R talk about how sad it is Pat Summit is out, and we hate to see her go, and this… really, really messes up our bracket!
Also saw Uconn rolled to a 104-65 victory over Vermont. Yikes!
However, C would like to note she is tied for first in the Women’s Talk Sports bracket pick!
If you still want to get involved, it’s not too late. You can join the Women Talk Sports group at ESPN's Women Tournament Challenge (top prize is $3,000 gift card through Best Buy).
C and R are also in a private bracket with their basketball buddies. It gives us a rooting interest in teams not named Stanford. And C won’t mention that in the first four games, R missed three of them to make her in last place! (Well, she did come back strong on Sunday.)
But we have one game this weekend we are focused on, the Stanford-UC Santa Barbara game Saturday night.
C and R turn on the TV around 7 PM our time to check in with what is going on with the Women’s Tournament. We see Cal beat Fresno State. Good, we needed them to win in our bracket. We are now watching San Diego State play DePaul. The game is being held in San Diego. The stands are empty, even for this home team. People couldn’t even go to the arena in their hometown. That is sad. I can’t wait until Stanford makes it to the Berkeley region and the Stanford fans drive an hour or so to pack the arena to show the powers that be that you need to have the tournaments in places that support women’s basketball.
The game ends at 7:30 and they spend the next half-hour with recaps, filler, and some game that is not Stanford. C and R’s enthusiasm, so high at 7 PM, is now waning at the 8 o’clock hour.
Finally, we see a shot of the Stanford dollies and we know we are next. Jayne loses the tip but I think the UCSB center hit it way the heck back to Jeanette, so we have the ball. Jill drives in a tiny bit and hits a jumper at the top of the circle, right in her range, for two. Good start.
Then we come out bombing threes. UCSB is shooting air balls. This definitely ain’t high school. Who was the team to go to the National Championship game last year?
All this week the media, looking for their "hook" story, have been concentrating on Jeannette Pohlen, who has emerged as a great point guard for Stanford. She doesn’t fit the mold and doesn’t play it as other, traditional, point guards, but she has been effective. We see her wing it down court, in traffic, to Jayne who finishes for two. Time out, Stanford up 13-4.
UCSB tries to make a mini comeback and we are stuck at 17-11 for a while before Pohlen makes another three. Then Pohlen makes this incredible steal out of nowhere and ends with a lay up and we go up 22-11. Whew!
Boothe and Lindy go in, and C and R are surprised to see them so early. Then Boothe makes a foul and the camera flashes to Tara who mouths "Jayne". Sarah gets yanked. Just like Jayne does.
Stanford continues the hot shooting from the perimeter. In one series at our basket, Jill shoots and misses and Necka, Kayla, and Jayne all rebound and shoot and miss, too. Well, wait, Jayne made her shot. We are dominating the boards.
Now our third string comes in, with Melanie Murphy and Michelle Harrison, and we are winning 14-42. UCSB has not made a basket since the 5:51 mark. Kayla is still in and she is playing excellent defense, hands straight up, no fouls, taking away shots and sometimes the ball from them.
The score at halftime is indeed 42-14 and the announcers state that Stanford went on a 25-3 run to close the half. I think Stanford wants to make a point.
When the half starts again, Stanford is not letting off the gas. They are pushing the tempo and now that Santa Barbara is guarding the three point line closer, Jayne goes to work inside.
Then more subs and Stanford cruises to a 74-39 victory. Jayne gets player of the game. Four Stanford players are in double figures (Pohlen, Necka, Jayne, Kayla), and Jill had 9. Three players have double figures in rebounds (Jayne, Necka, Boothe), and Kayla had 9. Stanford has a double double-double from Jayne and Necka. Jayne had 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Necka had 13 points and 11 rebounds.
So, you think everyone would be happy with this performance, yes? Think again. "We hit our shots, rebounded and took care of the ball really well early on," coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I think we can play better. We will have to do a better job on Monday." So Tara praises them and said they did everything right, yet the have to do better? Boy, think Tara is a tough taskmaster or what?
Stanford plays the hometown favorite San Diego State Monday night around 6:30 ish, but not to worry about a big crowd.
In other, unrelated Stanford news, Pat Summit’s Tennessee’s team lost! This is the first time Tennessee has lost in a first round, going 42-0 through the years. And it wasn’t even close, they lost 71-55 to Ball State. Tennessee also became the first defending champ to lose in the first round of the women's tourney. Old Dominion won the title in 1985 and failed to make the tournament the following year.
C and R talk about how sad it is Pat Summit is out, and we hate to see her go, and this… really, really messes up our bracket!
Also saw Uconn rolled to a 104-65 victory over Vermont. Yikes!
However, C would like to note she is tied for first in the Women’s Talk Sports bracket pick!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Bracket Talk
So the media keeps asking and hoping to get Stanford all riled up about "only" getting a number two seed in the NCAA women's basketball tournament. Ya know, the draw we got is not that bad. Duke and Tennessee will have to meet each other in the sweet sixteen. We will, if all goes right, meet Ohio State in the sweet sixteen. Gee, play against the greatest women's basketball coach in Pat Summit or little ol' Ohio State (although with C being from Ohio, she is always happy to see an Ohio team do well). And if Duke prevails over Tennessee to advance and we make it to the elite eight, well, we have a point guard now, and three people over 6'2. As Tara said, we are the most improved team in the country.
Cal, not so lucky. Number 4 seed Cal has to get by number 5 seed Virginia and then play the all star team of number 1-in the-whole-world seed Uconn.
And, oh, former Stanford player Candice Wiggins checked in from Spain and totally agrees with us on her picks. (Wonder if she wants to join our bracket contest?) She said Stanford to the final four, then steamrolled by Uconn. That's what C and R say, too, but she was kinder. She also said nobody plays like our Jayne, not even in the WNBA! But then they were BFFs at Stanford, so maybe we should take that with a grain of salt! Oh, wait, here is more on her picks, which I totally agree with!
Go Stanford! Saturday's game against UC Santa Barbara (oh, my daughter just got accepted there!) is on a "normal" TV channel, ESPN 2, I think at 8 ish after the first game at 5 PM.
Cal, not so lucky. Number 4 seed Cal has to get by number 5 seed Virginia and then play the all star team of number 1-in the-whole-world seed Uconn.
And, oh, former Stanford player Candice Wiggins checked in from Spain and totally agrees with us on her picks. (Wonder if she wants to join our bracket contest?) She said Stanford to the final four, then steamrolled by Uconn. That's what C and R say, too, but she was kinder. She also said nobody plays like our Jayne, not even in the WNBA! But then they were BFFs at Stanford, so maybe we should take that with a grain of salt! Oh, wait, here is more on her picks, which I totally agree with!
Go Stanford! Saturday's game against UC Santa Barbara (oh, my daughter just got accepted there!) is on a "normal" TV channel, ESPN 2, I think at 8 ish after the first game at 5 PM.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Basketball Bracketology
It’s Women’s Bracket Monday and it might have been on TV or not, we don’t know, we couldn’t find the Home Shopping Network. R calls me around 6 PM to say it is not on TV, but Stanford a got a number 2 seed. We go to look it up online and after five fruitless minutes (and five minutes is an eternity online), we find the Women’s Basketball Bracket. The number one seeds are Uconn, Duke, Oklahoma, and Maryland. What, did the selection committee already make up their mind on Friday and take the weekend off? Oklahoma lost in the semis to Texas AM, who is 11-5 in conference play. Stanford played great this weekend in their tournament and blew everyone away by 25 or more points. Plus, we are ranked # 2 in the country and Oklahoma is ranked #4. How did Oklahoma get the first seed over us? No respect for the West.
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