Stanford had its end of the year banquet on April 15th and C and R were busy filing their taxes. Here’s what they missed. Lots of awards were given out.
Let's Start with the individuals:Senior guard/forward Jillian Harmon brought her memorable Stanford career to a close in 2008-09 with one of her finest statistical seasons (stole that quote and the rest of this paragragh from the Stanford site!). Harmon's 9.6 points per game, 98 assists and 52 steals were all career bests, while her 47.7 percent shooting from the field was the second-best mark of her four-year career. Harmon's usual hard-nosed, hustling style of play helped her become Stanford's 29th 1,000-point scorer and earned her a spot on the All-Pac-10 Second Team and All-Defensive Team at the end of the regular season.
Jayne Appel was named the team's Most Outstanding Player, of course. She broke Candice Wiggins’ post-season single scoring record of 44, by scoring 46 against Iowa State in the regional finals, at Berkeley, no less! Jillian Harmon (our Jill—what are we going to do when now that she is graduating?) was named the team's Most Outstanding Defensive Player, and we loved her hustle and instinct to get rebounds. Most Improved Player award went to unsung, unheralded, Jeanette Pohlen, who stepped up well to the point guard role this year. Freshman Sarah Boothe was awarded the Lizard Lung award at the end of the banquet, whatever the heck that is.
Well, we definitely were tall, and maybe the best rebounding team in Stanford history. Through 38 games, the Cardinal grabbed single-season record 1,663 rebounds. That is an average of 43.8 per game, the third-best average in school history. The team's rebounding margin of +13.2 became the best in school history.
Oh, in the National Polls, Stanford came in at No. 2 in the final regular-season edition of the Associated Press Poll and at No. 3 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll. Too bad we went in the final game.
Can't wait until next year.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Drafty
Okay, the Advil to relieve C and R's Stanford women's basketball hangover is the WNBA draft, even though our Jill from Stanford was not selected. (we know, we know, the draft happened a awhile ago, but we just now gotten ourselves out of bed!)
A surprising first pick, well, surprising to us that is, was Angel McCoughtry going to the Atlanta Dream.
She was the only superstar on the Louisville team that made it to the National Championship game. We thought she was good and all, but a number one pick?
We were happy to see the Minnesota Lynx selected Connecticut's Renee Montgomery with the fourth pick. You remember her, she helped Uconn finish the season 39-0 for their sixth national championship and ran roughshod over Stanford. C and R have a feeling that she and Candice Wiggins are going to hit it off!
And California got its California Girls back, albeit it to different teams. Sacramento selected Oklahoma center Courtney Paris, who grew up in the San Francisco area, and Courtney’s twin sister Ashley was drafted by the LA Sparks.
"I'm so excited, I never even thought about the potential of getting back to California and having that opportunity to play in front of my friends and family again," said the first four-time AP All-American who is the daughter of former 49ers offensive lineman Bubba Paris.
Cal's Ashley Walker went to Seattle, and we are glad to see her in the WNBA.
On a side note, C and R knew Oklahoma wouldn’t hold Courtney responsible to pay back her scholarship, and figured they would set up a fund or something. Our prediction came true when Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said she planned to setup a fund that will support the needy in the state instead.
Opening day is June 6th. Sigh. That’s a long time for us…
A surprising first pick, well, surprising to us that is, was Angel McCoughtry going to the Atlanta Dream.
She was the only superstar on the Louisville team that made it to the National Championship game. We thought she was good and all, but a number one pick?
We were happy to see the Minnesota Lynx selected Connecticut's Renee Montgomery with the fourth pick. You remember her, she helped Uconn finish the season 39-0 for their sixth national championship and ran roughshod over Stanford. C and R have a feeling that she and Candice Wiggins are going to hit it off!
And California got its California Girls back, albeit it to different teams. Sacramento selected Oklahoma center Courtney Paris, who grew up in the San Francisco area, and Courtney’s twin sister Ashley was drafted by the LA Sparks.
"I'm so excited, I never even thought about the potential of getting back to California and having that opportunity to play in front of my friends and family again," said the first four-time AP All-American who is the daughter of former 49ers offensive lineman Bubba Paris.
Cal's Ashley Walker went to Seattle, and we are glad to see her in the WNBA.
On a side note, C and R knew Oklahoma wouldn’t hold Courtney responsible to pay back her scholarship, and figured they would set up a fund or something. Our prediction came true when Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said she planned to setup a fund that will support the needy in the state instead.
Opening day is June 6th. Sigh. That’s a long time for us…
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Championship Game (without Stanford)
Well Uconn won the national championship Tuesday, big deal. At least we lost by ONLY 19. Louisville lost 76-54. You can read all the details in some other blog, we haven't the heart.
It seems C and R are suffering a basketball hang over, or maybe it is withdrawal of not seeing that final joy on Stanford's faces.
Uconn won all 39 of its games this season by double digits. No men's or women's team has ever accomplished that feat. That is pretty amazing, darn it.
To further sour our mood, we just heard the great Michelle Smith will not be covering women's basketball for the San Francisco Chronicle. That's a newspaper, which has been downsizing everything due to lost readership because of the internet (hey, get off the computer and go buy a paper!). Anyhoo, she is leaving for parts unknown, but C and R are worried they the paper, in their downsizing mode, will not replace her with someone dedicated to women's basketball.
We are major bummed.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Finally, the Final Four Games.
C and R settle in for an evening of women’s basketball, on regular ESPN, no less. The two games of the Final Four are on tonight and we appreciate how much attention ESPN has given to the women’s game. On the opening pregame show, they have all four teams singing and dancing. Stanford can’t sing or dance. We are dorks, says R. In the outtake section, Jayne says, "Once again, we fail on National Television". Perhaps it was a clairvoyant look of things to come.
The first game is Oklahoma vs. underdog Louisville. Louisville misses their first twelve shots and look horrible. Even though they are up 16-2 seven minutes in, R is not impressed with Oklahoma. Courtney Paris, with all the attention she has gotten, certainly doesn’t hustle down the court. Both teams look nervous and are playing ragged. Not the game you want to see in a Final Four. Courtney’s twin sister Ashley is outshining her sister. It is 34-22 Oklahoma at the half.
They bring in Tara during the half time show and she sounds so smart and at the end of the interview thanks them for supporting women’s basketball. She says all the right things and is always aware that the game is always on display and national media interest can be taken away in a heartbeat.
C goes to makes tacos thinking this game is over and comes back to R screaming, "we got a steal and the basket, we are only down by two, 33-35, another steal, miss, rebound, and their foul, tied up at 35!"
Apparently, R has adopted Louisville the underdog, even though we love Bay Area native Courtney Paris and her brash guarantee to pay back her basketball scholarship if she does not bring home the National Championship. Louisville’s one outstanding player, Angel McCoughtry, comes alive in the second half.
In the last 10 minutes, Oklahoma is behind! With 19.5 seconds left, OK is down 60-57, a time out is called and coach Sherri Coale smiles to tell her team everything is okay. They draw up a play. OK executes it. It is a pass inside to Courtney Paris. She makes it. The OK bench jumps up and down for a second until they realize they were down by three and two points don’t help them. They have to foul, so they do. The Louisville player is shooting free throws and makes one so they are up by two. She misses the second and Courtney rebounds and dishes to a guard with 5 seconds left. She runs and shoots a three, even though they are only down by two and it looked like she had time to take it in for a lay up to tie. It rims out, Oklahoma loses. They shot a two when they needed a three and three when all they needed was a two.
Man, we hope Stanford wins the next game because they will kill Louisville. They did not look good. They did not look well coached or prepared for every situation as Stanford usually does. Courtney gives a great exit interview, tears and all and vows she will replay the scholarship.
We watch Pat Summit give commentary, and evade the question if she will ever play Uconn coach Geno Auriemma again. She hates him and vowed to never play him again in the regular season.
We are so emotionally drained it is hard to get up the energy for Stanford vs. unbeaten Uconn. Plus we ate a lot of salty chips and salsa and tacos. Next time we should skip the first game.
It is a sell out crowd, and we are glad to see that, as St. Louis, where C went to school, is not known as a hot bed of women’s basketball. Stanford is wearing the black uniforms from last year and C and R don’t remember them being worn this season. We last remember them when they were worn when Candice Wiggins was the team’s heart and soul throughout the NCAA tournament and we honestly though Tara had retired them to honor Candice. Maybe she wants some of Candice’s magic to rub off on the team tonight, as they were wearing them when they beat Uconn last year.
Jayne losses the tip, but makes up for it and more by scoring early and often in the paint. Uconn sets the tone early by hitting the first shot of the game, a three pointer shot from four feet behind the line. I think it was Renee Montgomery. Not a good sign. These women are strong. They press Pohlen and steal it from her. Another not-so-good-sign.
Every time Stanford passes the ball to Necka near the basket, she loses it. The third not-so-good-sign.
Jayne decides to take it in herself. Stanford, well, Jayne, fights back to 14-13 Uconn. Jayne scores 10 of the team's first 14 points in the paint. At one point, Jayne goes for a rebound and gets her feet knocked out from under her and she lands on her hip. Hard. She gets up slowly and runs down the court and banks it in for two. Running the other way you can see her grimace in pain. She will not quit, tough.
Then it becomes the Rene Montgomery show. C and R stare in disbelief on the many ways she can score. Slashing, driving, pulling up, hitting the three…Uconn scores the next 18 out of 22 points and take a 31-18 lead.
At the half it is 37-24. We couldn’t even get a shot off before the buzzer.
Uconn looks more athletic; they are fit, fast, and strong. They play smart. They are everything the two teams before this game were not. When the half opens Uconn goes on a 13-0 run. Stanford doesn’t score in the first five and half minutes. Maya Moore is now going off on us. This is sad to watch. They double our score.
Stanford shows a little spark with seven minutes left. That is, if you consider being down by 31 and scoring a few a spark. Necka actually shows some energy. But no matter what we do, Uconn scores on their end. We get it back to within a 20-point deficit. They can do no wrong.
Jayne finishes with 26 points but she didn’t have anyone helping her. Necka added 12, and those were in garbage time. Kayla had 10. And Montgomery scored 26 points, Maya Moore had 24.
Final score added up to 83-64. At least we only lost by 19, a small victory after being down by 31.
All in all, it was sad and depressing to watch us lose in this manner. And it didn’t look like we had any special game plan to beat them. Tara talked about having 5 days to prepare. What did they prepare to do? At times we let Renee Montgomery drive and score at will. Maya Moore could hit a three from anywhere. Where was the innovation to stay with them? Or maybe we did have plan and nobody except Jayne executed it. Because we did not make our shots when we absolutely had to.
Well, it was a great season and C and R thank you for your hard work and dedication. We will miss Jill, the senior, the most. It was a fun four years with her. Just sorry our last game had to be such a blow out.
The first game is Oklahoma vs. underdog Louisville. Louisville misses their first twelve shots and look horrible. Even though they are up 16-2 seven minutes in, R is not impressed with Oklahoma. Courtney Paris, with all the attention she has gotten, certainly doesn’t hustle down the court. Both teams look nervous and are playing ragged. Not the game you want to see in a Final Four. Courtney’s twin sister Ashley is outshining her sister. It is 34-22 Oklahoma at the half.
They bring in Tara during the half time show and she sounds so smart and at the end of the interview thanks them for supporting women’s basketball. She says all the right things and is always aware that the game is always on display and national media interest can be taken away in a heartbeat.
C goes to makes tacos thinking this game is over and comes back to R screaming, "we got a steal and the basket, we are only down by two, 33-35, another steal, miss, rebound, and their foul, tied up at 35!"
Apparently, R has adopted Louisville the underdog, even though we love Bay Area native Courtney Paris and her brash guarantee to pay back her basketball scholarship if she does not bring home the National Championship. Louisville’s one outstanding player, Angel McCoughtry, comes alive in the second half.
In the last 10 minutes, Oklahoma is behind! With 19.5 seconds left, OK is down 60-57, a time out is called and coach Sherri Coale smiles to tell her team everything is okay. They draw up a play. OK executes it. It is a pass inside to Courtney Paris. She makes it. The OK bench jumps up and down for a second until they realize they were down by three and two points don’t help them. They have to foul, so they do. The Louisville player is shooting free throws and makes one so they are up by two. She misses the second and Courtney rebounds and dishes to a guard with 5 seconds left. She runs and shoots a three, even though they are only down by two and it looked like she had time to take it in for a lay up to tie. It rims out, Oklahoma loses. They shot a two when they needed a three and three when all they needed was a two.
Man, we hope Stanford wins the next game because they will kill Louisville. They did not look good. They did not look well coached or prepared for every situation as Stanford usually does. Courtney gives a great exit interview, tears and all and vows she will replay the scholarship.
We watch Pat Summit give commentary, and evade the question if she will ever play Uconn coach Geno Auriemma again. She hates him and vowed to never play him again in the regular season.
We are so emotionally drained it is hard to get up the energy for Stanford vs. unbeaten Uconn. Plus we ate a lot of salty chips and salsa and tacos. Next time we should skip the first game.
It is a sell out crowd, and we are glad to see that, as St. Louis, where C went to school, is not known as a hot bed of women’s basketball. Stanford is wearing the black uniforms from last year and C and R don’t remember them being worn this season. We last remember them when they were worn when Candice Wiggins was the team’s heart and soul throughout the NCAA tournament and we honestly though Tara had retired them to honor Candice. Maybe she wants some of Candice’s magic to rub off on the team tonight, as they were wearing them when they beat Uconn last year.
Jayne losses the tip, but makes up for it and more by scoring early and often in the paint. Uconn sets the tone early by hitting the first shot of the game, a three pointer shot from four feet behind the line. I think it was Renee Montgomery. Not a good sign. These women are strong. They press Pohlen and steal it from her. Another not-so-good-sign.
Every time Stanford passes the ball to Necka near the basket, she loses it. The third not-so-good-sign.
Jayne decides to take it in herself. Stanford, well, Jayne, fights back to 14-13 Uconn. Jayne scores 10 of the team's first 14 points in the paint. At one point, Jayne goes for a rebound and gets her feet knocked out from under her and she lands on her hip. Hard. She gets up slowly and runs down the court and banks it in for two. Running the other way you can see her grimace in pain. She will not quit, tough.
Then it becomes the Rene Montgomery show. C and R stare in disbelief on the many ways she can score. Slashing, driving, pulling up, hitting the three…Uconn scores the next 18 out of 22 points and take a 31-18 lead.
At the half it is 37-24. We couldn’t even get a shot off before the buzzer.
Uconn looks more athletic; they are fit, fast, and strong. They play smart. They are everything the two teams before this game were not. When the half opens Uconn goes on a 13-0 run. Stanford doesn’t score in the first five and half minutes. Maya Moore is now going off on us. This is sad to watch. They double our score.
Stanford shows a little spark with seven minutes left. That is, if you consider being down by 31 and scoring a few a spark. Necka actually shows some energy. But no matter what we do, Uconn scores on their end. We get it back to within a 20-point deficit. They can do no wrong.
Jayne finishes with 26 points but she didn’t have anyone helping her. Necka added 12, and those were in garbage time. Kayla had 10. And Montgomery scored 26 points, Maya Moore had 24.
Final score added up to 83-64. At least we only lost by 19, a small victory after being down by 31.
All in all, it was sad and depressing to watch us lose in this manner. And it didn’t look like we had any special game plan to beat them. Tara talked about having 5 days to prepare. What did they prepare to do? At times we let Renee Montgomery drive and score at will. Maya Moore could hit a three from anywhere. Where was the innovation to stay with them? Or maybe we did have plan and nobody except Jayne executed it. Because we did not make our shots when we absolutely had to.
Well, it was a great season and C and R thank you for your hard work and dedication. We will miss Jill, the senior, the most. It was a fun four years with her. Just sorry our last game had to be such a blow out.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Final Four Thoughts
As far as we can tell, Stanford plays Uconn at 6:30 PM Pacific Time on Sunday. On regular ESPN, no less! Before that, Courtney bets her scholarship against Louisville at 4 PM PST. C and R will be in front of their TIVO, making their own replays for hours on Sunday.
C and R have been reading all the articles as of late. No one wants to outright say Uconn is going to win, but most of them say Stanford has to play flawlessly to beat them. Even Candice Wiggins from Spain said that! The best quote we found, which shows you how smart Tara is, is the quote that she said she would rather face Uconn with five days to prepare than one day. Someone had just asked, "shouldn't this game be the Championship game?" Tara is probably the only person on earth who is happy it is not, with her five days to prepare.
R pointed out that while we were happy three PAC-10 teams survived to the sweet sixteen, Uconn has beat two of them in a row to get to the third. Let's hope Stanford can buck the trend. BTW, we did notice in all those articles that Joann Boyle rang up Tara to get tips on how to beat Uconn, and they actually had the lead in the first half. And Charli Turner Thorne, former Stanford player and current Arizona State coach, called Tara, too, to get tips. Who does Tara call?
See ya Sunday!
C and R have been reading all the articles as of late. No one wants to outright say Uconn is going to win, but most of them say Stanford has to play flawlessly to beat them. Even Candice Wiggins from Spain said that! The best quote we found, which shows you how smart Tara is, is the quote that she said she would rather face Uconn with five days to prepare than one day. Someone had just asked, "shouldn't this game be the Championship game?" Tara is probably the only person on earth who is happy it is not, with her five days to prepare.
R pointed out that while we were happy three PAC-10 teams survived to the sweet sixteen, Uconn has beat two of them in a row to get to the third. Let's hope Stanford can buck the trend. BTW, we did notice in all those articles that Joann Boyle rang up Tara to get tips on how to beat Uconn, and they actually had the lead in the first half. And Charli Turner Thorne, former Stanford player and current Arizona State coach, called Tara, too, to get tips. Who does Tara call?
See ya Sunday!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Jayne Shines for Stanford!
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!
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!
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.
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