Whenever C and R run into Stanford women’s basketball fans, we inevitably talk about Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer. And for those who have been lucky enough to meet her, all remark on her sense of humor, something that does not show when she is on national TV sitting on the bench.
But if you don’t believe, all you need to know about Tara’s sense of humor can be seen in this video for Stanford wrestling, in which Tara proudly wears the Stanford singlet. And they also showed this clip on national TV!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Cheap thoughts…
So much great women’s basketball on TV, a big thank you to ESPN for showing it. Hey, Mechelle Voepel says the ESPN brass listens when people write in and say they like to see more women’s basketball, so take a moment today and let them know you like it and want more!
And a big bouquet of roses to Texas A & M.
Heard its snowing in indy… pack your warm things, it jus tmight be a frozen four.
Did you see and hear “I Got Bounce” on National TV! Mel Murphy, you’re a star!
Best Geno Quote…. Best thing Maya does is not listen to me
Our NCAA bracket went to heck (way to represent, PAC-10! Said sarcastically) but C is beating R and that’s all that matters.
Although we must give shout out to super fan TG, who is sitting at the top of the bracket! He correctly picked the Texas A & M win over Baylor, the Gonzaga trip to the elite eight, and Notre Dame knocking off Tennessee to get to the final four. TG, we are taking you to Vegas or having you buy lottery tickets or somethin’!
Awarding:
Both Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen have tied the record for most Stanford career games at 149. They broke Ros Gold Onwude’s old record of 148. It’s fitting that the seniors are doing it together. Pedersen and Pohlen are 1-2 on the career minutes played list with 4,722 for Kayla and 4,316 for Jeanette. Kayla has 1,256 career rebounds, and is seven away from tying Jayne Appel (Jaaaaay-nneeee) for the Stanford and Pac-10 career rebounding record, while Pohlen is second all-time in Stanford history with 265 3-pointers made. Kayla also has a career-high 119 assists this year.
Kayla was also awarded the Pac-10 Scholar Athlete of the Year for basketball. She has a 3.53 GPA and is majoring in communications/psychology. We knew she was smart!
Jeanette and Nneka Ogqumike have been named to both the John R. Wooden All-America Team and the Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-America Teams. Congrats, you two deserve it!
And a big bouquet of roses to Texas A & M.
Heard its snowing in indy… pack your warm things, it jus tmight be a frozen four.
Did you see and hear “I Got Bounce” on National TV! Mel Murphy, you’re a star!
Best Geno Quote…. Best thing Maya does is not listen to me
Our NCAA bracket went to heck (way to represent, PAC-10! Said sarcastically) but C is beating R and that’s all that matters.
Although we must give shout out to super fan TG, who is sitting at the top of the bracket! He correctly picked the Texas A & M win over Baylor, the Gonzaga trip to the elite eight, and Notre Dame knocking off Tennessee to get to the final four. TG, we are taking you to Vegas or having you buy lottery tickets or somethin’!
Awarding:
Both Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen have tied the record for most Stanford career games at 149. They broke Ros Gold Onwude’s old record of 148. It’s fitting that the seniors are doing it together. Pedersen and Pohlen are 1-2 on the career minutes played list with 4,722 for Kayla and 4,316 for Jeanette. Kayla has 1,256 career rebounds, and is seven away from tying Jayne Appel (Jaaaaay-nneeee) for the Stanford and Pac-10 career rebounding record, while Pohlen is second all-time in Stanford history with 265 3-pointers made. Kayla also has a career-high 119 assists this year.
Kayla was also awarded the Pac-10 Scholar Athlete of the Year for basketball. She has a 3.53 GPA and is majoring in communications/psychology. We knew she was smart!
Jeanette and Nneka Ogqumike have been named to both the John R. Wooden All-America Team and the Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-America Teams. Congrats, you two deserve it!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Stanford Final Four Bound with Win Over Gonzaga
Well, that slump is over! Stanford Women’s Basketball player Jeanette Pohlen, probably tired of getting asked about her mini scoring “slump,” responded in the Elite Eight game against Gonzaga by hitting shots and playing with intensity and determination. How intense and determined? Try 60% shooting from the floor, five of them three pointers for a total of 17 points.
Fellow senior Kayla Pedersen had twelve timely rebounds and the team as a whole had 49 to Gonzaga’s 25, thirteen of them being on the offensive end for more chances to score. Kayla’s eight points are little low, and we don’t want to say anythAng, but C and R are sure she will be the next one to have a scoring outpouring.
Two Stanford players who aren’t slumping are the Stanford sister, Nneka and Chiney. They combined for 51 of Stanford’s 83 points and 26 of the 49 rebounds, and had the first 11 Stanford points of the second half . Nneka ended up with 23 points, 18 bounds, and Chiney, 18 points 15 boards. In the first half it was mostly Nneka who was scoring, Gonzaga not having the size to deny the entry pass or stop her path to the basket like UNC previosuly. When big sis Nneka was in a little scoring slump of her own in the second half, missing shots in the paint, it was Chiney who grabbed the rebound and put it back or was fouled trying.
Credit Gonzaga’s Courntey Vandersloot, the incredible point guard, for keeping her team in the game in the first half. She was on fire, hitting for 21 points in the first half and dishing out nine total assists to her teammates. C and R had to yell the now familiar refrain, “somebody guard her!”
So what does basketball genius Tara VanDerveer do in the second half? She goes into a little used zone defense to limit Courtney to one basket in the first 14 minutes of the second half, and four total points for said half. C and R, not the basketball geniuses, didn’t even realize Stanford went into the zone. We just kept our eyes on Vandersloot and just who was going to guard her and would call out, “Lindy is guarding her, now Jeannette, now Kayla, now Nneka” Whew. We thought they were handing her off man to man like they did Maya Moore. Now that we realize they were in zone, they weren’t switching and handing her off, she was just rotating through Stanford’s zone and they were guarding her as if man to man, so maybe a zone man to man. Duh C and R! Well, whatever it was, it worked, shutting down Gonzaga’s amazing point guard and no one stepping up in her place.
And then it was too much Ogwumikes. Nneka misses, Chiney gets it, even though they were being PUSHED by the other team and it wasn’t called (gee, we biased-ly think the refs aren’t calling fouls against Stanford, what’s new?) Courtney is negated, the sisters roll, it’s Stanford by a score of 83-60.
During the game, the announcers kept talking about Pac-10 player of the year Jeanette Pohlen and R prophetically said, Nneka deserves an award. She got one at the end of the game, or, well several. First of all, both sisters were named the “Player of the Game.” And how cute is that? Then Nneka got the Spokane Regional's most outstanding player award. And sometime after that when the all-regional team was announced, it included Nneka, Chiney and Kayla Pedersen. Yay, someone else was watching and appreciating Nneka like we do.
Side Notes:
C and R were watching the Tennessee-Notre Dame game right before the Stanford game. C, wisely learning her lesson about using up her good luck mojo, kept fairly silent throughout the game, even though secretly she was rooting against Pat Summit’s Tennessee team, a team and coach we love to hate. So now she can say those things she repressed for so long. Oh, how sweet was that ND win? Guess 21 times is a charm! And next time, Pat, when playing the green Irish, wear something else besides a mint green suit!!
ESPN cut in late to the Stanford game due to the Tennessee-Notre Dame game. However, C and R persevered. Some of our fans had earlier clued us in to ESPN 3 on the internet and they were streaming the live game and we saw all ten Stanford points, and R said this was the fastest game she ever saw, points flying across the boards for both teams, so glad we didn’t miss a second.
Then when Stanford won, we saw a little graphic that said go to ESPN 3 to see the net cutting ceremony because ESPN had spent long enough on a women’s sport. So back we went to the computer screen and we saw the trophy presentation and net cutting ceremony, with the team cutting the net into tiny pieces to wear behind their ears, Nneka herself cutting about five strands, and Tara VanDerveer throwing what was left of the net to Jeanette, silently expressing she was glad JP was out of her slump.
Cool it was a sold-out arena for women’s basketball. Not so cool it was a home game for Gonzaga and 10,500 were rooting for the Zags. Cool the arena held 11,000 plus. Not so cool Gonzaga got to sleep in their own beds for all four games. Tournament officials said they will look into that, and let’s hope they mean teams have to travel the last two games and not make a rule about sleeping in beds.
Other things to note we stole from the Stanford website:
The top-seeded Cardinal (33-2) will be making its fourth straight trip to the national semifinals for the first time in school history. The seniors of Pedersen, Pohlen and fellow seniors Ashley Cimino and Hannah Donaghe, hold the distinction of a perfect 63-0 career record at Maples Pavilion, and also becoming the first class in Stanford history to reach four consecutive Final Fours
Nneka was named the Most Outstanding Player in the regional for the second straight year while Chiney was named to the All-Regional Team along with Pedersen. Kayla has been named to the all-regional squad for a third time. Pedersen now has 1,256 career rebounds, just seven shy of tying Jayne Appel's all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record of 1,263 boards.
Stanford senior guard Jeanette Pohlen was selected to the Associated Press All-America First Team. Junior forward Nneka Ogwumike earned a spot on the Second Team for the second year in a row while senior forward Kayla Pedersen earned her second straight honorable mention.
Through the regional final win over Gonzaga, Pohlen has shot 41.2 percent from behind the arc and hit 93 3-pointers, breaking the old Stanford single-game record of 91 set by Krista Rappahahn in 2005-06.
And the last award:
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association named Tara VanDerveer the 2011 Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I Head Coach of the Year.
Fellow senior Kayla Pedersen had twelve timely rebounds and the team as a whole had 49 to Gonzaga’s 25, thirteen of them being on the offensive end for more chances to score. Kayla’s eight points are little low, and we don’t want to say anythAng, but C and R are sure she will be the next one to have a scoring outpouring.
Two Stanford players who aren’t slumping are the Stanford sister, Nneka and Chiney. They combined for 51 of Stanford’s 83 points and 26 of the 49 rebounds, and had the first 11 Stanford points of the second half . Nneka ended up with 23 points, 18 bounds, and Chiney, 18 points 15 boards. In the first half it was mostly Nneka who was scoring, Gonzaga not having the size to deny the entry pass or stop her path to the basket like UNC previosuly. When big sis Nneka was in a little scoring slump of her own in the second half, missing shots in the paint, it was Chiney who grabbed the rebound and put it back or was fouled trying.
Credit Gonzaga’s Courntey Vandersloot, the incredible point guard, for keeping her team in the game in the first half. She was on fire, hitting for 21 points in the first half and dishing out nine total assists to her teammates. C and R had to yell the now familiar refrain, “somebody guard her!”
So what does basketball genius Tara VanDerveer do in the second half? She goes into a little used zone defense to limit Courtney to one basket in the first 14 minutes of the second half, and four total points for said half. C and R, not the basketball geniuses, didn’t even realize Stanford went into the zone. We just kept our eyes on Vandersloot and just who was going to guard her and would call out, “Lindy is guarding her, now Jeannette, now Kayla, now Nneka” Whew. We thought they were handing her off man to man like they did Maya Moore. Now that we realize they were in zone, they weren’t switching and handing her off, she was just rotating through Stanford’s zone and they were guarding her as if man to man, so maybe a zone man to man. Duh C and R! Well, whatever it was, it worked, shutting down Gonzaga’s amazing point guard and no one stepping up in her place.
And then it was too much Ogwumikes. Nneka misses, Chiney gets it, even though they were being PUSHED by the other team and it wasn’t called (gee, we biased-ly think the refs aren’t calling fouls against Stanford, what’s new?) Courtney is negated, the sisters roll, it’s Stanford by a score of 83-60.
During the game, the announcers kept talking about Pac-10 player of the year Jeanette Pohlen and R prophetically said, Nneka deserves an award. She got one at the end of the game, or, well several. First of all, both sisters were named the “Player of the Game.” And how cute is that? Then Nneka got the Spokane Regional's most outstanding player award. And sometime after that when the all-regional team was announced, it included Nneka, Chiney and Kayla Pedersen. Yay, someone else was watching and appreciating Nneka like we do.
Side Notes:
C and R were watching the Tennessee-Notre Dame game right before the Stanford game. C, wisely learning her lesson about using up her good luck mojo, kept fairly silent throughout the game, even though secretly she was rooting against Pat Summit’s Tennessee team, a team and coach we love to hate. So now she can say those things she repressed for so long. Oh, how sweet was that ND win? Guess 21 times is a charm! And next time, Pat, when playing the green Irish, wear something else besides a mint green suit!!
ESPN cut in late to the Stanford game due to the Tennessee-Notre Dame game. However, C and R persevered. Some of our fans had earlier clued us in to ESPN 3 on the internet and they were streaming the live game and we saw all ten Stanford points, and R said this was the fastest game she ever saw, points flying across the boards for both teams, so glad we didn’t miss a second.
Then when Stanford won, we saw a little graphic that said go to ESPN 3 to see the net cutting ceremony because ESPN had spent long enough on a women’s sport. So back we went to the computer screen and we saw the trophy presentation and net cutting ceremony, with the team cutting the net into tiny pieces to wear behind their ears, Nneka herself cutting about five strands, and Tara VanDerveer throwing what was left of the net to Jeanette, silently expressing she was glad JP was out of her slump.
Cool it was a sold-out arena for women’s basketball. Not so cool it was a home game for Gonzaga and 10,500 were rooting for the Zags. Cool the arena held 11,000 plus. Not so cool Gonzaga got to sleep in their own beds for all four games. Tournament officials said they will look into that, and let’s hope they mean teams have to travel the last two games and not make a rule about sleeping in beds.
Other things to note we stole from the Stanford website:
The top-seeded Cardinal (33-2) will be making its fourth straight trip to the national semifinals for the first time in school history. The seniors of Pedersen, Pohlen and fellow seniors Ashley Cimino and Hannah Donaghe, hold the distinction of a perfect 63-0 career record at Maples Pavilion, and also becoming the first class in Stanford history to reach four consecutive Final Fours
Nneka was named the Most Outstanding Player in the regional for the second straight year while Chiney was named to the All-Regional Team along with Pedersen. Kayla has been named to the all-regional squad for a third time. Pedersen now has 1,256 career rebounds, just seven shy of tying Jayne Appel's all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record of 1,263 boards.
Stanford senior guard Jeanette Pohlen was selected to the Associated Press All-America First Team. Junior forward Nneka Ogwumike earned a spot on the Second Team for the second year in a row while senior forward Kayla Pedersen earned her second straight honorable mention.
Through the regional final win over Gonzaga, Pohlen has shot 41.2 percent from behind the arc and hit 93 3-pointers, breaking the old Stanford single-game record of 91 set by Krista Rappahahn in 2005-06.
And the last award:
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association named Tara VanDerveer the 2011 Russell Athletic/WBCA NCAA Division I Head Coach of the Year.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Stanford Survives North Carolina
I’m sorry Stanford, I knew I shouldn’t have watched that Gonzaga-Louisville game. I was rooting too hard for Gonzaga that I used up all my good luck/wishing mojo (I mean, how do you lose a twenty point lead, Zags?). Think I’m being silly? Think I’m being superstitious? Well, R called me Sunday morning to say UConn was losing to Georgetown, and when I tuned in UConn went on a 16-2 run. Before I started watching, Georgetown was raining threes and Maya Moore was 1 for 9 or something like that. When I stated watching, Georgetown couldn’t buy a basket and missed every three, and UConn stepped UP their game and Maya Moore made everything she touched, even though I was rooting hard for Georgetown to knock off UConn. Why did that happen? Because Geno’s such a great coach? No, it’s because I used up every LAST drop of good luck mojo rooting for Stanford to pull out their Sweet Sixteen victory the night before.
Well enough about UConn, after all this isn’t the C and R UConn Women’s Basketball Blog. Uweee, I don’t even like writing those words together! But I am delaying the inevitable to write about Stanford’s win last night. Yes, a win is a win is a win, and winners advance and non-winners go home and end their season, so C and R are definitely thankful Stanford is still alive in the tournament, but it was not pretty last night.
It’s funny, because C and R said all night Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike is having a “bad” game. She was bad for 19 points and she and sister Chiney scored the last 12 points for Stanford before Jeanette Pohlen iced the game with her free throws. North Carolina used their size (they have a 6’5 player, a 6’3 and a 6’0 player, similar to Stanford’s size) to deny and steal the entry pass to Nneka. You can’t score if you can’t get the ball. And when Nneka did touch the ball, they blocked her or pushed her out away from the basket to frustrate her all night long. (And the refs let a LOT of contact go uncalled).
Good thing for little sisters. Chiney would come to her big sister’s rescue to the tune of 16 points and eleven very critical rebounds. None was bigger than the offensive rebound and subsequent basket and the FOUL with 39 seconds left to give Stanford the lead, 69-65. She was a beast on the glass (guess her dislocated pinkie didn’t bother her) and saved Stanford many times.
So Stanford guard Jeanette Pohlen, is in a little, minor, just a teensy little bit, tiniest bit of a slump. It’s very small, so small we should hardly mention it. So small R didn’t even want me to mention it here in the blog because then we might be responsible for jinxing her for the rest of the tournament. She was 1-9 shooting for the night, yet she was 80% percent from the free throw line and she made 3 out of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds. She is ice, ice baby. In fact, the other coach called a timeout to try and “ice” her first attempts and she was all like, huh, free throws I can do. Final score was 72-65 but it was a much, much closer game.
Kayla Pedersen had her usual “quiet night” scoring 15, yet was 5 for 13 from the floor, and only 2-6 from three-point land. Fifteen points is nothing to sneeze at, but Stanford’s shooting percentage is waaay down, shooting 36% for the game, and only 19% from beyond the arc. Gotta step that up for these next few games.
Kudos to Kokenis for playing on a sprained ankle that was encased in silver-plated armor. No, just kidding, but Toni’s sprained ankle was bandaged up good and tight and she scored 9 points from the bench and even on a busted ankle she was faaa-ssst, leading the fast break, which Stanford had so few of. But she also missed a lot of pull-up jumpers she normally makes, going 3 for 11 from the floor. Hope she can play or even walk by Monday.
And Tinkle bells were ringing for Joslyn Tinkle, another bench player who came in and contributed big time. She was 3 for 4 for the night with 7 points. It’s good to know the role players can step up when someone like a Jeanette is struggling.
Monday night we play home crowd favorites Gonzaga, and although we beat them before early in the seaosn, they gave us a game of it. We need all Stanford players to be “on” Monday and for the rest of the tournament.
Well enough about UConn, after all this isn’t the C and R UConn Women’s Basketball Blog. Uweee, I don’t even like writing those words together! But I am delaying the inevitable to write about Stanford’s win last night. Yes, a win is a win is a win, and winners advance and non-winners go home and end their season, so C and R are definitely thankful Stanford is still alive in the tournament, but it was not pretty last night.
It’s funny, because C and R said all night Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike is having a “bad” game. She was bad for 19 points and she and sister Chiney scored the last 12 points for Stanford before Jeanette Pohlen iced the game with her free throws. North Carolina used their size (they have a 6’5 player, a 6’3 and a 6’0 player, similar to Stanford’s size) to deny and steal the entry pass to Nneka. You can’t score if you can’t get the ball. And when Nneka did touch the ball, they blocked her or pushed her out away from the basket to frustrate her all night long. (And the refs let a LOT of contact go uncalled).
Good thing for little sisters. Chiney would come to her big sister’s rescue to the tune of 16 points and eleven very critical rebounds. None was bigger than the offensive rebound and subsequent basket and the FOUL with 39 seconds left to give Stanford the lead, 69-65. She was a beast on the glass (guess her dislocated pinkie didn’t bother her) and saved Stanford many times.
So Stanford guard Jeanette Pohlen, is in a little, minor, just a teensy little bit, tiniest bit of a slump. It’s very small, so small we should hardly mention it. So small R didn’t even want me to mention it here in the blog because then we might be responsible for jinxing her for the rest of the tournament. She was 1-9 shooting for the night, yet she was 80% percent from the free throw line and she made 3 out of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds. She is ice, ice baby. In fact, the other coach called a timeout to try and “ice” her first attempts and she was all like, huh, free throws I can do. Final score was 72-65 but it was a much, much closer game.
Kayla Pedersen had her usual “quiet night” scoring 15, yet was 5 for 13 from the floor, and only 2-6 from three-point land. Fifteen points is nothing to sneeze at, but Stanford’s shooting percentage is waaay down, shooting 36% for the game, and only 19% from beyond the arc. Gotta step that up for these next few games.
Kudos to Kokenis for playing on a sprained ankle that was encased in silver-plated armor. No, just kidding, but Toni’s sprained ankle was bandaged up good and tight and she scored 9 points from the bench and even on a busted ankle she was faaa-ssst, leading the fast break, which Stanford had so few of. But she also missed a lot of pull-up jumpers she normally makes, going 3 for 11 from the floor. Hope she can play or even walk by Monday.
And Tinkle bells were ringing for Joslyn Tinkle, another bench player who came in and contributed big time. She was 3 for 4 for the night with 7 points. It’s good to know the role players can step up when someone like a Jeanette is struggling.
Monday night we play home crowd favorites Gonzaga, and although we beat them before early in the seaosn, they gave us a game of it. We need all Stanford players to be “on” Monday and for the rest of the tournament.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Stanford's Got Bounce
Enjoy "I Got Bounce" written by Stanford's very own Melanie Murphy for VanDerveer records. Featuring the muggings of one Chiney Ogumike and the singing voice of sister Nneka. And is that Toni Kokenis doing the worm?
In other news:
TVD in the NYT
Injury Update:
Chiney Ogwumike injured her left (non-shooting hand) pinkie (got dislocated in Monday's game) and was back to practice on Wednesday. Toni Kokenis is listed with an ankle injury and is being kept out of practice but expected to play on Saturday.
In other news:
TVD in the NYT
Injury Update:
Chiney Ogwumike injured her left (non-shooting hand) pinkie (got dislocated in Monday's game) and was back to practice on Wednesday. Toni Kokenis is listed with an ankle injury and is being kept out of practice but expected to play on Saturday.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Stanford Beats St. John's, Seniors are Perfect at Home
You would think C and R would be used to it by now; Stanford falling behind a little in the first half, battling back, taking a slight lead into the locker room. Stanford head Coach Tara VanDerveer working her adjustment skills magic, second half opens, Stanford goes on a XXX run, where X does not equal anything pornographic, but a large number to their opponents small one. Then, boom goes the dynamite, the subs come in and the Stanford Women’s Basketball team wins the game. It has happened all season long (except when Stanford played UConn, they lead that one wire to wire, hee hee), so you think C and R would not worry when Stanford is down. But no, worry they did. The Stanford seniors starters (an alliteration, my third grade students like to point out), of Pohlen and Pedersen (double alliteration, they would say) looked tight and… uh, can’t think of another “T” word to fit the theme, let’s just say they looked not as comfortable as they usually do at Maples. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact their 62 home game wining streak, of never having to walk off Maples without beating their opponent, of being the first Stanford senior class to accomplish this feat was on the line. A sense of history can do that to a person or two.
But, as C and R already spoiled the ending. Stanford beat their second round opponent St. John by a score of 75-49, after a slow start, for a record 63 staight home victories. Half way through the first half, Stanford was down by eight, yet when the half ended, it was Stanford up by eight, 38-30. How did that reversal of fortune happen? Nneka Ogwumike happened. Granted, St. John’s didn’t leave her open, it’s just they played her one on one. They denied her an easy path to the basket. This time she would turn around quickly, elevate, and we mean elevate, and then shoot, ands she must be taking a class in geometry because she banked in some crazy angles. It really was Nneka to the rescue. It helped little sis Chiney picked up any and all rebounds, six on the offensive side, six on the defensive side, a little of everything, and happy birthday to her, she just turned 19 during the game!
So remember the half time score being 38-30, Stanford. St. John’s would score only seven more points in the first fourteen minutes of the second half. They got stuck on 37 points for eight whole minutes! Stanford has some great D! Mikaela Ruef stepped up big for Chiney when she was on the bench. St. John’s got 12 more points against the bench.
Scary moment of the game with 2:20 left before half time, Toni Kokenis, who already gave Stanford a spark off the bench with three three-pointers and eleven total points, went for loose ball and a St. John’s player rolled up her leg, injuring her. She left the game for treatment, and came back on the court in the second half (to thunderous applause) but she was wisely rested for the rest of the night. Hope she heals by Saturday, it is being listed as an ankle injury. Chiney also go hurt, the injury being listed as her finger (dislocated pinkie), but C and R know from their playing days that any jammed finger hurts and hurts for awhile. Hope both of them are better by Saturday.
It was great to see another almost full house. About 5,900 people came out to see Stanford and their seniors make history. (And again, watching the other games on TV, hardly anyone in some of the stands). When Jeanette Pohlen came out of the game around the 4-minute mark, she got a Stanford ovation. Same for Kayla Pedersen at the 3:20 mark. Both C and R said good-bye to them, as we will never see them live and in operson in a Stanford uniform again, boo hoo!
Stanford has the late late game on Saturday. No wonder the East Coast gives the West no respect. They never see them, as they are all fast asleep.
But, as C and R already spoiled the ending. Stanford beat their second round opponent St. John by a score of 75-49, after a slow start, for a record 63 staight home victories. Half way through the first half, Stanford was down by eight, yet when the half ended, it was Stanford up by eight, 38-30. How did that reversal of fortune happen? Nneka Ogwumike happened. Granted, St. John’s didn’t leave her open, it’s just they played her one on one. They denied her an easy path to the basket. This time she would turn around quickly, elevate, and we mean elevate, and then shoot, ands she must be taking a class in geometry because she banked in some crazy angles. It really was Nneka to the rescue. It helped little sis Chiney picked up any and all rebounds, six on the offensive side, six on the defensive side, a little of everything, and happy birthday to her, she just turned 19 during the game!
So remember the half time score being 38-30, Stanford. St. John’s would score only seven more points in the first fourteen minutes of the second half. They got stuck on 37 points for eight whole minutes! Stanford has some great D! Mikaela Ruef stepped up big for Chiney when she was on the bench. St. John’s got 12 more points against the bench.
Scary moment of the game with 2:20 left before half time, Toni Kokenis, who already gave Stanford a spark off the bench with three three-pointers and eleven total points, went for loose ball and a St. John’s player rolled up her leg, injuring her. She left the game for treatment, and came back on the court in the second half (to thunderous applause) but she was wisely rested for the rest of the night. Hope she heals by Saturday, it is being listed as an ankle injury. Chiney also go hurt, the injury being listed as her finger (dislocated pinkie), but C and R know from their playing days that any jammed finger hurts and hurts for awhile. Hope both of them are better by Saturday.
It was great to see another almost full house. About 5,900 people came out to see Stanford and their seniors make history. (And again, watching the other games on TV, hardly anyone in some of the stands). When Jeanette Pohlen came out of the game around the 4-minute mark, she got a Stanford ovation. Same for Kayla Pedersen at the 3:20 mark. Both C and R said good-bye to them, as we will never see them live and in operson in a Stanford uniform again, boo hoo!
Stanford has the late late game on Saturday. No wonder the East Coast gives the West no respect. They never see them, as they are all fast asleep.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sports Illustrated Covered
Superfan TG writes in to help with the Sports Illustrated Cover Conundrum. He also probably bought a copy of the mag cuz he could tell a lot more than C and R. He writes:
In addition to the women players you correctly identified, I have the following:
1. Skylar Diggins - Notre Dame (in the upper right, just below the funny orange mascot)
2. Brittney Thomas - Michigan State (just above the "d" in Illustrated)
3. Jasmine Thomas - Duke (just to the left of Kemba Walker's arm)
4. Felicia Chester - DePaul (at the bottom, right in front of John Wooden)
I am pretty sure those four plus Adams, Griner, Simmons, Nneka, and Harris makes everybody! And oh, that is indeed Maya Moore just on top of the "e" in Illustrated. That means we have players from each of the 1 and 2 seeds, plus DePaul and Michigan State - 10 in all.
Also, I've been a big fan of Barack Obama from the start. Agree with him or not, I think he has handled tremendous adversity with both intelligence and grace. However, he picked Baylor over Stanford in the national semifinals - I'm voting Republican!
TG
In addition to the women players you correctly identified, I have the following:
1. Skylar Diggins - Notre Dame (in the upper right, just below the funny orange mascot)
2. Brittney Thomas - Michigan State (just above the "d" in Illustrated)
3. Jasmine Thomas - Duke (just to the left of Kemba Walker's arm)
4. Felicia Chester - DePaul (at the bottom, right in front of John Wooden)
I am pretty sure those four plus Adams, Griner, Simmons, Nneka, and Harris makes everybody! And oh, that is indeed Maya Moore just on top of the "e" in Illustrated. That means we have players from each of the 1 and 2 seeds, plus DePaul and Michigan State - 10 in all.
Also, I've been a big fan of Barack Obama from the start. Agree with him or not, I think he has handled tremendous adversity with both intelligence and grace. However, he picked Baylor over Stanford in the national semifinals - I'm voting Republican!
TG
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