Next up: Fresno State

The Fresno State Bulldogs won the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) regular season and tournament championships last season. They lost to Cal in the first round of the NCAAs.

This season, they are currently second in the WAC (behind Boise State) with an 8-4 record. One loss was to West Virginia, which was ranked #23. The other games were against unranked teams. They have won all four of their home games.

However, the Bulldogs are more of a threat than their record suggests. They are very strong three-point shooters. As a team, they make 34.6% of their three point attempts and average 9.6 of them a game – that's fourth-best in the nation. (For comparison, Stanford averages 7.3 at a rate of 36.1%.)

Their best three point shooter and best all-around player is 5'8" junior guard Jaleesa Ross. She averages 3.6 three's per game – the sixth-best individual record in the nation. She is Fresno's top scorer (17.8 points per game). She is also their best rebounder (6.0 per game) and has the most blocks (0.75 per game).

You can tell from Ross's latter two statistics that Fresno is not strong on defense. As a team, they average 37.4 rebounds per game, the same as their opponents.

They are a fairly short team. Their only "big" is 6'3" freshman center Jeanna Furst, who plays about ten minutes a game. (6'2" junior center Veronica Wilson is a transfer from Boston College and will not play this season.)

Besides Ross, the starters will probably be:

• 5'8" senior guard LaShay Fears averages 7.8 points and 2.9 assists per game. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.13.
• 6'0" freshman guard Rosie Moult averages 5.8 points, 1.6 three's, 5.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. Her assist-to-turnover ratio is 1.71 – the best on the team. She is one of four Australians on the team.
• 6'1" junior forward Hayley Munro, also from Australia, averages 10.9 points, 1.6 three's and 4.5 rebounds per game.
• 6'0" senior forward Joh-Teena Filipe averages 8.5 points, 1.2 three's and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Stanford and Fresno State have played each other 23 times. Stanford leads the series 17-6. Their most recent game was just about a year ago at Maples. Stanford won 100-62. The Bulldogs are no doubt eager to do better at home this season.

Here are their 2009-10 statistics and their roster.