Getting ready for the dance

Maples Pavilion was busy all Friday afternoon as Iowa, Rutgers, UC Riverside and Stanford practiced before the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament.

There was a press conference with Jayne, Nneka and Tara before the open practice. You can watch it here. There are quotes from the press conference in the report of the practice session from Stanford Athletics.

There were many photographers present. Two of them have posted their photos on the internet:

• A slide show of Stanford and UC Riverside activity from Silvia Flores (Riverside Press-Enterprise).
• A collection of photos from Paul Sakuma (Associated Press) of all four practice sessions.

A popular story line this weekend is the ties between Tara, C. Vivian Stringer, Lisa Bluder (Iowa head coach) and Bob Bowlsby (Stanford A.D. and former Iowa A.D.). It's the basis of Michelle Smith's story Stringer takes no pleasure in facing Iowa.

Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online) writes about those ties and about the Iowa team in Iowa, Rutgers, Stanford women basketball coaches are 'reunited' at Maples.

Here are stories about three of the teams' leading players:

• Stanford center dominating, bubbly, mischievous by Tom FitzGerald, San Francisco Chronicle
• Alexander Leads Iowa Into NCAA Tourney by Michelle Smith, Fan House
• Rivera’s experience propels Riverside by Michelle Smith, LeftCoastHoops.

Here are articles about the Stanford/Riverside game:

• For UCR, Stanford looms large by Allan Steele, Riverside Press-Enterprise
• UC Riverside-Stanford Preview from the Associated Press

Here are a few of the photos from the collections linked to above:

The Cardinal relax in the locker room before practice The Cardinal gather at center court Tara enjoys practice sessions Jayne drives to the basket Nneka applauds her teammates