Wazzu and Udub at Maples

The Washington State Cougars and the University of Washington Huskies are on the road this week to play Stanford — WSU on Thursday at 7:00 pm, UW on Saturday at 2:00 pm. Neither game will be televised, but both will be video-streamed by Stanford All-Access and broadcast by KZSU. You can find the links in the Prior and Upcoming Games schedule on the FBC home page.

Stanford is not travelling to Washington this season, so this is the only time they will play WSU and UW except, perhaps, in the Pac-12 Tournament.

Lindy drives past a Cougar last season

  Washington State Cougars

In her fifth season at Washington State, head coach June Daugherty is continuing to improve the women's basketball program. The Cougars finished tied for 7th in the Pac-10 last season (8-23 overall, 6-12 conference), their best showing in 13 years. This season they already have nine wins and have a good chance of finishing in the top half of the conference.

Those wins came with a very tough non-conference schedule that included four ranked teams — Penn State, Gonzaga, Louisville and Ohio State. WSU didn't win any of those games, but they weren't blown out — one loss was by two points, another by four, the other two by twelve. They started the conference season with three wins — against Oregon and Oregon State on the road and Utah at home — then lost to Colorado by one point and to Washington last week by nine.

The Cougars were fortunate in having no major injuries — until the Pac-12 opener at Oregon, when their key three-point shooter Ireti Amojo tore her ACL. Amojo made almost two three-pointers per game at a rate of 50% – the best in the Pac-12.

The Cougars are an unusually balanced team. They have ten players who average between 12 and 24 minutes per game. They have no single player who scores in double digits — instead they have seven players who score, on average, between seven and nine points per game. Eight different players have been the top scorer in WSU's 17 games this season.

The Cougars are a quick team that likes to run and harass its opponents. They lead the Pac-12 in turnover margin (4.3 fewer than their opponents) and are second in steals (11.0 per game).

Coach Daugherty feels that the team is out of sync and still adjusting to the loss of Amojo. She has been shuffling the lineup, trying to get the team back into a rhythm offensively. The starters against Stanford will probably be:

• #11, 5'10" senior guard Jazmine Perkins is WSU's leading scorer (9.0 ppg), rebounder (7.6 rpg) and ball thief (3.0 spg). She leads the Pac-12 in steals.


• #33, 6'5" junior center Carly Noyes averages 7.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists. and 0.9 blocks per game.


• #3, 5'5" senior point guard Rosetta Adzazu averages 6.0 points 3.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.


• #21, 6'1" senior guard/forward Rosie Tarnowski averages 5.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.


• #24, 6'1" sophomore guard/forward Brandi Thomas averages 3.0 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. She has been in the starting five only once.

First off the bench will probably be senior guard April Cook (5.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.0 apg), sophomore guard/forward Sage Romberg (7.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.4 apg) and freshman guard Tia Presley (6.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 1.8 apg). Each of them has started before in more than ten games.

Another reserve to watch for is 6'3" freshman forward/center Shalie Dheenshaw. She provides length and strength in the paint, which the Cougars need badly. She hasn't played much yet, but was strong and confident last week against Washington – she grabbed seven rebounds (three of them O-boards) in 16 minutes.

WSU's win-loss record (9-8 overall, 3-2 conference) places them 4th in the Pac-12 their RPI (66) places them 5th, and their strength of schedule rank (20) places them 4th.

Here are WSU's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.

  University of Washington Huskies

The Huskies are having a rough go this season. First, they had to adjust to an all-new coaching staff, headed by Kevin McGuff, who came to Washington after nine seasons at Xavier. Then their star player, senior guard Kristi Kingma, tore her ACL before the season started. And last week, sophomore forward Marjorie Heard, a key player off the bench, tore her ACL during a practice drill.

Two bright lights for the Huskies have been standout freshman point guard Jazmine Davis and rejuvenated senior center Regina Rogers. Conditioning was an issue with Rogers last season — she couldn't keep up in a fast game and didn't have the stamina to play major minutes. This season, she's in the starting five, playing about 27 minutes a game (10 more than last season), and leading the Huskies in scoring and rebounding.

The Huskies are, as they have been in the past, an aggressive team on defense. They hold their opponents to 33% field goal shooting – the best in the Pac-12 and #8 in the nation.

They don't handle the ball well. They average about 12 assists and almost 18 turnovers per game. They rank 11th in the Pac-12 in assists and in assist-to-turnover ratio.

They're not much of a threat beyond the arc. They have the second-best 3-point shooting percentage in the Pac-12 (34.3), but attempt only about 12 per game – the fewest in the Pac-12.

The Huskies inherited a soft schedule from Tia Jackson and did pretty well with it, winning eight of ten non-conference games. The conference season hasn't started as well — they defeated Colorado and WSU, but lost to Oregon, Oregon State and Utah. Coach McGuff said, “We have a lot of places where we need to grow to feel like we could compete at the top,”

The probable starters for UW are:

• #43, 6'3" redshirt senior forward/center Regina Rogers is UW's leading scorer (16.2 ppg) and rebounder (7.9 rpg). She makes 65.3% of her field goal attempts – the best in the nation. She missed the game against WSU last week due to a bruised hamstring, and she may not play in the Bay Area games – UW lists her in their game notes as a probable starter, but she hasn't been cleared to practice yet.


• #32, 5'8" freshman guard Jazmine Davis is having a standout freshman season. She's UW's second-best scorer and the top freshman scorer in the Pac-12 with 13.6 ppg. She makes 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. She makes 81.2% of her free throw attempts – second-best in the Pac-12. She has started all 15 games for the UW and has played 34 minures per game – third-most in the Pac-12.


• #33, 6'3" redshirt senior forward/center MacKenzie Argens averages 9.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game.


• #1, 5'8" sophomore guard Mercedes Wetmore averages 7.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.


• #22, 5'10" senior guard/forward Charmaine Barlow averages 2.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

Coming off UW's short bench are sophomore guard Kellie McCann-Smith, freshman guard/forward Aminah Williams, junior forward Jeneva Anderson and senior forward Mollie Williams. Collectively they play 50 minutes per game and account for 22% of the scoring and 25% of the rebounds.

Washington's win-loss record (10-5 overall, 2-3 conference) places them 8th in the Pac-12 their RPI (103) places them 9th, and their strength of schedule rank (139) places them 10th.

Here are Washington's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.