Players getting ready to return

By FBC reporter Judy Richter:

The Stanford women’s basketball team’s 2012-13 odyssey will officially get under way at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, with the first team meeting.

The players will spend the day going over compliance rules, undergoing physicals, unpacking their uniforms and other gear, practicing and – just for fun – attending the home football game against USC later in the afternoon, according to Eileen Roche, director of basketball operations.

Freshman orientation is Sept. 17, followed by a convocation Sept. 18 and the first day of classes Sept. 24.

The team’s three freshmen – guard Kiran Lakhian, forward Aly Beebe and forward/center Tess Picknell – presumably have a pretty good idea of how to get around campus after attending summer school. Most of their returning teammates also went to summer school or spent time on campus while working at head coach Tara VanDerveer’s hoops camps.

During September, NCAA rules allow the team to practice only eight hours a week, including conditioning, Eileen said. Between Oct. 1 and Nov. 9, the official start of the season, it can practice 30 days. The two exhibition games – against Corban on Nov. 1 and against Vanguard on Nov. 3, both at home – don’t count against practice time, she said.

Because the women’s volleyball and men’s basketball seasons overlap or coincide with women’s basketball, the three teams must coordinate practice times in Maples Pavilion. The WBB practice slot is 4-7 p.m. until January, when it will change to 1-4 p.m. These times were mapped out in advance to give the athletes a chance to schedule their classes accordingly.

Although exhibition games have generally proven to be easy wins for Stanford, the opposing coaches have been eager to play the Cardinal to give their players experience against an elite team. The benefit to Stanford is that “it lets us play everybody,” gives the Stanford players game experience and lets the coaches get a feel for lineups and rotations. “It’s a win-win” for everybody, Eileen said.

The staff is still working out details of other events such as the traditional open practice in October, chalk talks before the games and post-game talks. Scheduling will be complicated by the fact that the Arrillaga Family Sports Center is being expanded on the east side toward the aquatic center. That means that Dallmar Court won’t be available for post-game gatherings.

One change in staffing is that Susan Borchardt, assistant sports performance coach, is taking a year’s sabbatical so that she and her three young children can join her husband, Curtis Borchardt, while he plays professional basketball overseas. She will be replaced by Kurtis Rayfield, who worked with her as a graduate assistant last season.

The season schedule features some unusual game times because of the advent of the Pac-12 Network. The new network means that more games in more sports will be televised, but it also has required some juggling of game times, Eileen said.

In the meantime, “We’re figuring it out. We’re just going to play ball,” she said.