December 17, 2012

Next up: Gamecocks and Lady Vols

The Cardinal heads across the country this week on a challenging road trip — first to South Carolina on Wednesday evening (4:30 pm Pacific Time), then on to Knoxville for a game on Saturday afternoon (1:00 Pacific Time).

Both games will be televised — the South Carolina game on Fox Sports South and the Tennessee game on SportSouth & Fox Sports Arizona. Be sure to check your TV Provider Guide for these games, which have been picked up by some nation-wide providers. Both games will also be broadcast by KZSU and shown by GameTracker.

Stanford played both South Carolina and Tennessee last season, but none of the three teams are the same. What will be the same is the intensity of the competition — expect nothing less than "A" games this week.

Toni blowing by Meighan Simmons last season

  South Carolina Gamecocks

You remember South Carolina, don't you — Dawn Staley's Gamecocks — the team that came close to defeating the Cardinal in the Sweet Sixteen last season?

The scrappy little senior guards who broke through the Cardinal defense for 32 points (Markeshia Grant and La'Keisha Sutton) are gone.

But the freshman forward who grabbed eight offensive rebounds and four defensive ones (Aleighsa Welch) is still there, and she isn't suffering a sophomore slump.

The Gamecocks are still an undersized, very good rebounding team with aggressive man-to-man defense. They allow their opponents just 42.7 points per game (#2 in the nation) and get 16.4 more rebounds per game (#2 in the nation). They steal the ball almost ten times per game. And you can bet that coach Staley has a game plan that will seriously challenge the Cardinal.

South Carolina is one of just eight undefeated teams in the nation. Its 10-0 start is the best in school history. It's moving up in the national polls and is now ranked #21/17.

The Gamecocks are weak in two areas — ball-handling and free-throw shooting. They average just a bit more than ten assists per game and have a poor assist/turnover ratio of 0.7. They have the worst free-throw percentage in the nation – 51.9% – and are losing about 12 points per game on missed free throws.

The Gamecock starters are:

  • #24, 6'0" sophomore forward Aleighsa Welch now leads the Gamecocks in offense as well as in defense. She's the second-best rebounder in the SEC, with an average of 9.5 rebounds per game — 5.0 of them are O-boards (#1 in the SEC). She's also the Gamecock's leading scorer with 11.9 points per game and has tallied five double-doubles.

  • #25, 5'9" freshman guard Tiffany Mitchell averages 11.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game.

  • #21, 6'0" senior forward Ashley Bruner averages 11.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

  • #2, 5'8" senior guard Ieasia Walker averages 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. She's the only Gamecock who shoots much from beyond the arc. Half of her field goal attempts are 3-pointers and she makes 31% of them.

  • #20, 5'10" senior guard Sancheon White averages 6.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

Here are South Carolina's 2012-13 statistics and roster.

  Tennessee Lady Vols

Stanford vs the Lady Vols — so familiar, yet so different.

Stanford and Tennessee have played each other 29 times in the past 23 years — never without Pat Summit at the helm.

Stanford has won at Knoxville just once in those 23 years, in 1996 with Kate Starbird, Vanessa Nygaard, Olympia Scott, Jamila Wideman, Naomi Mulitauaopele — the team that went on to lose to ODU in the NCAA Final Four.

Pat Summitt still plays an important role for the team as the honored Head Coach Emeritus. She attends nearly every practice and is in the stands for all home games.

Long-time assistant Holly Warlick has taken over as the active head coach.

Last season's starting five — Shekinna Strickland, Glory Johnson, Vicki Baugh, Alicia Manning, Breanna Bass — have all graduated.

One thing that hasn't changed is that everyone in the program is committed to the Tennessee Lady Vols' tradition of excellence. Coach Warlick's message to her team as the season began was, "New team, new staff, new goals ... Same heart, same pride, same fight."

And the Vols' loyal fan base is still on board. Almost 11,000 orange-clad fans have attended each game in Thompson-Boling Arena, and they're probably all singing "Rocky Top".

The current Lady Vols have lost a lot of height, but they are compensating with speed and athleticism. They are an up-tempo squad: taking chances, forcing turnovers, pushing the ball in transition. They are the second-highest scoring team in the nation with an average of 87.0 points per game.

They slipped up against Chattanooga in their season opener, but have been sensational since then, winning seven straight games and beating four top-25 opponents — Georgia, Miami, North Carolina and Texas.

They began the season ranked #20/26 in the national polls and have moved up to #10/11

The Lady Vol starters are:

  • #10, 5'9" junior guard Meighan Simmons is primarily a shooting guard and the Lady Vols' leading scorer with 17.9 points per game. She scores about ⅓ of her points from beyond the arc, where she takes 33% of her shots and makes 37.5 % of them. and at the charity stripe, where she makes 92.3% of her free throws. She also averages 3.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game.

  • #12, 6'2" freshman forward/center Bashaara Graves is a very physical and athletic power forward. She's the Lady Vols' leading rebounder (8.1 rpg) and second-best scorer (15.0 ppg). She's had three double-doubles this season.

  • #20, 6'3" sophomore center Isabelle Harrison is productive on offense and defense with 10.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game.

  • #11, 6'2" sophomore forward Cierra Burdick is a small forward who has just about doubled her freshman production with 9.3 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

  • #5, 5'6" sophomore guard Ariel Massengale came off the bench as the Lady Vols' point guard for the first five games of the season while she recovered from pre-season injury issues. She has now joined the starters in place of freshman guard Andraya Carter, who had season-ending shoulder surgery a week ago. Massengale scores 9.1 points per game and dishes out 4.3 assists with just half that many turnovers.

Here are Tennessee's 2012-13 statistics and roster.

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