Cal hit hard with Gray-Lawson injury

By: Michelle Smith, San Francisco Chronicle

It has been a good news, bad news week for 15th-ranked Cal. And unfortunately for the Bears, the bad news is the biggest.

Sophomore guard Alexis Gray-Lawson, part of the nucleus of five young players who came into the Bears' program last season and helped lead them to Cal's first NCAA berth in 13 years, will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining a torn ACL in Sunday's win at Kansas. (More ...)

Jayne is making an impact

By: Jennifer Starks, Contra Costa Times

ESPN women's basketball analyst Nancy Lieberman first met Jayne Appel at the Nike Girls Skills Academy in Beaverton, Ore., during the summer of 2005.

Like the rest of the select group in attendance, Appel was a bright, young talent with limitless potential. Lieberman was taken with her basketball savvy and skill around the hoop. But there was something else.

"You see a lot of kids, when they come into situations, they have big, wide eyes. She was a little bit different," said Lieberman, a two-time Olympian and member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. "You could tell she had a good handle on the situation. Some kids don't know what they want to do. Let's face it. Go to Stanford and figure it out."

Appel is doing just that. (More ...)

Brooke & Candice on Naismith Watch List

From: GoStanford.com

Senior Brooke Smith and junior Candice Wiggins have been included among a list of 50 preseason candidates for the Naismith Trophy presented by Cingular Wireless, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Monday. The Naismith Trophy is one of the prestigious national awards presented annually to the men's and women's collegiate players of the year. (More ...)

Bracketology in December

ESPN columnist Charlie Creme says that projecting the NCAA Tournament bracket in December is probably just plain crazy, but he does it anyway because it's fun. He has this to say about the four Pac-10 teams in his December bracket:

• Washington: After blowing a second-half lead at Ohio State, the Huskies bounced back with what should prove to be a big win later on over Texas A & M.
• California: The young Golden Bears didn't pass their first test, at Vanderbilt, but have still won eight of nine.
• Arizona State: Maybe the least publicized and most unrecognized really good team in the country.
• Stanford: The poor Cardinal start might be the most perplexing story of the season so far.

Here is the complete bracket and Creme's column.

Cardinal strikes back

By: Michelle Smith, San Francisco Chronicle

Stanford can head into its annual break for final exams fully able to concentrate on taking care of business in class, knowing that it finally is taking care of business on the court.

The 15th-ranked Cardinal made easy work of Texas Tech on Sunday afternoon at Maples Pavilion (More ...)

Raiders on Horizon

By: Scott Bland, The Stanford Daily

The No. 15 Stanford women’s basketball team will be looking to start its first winning streak of the 2006-2007 season when they take on No. 25 Texas Tech at 2 p.m. Sunday in Maples Pavilion. (More ...)

Stanford back on track

I think that all the Bay Area sports writers were as pleased to have a good Stanford Women's Basketball game to write about as we were to see it!

Cardinal bounces back from losses

By: Chris Haft, The Mercury News

It took the Stanford women's basketball team 225 games to fall below .500. It took the Cardinal one game to hurl that figure into the wastebasket of trivia.
Purging itself of last weekend's losses to No. 4 Tennessee and No. 8 Georgia, the Cardinal routed Santa Clara 88-56 on Wednesday night at Maples Pavilion. Stanford (3-3) recorded its largest margin of victory this season and matched its season high for scoring. (More ...)

Cardinal spread scoring wealth

By: Michelle Smith, San Francisco Chronicle

After a difficult, disheartening weekend, the Stanford women's basketball team needed a confidence boost.
It came Wednesday night in the form of the Santa Clara Broncos. The 15th-ranked Cardinal ended a run of two straight losses with a dominating performance at Maples Pavilion, defeating the Broncos 88-56. (More ...)

Determined Card dominate

By: Christian Torres, The Stanford Daily

It was a welcome return to Maples Pavilion last night for the No. 15 Stanford women’s basketball team. After a difficult weekend on the road with losses against No. 4 Tennessee and No. 8 Georgia, the Cardinal dominated Santa Clara 88-56 leading into Sunday’s bout against No. 25 Texas Tech. (More ...)

Hoops effort isn't puzzling by Stanford Women

By: Rick Eymer, Palo Alto Weekly

Kristen Newlin is another piece to the basketball puzzle that Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer continually contemplates as she finds a way to patch together the whole picture. (More ...)

Balanced attack leads Stanford

By: John Reid, Palo Alto Daily News

Stanford's Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, her left knee wrapped up, spent the pregame warm-ups peppering her Stanford teammates with hand-slaps in preparation for their non-conference women's basketball game with Santa Clara at Maples Pavilion Wednesday evening. (More ...)

Time for a Turnaround

By: Haley Murphy, The Stanford Daily

Stanford women’s basketball team returns home with hopes of erasing the memory of its three unsavory losses, a streak which gave the Cardinal a sub-.500 record for the first time in seven years. Stanford (2-3) will host Santa Clara (4-2) tonight to kick off a three-game homestand.

After road losses to No. 4 Tennessee and No. 8 Georgia last week, the Cardinal hope that the lessons of traveling and a home crowd will give them the advantage in their meeting with the Broncos. (More ...)

Stanford-Tennessee

This is Michelle Smith's (San Francisco Chonicle) report of the Stanford-Tennessee game:

Stanford's 10-game losing streak to Tennessee, which dates back to 1996, is an inescapable fact for the Cardinal women's basketball players as they prepare for today's matchup in Knoxville against the No. 4-ranked Lady Vols. But it is also largely irrelevant.

"I think we go into it each time fresh," said Stanford senior Brooke Smith. "You don't want to put extra weight on it and you don't want to look at old patterns. It's a big game and we just want to be well-prepared for them. (More ...)

And Darren Sabreda's (San Jose Mercury News):

Candice Wiggins is tired of coming close.

"We're not going to walk away and be happy with like, `Yeah, we're on Tennessee's heels,'" said Wiggins, Stanford's All-America guard. "No, we want to be stepping on their feet." (More ...)

Basketball History

Here is some basketball history to entertain you while you wait for the Tennessee and Georgia games.

The Beginning of Basketball

You know about Dr. James Naismith and the peach baskets, don't you? If not, here's that story.

But it turns out that there's more to it than that. Naismith's daughter recently discovered five boxes of personal documents, photographs and mementos in her basement. Here's that story.

Naismith's 13 Rules of Basketball

1. The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2. The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands, but never with the fist.
3. A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man running at good speed.
4. The ball must be held by the hands. The arms or body must not be used for holding it.
5. No shouldering, holding, pushing, striking or tripping in any way of an opponent. The first infringement of this rule by any person shall count as a foul; the second shall disqualify him until the next goal is made or, if there was evident intent to injure the person, for the whole of the game. No substitution shall be allowed.
6. A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violations of Rules 3 and 4 and such as described in Rule 5.
7. If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the meantime making a foul).
8. A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do not touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and the opponent moves the basket, it shall count as a goal.
9. When the ball goes out of bounds, it shall be thrown into the field and played by the first person touching it. In case of dispute the umpire shall throw it straight into the field. The thrower-in is allowed five seconds. If he holds it longer, it shall go to the opponent. If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them.
10. The umpire shall be the judge of the men and shall note the fouls and notify the referee when three consecutive fouls have been made. He shall have power to disqualify men according to Rule 5.
11. The referee shall be judge of the ball and shall decide when the ball is in play, in bounds, to which side it belongs, and shall keep the time. He shall decide when a goal has been made and keep account of the goals, with any other duties that are usually performed by a referee.
12. The time shall be two fifteen-minute halves, with five minutes rest between.
13. The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winner.

The Beginning of Women's Basketball

Women's basketball was invented by Sendra Berenson at Smith College in 1892. Pamela Grundy, the co-author of Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball reports:

... women's basketball started about a year after James Naismith invented a game for his boys at the Springfield, Mass., YMCA.

Sendra Berenson at Smith College, who was often bed-ridden “because of a lack of vitality,” had found that physical education improved her health. She wrote to Naismith for the rules to basketball, added some twists to keep contact to a minimum, and the women's game was born.

Women couldn't vote. There were medical “studies” that showed women's brains were smaller than those of men, women who played sports would be in danger of losing the ability to bear children, women had a finite level of energy and they should spend it being women, not basketball players.

But more women took up the game and more people went to watch. The game was cheap and less violent and deadly than football.

Modesty still ruled and women basketball players were wrapped in bloomers, ballooning blouses and even hats so that only the face and hands were exposed. Still men were banned from watching women play basketball.

But the heavy wool bloomers were better for women than the constricting corset and narrow-bottomed skirts that many women wore because “it helped their frail bodies stand erect,”.

Women's Basketball, 1892-1997

Sally Jenkins, in an article for WNBA.com, says, “Women's basketball has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1892. It may be surprising to discover that women began playing basketball less than a year after the game was invented. The fact is that women's basketball is steeped in tradition, some of it frustrating, most of it fascinating.”

The article is an amusing account of the history of women's basketball:

• From 1892: Gymnastics instructor Senda Berenson Abbott adapts James Naismith's basketball rules for women and introduces the game at Smith College. First inter-institutional contest between the University of California and Miss Head's School.
• To June 21, 1997: The inaugural WNBA season begins.

Here is Jenkin's article.