Nneka is Pac-10 Player of the Week ... again!

In the DePaul game last week, Nneka took heed of Tara's advice, "Start off with a knockout punch, then keep punching them into the ground." She scored the game-high 24 points – her fourth 20+ point game performance this season. Her scoring average is now 20.1 – best in the Pac-10 and #22 in the nation. Her field goal percentage is 63.9 – second-best in the Pac-10 and fifth-best in the nation.

Her outstanding performance earned her the Pac-10 Player of the Week award for the second time in her career and the second time in a month.

Congratulations Nneka!

A well-oiled machine

The Cardinal came back from their two-week layoff hard and fast and smooth, and defeated DePaul 96-60.

Nneka led the onslaught with 24 points, six rebounds, two steals and a block.

Ros played with ferocious intensity for 28 minutes and had her best game of the season – 12 points, including one from beyond the arc, five rebounds, four assists and a steal.

Jayne's first rebound of the game was the 1000th of her career. She joins Val Whiting and Nicole Powell as the only Stanford women to achieve that. She now needs just 138 more to break Nicole's record of 1143.

Five players scored in double digits – Nneka, Jeanette, Jayne, Ros and Kayla.

Five sank three-pointers – two from Jeanette, two from JJ, one each from Kayla, Ros and Grace.

Rust? Perhaps a couple of spots, but they wore off by the end of the game.

Here are:

• The game reports:
  • No. 2 Stanford Crushes DePaul, 96-60 by Janie McCauley, AP
  • Layoff no problem for Stanford women by Rick Eymer, Palo Alto Online
  • No. 2 Stanford women beat DePaul, No. 7 Duke next to start tough 3-game stretch by Jake Curtis
  • Stanford firing on all cylinders in another tune-up blowout by Tom FitzGerald, San Francisco Chronicle
• Video of the postgame press conference
• Video of the game highlights
• The box score and play-by-play
• More photos:

Jayne drives for a shot

Kayla battles for a rebound

Jeanette pulls up for a shot

Kayla grabs a loose ball

The bench celebrates Grace's three-pointer

Jeanette's identity crisis

Is she a point guard or a shooting guard?

She excels at both positions and plays whichever the team needs.

She leads the team in three-point shooting (46.9%), steals (2.2 a game) and assists (4.7 a game) and has an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio (2.15).

Jake Curtis tells us all this and more about Jeanette in this article.

Kayla's transition to greatness

Jake Curtis chronicles Kayla's transition from her struggle at the small-forward spot last season to, "... quite simply, the best player on a ... team filled with standouts. " Read more...

Kayla averages 20.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. She makes 50% of her field goals and 44.4% of her 3-pointers.

How good is that?

No single player on each of Stanford's next four opponents can match it. These are the stats for their top player in each category in which Kayla excels.

Team	Player	PPG	FG%	3Pt%	RPG
DePaul	Keisha Hampton	12.8	.479	.375	6.0
	Felicia Chester	10.6	.587	-	7.2
Duke	Jasmine Thomas	17.8	.390	.340	5.5
	Krystal Thomas	8.0	.563	-	7.1
Tennessee	Shekinna Stricklen	15.7	.433	.227	8.0
	Glory Johnson	14.6	.609	-	7.9
	Angie Bjorklund	14.7	.442	.434	2.7
UConn	Maya Moore	19.3	.614	.419	7.1
	Caroline Doty	10.0	.519	.438	2.1
	Tina Charles	17.1	.604	-	8.5

A weekend of women's sports at Maples

Are you having a severe attack of basketball deprivation?

While you're waiting for the Cardinal to return from finals break, come to Maples this weekend to watch the NCAA Volleyball Regional.

The Stanford women advanced to the regional by defeating St. Marys in a 5-game match in the second round last weekend: 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 15-13. It doesn't get much more exciting than that.

Stanford is seeded #4. They will play Michigan (#10) on Friday at 7:00. If they win that match, they will play Illinois (#5) or Hawaii (#12) on Saturday at 8:30. If they win that match, they will advance to the Final Four for the fourth year in a row.

Come cheer them on!

Come back to Maples on Sunday at 1:00 (actually to the Arrillaga Family Center) for the Stanford Women's Basketball auction before the game against DePaul at 2:00. And remember that the game after that (against Duke) is just two days later – on Tuesday at 7:00.

Next up: DePaul & Duke

Look out! Demons and Devils are coming to Maples!!

The challenge of the Cardinal's toughest nonconference season ever ramps up as they return from finals break to confront a not-quite-ranked and then a ranked team.

DePaul Blue Demons

DePaul finished last season tied for fourth in the BIG EAST conference with a 23-10 record. They lost to San Diego State in the first round of the NCAAs.

They returned ten players this season, including four of five starters, and they were picked to finish third in the BIG EAST (behind UConn & Notre Dame).

But they suffered a devastating blow when their star player, senior guard Deidre Naughton, tore her ACL late in November. She was their top scorer, the "heart and soul of the team", and had been named to most of the preseason award watch lists – Naismith, Wade, Wooden, Lowe's.

It isn't the same team without her, but the Blue Demons have many other talented players who have stepped up in Naughton's absence.

DePaul's strength is in its back court. They average 75.2 points per game (#36 in the nation) and make 80.8% of their free throws (#4 in the nation). They don't shoot much beyond the arc. They average 5.2 of 19 3-pointers per game. They take good care of the ball. They average 16.4 assists and just 16.2 turnovers per game, for the 27th best assist-to-turnover ratio in the nation (1.01).

All five starters average between 10 and 13 points per game: 6'2" sophomore forward Keisha Hampton, 5'6" junior guard Sam Quigley (pictured on the right), 5'9" freshman guard Anna Martin, 6'3" junior forward Felicia Chester and 5'9" junior guard Jennifer Juergens.

On defense, they average 41.2 rebounds per game, seven more than their opponents. The leader here is 6'3" junior forward Felicia Chester, who averages 7.2 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game.

The Blue Demons are 7-2 for the season, all against unranked opponents. They have dropped in the polls since Naughton's injury and are no longer in the top 25, but they received 73 votes in the AP Poll. Their RPI is 74, and their strength of schedule is 207.

Here are their 2009-10 player statistics and their roster.

Duke Blue Devils

Duke finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season with a 27-6 record. They were a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but were upset by Michigan State in the second round.

They are picked to finish second in the ACC this season (behind North Carolina). Chante Black and Carrem Gay graduated, but the Blue Devils are still a defensive powerhouse.

They average 45.4 rebounds – 10.4 more than their opponents – 5.4 blocks and 14.4 steals per game. They rank #3 in the nation in steals, #13 in rebounding margin, #22 in blocks. Their top defenders are 6'4" junior center Krystal Thomas (7.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game), pictured on the right, and 6'1" senior forward Joy Cheek (6.6 rebounds per game).

Their leading scorer is 5'9" junior guard Jasmine Thomas, who is on the Naismith Trophy watch list. She averages 17.8 points per game and is their most prolific 3-point shooter. Her shooting percentages are 39% field goals, 34% 3-pointers and 86% free throws. She had a triple-double against Marquette – 11 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists.

The other starters are 6'0" senior guard Keturah Jackson and 6'0" senior forward Bridgette Mitchell. Coming off the bench for more than 20 minutes a game are 5'11" junior forward Karima Christmas and 6'5" freshman center Allison Vernerey; 5'8" sophomore guard Chelsea Hopkins comes in for about 10 minutes a game.

The Blue Devils are 7-1 for the season. Their only loss was to #15 Texas A&M. Their best win was an upset of #3 Ohio State. Their most recent game was a 6-point victory over USC. They are ranked #7 in the AP Top 25 Poll and #10 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll. Their RPI is 7 and their strength of schedule is 49.

Here are their 2009-10 player statistics and their roster.

How David beats Goliath

It's not about Stanford Women's basketball, but ...

In an article in The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell discusses what happens when the underdogs break the rules in warfare ...

and in girls' basketball ...
"A non-stop full-court press gives weak basketball teams a chance against far stronger teams. Why have so few adopted it?" Read more...

Good news from KZSU

A few weeks' ago, fans of Stanford Women's Basketball were asked, here and on The Bootleg, to help fund KZSU's broadcasting of the women's basketball games.

We responded with contributions of about $5700, which is enough to permit KZSU to broadcast ALL of the remaining games. KZSU's management comments:

"The Stanford women's hoops community is so committed and caring. When I originally heard about our department's lack of funds this year, I was most upset not for myself and the other broadcasters, but for the countless fans at home and in Maples who tune in to 90.1 FM every game. Your contributions have made it so that we can cover the full remaining slate of road games, including UConn and Pac-10's and everything, and I can't overstate how significant that is. The fans are going to get to experience the season as it happens, and given what a special team Tara's got this year, I feel confident in saying that the fans are going to get to experience some pretty fantastic things (including the domination of Utah that's currently happening)."

Wyndam Makowsky & Teddy Steinkellner

In the top 50

The NCAA has published the first Division I team and player statistics of the season.

Stanford ranks among the national top 50 in these categories:

• Win-loss percentage (first, one of 31 unbeaten teams)
• Rebound margin (second, +17.5)
• Assists per game (fourth, 19.5)
• Assist-to-turnover ratio (fourth, 1.27)
• Fewest fouls per game (fourth, 12.5)
• Points per game (seventh, 85.0)
• Scoring margin (ninth, +28.7)
• Three-pointers per game (13th, 8.3)
• Field goal percentage (15th, 47.3)
• Fewest turnovers per game (30th, 15.3)
• Lowest three-point percentage by opponents (41st, 25.6)
• Blocks per game (49th, 4.7)

Five Cardinal players rank among the national top 50:

• Nneka
  • Field goal percentage (13th, 62.9)
  • Points per game (30th, 19.5)
• Kayla
  • Points per game (22nd, 20.5)
  • Three-pointers per game (50th, 2.7)
• Jayne
  • Blocks per game (29th, 2.2)
  • Field goal percentage (40th, 56.4)
• JJ
  • Assist-to-turnover ratio (34th, 2.56)
• Jeanette
  • Three-point percentage (40th, 46.9)

You can find all the statistics here.

Stanford takes a break

Michelle Smith writes about the infectious atmosphere of athletic success on the Stanford campus last week. Tara prodded her team to match the excitement of the football team's win over Notre Dame, which they certainly did!

But now it's time for a break for final exams. The team won't rest though — they'll be preparing for the toughest stretch of the season. Read more...