Cardinal cages the Lions

The Vanguard Lions brought some good three-point shooters to Maples this afternoon, but they needed more than that to compete with the Cardinal, who won 82-47.

The Lions found it difficult to get to the basket past the not-so-much-taller but stronger and more agile Cardinal and scored almost 40% of their points from beyond the arc.

At the other end of the court, the Lions tried to keep the Cardinal out of the paint with a zone defense for much of the game. The Cardinal responded by launching three-pointers at every opportunity. They weren't as accurate as in the previous game, making just 13 of 35 attempts — Bonnie hit five and Taylor and Sara each hit four.

Again, Toni warmed up but did not play — I still don't know why. Denia and Kiran got just a few minutes of playing time and the rest was divided pretty evenly among the remaining ten players.

Bonnie's shooting earned her the top score (18 points), and she also played good defense, mixing it up in the paint where she sank a layup and grabbed five rebounds.

Joslyn's shooting was off this afternoon, but her defense wasn't. She had the game-high ten rebounds, six of them O-boards.

Taylor showed a quick release again on her ten shots from beyond the arc. She also scored on two beautiful fast breaks, assisted by Amber.

Chiney wowed the fans with five soaring blocks. She was heavily guarded and made just three layups. But she also made five of six free throws. Looks like no free-throw-funk for Chiney this season!

Amber continued her excellent ball control — seven assists with just two turnovers — and made three of four jumpers (no drives to the basket today).

Mikaela patrolled the paint, grabbed eight rebounds and handed out four assists.

Tess played with more confidence this afternoon. She had eight rebounds and three blocks. She made her first Cardinal basket with a layup that ended a three-O-board scuffle under the basket, then carefully made the "and-one".

Here is the AP game recap,

Commentary from the CARDboard,

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos by Dave Cortesi (Remember to click to enlarge):

Bonnie grabs a rebound

Taylor's shot goes in

Sara launches a three

Chiney gets fouled — no whistle

Tess gets a rebound and her first Cardinal basket

2012-13 Media Coverage of Cardinal WBB

I know a Cardinal fan who is going to all the women's basketball games this season, both home and away — WOW!

But most of us fans depend on media coverage of one sort or another to follow our team. Here's what's available this season.

You can find the links to all coverage of a given game, as soon as the information is available, here:

• The mini-schedule of upcoming games at the bottom of the FBC Home Page
• FBC Schedule & Results
• Stanford Athletics Women's Basketball Schedule

Television

I'm sure you've heard that there will be more televised coverage of Stanford women's basketball this season than ever before, which is true, but ...

The new Pac-12 Networks will cover 13 regular-season Stanford games, as well as the first three days of the Pac-12 tournament. However, nation-wide interest in West Coast women's basketball is not robust, and some large providers (for example, DirecTV and AT&T) aren't carrying the Pac-12 Networks. If you don't know whether or not you have access, go to the PAC-12 Channel Finder.

ESPN is covering three other regular-season games (UConn at Maples, Cal at Maples and UCLA in Los Angeles) and the Pac-12 Tournament Final.

The game in South Carolina will be covered by FOX Sports South and the game in Tennessee by SportsSouth. Your best bet to see these (unless you live in the south) is a sports bar — perhaps there'll be a Cardinal fan viewing party.

Webcasts

Pac-12 Networks is going to live-stream all non-televised Pac-12 women's basketball home games; i.e. those at a Pac-12 school, both conference and non-conference.

Access to these live streams is unrestricted. For Stanford games, just click on the link in the FBC or Stanford schedule at game time. You can find links to other schools' streamed women's basketball games in the Pac-12 Basketball (W) Schedule and Results (the WATCH links are live at game time).

Some of our non-conference opponents (for example, Gonzaga and UC Davis) may provide an All-Access video as they have in the past. That information isn't available yet.

Radio

KZSU 90.1 FM, the Stanford campus radio station, is planning to cover all the women's basketball games this season, both home and away.

Remember that you don't need to be in range of the station to hear the broadcasts. KZSU streams all its broadcasts to the internet. Just go to KZSU LIVE at gametime and select a channel — you can always find the women's basketball game on Channel 2.

Don't worry if the KZSU Schedule doesn't show that a game is being broadcast. The schedule has not been kept well up-to-date in the past. Have faith!

GameTracker

And finally there's GameTracker, which provides current game action and stats, bandwidth willing. It's at least a bit better than postgame reports.

GameTracker will be covering most, if not all, of the Stanford games, but the links aren't available yet.

Cardinal romps over Corban

Well, that was a huge mis-match! The Corban Warriors tried hard to contain the Cardinal with pesky in-your-face defense, but they really weren't big enough or strong enough or skilled enough to be effective. Stanford won, 117-33.

You can't really judge performance in such a lop-sided contest, but 500 or so Cardinal fans enjoyed getting a good look at almost all the team members. (Aly is red-shirting this season, Alex is not yet cleared to play, Toni did not play – I don't know why.)

Joslyn, Chiney, Sara, Taylor and Amber started.

Joslyn was the dependable, senior leader – calm and in control, making 87.5% of her field goal attempts.

Chiney was, as always, strong under the basket on offense and defense. She didn't move out to the perimeter tonight.

Sara got off to a slow start, but found her rhythm halfway through the first half and put on a shooting show! She sank four of nine from the outside and added six layups for a grand total of 24 points.

Taylor showed no reluctance to shoot tonight, as she sometimes did last season. She took five quick shots and made four of them.

Amber played as if it were a title game. She didn't go to her right, as some say she should, but she was a beast going to the left. She drove to the basket, dished out seven assists, and stole the ball eight times.

Mikaela was warmly welcomed back to the court by her fans. She was a bit rusty (not surprising after such a long layoff), but moved well and made four assists and several good shots.

Bonnie is as quick as ever with her shot. She put on a three-point clinic — made seven of twelve attempts — and added a layup and four free throws for the game-high 27 points.

Erica was full of energy and enthusiasm — a bit out of control at times — but contributed fierce defense, six rebounds, six assists and five points to the victory.

Jasmine took the point for 17 minutes and was an able floor leader and a strong defender. She distributed the ball well, but didn't take any shots herself. She isn't back to her full potential yet.

Tess seemed uncomfortable when surrounded by a swarm of small warriors and wasn't effective tonight. However, she grabbed the team-high eight rebounds and blocked a couple of shots.

Kiran earned a cheer from the crowd when she began her college scoring with a beautiful 3-pointer.

Denia got her turn at the point for just eight minutes. She's quick, has good ball control and is a pesky defender.

Here is the AP game recap,

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos from Stanford Photo,

And photos by Jeff Chiu, Associated Press

Amber drives to the basket

Sara lays it up and in

There's no stopping Chiney

Bonnie is more than a sharp-shooter

Erica is a fierce defender

Good job

Way to go, team!

Hints of team plans tonight?

Jake Curtis speculates about what tonight's exhibition game will reveal about the Cardinal's playing rotation this season in Stanford women's exhibition opener Thursday should provide hints of team's plans

First up: Corban and Vanguard

The 2012–13 season begins, as usual, with a couple of exhibition games – against Corban University on Thursday evening at 7:00 and Vanguard University on Saturday afternoon at 2:00.

Exhibition games aren't included in team win–loss records, so they don't affect rankings or RPIs. They're sort of a bridge between preseason practice sessions and the "real" season games.

But the games are important for Corban and Vanguard, who like to test their mettle against strong non-conference competitors like Stanford and Cal.

And they're important for Stanford as Tara and Amy begin arranging the puzzle pieces to form another winning team. I hope to see lots of playing time for our newbies:

• Point guard Denia Ebersole
• Guard Kiran Lakhian
• Forward/center Tess Picknell
• (Forward Aly Beebe is red-shirting this season with a torn ACL)

And the returnees who missed most of last season due to injury:

• Forward Mikaela Ruef
• Guard Jasmine Camp
• (Guard Alex Green , who tore her Achilles tendon, has not yet been cleared to play)

Both games will be webcast by Pac–12 Live Stream and broadcast by KZSU.

  Corban Warriers

Corban University, located in Salem, Oregon, plays in the Cascade Conference of Division II of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Last season, the Warriors were ranked #13 in NAIA Division II with a 24–8 overall record and won their first conference title with a 15–3 record. They're ranked #2 in their conference and #14 in the NAIA Division II 2012–13 preseason polls. Thursday's game will be the first meeting of Stanford and Corban.

Corban returns three starters from last season's team:

• 5'10" senior forward Tess Bennett
• 5'5" senior guard Emily Tsugawa
• 6'2" sophomore center Tara Van Weerdhuizen

And adds six freshman, led by Gonzaga transfer:

• 6'1" forward Megan Benedict

Head coach Terry Williams is, "extremely pleased with the effort our team is showing in practice. Our new players are showing early maturity and we see chemistry already that makes us optimistic for the season."

Here are Corban's 2011–12 statistics and their current roster.

  Vanguard Lions

Vanguard, located in Costa Mesa, plays in the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) of Division I of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The Lions are one of the elite NAIA teams. They've advanced to the NAIA Division I National Championship for eleven straight seasons, won one championship, advanced to the semifinals twice and finished as quarterfinalists three times. They've been picked to finish fourth in NAIA Division I this season.

Vanguard and Stanford have met in exhibition games the past four seasons. They've never come close to winning (the closest score was 77-41 in 2008), but it's never been for lack of effort. A major factor in their poor showing last year is that 17-year head coach Russ Davis sat down five of his players, including three starters, because they were late for a team meeting.

Vanguard returns three starters:

• 6'2" senior forward/center Esther Timmermans from Australia
• 6'0" senior forward Maree Allison from Australia
• her younger sister, 5'9" senior guard Allison Drennan, a Fresno State transfer from Australia

And its most productive reserve:

• 5'6" senior guard Chelsea Alfafara

Here are Vanguard's 2011–12 statistics and their current roster.

Another pre-season honor for Chiney: AP All-American

Congratulations Chiney on being named to the AP Pre-season All-American team!

Read more here:

• The report from the Associated Press
• Details of Chiney's accomplishments from Stanford Athletics
• Some interesting commentary about Stanford's and Baylor's preseason honors and national rankings from Jake Curtis

Cardinal ranked 4th in preseason AP poll

The Cardinal is ranked in AP's preseason top five for the fifth straight year. Read more...

Get ready for the ride

It's going to be "a high-flying, moving and shaking year," says Chiney in her espnW blog.

Kevin Danna comments on how Chiney has diversified her game in this Pac-12 News article.

And Ashley Westhem (Stanford Daily) writes VanDerveer and Cardinal reload as season approaches.

Stanford picked to win

The Pac-12 announced today that the women's basketball coaches have picked Stanford to win the conference title in 2012-13.

Cal was picked to finish second and UCLA third. For a complete list and a bit about each of the contenders, see the Pac-12 announcement.

Ros is on Pac-12 Networks team

Pac-12 Networks officially announced its women's basketball TV schedule last week here. The game dates/times/participants had been announced previously, so the interesting part of the article was this sub-heading:

Rosalyn Gold-Onwude & Anne Myers Drysdale Headline Analyst Team Covering 61 Live Network Game Telecasts

What a great team they'll be! We can look forward to hearing a lot about basketball during their broadcasts instead of the irrelevant nattering that passes as game coverage on other networks.

Here's Ros at the Friday Frenzy: