Cardinal contains the Utes

The Utes kept it close for 30 minutes, but the Cardinal finally pulled ahead to a double-digit lead and a 70-56 victory.

Good Cardinal defense slowed down the Utes' usual big scorers, Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski, and good Utes defense slowed down Chiney, but other players stepped up for both teams.

Sara leads the way

Sara was terrific today. She played for 31 minutes, scored 18 points and dished out four assists — all personal bests. Her scoring included three of five from beyond the arc. She also contributed two steals and two rebounds to the Cardinal's strong defense.

Amber had another great game. She scored 16 points and was unrelenting on defense, with six rebounds, a steal and much more that doesn't show up in the stats.

Chiney's streak of double-doubles was snapped today, but she was still the Cardinal's top scorer with 20 points. She also tallied six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals!

Jos was strong on offense — 12 points, including two of four three-pointers, and four assists — and on defense — six rebounds, two blocks and three steals.

Jasmine had another good game, as she did in Boulder. Although she tallied just two points, she did a fine job of leading the offense at the point for 13 minutes and was a pesky defender.

Toni did not play today. She may have suffered a slight injury in the Colorado game. Today's AP report says, "... she was held out as a precaution." She has no evident injury and was well enough to lead the Cardinal high fives.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 4 Stanford Takes Down Utah, 70-56 by Lynn DeBruin (Associated Press)
• Stanford beats Utah, 70-56 by Lya Wodraska (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Utes suffer loss to No. 4 Stanford by Sarah Thomas (Deseret News)
• Unsettling the Utes by Wally Mersereau, FBC traveller

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Dave Cortesi,

And photos by Rick Bowmer (Associated Press):

Amber takes it to the basket

Chiney puts up a contested shot

Amber reaches for a rebound

Chiney drives around the defense

Sara puts it into high gear

Chiney is so fouled

CU Buffaloed

... by the Cardinal's smothering defense, which led to a 57-40 Cardinal victory.

The almost-6,000 fans at Coors Event Center stood for four minutes before the Buffs made their first basket, then sat for six more minutes before the next one.

The Buffs came back after the break with their own good defense and held the Cardinal to a tie in the second half, but weren't able climb out of the first half hole.

Chiney led all scorers with 20 points and added eleven rebounds for her tenth consecutive double-double. She also had three blocks and a steal (which she took to a fast break layup).

Jos seems to get extra energy from Rocky Mountain air. She began the Cardinal domination with a three-pointer off the first possession and ended it with a layup on the last possession. She scored 13 points in all and was especially effective on defense — six rebounds, three blocks, several almost-blocks that were deemed held balls and a steal.

Amber was strong on both offense and defense. She scored 13 points, including three critical jumpers after the Buffs had begun to narrow the lead in the last five minutes of the game. She also had six assists with just two turnovers, five rebounds and two steals.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 4/3 Stanford Hands No. 20/25 Colorado First Loss by Pat Graham (Associated Press)
• No. 20 Buffs Start Slow, Fall To No. 4 Cardinal by B.G. Brooks (CU Buffs)
• No. 20 CU Buffs fall to No. 4 Stanford by Brian Howell (Boulder Daily Camera)
• Stanford women crush No. 20 Colorado to extend conference win streak to 79 by Jake Curtis
• Rounding up the Buffaloes by Wally Mersereau, FBC traveller

The box score and play-by-play,

A game highlights video from CU Buffs,

A gallery of photos by Jeremy Papasso (Daily Camera),

A gallery of photos by Dave Cortesi (who doesn't want to post it to FBC Fan Pix with no other input),

And photos by David Zalubowski (Associated Press):

Amber speeds past the defense

Chiney puts up a shot

Super-block by Chiney & Jos

Jos tries to save an out-of-bounds

Go for it, Bonnie!

Hang on, Mikaela!

Next up: A trip to the Rockies

The Cardinal begins the conference season with a trip to the Rockies to play Colorado on Friday evening and Utah on Sunday afternoon.

The Colorado game will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and the Utah game will be streamed live by the Pac-12 Networks. Both games will be broadcast by KZSU.

Jos soared high in Boulder last season

  Colorado Buffs

The Buffs are riding high in their second season in the Pac-12. They begin conference play as one of just four three undefeated Division I teams in the nation. They've moved up to No. 20/25 in the national polls, and Charlie Creme has them as a #7 seed in his latest bracket.

However, the Buffs may find conference play to be more of a challenge. Although one of their wins was against then-No. 8 Louisville, the rest of their schedule has been quite weak. Collegiate Basketball News ranks their schedule strength at 175, barely into the top half of all Division I teams. Eight of their eleven non-conference games were played at home in front of an average of 2500 devoted Buff fans.

They'll need all their skill to avoid what happened last year, when they also began conference play undefeated, but ended at 10th in the Pac-12.

That said, they're a better team than they were last year. Head coach Linda Lappe says, “A lot of different players are stepping up and making plays. We have a lot of versatility. Last year, we were one-dimensional for a lot of the season. We didn’t have the depth we have this year.”

They still rely heavily on senior guard Chucky Jeffery, but she's getting lots of help from redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson and much-improved sophomore forward Jen Reese. All three of them score in double digits.

The Buffs probable starters are:

• #23, 5'10" senior guard Chucky Jeffery is still the Buffs' star player — a dynamic point guard who leads the team in rebounds (8.2 rpg), steals (2.6 spg) and assists (4.7 apg). She's shooting a bit better than last year (42%), but not as much, and is now the second-best scorer with 12.2 ppg. She has greatly improved her ball-handling over last season when she had more turnovers than assists. Her current A/TO ratio is 1.6 — close to twice as many assists as turnovers.


• #32, 6'1" redshirt freshman forward Arielle Roberson sat out last season with a hip injury. She learned a lot as she watched from the bench, and is having a stellar freshman season. She's the Buff's top scorer (15.7 ppg) and second-best rebounder (6.1 rpg)


• #11, 4'7" junior guard Brittany Wilson is averaging 9.5 points and 2.6 assists per game. She takes almost half her shots from beyond the arc and makes 36% of them.


• #40, 6'4" junior center Rachel Hargis is averaging 6.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.


• #1, 5'11"sophomore guard Lexy Kresl came off the bench as the Buffs' 3-point specialist for the first seven games of the season, but is now in the starting lineup.She takes 73% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 31% of them. She's averaging 6.3 points per game.

The Buffs' most productive reserve is sophomore forward Jen Reese, who plays 20 minutes per game and is the Buffs' third-best scorer (10.5 ppg) and rebounder (5.9 rpg).

Injury has hit the Buffs, but not too severely. Junior guard Brenna Malcolm-Peck missed most of last season due to chronic knee trouble and has not played yet this season. Freshman guard Lauren Huggins has missed the last six games due to a stress fracture in her leg, but is expected to return soon. Junior guard Ashley Wilson (Brittany's twin sister) had arthroscopic knee surgery late in November. She returned for the Buffs' most recent game on December 29 and played limited minutes. Sophomore guard Jasmine Sborov was in the starting lineup, then missed several games while what turned out to be a mild heart condition was being diagnosed. She returned for the Buffs' most recent game on December 29 and played limited minutes as a reserve.

Colorado's win-loss record (11-0) places it 1st in the Pac-12, its RPI (20) places it 4th, and its strength of schedule rank (175) places it 9th.

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

  Utah Utes

The Utes have had a good, although not too demanding, non-conference season. They've played eight of 11 games at home in Salt Lake City, where they suffered their only two losses.

They begin the conference season in the top tier of the Pac-12, tied for fourth with UCLA, but Collegiate Basketball News ranks their schedule strength at a very weak 301.

The Utes are a mature team. They've returned four of the five starters from the squad that advanced to the WNIT last season. They've lost just one key player, graduated point guard Janita Badon.

The Utes pound the ball inside to junior forwards Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski, who do most of the scoring and rebounding.

The probable starters for the Utes are:

• #11, 6'3" redshirt junior forward Taryn Wicijowski leads the Utes in scoring (16.8 ppg) and rebounding (8/0 rpg). She also blocks 1.2 shots per game.


• #15, 6'4" junior forward Michelle Plouffe was a reserve on the Canadian Olympic team last summer. She's a close second to Wicijowski in scoring (16.4 ppg) and rebounding (7.6 rpg). She scores from the outside as well as in the paint. She takes about ⅓ of her shots from beyond the arc and makes 37% of them. She also averages 2.9 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.3 blocks per game.


• #3, 5'9" redshirt senior guard Iwalani Rodrigues suffered from a shoulder injury all last season and hasn't yet regained the great promise she showed as a sophomore when she set records for 3-point shooting. She is, however, the Utes' third-best scorer (11.5 ppg) and rebounder (5.3 rpg).


• #13, 5'9" senior guard Rachel Messer is a dependable combo guard who averages 4.8 points, 1.8 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game.


• #22, 5'10" freshman guard Danielle Rodriguez plays the point for the Utes. She takes good care of the ball. Her A/TO ratio is a very good 2.9. She average 4.1 points, 2.9 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game.

The Utes have a deep bench — seven healthy reserves who account for about 20% of the scoring and 22% of the rebounding.

Utah's win-loss record (9-2) places it 4th (tie) in the Pac-12, its RPI (132) places it 9th, and its strength of schedule rank (301) places it 12th.

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

New Year Bracketology

Charlie Creme (espnW) has updated his bracket based on the results of the non-conference season. This is what he has to say about the four Pac-12 teams in his current top-64:

1 Stanford: Despite Saturday's result against UConn, the Cardinal remain one of the four best teams in the country. Saturday did illustrate, however, that Stanford needs to make jump shots to compete with the best and that it can, at times, be too reliant on Chiney Ogwumike.

2 California: The win over Kansas just before Christmas showed just how good the Bears can be on offense. This is the rare team that has four legitimate threats. Cal will compete for a No. 2 seed all season.

6 UCLA: The Bruins have played one of the country's toughest schedules, but the loss to Cal State Northridge was not part of it.

7 Colorado: The Buffs are 11-0 in nonconference games for the second straight year, but this time around wins over Louisville and San Diego State are included in the hot start. Stanford and Cal visit Boulder to kick off Pac-12 play.

Click here for his bracket.

Moving on to the conference season

I'm not sure what broke yesterday, but I'm confident that Tara can fix it and take the Cardinal through another successful conference season — play starts next weekend.

Chiney, for one, will be ready to go. After the game yesterday, she said, "Connecticut, the team we just played for 40 minutes, is the standard. We need to get to that standard. I'm motivated, definitely." Then she suggested that she and Amber might take a few extra shots before the evening's men's basketball game.


How is the conference shaping up this season?

A few days ago, the Eugene Register-Guard published an article by Curtis Anderson in which he asks, "Will this be the year that Stanford tumbles from its perch atop the Pac-12 women’s basketball universe?"

He concludes with a comment by UCLA coach Cori Close, “Stanford sets the bar so high, it gives us a measuring stick. I’m not saying someone is going to knock them off, but this conference has risen up and is ready to have some very competitive games, even with Stanford.”

Click here for Anderson's article.

Click here for his preview of each team.

Cardinal schooled by the Huskies

UConn, who was clearly the better team today, defeated Stanford easily 61-35.

Stanford had no answer for UConn's superb defense. It almost literally stopped the Cardinal in its tracks time and time again. It held them to the fewest points in a game and the lowest shooting percentage (19.3) in the 24 years that those stats have been recorded.

The Cardinal defense was pretty good too. It held the Huskies to their fewest points of the season, and the Cardinal got more rebounds (44-40) and more O-boards (17-6) — the only encouraging stats for them and their fans.

Chiney was heavily defended — double- and triple-teamed — but she never stopped trying. She kept forcing up shots — many of which teetered on the rim, then fell out of the basket. I don't believe she got a single sweet roll today. She made only 27% of her shots, but her persistence earned her yet another double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Bonnie brought a gleam of hope to Cardinal fans when she sank back-to-back three-pointers midway through the second half.

But it was far too little, far too late. The Cardinal will have many lessons to learn from the video of today's game.

Chiney speaks to the team after the game

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 1 Stanford Falls To No. 2 UConn, 61-35 by Janie McCauley (Associated Press)
• No.2 Connecticut upsets No. 1 women's team 61-35 by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• UConn women end Stanford's 82-game home win streak by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
• UConn gives Stanford women bitter lesson by Ann Killian (San Francisco Chronicle)
• New No. 1: Huskies Smother Cardinal Scorers For 61-35 Victory by John Altavilla (Hartford Courant)
• Game in a nutshell: UConn's defense rules day vs. Stanford by Rich Elliott (Connecticut Post)
• Huskies dominate top-ranked Stanford by Jim Fuller (New Haven Register)
• UConn 61 Stanford 35 post mortem from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),

A gallery of photos from the (Mercury News),

Last words

I'm looking forward to seeing the game instead of reading about it. But there's still time for some last words about Great Rivalries, Streaks, and TV Snubbery:

1 vs 2: Stanford, UConn women renew rivalry by Doug Feinberg (Associated Press)

No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 UConn face off in women's basketball by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)

Stanford vs. UConn Gets Short Shrift From ESPN Networks by Jeff Jacobs (Hartford Courant)

UConn-Stanford women to write another chapter in growing rivalry by Rich Elliott (Connecticut Post)

Breaking Stanford's streak not high on priority list by Jim Fuller (New Haven Register)

More commentary from Connecticut

Here are more stories about tomorrow's game from several Connecticut journalists:

• Offensive showcase at Maples Pavilion? by Jim Fuller (New Haven Register)
• UConn hopes for different outcome in trip to Stanford by Jim Fuller (New Haven Register)
• No. 2 UConn prepares for No. 1 Stanford by Jim Fuller (New Haven Register)
• Watch Ogwumike's Right Hand And Watch For Bruises by Jeff Jacobs (Hartford Courant)
• It’s Basketball, Not A Brawl by John Altavilla (Hartford Courant)
• Geno On His Injuries – And More by John Altavilla (Hartford Courant)

Note: I had a bad link to the CARDboard in my previous post — that's been corrected now.

Commentary on Stanford-UConn Showdown

 

UConn's Geno Auriemma, Stanford's Tara VanDerveer expect lots of offense by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)

Stanford-UConn showdown more than just No. 1 vs. 2 by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)

Stanford-UConn: More Than A Fairy Tale by John Altavilla (Hartford Courant)

Previewing UConn from the CARDboard

Maples set for 1-2 showdown

By Michelle Smith (espnW):

It's only December. But Saturday's showdown feels like so much more. Stanford's 82-game home winning streak — and No. 1 ranking — are on the line when UConn comes to town. Read more...