The long road back

Michelle Smith (San Francisco Chronicle) writes about how Michelle, Melanie, JJ, Ros and Lexi have handled the physical and emotional challenges of recovering from an ACL injury. Read more...

Sarah and Nneka will try out for USA U18 team

Incoming freshmen Sarah Boothe and Nneka Ogwumike are among the 35 athletes invited to attend the 2008 USA Basketball Women's U18 National Team Trials, which will take place June 9-12 in Colorado Springs. Read more...

Where Do We Go After Stanford’s Greatest Team Ever?

A reflection on this year and next by Warren Grimes, a devoted Cardinal fan

This year’s team had its greatest player and greatest leader ever – Candice Wiggins – and its greatest pure post player ever – Jayne Appel.  It had phenomenal freshman Kayla Pedersen, who stepped up in big games against the first two number one seeds we played (Maryland and U Conn).  And that was not all.  It had two ACL-recovering guards who played exceptionally – JJ Hones, who set records in her assist/turnover ratio and had a career day (23 points) against Maryland, and Ros Gold-Onwude, who played tenacious defense, rebounded aggressively, and hit crucial outside shots in big games (especially against Pitt in the regional semifinals).  The last two members of the 7-person rotation were unflappable and consistent defenders, great rebounders, and opportunistic scorers – Jillian Harmon and Jeanette Pohlen.  I know that the New Zealand Olympians are very glad to have Jillian – she's putting up points against world class teams.

With all the athletic talent on this year's team, their defense and, on offense, their passing and teamwork were what brought them to the end game.  Inside-out passing (reflected in the high number of assists for Appel and Pedersen) was impressive and fun to watch.  The outside shooting that may have been lacking last year and earlier this season was back – Stanford made 8 threes (at a 38% clip) against U Conn and 14 threes (at a 50% clip) against Maryland.  And it wasn’t just Wiggins – in the same two games, Wiggins made 8, Hones 7, Pedersen 4, and Gold-Onwude 2.  The U Conn and Maryland games showed Stanford at its best.  The team really came together for those games.  

  So all of these players will be back next year – except for CW.  If we can’t get her back, maybe we could kidnap Kristi Tolliver to play for us next year.  What a great player – and like CW – a great leader.  Tolliver, other than Wiggins, was by far the most impressive perimeter player in the tournament.

  What did Wiggins bring to this team?  Not much really ... just: leadership, intensity, creativity off the dribble with great slice and dice moves, solid defense with a nose for the ball, quick release and accuracy on three point shots, rebounding (13 against U Conn!), ball handling against pressure, great post game interviews, etc.  Well, on closer examination ...

So the team will have to look to a number of players to replace Candice’s portfolio of skills.   Take leadership.  I think there are a number of budding great leaders on the team.  Jayne Appel and JJ Hones come to mind, but others will develop as well.  As for ball handling and creative moves to the basket, no one is likely to be Candice’s equal, but Ros and JJ will be supplemented by a returning Melanie Murphy, and these players all can put the ball on the floor if the defense overplays.  We will be a passing team next year, perhaps even more so than this year, but we will need players who can opportunistically drive to the basket (and make that wonderful triangle cut to the basket past the high-posted player).  

  Then there’s the excitement of our new players, led by Nneka Ogwumike, and the return of Michelle Harrison, who played a lot as a freshman.  Not to mention the future potential of returning players such as Jeanette Pohlen, who has a great instinct for the game and is capable of assuming a more prominent role next year.  Next year’s team will have a lot of experience, some great athletes – and the tradition for winning deep into the tournament that Candice brought.  And we still have Tara VanDerveer – there’s no better coach out there.  The potential is there for another great year...

Observing a coaching legend rise

LaDoris Cordell, Cardinal fan extraordinaire, spoke of Tara at the Awards Banquet:

"In my past life, I was a state court judge. So when I returned to Stanford seven years ago I received the appropriate amount of adulation due to a retired judge. But that adulation paled when compared to the ooh's and aah's I received when I revealed that I had been invited to travel with the team to Spokane for the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8."

She continued with a moving tribute to Tara, describing how she saw her through many eyes: those of her coaching team, her players, her fans, the media, her sister, her mother, her piano teacher.

You can read her tribute here, in the Palo Alto Weekly.

Between Seasons

The FBC website will be active during the summer, reporting all the Stanford Women's Basketball news we can find. Watch for this information:

• News of Cardinal Olympians Candice, Jillian and Clare.
  
  
• USA Basketball: Will any current or incoming Cardinal be signed to the U18 team and play in Venezuela this summer?
  
  
• News of Cardinal in the WNBA: How will Candice do in her first season as a professional? Will Brooke and New be signed to season contracts after training camp?  Will Nicole and the Monarchs win another championship?
  
  
• News of next season's recruits:  HoopGurlz reports that five of the 2009 top players are interested in Stanford: Skylar Diggins, Mariah Chandler, Joslyn Tinkle, Emilee Harmon and Mariah Williams.  Will two of them commit to Stanford?
  
  
• Summer basketball at Kezar Stadium during June - August.  Which Cardinal will participate? Will we get an early look at incoming freshmen Nneka, Sarah, Lindy or Grace? 
  
  
• Preseason predictions and prospects. 
  
  
• The 2009 schedule: a preliminary one in a couple of months, the official one in September. (We already know that there will be a tournament in Honolulu Nov 28-30.)
  
  

All Right Now!

The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band got a lot of attention in Tampa, as often happens. But this time it was all good!

Walking around Tampa wearing a Stanford shirt almost guaranteed being stopped by at least one passerby and asked to explain the tree.

The band won the Battle of the Final Four Bands competition at Hoop City, as reported in this story from the Tampa Tribune.

Ernest Hooper, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, explains how the band made him a fan.

For a generation, All Right Now has been the signature song of the LSJUMB. Here's a little information about the history of the song that's had Stanford students jumping since the early 1970's. (Thanks to Dave Cortesi for unearthing this arcane information.)

Here are more photos of the band in Tampa:

Pre-pre-preseason top 25

Charlie Creme (ESPN) sticks his neck way out and tells us all about the pre-pre-preseason top 25. This is what he says about Stanford:

The Maples Pavilion floor will look strange for the first few weeks of next season without Candice Wiggins on it. It will take some time for the Cardinal to adjust to life after their four-time All-American, but everyone else is back. Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen, JJ Hones, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude, Jillian Harmon and Jeanette Pohlen all return with the experience of this season's title-game appearance and plenty of hunger from the loss to Tennessee. Just as Wiggins replaced Nicole Powell as the Stanford superstar, Gatorade High School Player of the Year Nneka Ogwumike joins the club and could be the next great Cardinal.

Read about the other 24 here.

Jackie Zink, coaching intern

Most Cardinal fans recognize the many people on the bench who contribute to the team's success:

• The coaches: Tara, Amy, Kate and Bobbie
• The trainer: Marcella Shorty
• The strength and conditioning coach: Kelly Clark
• The video coordinator and sometimes Chalk Talker: Evan Unrau
• The person wearing a Stanford shirt loitering on the edge of timeout huddles: a fan who won an auction bid for a seat on the bench
• The person not wearing a Stanford shirt loitering on the edge of timeout huddles: a favorite professor invited to sit on the bench

But who is this person sitting at the end of the bench?

It's Jackie Zink, the coaching intern.

What does a coaching intern do? Who is Jackie Zink?

Read this article from her hometown newspaper, The Napa Valley Register, for answers to those questions and more.

Record breakers

This season, of all seasons, was about the team and what they accomplished together. It wasn't about individual achievements and statistics.

Nonetheless, fans like to keep track of record performances — at least I do. This season, three players hit the record books.

Steady Hands Hones

JJ took care of the ball big time this season and had a record-breaking assist-to-turnover ratio. Neither Stanford nor the Pac-10 records this statistic, but the NCAA does.

About halfway through the first game of the NCAA tournament (the one against Cleveland State), JJ made her fifth assist of the game, and qualified for the NCAA Assist Turnover Ratio statistics list. She entered the list at the top as the player with the best A/TO ratio in the nation — 3.12!

She couldn't sustain that level of performance in the remaining five postseason games, and ended the season as #5 in the list — a noteworthy achievement. Of the players above her in the list, Beck played in three postseason games, Cirone in one, and Miller and Kinneary in none.

Post Master Appel

Jayne was master of the post this season, both defensively and offensively.

She had 84 blocks this season, which broke the Stanford single season record of 61 that she set in 2006-07.

Her field goal percentage, though not a record-breaker, was an outstanding .588 — #1 on the team, #6 in Stanford single season records, and #8 in the nation this season.

Wondrous Wiggins

Well, Candice didn't break every record in the book — only about 24 of them (I may have missed a few):

• National Record
  • The first woman to score 40+ points in two games of an NCAA tournament.
• Pac-10 Career Records
  • 2629 points, which broke the prior record of 2414 held by Lisa Leslie (USC, 1991-94)
  • 1934 field goals attempted, which broke the prior record of 1838 held by Jamie Redd (Washington, 1996-99)
  • 754 3-pointers attempted, which broke the prior record of 732 held by Loree Payne (Washington, 2000-03)
  • 295 3-pointers made, which broke the prior record of 285 held by Lisa Griffith (Arizona, 1997-00)
• Pac-10 Single Season Record
  • 253 3-pointers attempted, which broke the prior record of 234 set by Lisa Griffith (Arizona, 1997)
• Stanford Career Records
  • 137 games played, which broke the prior record of 136 held by Sebnem Kimyacioglu (2001-05) and Kelley Suminski (2001-05)
  • 2629 points, which broke the prior record of 2215 held by Kate Starbird (1993-97)
  • 19.2 points per game, which broke the prior record of 18.8 set by Candice last season
  • 1934 field goals attempted, which broke the prior record of 1634 held by Kate Starbird (1993-97)
  • 889 field goals made, which broke the prior record of 828 held by Jeanne Ruark Hoff (1978-83)
  • 754 3-pointers attempted, which broke the prior record of 549 held by Sebnem Kimyagcioglu (2001-05)
  • 295 3-pointers made, which broke the prior record of 210 held by Vanessa Nygaard ( 1993-98)
  • 676 free throws attempted, which broke the prior record of 666 held by Val Whiting ( 1989-93)
  • 556 free throws made, which broke the prior record of 481 held by Val Whiting (1989-93)
  • 281 steals, which broke the prior record of 280 held by Sonja Henning (1987-91)
• Stanford Single Season Records
  • 787 points, which broke the prior record of 753 set by Kate Starbird in 1996-97
  • 224 free throws attempted, which broke the prior record of 198 set by Val Whiting in 1991-92
  • 184 free throws made, which broke the prior record of 162 set by Candice in 2004-05
  • 21.8 points per game (in 2005-06), which broke the prior record of 21.3 set by Jeanne Ruark Hoff in 1997-98
• Stanford Single Game Records
  • 44 points, which tied the record set by Kate Starbird in 1996.
  • 19 free throws attempted (in 2006), which broke the prior record of 18 set by Olympia Scott in 1997
  • 16 free throws made (in 2006), which tied the record set by Rachel Hemmer in 1993
  • 1.000 free throw percentage (14 of 14), which broke the prior record of 1.000 (11 of 11) set by Candice in 2005.

Savory Stew

Sue Bair summarizes the Cardinal's splendid season:

After an exciting season during which Stanford vanquished multiple Top 10 foes, the “tough and together” Cardinal made some Stanford history by reaching the program’s first National Championship game since 1992. They may have lost the game but Wiggins went out a winner and the future looks bright. Everybody, smile! Read more...