A chat with Bonnie

GoStanford.com caught up with Bonnie a couple of days ago before the Cardinal's  trip to her native Southern California.

Click here for the story.

Cardinal trounces Trojans

The Trojans kept it pretty close for most of the first half, but the Cardinal drew ahead by 12 points at the half and didn't let them back in this time. The Cardinal doubled that lead by the end and won 79-55.

The best thing about tonight's game was that so many players contributed to the Cardinal victory in so many ways.

Mikaela was at her best tonight. She began the Cardinal scoring with her first three-pointer of the season and went on to score a career-high 12 points. She also tallied eight rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal.

Yes, Chiney got her double-double (26 points and 15 rebounds). It's her 20th of the season, which sets a Stanford single-season record. She also had two assists and a block.

Jos also had a double-double (her second of the season, with 17 points and 11 rebounds), plus two assists and three blocks.

Amber was the fourth Cardinal who scored in double digits (10 points). She had five assists with just one turnover and also stole the ball twice.

Five Cardinal sank three-pointers tonight — two from Jos and one each from Mikaela, Bonnie, Sara and Amber.

The Cardinal played their usual fine defense, with contributions from everyone. They held the Trojans to 33% shooting, and out-rebounded them (46-33 total, 19-12 offensive).

The Cardinal have new road warrier uniforms — colorful bottoms, unadorned tops with CARDINAL on the back instead of player name.

In other Pac-12 action tonight, Cal beat UCLA 79-51, and Washington beat Oregon 97-71 (with an amazing 11 of 17 three-pointerss by Kristi Kingma). So Stanford and Cal are still tied for first place and UCLA and Washington are again tied for third.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Ogwumike, No. 4 Stanford take down Southern Cal 79-55 by Beth Harris (Associated Press)
• Women Of Troy Continue Losing Ways, Fall To Stanford 79-55 by Evan Budrovich (USC Annenberg)
• Cardinal women maintain the pace in Pac-12 hoops race from Palo Alto Online
• WBB: Stanford 79 U.SC 55 from the CARDboard
• Cardinal triumphs over Trojans by Wally Mersereau, FBC traveller

The box score and play-by-play,

A gallery of photos by Rob Ericson (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Chris Carlson (Associated Press):

Chiney pulls in a rebound

Chiney wins another rebound

Bonnie goes for a loose ball

Chiney stops Christina Marinacci

Ariya Crook goes way out of bounds

USC dancer

Game previews from the Bay Area and L.A.

Here are stories about this weekend's games from the student newspapers of the contenders:

Women's basketball faces LA rivals in critical road trip by Tom Taylor (The Stanford Daily)

Cal women’s basketball heads down south to face No. 15 UCLA by Austin Crochetiere (The Daily Californian)

No. 15 women’s basketball hosts top-10 opponents Cal, Stanford by Kevin Bowman (Daily Bruin)

The Daily Trojan did not have a women's basketball story today.

And here's an interesting story about UCLA head coach Cori Close: UCLA has won more games as Cori Close has won her team's trust by David Wharton (Los Angeles Times)

Next up: Norcal on the road to Socal

Stanford and Cal travel to Los Angeles this weekend for critical games between the top three teams in the conference.

The Stanford games are:

• Against USC on Friday night at 8:00. The game will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and braodcast by KZSU.
• Against UCLA on Sunday afternoon at 12:30. The game will be televised by ESPNU and broadcast by KZSU.

  USC Trojans

You never know what to expect from the Trojans.

The previous Cardinal/Trojan meeting a month ago was a very hard-fought game that the Cardinal finally won by just nine points – their smallest margin of victory in a conference game this season.

Since then, the Trojans have won just one game (against Arizona) and lost five. Three of those losses were so close — by just three points to Utah, Washington State and Washington.

But close doesn't count in basketball, and the Trojans now have little chance of finishing in the top tier of the conference. They stand in a tie with WSU for sixth place, and the best they can do for themselves this weekend is move up to a tie for fifth place with Colorado.

However, I expect that they'll do their very best to bump the Cardinal or the Bears out of first place.

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

  UCLA Bruins

Since the Cardinal and Bruins last met a month ago, the Bruins have won six conference games by an average margin of 15 points. Only two of the games were close — by four points against ASU at home and against Washington on the road.

The Bruins no longer lead the conference in scoring and rebounding as they did a month ago. In conference play only, they're second in scoring to Washington with 69.8 points per game and tied for first with Stanford in field goal percentage with 0.451. In rebounding, they're fourth in total rebounds and sixth in offensive boards. They're still tops in stealing, tied with WSU with 10.5 per game.

The Bruins have lost only to Stanford and Cal in conference play. They're currently ranked No. 3 in the Pac-12. By Sunday night, they could be in any of the four top slots — No. 1 if Stanford and Cal lose both their games, No. 4 if UCLA loses both its games and Washington wins its games against Oregon and OSU.

The Cardinal trounced the Bruins a month ago. The rematch is going to be tougher. The Bruins' fate isn't just in their own hands, but I expect that they'll bring their A++ game to Pauley Pavilion this weekend.

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

A look at how the S-curve works

Charlie Creme (espnW) explains his, "... version of bracket math, detailing the S-curve that the committee uses to rank all the teams in the field."

Creme's brackets are, "... an attempt at duplicating the committee's process as closely as possible for picking, ranking and placing the teams in the bracket."

Click here for the article.

With three weeks left to go in the regular season, Creme still has four of the top five Pac-12 teams in his top 64. Here is what he has to say about them:

1 Stanford: The Cardinal are still looking for consistent scorers to go with Chiney Ogwumike. A sixth straight trip to the Final Four might depend on it. Mikaela Ruef provided a lift Friday night against Arizona with a double-double.

2 California: She might be a bit overshadowed in the Pac-12 by Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike, but Gennifer Brandon is also a rebounding machine and is averaging a double-double.

3 UCLA: The Bruins have won six straight, but the real test (and opportunity) comes this week when Stanford and California head to L.A.

6 Colorado: The Buffs had a rough two-week swing through California but recovered this weekend against the Oregon schools. Senior Chucky Jeffery recently hit the 1,500-point mark.

Although Washington is currently standing fourth in the Pac-12, two games ahead of Colorado, Creme doesn't place them in the top 64. He thinks they're on the bubble to make it to the NCAAs, but will be one of the first four to go out.

The national pollsters concur that Colorado is better than Washington. Colorado is ranked No. 21/25. Washington is unranked, but has received a few votes in the AP poll for two weeks.

They're probably right — Washington hasn't played Stanford and Cal yet, Colorado has.

Click here for Creme's complete bracket.

Bonnie bombs the Sun Devils

Neither the Sun Devils' persistent zone defense nor their occasional full court press slowed the Cardinal down much as they romped to a 69-45 victory.

The Cardinal took the opportunity offered by the Sun Devils' zone to practice their 3-point shooting. Bonnie, Jos, Taylor, Sara, and Amber launched 20 shots from beyond the arc.

Only Bonnie's were falling today — five of them, her most this season! She added a layup and a couple of free throws for a career-high total of 19 points.

Chiney and Joslyn got past the defenders and scored most of the Cardinal's remaining points in the paint, with assistance from Jasmine, Amber, Mikaela, Taylor, Sara and Bonnie.

Chiney got her 19th double-double of the season with 26 points and 14 rebounds. She made all six of her free throws.

Joslyn also got a double-double – her first this season – with 13 points and 11 rebounds. She also blocked four shots and stole the ball once.

Toni didn't play today because she isn't feeling well. When Amber got into a bit of foul trouble, Jasmine took over at the point. She did a fine job of leading the offense for 14 minutes with a season-high four assists and zero turnovers.

The Cardinal's unrelenting player-to-player defense held the Sun Devils to 30.8% shooting – coincidentally the same rate as the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night.

After turning the ball over 19 times Friday night, the Cardinal's key goal for today's game was, "Take care of the ball." They had only seven turnovers tonight, well below their season average of 12.

The 4500 fans gave a warm welcome to Alex Green when she subbed in. It was her first time on the court in 15 months since she tore her Achilles tendon early last season.

After other Pac-12 action today, the conference standings did not change — Cal, UCLA, Washington, Colorado and Utah all won. Cal held on against a late run by Arizona to defeat them by just five points.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 4 Stanford women beat Arizona State 69-45 by Rick Eymer (Associated Press)
• Others joining in on Ogwumike's basketball party by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
• ASU women's basketball handed 5th straight loss by No. 4 Stanford by Gian-Franco Demano (The State Press)
• WBB: Stanford 69 ASU 45 from the CARDboard
• Samuelson, Green the noteworthy players in Stanford women's victory by Jake Curtis

The box score and play-by-play,

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

And photos by Dave Cortesi (for more photos by Dave and other fans in the stands, see FBC Fan Pix tomorrow):

Pink Day hair ribbons

Pink Day tutus

Chiney opens the scoring

A PhotoShopped "movie" of one of Bonnie's treys

Jos scores over Devil defense

Mikaela grabs a rebound

Welcome back, Alex!

Cardinal cages Cats

In spite of turning the ball over 19 times and committing 18 fouls in a wild, furious-paced game, the Cardinal defeated the Arizona Wildcats 73-43.

The Wildcats used a 4-5 player full-court press throughout the game that frequently discombobulated the Cardinal. But once the Cardinal broke free, they scored at a fine rate of 46% – just a bit below their season average.

To the delight of all her teammates and other fans, Mikaela found her scoring touch tonight and had the first double-double of her career with a career-high 11 points and 10 rebounds. In the KZSU postgame interview, Sara said they were so happy for Mikaela because, "... she usually just does all the dirty work in the paint – passing and rebounding."

Also delightful, but not surprising, was Chiney's 18th double-double of the season – 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Jos was the third double-digit scorer for the Cardinal with 15 points. She made three of four attempts from beyond the arc. Sara and Taylor each made one of three 3-pointers.

Bonnie launched six long ones, but her shots weren't falling tonight. However, she drove to the basket for two layups, was fouled on two other attempts and made all four of her free throws.

Although the Wildcats committed 21 fouls (and the Cardinal 18), it was not an ugly aggressive game. The fouls came mostly from honest defense and from players getting tangled up, not from their assaulting each other.

The Wildcats, who had the best free throw percentage in the conference, made just 10 of 19 tonight. The Cardinal made a respectable 67%. If you discount five misses by freshmen, the more experienced players made an excellent 82% of theirs.

The Cardinal, benefitting from a height advantage, were very good on defense tonight. They out-rebounded the Wildcats 47-28, held them to 31% shooting and held their two double-digit scorers to a total of 14 points.

The fast pace forced by the Wildcats made for an exciting game, but caused trouble for both teams. Each turned the ball over 19 times, the Wildcats had nine steals and the Cardinal had eleven steals.

Toni was present tonight, but not in uniform – reason not disclosed.

In other Pac-12 action tonight, Cal defeated ASU, and UCLA squeaked past Washington by four points to take sole possession of third place.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• No. 4 Stanford takes down Arizona 73-43 by Rick Eymer (Associated Press)
• No. 4 Stanford women's basketball team routs Arizona 73-43 by Elliott Almond (Mercury News)
• Stanford women roll over Arizona 73-43 by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Ruef pulls double duty for a career first in Cardinal win by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
• Arizona Women's Basketball Falls to No. 4 Stanford from Arizona Athletics, includes brief Niya Butts press conference video
• WBB: Stanford 73 Arizona 43 from the CARDboard
• Stanford women win easily despite 19 turnovers by Jake Curtis

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos by Marcio Jose Sanchez (Associated Press):

Sara puts up her shot

Chiney drives to the basket

Mikaela grabs a rebound

Chiney grabs a rebound

Amber on defense

Jos towers over a Wildcat

Mikaela goes after a loose ball

Game previews from Arizona and the Bay Area

Here are stories about this weekend's games from the student newspapers of the contenders:

Women's basketball faces Arizona squads by Tom Taylor (The Stanford Daily)

Arizona women's basketball sets off on Nor Cal roadtrip by Luke Davis (Arizona Daily Wildcat)

Women’s basketball travels to Pac-12 elite Cal, Stanford by Gian-Franco Demano (The State Press)

Cal women’s basketball prepares itself for Arizona State by Vincent Tzeng (The Daily Californian)

Next up: The Arizonas at Maples

The Cardinal are at home this week to host the teams from Arizona, whose last visit was two year ago.

The games are:

• Arizona on Friday night at 7:00. The game will be streamed live by the Pac-12 Networks (watch here) and broadcast by KZSU.


• 
  Arizona State on Sunday afternoon at 2:00. The game will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks and broadcast by KZSU.

  It's Pink Zone day. Wear your pink shirt, hat, wig, tutu, whatever ... to show your support of breast cancer awareness.

  You can purchase tickets online, using promo code PINK, for special $5 general admission or $15 reserved tickets!

  Arizona Wildcats

Fifth-year head coach Niya Butts hoped to rebound from last season when the Wildcats slipped all the way to the Pac-12 cellar, but they haven't rebounded very far.

They had a decent 8-3 non-conference season, but have won only three conference games and are currently in a three-way tie for eighth place in the Pac-12.

This poor season has been partly due to lack of experience. Of their ten active players, only three played for Arizona before this season. The others are either freshmen or transfers.

The Wildcats are missing two players who were expected to play key roles this season:

• Junior guard Candice Warthen was expected to take over as starting point guard, but she hasn't played at all. She had missed eight games in the middle of last season due to a foot injury, but had apparently recovered and ended the season as the Wildcat's second-best scorer. She is still on the roster, and I can't find any report of the reason for her absence from the court.


• 6'5" center Aley Rohde, who started in every game last season as a freshman transferred to UNLV this season.

The Wildcats have one of the best scorers in the conference – senior guard Davellyn Whyte – but the rest of the team doesn't provide enough reliable scoring. As a team, their shooting percentage is 36.2 – the second-worst in the Pac-12. They do better from beyond the arc. They're fourth-best in the Pac-12 with an average of 32.3.

The Wildcats' productivity is hurt by poor ball handling. They have about three turnovers to every two assists.

The Wildcat's most productive players are:

• #0, 5'11" senior guard Davellyn Whyte leads the Wildcats, as she has ever since she was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2010. Per game, she scores the most points (16.4), sinks the second-most 3-pointers (2.57), gives the most assists (4.8), gets the most steals (2.7) and grabs 5.7 rebounds. She's fouled far more than any other Wildcat and makes 75% of her free throws. Although her strength is primarily as a scorer, she's had to play the point a lot this season due to Warthen's absence. Unfortunately, her weakness is ball-handling — she has the same number of turnovers as assists.


• #10, 6'0" junior guard/forward Kama Griffitts transferred from North Idaho College in January last year and sat out the remainder of the season. She's the Wildcats' second-best scorer with 12.0 points per game. She takes 62% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes just under a third of them for an average of 2.65 per game – the second-most in the Pac-12. She also tallies 5.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game.


• #30, 6'1" junior forward Alli Gloyd transferred from Mesa Community College this season. She leads the Wildcats in rebounds with 6.1 per game and scores 9.6 points per game.


• #23, 6'2" junior forward Erica Barnes, in her third season with the Wildcats, comes off the bench for more than 20 minutes. She averages 8.8 points and is their second-best rebounder with 5.8 per game.


• #4, 5'8" junior guard Carissa Crutchfield transferred from Oklahoma State last season and, per NCAA regulations, sat out the season. She runs the point for the Wildcats and has a fairly good assist/turnover ratio – 1.24. She also averages 5.5 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

The other five active players contribute, on average, 14.5 points and 11.0 rebounds per game.

Arizona's win-loss record (11-10 overall, 3-7 conference) places them in a three-way tie with ASU and OSU for eighth place in the Pac-12, their RPI (127) places them 10th, and their strength of schedule rank (154) places them 11th.

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

  Arizona State Sun Devils

After a year-long sabbatical, Charli Turner Thorne is back as head coach for her 16th season with the Sun Devils. She brought with her two new assistant coaches and six new players (five freshmen and a junior college transfer).

The Sun Devils lost four of their five top players from last year due to graduation. Then they lost starting senior guard Deja Mann, who was the team's returning leading scorer from last season, to a season-ending knee injury in September.

So the Sun Devils are a young team, with eight of 12 players on the active roster in their first or second year in the program and just one who had more than 10 career starts (fifth-year senior Janae Fulcher) .

The Sun Devils did fairly well (8-4) with a difficult non-conference schedule and came into the conference season on a 5-game winning streak. But they've faltered in conference play and are now in a three-way tie for eighth place with just three conference wins.

The Sun Devils are a well-balanced, deep team. They have ten players who average more than 13 minutes per game, and no player has averaged more than 26 minutes. Coach Turner Thorne hasn't changed her style of play. She's used the same five starters all season and doesn't hesitate to go to the bench.

The Sun Devils are balanced, but not strong on either defense or offense. They get the second-fewest total rebounds and the fewest defensive rebounds of any Pac-12 team.

On offense, they have eight players who average more than five points a game, but just one who scores in double digits (barely). They score the second-fewest points of any Pac-12 team – on average, just over 60.

The Sun Devils' starting five all season have been:

• #22, 6'3" redshirt senior forward Janae Fulcher has taken on the role of team leader in Deja Mann's absence and has done a good job. She's the Sun Devils' leading scorer with 11.6 points per game. She makes 53.7% of her shots (fourth-best in the Pac-12), but doesn't take a lot of them – fewer than ten per game. She also gets 4.5 rebounds per game.


• #10, 5'8" sophomore guard Promise Amukamara averages 7.6 points, 1.8 steals and 3.6 rebounds per game.


• #3, 6'5" junior forward/center Joy Burke, recovered from the concussion that caused her to miss most of last season, is the Wildcats' leading rebounder (5.8 per game) and shot-blocker (1.1 per game). She also scores 7.0 points per game


• #2, 5'8" senior guard Micaela Pickens averages 6.2 points, 2.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. She takes about 40% of her shots from beyond the arc and makes about a third of them – on average, not quite one per game.


• #14, 5'9" junior guard Adrianne Thomas averages 5.2 points, 2.9 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.

The seven "reserves" get 46% of the playing time and account for 39% of the points and 43% of the rebounds.

Arizona State's win-loss record (11-11 overall, 3-7 conference) places them in a three-way tie with Arizona and Oregon State for eighth place in the Pac-12, their RPI (114) places them seventh, and their strength of schedule rank (96) places them 10th.

Here are Arizona State's 2012-13 statistics and roster.

Chiney earns record Pac-12 Player of the Week honor

Chiney matched a Pac-12 single-season record Monday by earning her fifth Pac-12 Player of the Week honor. Her five selections tie the record set by USC’s Cherie Nelson during the 1987-88 season.

Read more about Chiney's achievements this week in the Stanford Athletics announcement.