Cardinal at Kezar

By: David Cortesi

Some Cardinal players, including three of the incoming freshmen, turned up for Saturday's ProAm games at Kezar. Jillian Harmon was there:

The freshmen included Ashley Cimino,

Hannah Donaghe,

and Jeanette Pohlen.

The fourth freshman, Kayla Pedersen, is with the USA Under-19 squad.

Pohlen was high scorer (17) for her team; Jillian was next with 15. Despite their efforts, their "Bay Pride" team lost.

Marian and Otis chatted with New and Keesh before the second game. Their team won easily.

USA U21 Women Claw Back From 16-Point Deficit For 90-88 Win Over Australia

Candice was the top scorer for the USA, with 30 points. If you want to know more:

• The story, with links to the box score and a photo gallery
• The USA Basketball website, with reports of what's happened and a schedule of what comes next
• The FIBA website, with a Gametracker for watching the upcoming games

Candice leads USA U21 team into world championship

GoStanford.com reports:

Candice Wiggins has looked impressive in guiding the 2007 USA Basketball Women's U21 World Championship team through exhibition competition.

In three contests against the France U21 National Team, Wiggins helped lead the USA squad to three double-digit victories. In addition to posting game-high scoring honors twice, Wiggins was the team leader in multiple categories: minutes played (25.0), field goals (12), free throws (11-12, 91.7-percent), steals (10) and scoring (12.3 ppg).

Here are accounts of those three games against France:

• USA Women's U21 World Championship Team Passes First Test With 82-59 Victory Over French U21 Squad
• USA U21 Women Overtake French In Fourth Quarter For 81-68 Win
• USA U21 Women Claim Sweep Of French U21 Women With Third Win, 71-57

Here is an entry from the team diary, with quotes from each of the players.

The team is in Moscow now. They spent yesterday afternoon riding the Moscow Metro, walking around Red Square and finishing up with dinner at TGI Friday's. Much fun was had by all, including several tourists -- some from the USA -- who stopped the team for pictures. Here is a photo gallery.

They play their first game of the championship series tomorrow against Australia, which also swept its exhibition tournament.

The New Team

Mike Eubanks of The Bootleg has written a very interesting story about our new coaches, Bobbie and Kate, and Tara's expectations of her new staff.

Here is the story.

Kate Paye returns to Stanford

Kate Paye first came to Stanford women's basketball as a walk-on in 1991. She soon earned a scholarship and was a key member of the team for four seasons. Many fans remember her as one of the most competitive players we've ever had.

After graduating, she played in the ABL and the WNBA, then returned to Stanford and earned her MBA and law degree. But she decided that the basketball court was more to her liking than a court of law, and returned to basketball as a coach at Pepperdine and then at San Diego State.

And now she's back home as Stanford's newest assistant coach! Here's the official announcement from GoStanford.com

USA U21 wins against France

The USA U21 team is playing a 3-game exhibition series against the French U21 team before the championship series. USA won the first game 82-59. Candice was the top scorer with 14 points.

Candice, with her typical spirit, said, "It was exciting. After a long day of traveling we were ready to start playing!"

Here is the game story and the box score from USA Basketball.

Candice makes the final cut

Candice is one of the twelve members of the official 2007 USA Basketball Women's U21 World Championship team.

The team departed yesterday and will play their first game of the championship series in Moscow on June 29 against Australia. Before that, they'll play a three-game series against the French U21 National Team on June 18-20.

You can find more information here:

• The announcement from USA Basketball
• The USA team roster
• Candice's profile on page 38 of the USA U21 Media Guide
• The FIBA U21 World Championship for Women website, where you'll such little-known facts as: Candice's middle name is Dana and she's 1.5 inches shorter in Europe than in Palo Alto.

Karen moves to Illinois

Karen leaves Stanford for a new challenge: lead assistant coach at the University of Illinois.

Here is the announcement and Karen's Fighting Illini bio.

Bobbie Kelsey joins the staff

Bobbie Kelsey was an outstanding Cardinal from 1992 - 1996, including three Final Four appearances. She has been coaching basketball since then, at Boise State, at Florida, at West Carolina, and most recently three seasons at Virginia Tech.

And now she's returned to Stanford as assistant coach!

Here's the story from GoStanford.com and her Official Bio.

2007-08 Schedule

It's time to start planning your basketball season -- the 2007-08 schedule is available. Dates and times are subject to change, and there is a lot more information to come about events, promotions and travel, but you'll find the most current information in:

The Events Page
The Travel Page
and a new view of the season, The Calendar.

Summer Basketball at Kezar

Michelle, Jayne & Morgan at Kezar last summer

If you're tired of going to the beach or sailing or biking or hiking or shopping or whatever you do on summer weekends, come enjoy an afternoon of basketball at Kezar Pavilion.

Admission is free, which is about what Kezar is worth as an athletic facility, but Hey! It's Women's Basketball!! and the games are always fun and competitive and sometimes very good.

Our incoming freshmen, Ashley, Hannah, and Jeanette are on the rosters (Kayla is busy with the USA U19 team). So are Kish, New, Jillian and Jayne (who is also busy with the USA U19 team, so she may not actually participate).

The season starts June 16th and continues on Saturday afternoons until the Championship game on August 11th.

Here is the schedule and the rosters and a map (The games are played in Kezar Pavilion, which is at 755 Stanyan at Waller, east of the stadium).