Next up: Demons

Now the hard part of the seasons begins with away games against the DePaul Blue Demons in Chicago and our perennial demons in Tennessee.

  DePaul Blue Demons

Like Tara at Stanford, Doug Bruno is in his 25th season as head coach at DePaul. The two teams have met only once before, last season at Maples where the Cardinal won 96-60. The home-and-away pair of games was scheduled to give Sarah Boothe an opportunity to play near her hometown (Gurnee is an hour's drive north of DePaul). This will also be Toni's "home game" (Oak Brook is 25 miles west of DePaul.

DePaul's star player, senior point guard Deirdre Naughton, tore her ACL last season, three weeks before the game against Stanford. Nonetheless, DePaul went on to have a very good season. They went 21-12 and earned a berth in their 8th consecutive trip to the NCAAs, where they lost to Vanderbilt in the first round.

The starting five from that tournament squad is back this season. Deirde Naughton is back too, having been granted a sixth year of eligibility, but she's not at full strength yet. She has played limited minutes in just four games.

The Blue Demons are picked to finish 6th in BIG EAST this season behind UConn, West Virginia, Georgetown, Notre Dame and St. John's. So far they are 12-1, having lost only to Purdue. Stanford will be their first ranked opponent. DePaul is ranked 22/26 in the national polls. According to Sagarin/CBN, their RPI is 15 and their schedule strength is 106.

The probable starters are:

• #22, 5'6" senior guard Sam Quigley runs the point. She averages 11.8 points, 1.8 3-pointers and 1.6 rebounds per game). She averages five assists and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.0, She is a candidate for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.


• #24, 6'2" junior forward Keisha Hampton is DePaul's top scorer with 16.2 points per game. She has scored double digits in eleven games this season and is the 25th DePaul player with at least 1000 career points. She also averages 1.6 3-pointers and 4.5 rebounds per game. She is on the preseason Naismith watch list.


• #05, 6'0" sophomore guard Anna Martin averages 11.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.


• #41, 6'3" senior forward Felicia Chester averages 10.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.


• #51, 6'3" sophomore forward Katherine Harry is DePaul's primary strength in the paint. She averages 7.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.

As a team, DePaul is strong beyond the arc with 7.5 3-pointers per game. They take good care of the ball — they rank 4th in the nation in assists per game (20.7) and 8th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.27).

Here are DePaul's 2010-11 statistics and their roster.

  Tennessee Lady Vols

Stanford and Tennessee have been playing each other at home and away and in tournaments for 22 years. They have been our nemesis for much of that time, but the balance of power shifted a bit three years ago when we won at Maples in 2007 and again in 2009.

Tennessee lost to Baylor in the Sweet Sixteen last season but will be a strong contender for the National Championship this season. The Lady Vols are picked to win the Southeastern Conference (SEC). So far they are 9-2, having lost to two of the three ranked teams they've played – Georgetown and Baylor (they defeated #23/24 Texas). They are ranked 6/7 in the national polls. Their RPI is 4, and their schedule strength is 4.

The Cardinal will find lots of familiar faces in Knoxville. Top scorer and 3-point specialist Angie Bjorklund is in her senior season. Star in her rookie season Vicki Baugh is back after missing the past season and a half with two ACL tears. The Baby Vols that drove Pat nuts in their freshman season (Briana Bass, Alyssia Brewer, Kelley Cain, Glory Johnson, Alicia Manning and Shekinna Stricklen) are now mature juniors.

The probable starters are:

• #10, 5'9" freshman guard Meighan Simmons is "the fastest player Pat Summit has ever coached" and Tennessee's top scorer with 17.4 points per game. She has scored in double digits in every game. She averages 2.2 3-pointers.


• #5, 6'0" senior guard/forward Angie Bjorklund averages 11.8 points and 2.6 3-pointers. She is on the Naismith and Wooden watch lists.


• #40, 6'2" junior guard/forward Shekinna Stricklen averages 10.3 points and 6.9 rebounds. She is on the Naismith and Wooden watch lists.


• #52, 6'3" junior forward Glory Johnson is Tennessee's top rebounder with 9.3 per game. She averages 9.0 points.


• #52, 6'6" redshirt junior center Kelley Cain averages 6.4 points and 4.2 rebounds. She is on the Naismith watch list.

As a team, Tennessee does not take very good care of the ball. They have more turnovers (16.8 per game) than assists (14.4). But they are tough on defense with 10.4 steals per game and 43.4 rebounds (9.3 more than their opponents).

Here are Tennessee's 2010-11 statistics and their roster.