Jeanette in bloom

Dave and I are spending a few days in Arizona, enjoying Cardinal basketball and desert scenery. It's still cold and wintry here, but cactus are budding and about to burst into bloom.

Makes me think of Jeanette — except that she's already blossoming, and it was no sudden burst. She has worked hard and long to :

• Be an outstanding 3-point shooter. She has averaged 2.9 per game this season (28th in the nation) at a rate of 44.7% (13th in the nation). She is on pace to break Krista Rappahahn's record of 91 3-pointers in a season and close to breaking Candice Wiggins' Stanford/Pac-10 career records for 3-pointers attempted and 3-pointers made.


• Be money at the charity stripe. She has made 91.8% of her free throws this season — 5th best in the nation and 2.3% higher than the Stanford single-season record held by Louise Smith since 1982. She is on pace to break Kelley Suminski's Stanford career record.


• Be an excellent ball-handler. She has averaged 5.0 assists per game this season (52nd in the nation) and has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.75. She needs just two more assists to join Sonja Henning, Jennifer Azzi and Nicole Powell as the only Stanford players to dish out more than 500 assists and score more than 1,000 points in their careers.


• Silence those who have judged her to be, "Good, but too slow and not a true point guard."


• Lead her team on and off the court with her determination and confidence. She makes everyone around her better.

My National Park Service brochure says, "... the summer display of cactus blooms is one of the desert's flashiest spectacles ..."

As is Jeanette's display of skill on the basketball court at the peak of her season.