Newbies at Maples

The Cardinal welcome the Pac-12 newcomers to Maples Pavilion this week:

• Colorado on Thursday at 7:00. Watch the game on Stanford All-Access, listen on KZSU.


• Utah on Saturday at 2:00. Watch the game on Stanford All-Access, listen on KZSU.

  The Utah game may be a milestone for Tara. If Stanford wins both games this week, the Utah game will be Tara's 700th victory at Stanford (and the 852nd of her career).

  Saturday is also Senior Day. Grace, Lindy, Nneka and Sarah will be honored after the game, first with the formal Stanford Athletics ceremony in Maples, then with an FBC "tent" in Dallmar Court.

  Colorado Buffs

Amber steals the ball from Chucky Jeffery

Colorado began the conference season with a heady 11-0 win streak (against weak opponents), and head coach Linda Lappe figured they could finish anywhere from 2nd to 12th in the conference. But she cautioned, "We can't take anyone lightly ... we're going to have to be ready to play every single night."

Unfortunately for the Buffs, they haven't been able to do that. They are 5-9 in the conference and stand in 10th place, with four games left to play. They will probably finish in the bottom third, which is not too surprising for a very young team (one senior, two juniors) in a new league.

The team is prone to turnovers. They are tied with Washington for worst in the conference with 17.4 per game. Their assist-to-turnover ratio is just 0.69 (#11 in the conference).

Their most glaring deficiency has been inconsistency on offense. They average 62.2 points per game (ninth in the conference).

Junior guard Chucky Jeffery leads the team in almost every statistical category — scoring (15.2), FG% (0.448), rebounds (7.0), steals (2.6), blocks (1.0), assists (4.0) and turnovers (4.8).

Freshman guard Lexy Kresl, sophomore guard Brittany Wilson, freshman forward Jen Reese and senior forward Julie Seabrook average between 9.2 and 7. 6 points per game.

Here are Colorado's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.

  Utah Utes

The Sisters gang up on Taryn Wicijowski

Michelle Smith (espnW) has written an interesting account of the Utes as they embark on their trip to the Bay Area. Read here...

I hope that Utah doesn't do too much better against Stanford the second time around. In their first meeting this season, the Utes hung with the Cardinal for the first 11 minutes and allowed just 62 points – the Cardinal's third-lowest score of the season.

The Utes have one of the best front courts in the conference in sophomore forwards Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski, who combine for 27.2 points and 16.7 rebounds per game.

In the front court, senior point guard Janita Badon and junior shooting guard Iwalani Rodrigues each contribute 10.5 points per game. Badon leads the conference with 5.7 assists per game and has the third-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.66). Rodrigues is the third-best outside shooter in the conference (2.0 per game).

Utah would surely have made a stronger showing in their inaugural Pac-12 season had they not been limited by injuries. The above four players play, on average, 34 minutes per game.

Here are Utah's 2011-12 statistics and their roster.