The 2015-16 non-conference schedule

The 2015-16 non-conference schedule has been announced. It features Thanksgiving in Florida, at least five games against NCAA Tournament opponents from last season and a visit from the Lady Vols in December.

This is the announcement from Stanford Athletics. Tip times and broadcast information along with Stanford’s Pac-12 schedule will be announced in September once television arrangements have been finalized. In this year’s rotation, UCLA and USC do not visit Maples Pavilion while Stanford misses its regular-season trip to Washington and Washington State.

This is the schedule from the FBC. Game information includes links to each opponent's women's basketball website and maps of the venues.

Pac-12 games, links to media coverage (TV, live streams, radio, live stats) and FBC pre-game and post-game events will be added as soon as the information is available.

Thanksgiving in Florida update

As I reported about three months ago, the Cardinal will spend the weekend after Thanksgiving in Southwest Florida as part of the third annual Gulf Coast Showcase. More information is available now.

The women's tournament will be held from Nov. 27-29 at Germain Arena in Estero, Florida. The Cardinal will be joined at the event by:

The Dayton Flyers
The Louisville Cardinals
The LSU Tigers
The Maine Black Bears
The Marist Red Foxes
The Missouri State Lady Bears
The Purdue Boilermakers

The tournament format is an eight-team playoff, with winners playing winners and losers playing losers in the second and third rounds, to determine places one through eight.

Stanford will begin the tournament with a game against Missouri State at 11:30 am Pacific Time. Click here for the bracket, which shows first round pairings and all game times.

You can now buy tickets or buy a travel package. The travel package provides these options: three or four nights at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa (the official host resort for each of the participating teams), game tickets, transfers between the hotel and games, a Thanksgiving buffet dinner that includes a Q&A with the head coaches of the tournament.

How do you get there? Estero is a suburb of Fort Myers, about 10 miles south of the nearest major airport – Southwest Florida International Airport. Here is a map that shows the airport, the arena, and the team hotel.

If you prefer to make your own travel arrangements, here is a map that shows the hotels near Germain Arena.

Pro-Am season ends on a losing note for Cardinal players

The San Francisco Pro-Am ended in disappointment for two Stanford women’s basketball players and an alum as their team, Bay City, lost 79-66 to Mission Recreation Center on Aug. 1 at Kezar Pavilion.

Bay City, which includes freshman forward Shannon Coffee, freshman guard Marta Sniezek and guard Markisha Coleman, ’07, never led but did stay within striking distance, narrowing the gap to 5 points early in the third quarter.

Even though Bay City had 10 players and Mission Rec had eight, Mission Rec won the game by capitalizing on Bay City turnovers, outrebounding the opponent and pouring in 3-pointers.

The winning team also outmuscled Bay City in the paint. Thus the previously high-scoring Shannon was held to 5 points, five rebounds and a block. Because she was guarded so closely and so physically, her teammates had a hard time getting the ball to her.

In addition, Shannon’s time was limited after she picked up her third foul in the second quarter and went to the bench. She was in and out during the second half but had only one more foul.

Marta had 2 points, three rebounds, three steals and an assist. Markisha added 1 point, two rebounds and one steal. Like Shannon, both were in and out of the game.

Coming into the game, Bay City had a 4-1 record. Its only loss was at the hands of Mission Rec in the first game, which Shannon and Marta missed because they were just getting settled on campus.

Mission Rec was undefeated. After the game, when trophies were presented to the coaches of both teams, it was announced that this was Mission Rec’s sixth championship in seven years.

About a dozen Stanford fans were among the estimated 125 people at the game.

As they have done in previous games, Shannon and Marta crossed the court after the game to thank their fans for coming.

They said they were glad to have spent some time with junior forward Erica “Bird” McCall. Bird was on campus for a few days to help with a hoops camp after earning a gold medal with the undefeated USA team in the World University Games in South Korea.

The freshmen said they have two more weeks of school before heading home for a month. They’ll return to campus Sept. 15. Classes start Sept. 21.