November 22, 2017

Up next: Thanksgiving in Vegas

The Cardinal are spending the Thanksgiving weekend Playing 4Kay in Las Vegas after eating their Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday.

Their first game is on Thursday at 5:30pm PT vs Kent State. On Friday afternoon or evening (3:00 or 8:00), they'll play either Gonzaga or Belmont.

Their final game, on Saturday, will be against a team from the other side of the bracket, where the winner is likely to be Ohio State (the other contenders are DePaul, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Memphis).

There will be no TV coverage of the tournament, but all the games will be streamed live by FloHoops. A $12.50 subscription is required. The Stanford games will be broadcast by Sidearm Sports at Stanford All-Access.

   The Kent State Golden Flashes
are located in Cleveland, Ohio and play in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). They won the East division of the MAC last season and have been picked to place second this season. They've begun the season with three wins and a loss.

The Flashes return a core of four starters from last season's team and are led by one of the MAC's most experienced frontcourt tandems: Senior forward Jordan Korinek (22.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and graduate forward McKenna Stephens (7.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg).

Also starting this season is sophomore guard Ali Poole , who likes to shoot the three and is currently their second-best scorer with 10.5 ppg.

Of their upcoming game vs Stanford, Poole said, “It’s a good opportunity. What do we have to lose? We’re not expected to win this game so we have to give them heck.”

Here are Kent State's roster and season statistics.

   The Belmont Bruins
are located in Nashville and play in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).

Lindy began her coaching career at Belmont. She was an assistant coach for two seasons before returning to Stanford this season.

The Bruins won the conference title the past two seasons and have been picked to do so again although it may take time to adjust to a new coach. They're currently ranked eighth in the mid-majors by Graham Hays (espn) and ninth by CollegeInsider.

They lost their opening game of the season to No. 22 Oklahoma, then won the next three.

Belmont returns four starters from a team that went 27-6 and nearly upset Kentucky in the NCAA tournament a season ago:

Junior guard Darby Maggard is the reigning NCAA 3-point field goal percentage champion, registering a .487 mark from beyond the arc last season. She's at .480 this season and averaging 16.3 ppg and 4.5 apg. She was named OVC Preseason Co-Player of the Year, along with:

Senior center Sally McCabe (13.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg).

Senior guard Kylee Smith (18.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.8 apg) was named on the Preseason All-OVC team.

Junior guard Jenny Roy (6.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg).

Here are Belmont's roster and season statistics.

   The Gonzaga Bulldogs,
West Coast Conference (WCC) powerhouse, have won 12 WCC regular-season titles and seven WCC Tournament championships in the past 13 years. They've made it to the NCAA Elite 8 once and to the Sweet 16 four times.

For the fifth-straight season, the Zags were picked as the WCC preseason favorite. They're ranked second in the mid-majors by CollegeInsider.

They've played only two games this season, losing to Colorado State and beating Montana.

The Zags are led by a pair of juniors who were named to the All-WCC Preseason Team:

Guard Laura Stockton averaged 8.0 points and 4.4 assists per game with a 1.9 assist/turnover ratio last season.

Forward Jill Barta was the Zag's leading scorer (16.8 ppg) and second-best rebounder (6.0 rpg) last season.

The Zags lost a vital member of their team just before the season began when redshirt senior center Emma Wolfram suffered a season-ending knee injury.

Here are Gonzaga's roster and season statistics.

   The Ohio State Buckeyes
have continued their successful season start. Their record is now 4-1, with a loss only to No. 5 Louisville in "Countdown to Columbus", and they're still ranked ninth in the AP Top 25.

Should a Cardinal/Buckeye re-match occur, I won't be surprised if the Buckeyes win again. At this point in the season, they're still a better team than the young Cardinal. But I'm sure they won't out-rebound the Cardinal 64-41 this time nor limit them to two second-chance points.

Here are Ohio's roster and season statistics.

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