July 31, 2018

Jenna & Alyssa begin international play on Wednesday

Jenna Brown and the USA Basketball U18 National Team open play at the 2018 FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico City on Wednesday evening.

The United States will be aiming for its ninth consecutive gold medal at the event as well a berth in next summer's FIBA U19 World Cup, which will be awarded to the top four finishing teams.

In group play, the United States will face Argentina on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. PT, Chile on Thursday at noon PT and Puerto Rico on Friday at 4:30 p.m. PT. August 5 The quarterfinals will be played on August 5, the semifinals on August 6 and the finals on August 7. All of Team USA's games will stream live at Facebook.com/USABasketball.

Read more:

Meanwhile Alyssa Jerome and the Canada Senior Women's National Team will be in China and Japan playing in the Asia Exhibition Series as part of their preparations for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018.

Canada will face China in two games on August 1 & 3 and Japan on August 5 & 7.

Read more from Canada Basketball: 12 athletes selected for Senior Women's National Team Asia Exhibition Series

July 26, 2018

Alyssa selected to Canada Senior Women's team


Sophomore Alyssa Jerome was selected for Canada's Senior Women's National Team that will participate in a four-game exhibition series in China and Japan from August 1-7.

Stanford Athletics announcement: Asia Exhibition Series

Canada Basketball announcement: 12 athletes selected for Senior Women's National Team Asia Exhibition Series

July 16, 2018

Report from Kezar

By Otis Watson
Friday, July 14

Well call me Mr. Diehard. I'm here [at Kezar] for the two games tonight. Just met Nadia and Jenna Brown.

Jenna Brown looks good. She can handle the ball very well. Not afraid to get into the paint and finish with the ball. She is also a great mid-range to 3 point shooter.

But the great surprise of the first game was Nadia. Much improved this year under the basket. Not afraid to fight for the ball. Nadia even told me after the game that she has been working hard. It shows.

July 12, 2018

Summer basketball at Kezar

Summer basketball at Kezar got off to a rocky start this season, but the rosters have finally been published. The season is almost half over, but there's still time to see the freshmen and other Cardinal hoopsters in action.

Freshman forwards Lexie and Lacie Hull are with team Midnight, junior forward Nadia Fingall with Paye's TNT, alum Sara James with Olympic Club, and alum Markisha Coleman with San Francisco. Here are the complete rosters.

The games will be played on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Here is the schedule.

Three games may be played at Alameda Point a week from Friday (7/20). I'll post the address in the FBC Events list when I find out what it is.

July 10, 2018

Hail, hail, the gang's (almost) all here

by Judy Richter

It would be an understatement to say that associate head coach Kate Paye is enthusiastic about the upcoming Stanford women’s basketball season.

“We’re going to see a lot of improvement” by everyone with more up-tempo play. “Our team is really hungry,” Kate said by phone recently.

The players arrived for the June 25 start of summer school on June 23 and had dinner together that night to begin to foster the camaraderie that’s so important to a team’s success.

Among those arrivals were the three freshmen: guard Jenna Brown and twin forwards Lacie and Lexie Hull.

Upperclassmen help freshmen

Although the team doesn’t officially assign upperclassmen to serve as big sisters to the freshmen, “everybody is taking them under their wing,” Kate said. They’re helping the newcomers both on and off the court. The freshmen have “a lot of big sisters right now,” she said.

Adjusting to Stanford play and life, the “freshmen are doing awesome,” Kate said, adding that they’re mature and serious about basketball. They’ll contribute right away. “Our fans are going to enjoy watching our three freshmen.”

Coaches set goals for summer

The coaches’ goals for the team this summer are to see everybody improving and staying healthy, to acclimate the freshmen and to “lay the foundation for a championship season.”

Conditioning is another major focus. In past summers, the players spent six hours a week with the coaches and two hours a week with strength and conditioning coach Brittany Keil.

New rules now have them working with the coaches for four hours and with Brittany for four hours. “It’s been great,” Kate said.

Thirteen of the team's 15 players are on campus. The exceptions are senior guard Alexa Romano and junior guard Anna Wilson.

Alexa spending summer in Peru

Alexa, an anthropology major, is spending most of the summer with an archeological project in Peru.

Anna is at home in the Seattle area “trying to regroup” after two seasons marred by injuries. She has been cleared to play and is working with a skills coach. Kate praised her good attitude and high energy even when she had to sit out.

While working out with the team and taking a class, senior center Shannon Coffee has an internship with Stanford medicine. The human biology major is helping with a research project involving mouth guards and concussions in football.

Senior forward Alanna Smith is taking classes while awaiting word on whether she’ll play with a team for Australia, her homeland.

Five helping with hoops camp

In addition to everything else, five players are helping at head coach Tara VanDerveer’s summer hoops camp.

They are junior forward Nadia Fingall, junior guard DiJonai Carrington, sophomore forwards Maya Dodson and Estella Moschkau, and sophomore guard Kiana Williams.

The team’s two most recent grads, guard Brittany McPhee and forward Kaylee Johnson, have activities in the area. Britt has a job for a company doing medical research near the campus and is hoping to play professionally overseas. In August, Kaylee will start to work for a Silicon Valley law firm before applying to law school.

The freshmen and Nadia are playing in the San Francisco Pro-Am program at Kezar Pavilion. Jenna will play with the USA team in the FIBA Americas U18 championships in Mexico during the first week of August.

Coaches go recruiting

All four coaches were to be on the recruiting trail during the second week of July. “Recruiting is going well,” Kate said.

While the coaches are gone, the players will continue to work on their skills and play pick-up games.

Summer classes end Aug. 16 followed by two days of finals. The players will have some time off before returning for the start of fall classes on Sept. 24.

“We have some exciting players. … I see a lot of players taking that (big) jump” from the past season, Kate concluded.

July 04, 2018

Stanford's Bigs



Assistant coach Tempie Brown offers a quick report on each of the Cardinal post players and what they're working on for next season in Jacob Rayburn's (Cardinal Sports Report): Stanford's bigs are an exciting mix of athleticism and versatility