April 2008 Archives

The Summer Olympics will be here soon. Support Team USA (and not New Zealand) and get your Olympic Gear. (Hurry, while Candice is still on the team!)

Well, Team USA played for a gold medal in China on April 26th, and the winner was…not Team USA. Host China beat them by three points, 84-81. Uh oh, is the summer Olympics in jeopardy for USA? Or is this a good sign that the rest of the world is finally treating their women's sports teams seriously and that they are catching up to USA? 

Anyway, USA made it to the finals of the Good Luck Games, a tune up for the Olympics, held in Beijing, China. China came out very aggressively, made steals and forced turnovers, and got Team USA in foul trouble and made their free throws. All in all, they stole Team USA’s playbook.

Not that you would know any of this as it was covered in the local papers, at least that I saw and I read the sports pages cover to cover. Maybe I blinked. 

Playing down, as much as 12 points at one time, Team USA went to their veterans and Candice only played 12 minutes. She ended up with 3 points for the game. 

Our other team, team New Zealand, with Claire and Jill, also lost, this time to South Korea, 70-67. They were playing for fifth place and ended up last. Jill Harmon had a great game, scoring 20 and adding 6 rebounds. She fouled out in the final seconds. The loss hurts even more as NZ was up by 11 points and then they let South Korea bomb the threes. The NZ website down played their last place finish by bragging that they got their first-ever win over Australia. Sort of like Cal saying last years that even thought they didn’t do well in the NCAA tournament, at least they beat Stanford. 

Cute pictures of the team visiting the Great Wall. Most of the team has the Team USA sweatshirt, and Candice is wearing red sweats with a white "S" on them. Cute, as she is only 2 weeks removed from college.

Candice’s team played Jill and Claire’s team today, that is Team USA played New Zealand in China in the Good Luck Games, a basketball tune-up for the upcoming summer Olympics. Team USA pounded them 78-60. Or, Team New Zealand held the US to 8 points in the final quarter. Both statements are true, but the one everyone looks at is that final score.

Candice scored 7 points, but most noticeably, she was 2 for 2 from the free throw line. That is her first time in four games she has gone to the line. I wonder if it is because she is not driving to the basket to score like she has done in the past, or is it because she is not getting the home court calls she is accustomed to at Maples?

Jill and Claire each had four points. Speaking of Jill, she is not the only US collegian on the New Zealand team. Besides former Cardinal Claire, she is with Micaela Cocks, a guard for the University of Oregon, and Jess McCormack, a former forward for the University of Washington. Read about how becoming an Olympiad came about for Jill. (A big thank you to the Stanford Fast Break Club for finding this article and having it on their website)

Here are some pictures from Team USA taken during the New Zealand game, and Candice is in some. She is number 4. I love the one of Courtney Paris rumbling to the basket. I was looking for Jill in the photos and then I saw her, in a photo with Candice. Candice has the ball and unfortunately, Jill is sitting on the bench. In another, Team USA is shooting over her. At least I can see she is number 14 from the back! 

April 20th-Olympic Update

Next up is how the teams are doing in China, in an Olympic warm-up tournament. For New Zealand, where 2 of our beloved Stanford players have landed, Clare Bodensteiner had 5 points, and Jill had 2 points and was called “a warrior” in her international debut, grabbing a team-high seven rebounds in 21 minutes. It was an exhibition game over host China, and China, getting “patriotic” calls, won 67-71. Then in New Zealand’s opening game, they fell to Cuba even though they led most of the way. Claire had 7 and Jill had 6 points. Another stinging loss followed, this time to the Cubans, 78-90. Claire had 5 points, but Jillian Harmon had her best game so far with 18, seven rebounds and four assists.

“Harmon had a super game for us tonight and will be a real asset to this team,” said NZ coach Mike McHugh.

How cool is that to be playing for the National Title one week, and then the second week playing in an Olympic tune-up game, with another country?

So, how did team USA do? Well, the first game against Australia, they lost. What? Not even by a little, it was 74-60. Candice scored just 2 points and shot 1-9. Out of the 9 shots she took, 8 were three pointers and all of them missed. Uh oh. They bounced back to win their second game against Cuba 92-60 (that’s more like it). Candice hit a three and finished with 7 points. The third game, team USA used their size advantage and beat South Korea 92-56. Candice got 11 in this game, and there is a nice picture of her on the official USA website. She is talking and directing traffic, as usual.

Next up for team USA is….New Zealand! I wonder if Candice and Jill have been texting each other about their experiences? (I bet that will be a heck of a cell phone bill!). A reporter asked Candice if there was going to be any trash talking between the and Candice said no, but she has never played against Jill before. She also says she is learning from the older players.

Can’t wait to see how that game goes! NBC is supposed to have it on sometime, somewhere....

So we all know Candice was selected number three in the WNBA draft and went to the Minnesota Lynx. Guess who the Lynx's second pick was? Tennessee center Nicky Anosike. Yes, the very same one that just beat Candice’s team in the National Title game.

I wonder what they said to each other when they first met in Minnesota. I’m imagining a brief handshake, a half hearted hug, an uncomfortable pause, then Nicky jeers and breaks into a dance, points her fingers and sings, “we beat you….we beat you….” And Candice, well, Candice breaks into a grin and pushes her good naturedly and says,”Aw girl, shut up with that…”, and they are now the bestest of friends.

Nah, I have no idea, but it could have happened. Just as Tara almost cried. See, Candice, in her first Minnesota story, told the gathered reports and three season ticket holders that she had never seen Tara VanDerveer cry, but she thought Tara was about to during draft day.

"I am not going to be your coach anymore," a teary-eyed VanDerveer told Wiggins. "I won't be able to yell at you, but I will be yelling at you from the sidelines." I wonder if Tara is going to get some sort of super satellite hook-up and expensive cable package to catch the Minnesota games. (or she can just attach a cable to that giant satellite I see on the back side of highway 280. You know the one I am talking about.)

Anyway, Candice didn’t really get time to practice with Nicky and, Minnesota also signed Charde Houston. Dang, add those players to Seimone Augustus and Lindsey Harding and they just might have a team. But the veterans and Candice are missing. Lindsey Harding is trying out with the USA team, just like Candice, and a lot of veterans play overseas where they can make up to triple the money. Why are countries overseas willing to pay women athletes more then the US? Do they get more fans over there?

Well, R and I will have to make the pilgrimage to Sacramento, especially when and if Minnesota comes to town.

Oh my gosh, do you feel like an addict going through withdrawal? I do, now that the Stanford women’s season is over. Well, here’s a little hair of the dog that bit ya, as in an article about what Candice Wiggins is up to during tax time, practicing with the US Senior Women’s Team. Then it is off to Beijing. 

If you are wondering what is happening in Beijing, the US Team is attending the Good Luck Beijing Tournament April 19-26. It will be held at Wukesong Arena, site of the 2008 Olympic basketball competition. It features six nations, and guess what, we are not the defending champs. Australia is the 2006 World Champion. The other teams include host China, Cuba, New Zealand and South Korea. The tournament will feature a single round-robin preliminary round with games played on April 19, 20, 21, 23 and 24. Teams will then be seeded for the April 26 finals based on records from the round-robin preliminary round with the top two squads facing off in the gold medal game. 

Right now there are 29 women on the roster, and they need to trim it to 12. I am thinking Candice’s chances are slim. Maybe there is a spot with Jill and Claire on the New Zealand team (they were both picked to play in the Good Luck Tournament). Or she could do what Becky Hammon did and hire herself out to another country.

WNBA star Becky Hammon plays for Russia in the off WNBA off-season. She doesn’t have a chance to play for the USA. But she holds a Russian passport, and they want her.

"I'm going where they really want me and where I have an opportunity to win a medal," said Hammon, a nine-year WNBA veteran. "... my options were to sit on my couch and watch the Olympics, or play in the Olympics. It made it an easy decision."

By the way, Team USA is scheduled to play New Zealand on April 23^rd. Russia and Team USA might not meet in the Olympics, but they play Aug. 4 in the FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament, a tuneup for Beijing.

Pack your mittens and boots, cuz Candice is going to Minnesota. The WNBA draft was held Wednesday, and as expected, Candace Parker went to the LA Sparks (should be a good fit), Slyvia Fowles to the Chicago Sky and our Candice, going third, to the Minnesota Lynx.. Brrr, our little California girl is gonna find life very different there.

Candice should be back at Stanford for Friday’s awards dinner and then joining the U.S. National Team in Chicago for training from April 13-15. Then she will head to Beijing, China, to compete in the six-nation Olympic test event from April 19-26. She will then return to Minnesota to join the Lynx for training camp, which begins on April 20. Whew! As I said before, it’s too bad she didn’t get to have the last few days with her teammates. Now it looks like she will not get to have her last few weeks of her senior year of college.

Okay, it’s time to play Mom. Is Candice ready for this? Talk about a huge transition. My daughter is 17 and a half. She is a very responsible and mature adult, but no way is she ready to live alone, I mean, totally on her own. Candice probably went from her mother's house to the protected world of college, and a secure dorm with a meal plan, probably roommates and now a whole sorority to look after her. As an elite athlete, all of her travel arrangements and meals were arranged during basketball season. Yes, she is going to China, but again, someone else is in charge of the logistics, and securing her travel, lodging and food arrangements. Then to be dumped in Minnesota April 20^th and have to live on her own? She will not have a dorm room or training facilities to stay in, with someone to look after her. I am worried our little Candice is going to be in for a rude awakening. 

If you are not doing anything this Wednesday, you can come to Maples to join a rally to welcome the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team back to California from its amazing journey 9see poster at left).

Well, you can welcome everyone except the heart and soul of the team. Candice has to stay in Florida to see what her future holds in the draft. If I were her, I would have said, “no thanks, I want to be with my teammates”. Then it is the awards dinner on Friday, I believe, and by the weekend, Candice will leave for Chicago and China to practice with the USA National Team and try to secure a spot on the US Olympic Team. By the way, Candice will be a couple of credits shy of her communications major and will have to make that up, when? Over the summer if she is not in the Olympics, I guess. 

Okay, I know you are waiting to read why we think Stanford lost. Well, R and I think that the Tennessee team as a whole was quicker, faster, and had longer arms. They forced 25 turnovers, some of them on Candice, and 13 steals. At one point their center, Nicky Anosike, poked the ball away from Candice and went down for a lay-up. It’s bad when the other team’s center can steal from your best player. JJ Hones was quoted after the game as saying that they didn’t even have the personnel to practice against speed like that. 

So, Coach Summit had superior athletes. Why have the looked ragged all year? We all saw they barely scrapped by the final four game against LSU, and Stanford beat them the first time around at Maples. So what was the difference?  One, Summit gave them a game plan that utilized their strengths and took away Stanford strength. And, two, Tennessee played passionately as a team, something the team had not done all year because they can rely so heavily on Candace Parker that the others were not used to picking up the slack. Anoske had a big night scoring and so did their guard Shannon Bobbitt. They are not used to stepping up, but for the title game, they did. 

All tournament long ESPN has been showing tape of the Stanford team patiently going through their reads, passing, passing with patience, until the other team made a mistake and left someone open. Then they fired and they hit a high percentage of shots. Well, Tennessee put on a full court press and made some steals in the back court. When Stanford did keep the ball and advance it past half court, the shot clock would be somewhere around 18 or 15 seconds, having wasted 12 to 15 seconds advancing the ball, now Stanford did not have the time to patiently pass. Also, Tennessee did not give up on their relentless defense once Stanford got it to half court, so it was rare to get a good open look. And when we did shoot, there was always a hand in their faces. That, and we missed some easy lay-ups and put backs. You can’t win championships when you miss lay-ups. 

When they met at Stanford earlier this year, Tennessee cam out pressing, but not with the intensity of last night. Stanford easily, and quickly, broke it and got the ball across the line and quickly passed to find the open player. So Tennessee quickly abandoned it. Not so last night. Tennessee was a different team, playing all out, stepping in passing lanes, and the press worked for them. 

Another key difference was the free throws. Candice did not make it to the line last night. I had to check the box scores to see if it was true. Jayne was 4-10, and we were 7-14 (Kayla was 3-4) so that is 7 points we left behind. In the first game, at home, where the refs loooove Candice, we were 23-32. Yes, 23 points from free throws in that first game. Tennessee was 6-10 in that game. Think there wasn’t a little home court advantage there? 

That said, Tennessee didn’t or couldn’t put this game away, they missed some easy shots, too. They still rely on Candace, who was clearly hurting with that separated shoulder. Tennessee’s defense won it for them, a night when they stopped the tournaments best offense. 

All in all, they will be replaying this tournament, and the final game, for a long time. Talk about a Cinderella story. Stanford’s improbable run lead by the most infectious smile. The best player in the country playing with a separated shoulder. Two legendary coaches who actually like each other. I could go on and on….While I am sad Candice didn’t win the championship for her team, I am so proud and amazed at what Stanford has done. 

Notes.
They showed that segment again where the superstars on opposite ends of the screen come out fold their arms, followed by their coaches. This time it was Candace Parker and Pat Summit and Candice Wiggins and Tara Van DerVeer. It was good to see Pat Summit was equally as clueless about how to come out and fold your arms with attitude as Tara was (although sh edid try to give “the stare’). Then, with a few minutes left, they just showed Candace Parker and Summit alone. Ouch, that hurt. 

Good to see Stanford still can’t sing. ESPN used some more highlights from the Tennessee and Stanford players singing to “Ladies Night”.  They also showed the Stanford girls pretending to read books, to emphasize their smarts. They didn’t give the Tennessee team any books as props, so take that, Tennessee. They did quote Ros Gold-Onwude as saying, “maybe we could have a math competition with Tennessee, maybe a differentials contest”. Then she proclaimed herself a nerd and said she couldn’t believe she just said that on TV. It was cute. 

Another cool thing about following Stanford all year and then writing about it is that our blog is read by more than one person. And sometimes people even write to us! Executive Producer of NBC11, Jan Boyd, sent us this link to an all Candice Slide show. Thanks Jan! 

I guess Tara didn't want that tattoo after all....

Okay, now C and R are really, really, rooting for Stanford to win the final game. VanDerVeer made a promise months ago that if they won the National Championship, she would get a tattoo! Okay, usually, when a coach or a player makes a bet like that, it is something short-termed, something they can live with. My daughter's wrestling coach (yes, she wrestles on the boys team, you got a problem with that? And if you do, I'll send my daughter...) Anyway, he said if they won league he would cut his hair, which was way past his shoulders. He thought they would never do it, as he really, really did not want to cut it. But they won league, and knocked off a huge rival to do it (sound familiar?) and he let the wrestlers buzz cut him (it since has grown back to a respectable "guy" length, but everyone does a double take when he walks by.)

Or what about the time the US goalie, Brianna Scurry said if they won the gold medal in soccer on the home turf at The Atlanta Olympics in 1996, she would walk naked down the main blvd. They won. She had her friend drive the car to the main street at 3 AM, took her clothes off for all of ten seconds, took a few steps and jumped back in the car. She even brought along her gold medal in case a cop stopped her, so she could explain.

But a tattoo? That's permanent, baby! R said deep down she must have really wanted one, anyway. I am not so sure. Tar just does not strike me as the tattoo type. Maybe she will get one of those henna ones that washes off in a few weeks.

Okay, funniest moment so far in the tournament, and ESPN kept showing it, so we could laugh every time, was this promo with Geno Auriemma and Maya Moore and Candice Wiggins and Tara VanDerVeer. The idea was to have the star player walk into the shot, followed by the coach, Both star player and coach cross arms and lean back, I don't know, "gansta style". As in, I am too cool, I am cocky, I am the best, y'all hear? So Candice and Maya can pull this off, and Geno does an okay job, but Tara just walks out and crosses her arms like a grandma. Doesn't lean back, doesn't give that cocky, I'll take y'all on lean. She was probably following directions to the letter. Walk out, fold arms. They kept showing it and R and I kept laughing. Oh Tara, we love ya, really! You are a great coach, and ESPN's break downs keep showing how your time plays great team ball, but you are wonderfully not hip!

Second funniest moment was finding out the Stanford team cannot sing. For the start of the half hour spot before tip off of the Uconn v. Stanford game, they had all four teams singing parts to "Ladies Night". Poor Stanford, no one has shown them how to sing. They even had Tara standing in the middle at one point and all the players racking up because she must have been worse then them.

Anyway, we love how loose the team is. They even had an ice cream social with former players , including 1990 National Title winner Jennifer Azzi and are being cheered on by Kate Starbird, Vanessa Nygaard, Charmin Smith, Jamila Wideman, Milena Flores, and Heather Owen. All the former players have said how much Tar has loosened up.

Let's hope they stay loose for one last game!

Record Crowd
Sunday's first semifinal game between Stanford and Connecticut set a state
attendance record for a women's basketball game. A sellout crowd of 21,655
was announced. The old record was set on Feb. 11, 2001, at Florida's O'Connell Center when
12,222 watched the Gators host Tennessee. This was the 16th consecutive sellout for the women's NCAA Tournament.

Major dilemma. Our Tuesday team starts its first playoff game Tuesday at 7 PM. Pacific Time. Stanford starts at 5:30 PM. It won't be over at our tip off........what to do???? I hope someone brings a radio.

Go Stanford!

Candice Wiggins scored the first basket of the game for either team.

Candice Wiggins also scored the last points of the game for either team.

It only seemed like she scored all the points in-between, too.

That's really all you need to know to see that Stanford did the impossible and beat Uconn 82-73 in the final four to advance to the National Title Game.

No, Candice didn't score all of Stanford points, ONLY 25, plus 13 key rebounds, all defensive. Who was the other Stanford player to have a break out game? Let's see, it was Ros, then JJ previously. Tonight they must have all but those very smart Stanford heads together and decided it would be Kayla, with 17, and a little of Jayne with 15. These girls are not selfish, are they?

After Candice scored that first basket, Uconn got a three to take their only lead of the game. That is not a misprint. Don't worry, Candice got it right back by hitting a jumper to go up 4-3. Oh, wait, Uconn did tie it at 10 all, but Stanford never looked back. They were in control of this game, confident and sure, even when Uconn would come clawing back. The score was 40-33 at halftime, and Maya Moore, Uconn's all everything (and I do mean that respectfully, she looked great) was held to only 6 points in the first. Then she heated up. It felt like she was hitting threes like crazy, but the box score says she was 3-of-11 from behind the arc. She did finished with 20, but didn't seem to get much help from her teammates.

The ESPN announcers did a good job pointing out how Stanford is playing. They said that Stanford is a very patient team. They went on to say that being patient doesn't mean you take the shot clock down and then shoot. No, they go through all their "reads" or options until someone is open. They showed one play in the second half where all five Cardinal players touched the ball, all five made passes, no one dribbled, and they passed so quickly that Uconn could not keep up and Kayla found herself open at the three point line. Uconn's got to be thinking, okay, not a high percentage shot for her. She nails it. Now that's coaching.

Stanford is playing the best team ball right now. ESPN also got it right when they said Candice Wiggins is the best leader in college basketball right now. Maybe Candace Parker is a better all around player at 6'5", but no one wills her team to win like our Candice.

And with Tennessee's last second basket to advance (poor LSU), Stanford has a shot at this game, too. Unbelievable.

Oh, forgot to mention that they also announced the winner of the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award for NCAA women’s basketball. It stands for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award has grown into the nation’s premier tribute to college seniors. No suspense, it was Candice. Wiggins is the first Pacific-10 Conference player to win this national honor in the Senior CLASS Award’s seven-year history.

R and I are loving all the attention the West Coast newspapers are paying to the Women’s Final Four. Most years we just get a report on the scores. The big reason for the extra coverage, of course, is that Stanford is in it this year. My paper had a great article on R’s favorite, Jayne Appel, realizing she has to be the leader nest year, and how lucky she is to have had Candice Wiggins to emulate. R’s paper had a big article on my favorite, Candice Wiggins, and how she is just on a roll of a lifetime.

To kick off the final four hoopla in Tampa, the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) always presents The State Farm Wade Trophy Player of the Year award. Candice has been a finalist for the last year or two, as well as this year, and in the past she always had to fly out by herself and attend the ceremony by herself, watch someone else win, and then go to the final four games and watch as an outsider looking in.

Well, this year, it is different and oh, so, much sweeter. First of all, she told the SF Chronicle that every where she looks she sees the four logos in the final four, and she is surprised and delighted to see the Stanford “S”. Secondly, when the ceremony for the Wade Trophy happened, her Stanford teammates were in the audience. When she looked out at the audience from the podium, the first thing she saw was Ros Gold-Onwude crossing her fingers! How fitting for someone like Candice, the ultimate team player, who is maybe not the best player in college basketball, but the best at wiling her teammates to raise to the occasion, as well as raising to the occasion as to not let her teammates down, be surrounded by them for this one last time.

Her teammates asked her what she would say if she won. She said she had nothing planned because she knew she wasn’t going to win. Candice Parker also was one of the finalists, and our Candice is wise enough to know that that Candace is the number one player in the country, separated shoulder or not. But the Wade Trophy is not about being the best player, but about being, dare we say it, a role model.

First, some history. The State Farm Wade Trophy, now in its 31st year is named after the late, legendary three-time national champion Delta State University coach, Lily Margaret Wade. This most prestigious award, regarded as "The Heisman of Women's Basketball", debuted in 1978 as the first-ever women's national player of the year award in college basketball.

Last year's State Farm Wade Trophy winner was Tennessee's Candace Parker. The first recipient of the Wade Trophy was Carol Blazejowski of Montclair State in 1978. Other Wade Trophy/NCAA Division I Player of the Year recipients include many WNBA standouts such as Teresa Weatherspoon (1988), DeLisha Milton-Jones (1997), Ticha Penicheiro (1998), Sue Bird (2002) and Diana Taurasi (2003). Seimone Augustus (2005 and 2006) and Nancy Lieberman (1979 and 1980) are the award's only two-time recipients.

Candice Wiggins became the first West Coast player to be named the State Farm Wade Trophy Player of the Year since 1990. Her teammates leapt to their feet. Wanna know who was the first Stanford player to win it? None other than Jennifer Azzi.

Oh, she was also selected to the State Farm Coaches' All-America Team for a school record-breaking fourth time, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association announced. With her selection to the All-America team, Wiggins is now only the seventh player in Division I history to earn All-America honors each of her four seasons.

"Candice Wiggins demonstrates what this award is all about," said WBCA CEO Beth Bass. "She is not only a force on the court, but is also a great role model to the community. I am certain Lily Margaret Wade would be pleased to know Candice is receiving this award in her honor."

The WBCA tipped off Tara that Candice had won, right before the ceremony. Tara said she watched Candice right before they announced the winner. “She was just sitting there chatting with Maryland’s Kristy Toliver,” Said VanDerVeer, and why are we not surprised Candice was just talkin’ away, “and when they said ‘Stanford,’ she looked so surprised. It was hysterical.”

“I’m just so excited for her,” continued Vand DerVeer, “she’s such a humble kid. The fact that she was so surprised is what’s so great about her.”

Wiggins told the crowd she was shocked, especially with the company she was in, and that any one of them deserved it just as much as her. To even be considered with them was incredible.

Her old pal Courtney Paris said she was so excited for Candice that she herself felt like she had won.

And that is what makes her so special. Even her opponents root for her.

Candice Wiggins got another All-America nod Wednesday, being named to the John R. Wooden Award All-America Team. (see the April 2 blog to review her awards and accomplishments so far this year. There will be a quiz. First question, with this honor, how many All-American teams has Candice been named to this year? Answer, 5 including this one. She has been named to the All-America teams of the Wooden, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, ESPN.com, and CBSSportsline.com.)

At the gym during our Tuesday basketball, everyone was all abuzz about Stanford’s win to propel them to the final four. The talk usually went like this:

“Oh man, did you see that game? Stanford beat Maryland and now they are in the final four…..too bad they are going to get beat by Uconn.”

Yes, everyone thinks Connecticut Huskies are going to kill them. It is as if making it to the final four, the first time in 11 years, is the victory, the reward. What happens after that doesn’t much matter, because everyone thinks Stanford is going to lose. (Even Arizona is rooting for them, but Charli Turner Thorne always was a class act.)

Last blog I told our faithful reader(s?) about C and R’s little pre-game ritual of me doubting Stanford can win and R, hopelessly faithful to the core, saying they will absolutely win. I said my usual, “we’re going to lose”, and I asked R what she thought. She surprised me by not saying we are definitely going to win. What, old faithful is going soft on me?

Instead, she said, “this game is going to be tough….but then we are going to win.” Okay, don’t scare me like that. She needs to have enough optimism for the both of us.

I complained to R that, darn it, we make it to the final four and we match up with Uconn. If only we would have drawn Tennessee. One, we beat them before, and two, Candace Parker has a separated shoulder. They struggled to win their last game with her hurt. They are not very deep, and it showed. Her teammates are not used to having to step up with Candace Parker around.

Speaking of which, the reason for those last 2 Stanford tournament wins was because we were deep at the guard spot. Each guard not named Candice (Ros Gold-Onwude and JJ Hones) had their respective games of their lives on different days, and that has made all the difference. They each are getting over a year’s worth of ACL rehab, and I am not the only one who noticed, check out the AP article espousing the same thing.

Yes, there is crying in basketball.
Usually it is the losing team who are so overcome with emotion, not the victors. Remember my rant March 31st about the Injury Woman trying to interview Candice when she was so overcome with emotion, instead of letting her celebrate with her teammates? Candice was crying and trying valiantly to regain her composure, and the Injury Women would set her off every time she said the words “final four”.

“So Candice,” she said, as Candice was trying to not cry, “what does it mean to be in the final four?” Candice starts to cry. Candice tries to honestly answer question. Injury Woman says, “How did you win this game to get into the final four?” Candice, overcome again that she is in the final four, starts crying. Candice at one point apologized to America for being so overcome with emotion.

Well, anyway, here’s what the wonderful Michelle Smith, the Chronicle Reporter who follows women’s basketball and Stanford, had to say about that moment:

Briefly: Sitting courtside at the media table, sometimes it's a little hard to see what's going on in the middle of a post game celebration at center court. But Candice Wiggins' emotional interview on ESPN after the Cardinal victory was one of the most genuine, most moving displays a basketball fan could possibly witness. And it shoots to the top of my list of my favorite all-time women's basketball moments. ...

Go look for it on YouTube. I’ll wait. It’s worth it. Just ask me and Michelle Smith.

Candice was named to the Associated Press All-America First Team. That is her fourth time as an All-American, a school record, and, believe it or not, her first to the top squad after being named to the second team in each of her first three seasons.

Should we list Candice's records for this year? Oh, let's. For her career, she is both Stanford's and the Pac-10 Conference's all-time leading scorer (2,590 career points through March 31) and three-point shooter (290 three-pointers made through March 31). Through the Maryland game, she is the top for Stanford career scoring average (19.2), three-pointers attempted (743), free throws made (555) and attempted (675), and her 277 career steals are only three away from tying Sonja Henning's all-time school record of 280. (I remember Sonja Henning!)

Now let's look at her single season records. She set records in free throws made (176) and attempted (215), three-pointers attempted (242), and field goals attempted (567). Wiggins' season point total of 748 points through March 31 is also only five away from tying Kate Starbird's 11-year-old school single-season mark of 753. (I remember Kate Starbird!)

She set a record in the NCAA tournament this year by being the first player to score 40 or more points twice in one tournament. Her 44 points put her at the third best in tournament history (a school record-tying 44 points matching Starbird's single-game mark), and her 41 at fifth best.

Candice was named Pac-10 Player of the Week four times this season, as well as December's WBCA's National Player of the Month. Currently, Wiggins is a finalist for the Wade Trophy, Naismith Trophy, and John R. Wooden Award, and was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year for a record-breaking third time in her career. She also has been selected to the All-America teams of ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, and CBSSportsline.com. Whew!

Oh my gosh, you have to read this post by Candice made March 13th from the Fast Break Club website. It is titled the "Greatest Year Ever". She recounts some highlights from the regular season. And, she admits, she feels old! When she was 20, she was the second oldest player on the team!!