October 2007 Archives

Oct 31st- Preseason Stuff

Seven-time defending conference champion Stanford has been voted as the favorite to win this year's Pac-10 women's basketball title, according to the Pac-10 preseason coaches' poll. It’s really because they have senior point guard Candice Wiggins back for one more year. Although this article says it’s because of both Candice and Jayne. Well, that and nine returning letter-winners.

Then there’s media day. Well, there used to be a media day and now there is not. The powers that be, read men or male sports writers decided not to bother, there was no interest in women’s basketball. Let’s quote Michelle Smith of the SF Chron.

“Pac-10 scales back: The waning interest in Pac-10 women's basketball is reflected in the fact that the conference has opted not to hold its annual conference-wide preseason Media Day.

"All 10 Pac-10 coaches and selected players have been making the trip to San Jose for several years to preview the season and be available for interviews with reporters from around the conference.

"But this year, there will be no such gathering. Instead, there will be "regional media days," including today's press conference at Cal featuring the Bears and Stanford.

"The move was prompted by a coaches' vote, the sentiment being that there was too little to gain for the effort of traveling and disrupting practice and class schedules.” (yeah, right)

Oh, Tara took Candice and Jill to Berkeley. We all know Candice is the leader witnessing her in practice, but Jill is growing into quite a player and leader herself.

So then a media vote was announced. Who voted, how many voted, what are their credentials, or was it just Michelle Smith of the Chron in the copy room? Who knows. Anyway, “they” voted to honor five players. Here is the quote:

“In a vote of Pac-10 women's basketball media members, five players have been named to the 2007-08 preseason All- Pac-10 team, including Devanei Hampton and Ashley Walker of California, Briann January of Arizona State and, of course, Jayne Appel and Candice Wiggins of Stanford.”

Let’s just list their accomplishments, and I quote again:

“Appel, the 2007 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, earned All-Pac-10 honorable mention accolades in her first collegiate campaign as she finished the season 12th in the Pac-10 in scoring (13.2 ppg), seventh in rebounding (7.5 rpg) and second in field goal percentage (.538). Averaging less than 20 minutes per game, Appel led the Conference with 61 blocks, establishing a single-season Stanford record.

“Wiggins, the 2005 and 2006 Pac-10 Player of the Year, is a three-time Kodak/WBCA All-American and enters her senior season as one of the most decorated players in Pac-10 history. On virtually every preseason watch list, Wiggins finished sixth in the Conference in scoring (16.9 ppg), second in 3-point field goal percentage (.441) and first in 3-point field goals made (82) in 2006-07, despite missing five games because of injury.”

Go team! Oh, this Saturday the game is at 12 noon , not 7 PM. Look for R and her family to be there in her new season ticket seats, center court, opposite Tara.

Top ten or so things C learned from watching Stanford women’s basketball second day of practice:

1 Candice is the leader
2 Candice talks all the time
3 Jayne is slow on drills
4 Freshmen Kayla Pederson is impressive
5 Jayne will get a run for her money when Kayla is on her
6. The head bands that were in style last year (and R bought a bunch of) are out of style
7 Assistant coach and former Stanford player Kate Pay brings energy and enthusiasm that was sorely lacking
8 Jayne lacks endurance
9 Candice really does talk all the time
10 Michelle Harrison looks good
11 Rice Krispie squares should not have chocolate in them
12 The losing team of any drill has to run laps
13 Jayne’s shoulder is still hurt (I hope no PAC-10 foes are reading this)
14 Candice hates to lose and hates running laps
15 JJ Hones and Gold Onwude are still rehabbing (knee and thigh)
16 Jillian Harmon still has glowing skin
17 Cissy Pierce will shoot if she has the ball, come hell or high water
18 Candice turns it on and comes alive during scrimmages

Not to be outdone, R’s top ten:

1. For only their second practice of the year, they had each obviously done cardio work over the summer
2. They reverse their shirts to switch colors for scrimmaging -- right there!
3. The headbands that I bought last year are still totally cool
4. Kate Paye, a new addition to Tara's coaching staff, has very cool hair (and wants one of my headbands)
5. Kayla Pederson doesn't look 6'4", but she put the moves on Jayne who does
6. Candice talks
7. And, talks
8. I still don't know who our starting point guard is
9. Tara and I know that the point guard position is extremely important
10. Tara requires that her point guard sprint up the court, and I think Candice is too busy talking to do this (and too valuable an outside shooter...)

And thanks Tara and the Fast Break Club for letting us come to the practice. We hope we get invited back again to watch!

So R says to me, she says, let’s go see Santa Clara women play soccer. Soccer? Santa Clara? Well, says R, she says, they are ranked number one in the country and they are right up the road from us and it is a gorgeous day, and they are playing Cal, and don’t  we love to see Cal get beat? Who could argue? So off we went. It turns out Santa Clara has 8-count em-8 starters hurt  and riding the bench and end up losing 2-0 to Cal. So then R says to me, she says, Santa Clara women are playing Stanford women in soccer at Stanford, and Stanford has the new number one ranking stolen from Santa Clara, and they are right up the road from us and it’s a gorgeous night and who could argue. So we pile in the car and when we get there, they are sold out and fans are not even allowed in the stadium (okay, I almost got in a fist fight with the Stanford ticket taker, who wouldn’t take my ticket so R got our money back but no one wants to hear the mundane details about that.) So we are made to stand outside the fence to watch and I tell R the story about how I saw Stanford in this very same stadium in the quarterfinals for the NCAAA playoffs and when they went to penalty kicks, a Stanford student stripped naked, hopped the fence, and kicked the ball away from the opposing player as she lined up her shot, hee hee, but I digress. We did ask the hot dog vender if Stanford women’s soccer ever had a sell out and he said not this year at least, so that is cool we are part of a sell out, the good kind anyway. So anyhoo, as my brother says, anyhoo, there we are standing at the fence watching Santa Clara putting all ten of their players on defense because they haven’t got a chance in heck to score with 8 starters still on the bench when who should walk by in their Stanford sweats looking all of 8 feet tall but the STANFORD WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM! Phew, you didn’t see how I was going to get back to basketball, did ya? And in the center is Jillian Harmon as young and glowing as a young person can be. She is surrounded by the new freshmen players and of course R and I have to go talk to all of them. Jillian could not have been more gracious and accommodating to us “fans”. She answered our basketball questions respectfully and enthusiastically. The freshmen were happy to get acknowledged by R. JJ Hones turned her head around and we asked about her knee (torn acl last year, remember?) and she said she hopes to be back in 2 weeks. I, of course, had to ask if Candice was back in town after all her travels and BFF Jill said she was back and practicing informally because they aren’t allowed to practice yet. It was really cool. Then we went for popcorn and sprite and R swears a stalker was hanging behind the girls all night, not that we watched them all evening. Oh yeah, the game. It ended in a 0-0 tie and Santa Clara could not have been happier because they were playing defense all night and not even trying to score. They were just hoping to outlast them. And they don’t do penalty kicks in regular season games, so there was no chance of seeing the Stanford Streaker reprise his entrance. And as we are walking back to the car I side step a women in a gray sweatshirt balancing a box on her shoulder and R whispers, she whispers, hey, there’s Brandi Chastain, you almost walked into her. No way! All in all, a great night for women’s sports.