March 9th Stanford Odds and Ends

Well, what a week. First of all, the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team is the top seed in this weekend’s PAC-10 tournament (no surprise there). They play the winner of the Arizona-Washington State game on Friday. 

Then the PAC-10 Awards came out. Stanford’s very own Nneka Ogwumike was named the PAC-10 Player of the Year. Congratulations, Nneka, and you deserved it. You took your good game and elevated it (pun intended) to the next level. When you wanted to free lance and get to the basket and score, you could almost at will. And congrats to Head Coach Tara VanDeveer, although she didn’t win the Pac-10 coach of the year award (UCLA’s Nikki Caldwell did, a Pat Summit product), Tara recognized what she needed to do to her program to let Nneka be successful (meaning not boxing her in to a rigid offensive set) and even sacrificed Jayne Appel’s role slightly to accommodate what Nneka does best. Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks?

There were several PAC-10 teams. The a 15-member All PAC-10 team featured four Stanford starters, Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Jayne Appel, Kayla Pedersen, and Jeanette Pohlen. 

Our fifth starter, Ros Gold-Onwude made the five-member All-Defensive team. Not a bad line up. 

Other Stuff:
Jayne Appel’s ankle is still sore and she is questionable for the PAC-10 tournament. 

Got a lot of nice responses to our piece by Riki Sorenson (aka Erica Mueser Sorenson '87). We hope others will prepare a little something to tell us what it was like before and after Tara VanDerveer came out west. Our number one fan (NOF) wrote that they still give out the “Lizard Lung” award to the most gullible freshmen. Sarah Boothe won it last year, awarded by the prior winner, Jeanette Pohlen. Our NOF also told us she couldn’t make it down to LA and had free tickets to the PAC-10 tournament and did C and R want to us them? We nearly tripped over each other trying to get to the computer fast enough to say yes, cats flying out of our way. Thanks, and now our NOF is now our Ultra NOF! We will do our best to report/observe/stalk all things Stanford. Hope I can get an Internet connection in LA. You know how backwards they are down south!

Other Basketball Stuff Not Stanford.
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the UConn’s women’s basketball history-breaking streak. UConn beat Notre Dame, ranked either 6^th or 7^th depending on what poll you have. It was there 71st consecutive victory, an NCAA record. They beat the streak of 70 held by the 2001-3 UConn team. Is it correct that this class of sophomores have never lost a college game? 

So let’s talk about the all time record in college basketball, men’s or women’s, the UCLA men’s 88 game record, set in the 1970’s, is the penultimate record to chase now. Can UConn get there? Well, we hope Stanford can beat them in the NCAA tournament this year. There is a ray of hope. Notre Dame played UConn three times this season. The first time ND lost 70-46 in January, then lost 76-51 in the beginning of March, now they ONLY lost 59-44. For this game, Notre Dame kept it close for a half. Sound familiar Stanford fans? An UConn fan wrote the streak was wearing on the team a little, the team looked tired, Maya Moore looked tired, had no legs…hmmm, upset coming? UConn got a scare when Caroline Doty suffered a head injury in that game, and although played the next game, she only scored 1 point in 16 minutes. UConn won that, too, to win the BIG East championship and push the streak to 72 games. Maya Moore and Tina Charles each had an off night, so the score was only 60-32, UConn. Hmmm…maybe upset not coming! 

Happy International Women's Day to You!

One of the many neat things about writing this Stanford Women’s Basketball Blog is we get mail from people connected to Stanford and we get to talk to people we otherwise wouldn’t get to meet. C and R recently got a letter from a former Stanford player named Riki Sorenson (aka Erica Mueser Sorenson '87). She was there before Tara VanDerveer under Coach Dotty McCrea and there when Tara VanDerveer came in. What a unique perspective to play for both coaches and systems. We asked her to compare the two. Here’s what she graciously contributed: 

I played back in the dark and dreary days of sub-.500 seasons. A coaching change was made at the end of my sophomore year. I remember during Tara's interview she said, "so how much fan support do you get?" We mentioned that we could usually count on my parents, a handful of fans, and that's it... they didn't even pull out the bleachers. We thought she'd never leave Ohio State (top 8 in country) for Stanford. Tara came in and got a huge budget and serious commitment from the A.D. so things changed VERY quickly. I loved playing for Tara. She didn't scream at players or at refs, she studied the game, she was efficient in practice, and she knew her stuff. The song "I can see clearly now the rain is gone" would come on and it was my theme song. Wasn't so happy when she'd say things like, "we've got to get some real horses in here," like we were just chopped liver, but really, we probably were. Still, I've never worked so hard in my life. Even Jennifer Azzi and Katy Steding learned how to work hard from us liver-choppers. The highlight of my career was during my senior season - we beat CAL at home after 3 1/2 years of losing to them (1987). When I left after the game there were people directing traffic with FLARES in the road (that's how many fans had come!). I knew that Stanford Women's Basketball had arrived! Three years later there were SCALPERS selling tix! 

One funny story... we had an award that the seniors (grandmas) would bestow on the most gullible freshman at the end of the season. It's called the "Lizard Lung" award because there was this weird stuff the trainers gave us to put on blisters and they called it Lizard Lung. One freshman, hearing about it, was horrified because she thought it was real lizard lung. Thus the award was initiated (Kami Anderson, first recipient). Jennifer Azzi won it, hands down, as a freshman, for asking, at the first day of practice, "How many teams are in the Pac-10, anyway?" I believe the award continues even now! 

A teammate had a really good line (Emily Wagner Gallagher, '89?)... before Tara came to Stanford if you told someone you played basketball at Stanford, they'd say "Wow! you must be really SMART!" After Tara and the National Championship they'd say "Wow, you must be really GOOD!"  So I get to enjoy the legacy even though I played a very small part in it...  

Cheering for Jayne Appel, the only other Stanford WBB product of Contra Costa County! 

Let’s see what would make a good sub heading?

-Nneka To the Rescue (Well, Kayla Pedersen did score that last second basket to end up with 23 points to Nneka’s 22. Did they have a little side bet going on to see who would be high scorer? However, it WAS Nneka Ogwumike’s ability to elevate and score when we seemed nervous and stuck offensively that saved the day. Although we saw Jeanette Pohlen looking for Kayla when she was pressured, and Kayla was so calm and collected when pressured and dribbled out of many jams so I guess they both saved the day and that is not an accurate headline.) 

-Surprise, Stanford wins by Defense (Yes, Stanford is not known for their defense, but their defense was phenomenal in stopping Cal and making them miss when they did get a shot at the basket-more on that later-but that makes for a boring headline.) 

-Kill off One Head of the Three Headed Monster and the Other Two Will Rise to Eat You (No, too obscure, because then we would have to explain that with our Jayne Appel out, one part of the three trees, or monster heads, we still have Kayla and Nneka, and you can’t stop them, too, and oh never mind if you have to explain it it’s just not funny…so how about…) 

-Jayne Appel on Sidelines with Sprained Ankle. C and R Have Heart Attacks! (That’s more like it for a sub headline. Wait, hold it, we are getting ahead of the story, and whenever C and R go anywhere, like Cal, there’s always a story, and this is no exception. So let’s start at the beginning) 

Perhaps a headline should be "Surprise, Surprise, Stanford fans find parking in Berkeley". After we find our parking space, C and R stop for a snack and R has a breakfast burrito and C has a falafel with extra tahini sauce, in an only-in-Berkeley Greek/American restaurant. Food was excellent BTW.

So C and R continue our walk in to Haas Pavilion for the game between the Cal Bears and The Stanford Women’s Basketball Team. A large and spirited crowd is outside Haas Pavilion and it is a carnival-like atmosphere.

Once inside, the place is about 3/4 full with and an announced attendance of 5,137. We try to figure out where our general admission ticket allows us to sit, while eyeing seats we could possibly move down to… (I know, we are shameless. C blames R). While moving around, R sees her friend from Cal, who we will call P (I know, R has a friend. A friend not named C). She introduces C and R to her other Cal friends. We make it a point to promptly forget their names. No hard feelings, just C and R are old and forgetful. Then P says what’s up with your girl Jayne in sweats with that boot? You could have knocked C and R down with a feather. We stare at the blonde women in black sweats and a gray T-Shirt (she didn’t want to give in totally to the black sweats of injury). You would think we would know that Jayne was injured. We excuse ourselves and say we need to go find out. 

C spots a lot of reporters at press row. She thinks she could go down there and ask, say she is part of the press, find out what happened. She starts down the stairs (which are angled a little too steeply, if you ask her, what’s up with that, Cal?) when a big Usher appears before her and C abruptly alters course down a tunnel. Rats, foiled again. They are checking tickets before anyone can move into the closer sections. 

C and R locate the one section where Stanford fans are allowed to sit with their general admission tickets. We figure we will be safe here and can even break out our tinkle bells. Another group of Stanford fans has theirs already out. They look like Christmas bells from the tree. C congratulates them on the bells and smiles inwardly. We see a large group of people across from us courtside, so large that they take up an entire section to themselves and are all wearing the same red shirt. Must be more Stanford fans. 

While sitting in the Stanford section, C sees the Ushers are distracted with something, so she quickly moves, jumping over rows of seats and winding her way down to the front row. Unfortunately, Haas pavilion has a sunken floor, so the first row of seats stops at a railing and then drops away 10 feet to the floor. On Stanford’s court, courtside means you are sitting on the floor and can reach out and touch the players (and R once touched the ref as he ran up and down the floor). So even though the Ushers have not caught her and C is on the front row, she cannot easily get to the reporters. A group of fans blocks her access to get closer to them to shout so she is stuck on the side, right behind the Stanford bench. C sees assistant Coach Bobbi Kelsey alone. She figures this is her one chance. She yells, “Hey, what’s the matter with Jayne”. Bobbi looks up and says, “She’ll be all right.” Translated, she means, “Get away, crazy person”. C asks again and Bobbi gives the same answer, and is now wondering where security is when you need them, and the Stanford Tree gets protected from fans, why can’t I? C finally catches on and skedaddles out of there before the Ushers discover her. 

Walking back to the Stanford section, a Stanford fan asks what she said to Bobbi. C says she was trying to find out about Jayne Appel’s injury. The fan says Jayne sprained her ankle in practice and it is not that bad, and head coach Tara VanDerveer is just resting her as a precautionary measure and to have her ready for the Pac-10 Tournament. C repeats that to R when she is seated and another fan says, oh no, it was quite bad and almost broke and she will be out indefinitely. Just goes to show you can’t believe everything you hear from fans, and can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, especially if it is from us. 

(No, we watched the taped game and the annoucers confirmed she rolled her ankle in practice doing a lay-up-by herself and she could have played today but Tara did want to keep her for the tournament. Jayne packed her gear just in case Tara changed her mind. She didn’t. Also read in the paper that a tour of 40 little girls were watching practice at the precise moment Jayne rolled her ankle and was hugging the basket post and trying not to swear and/or faint in front of them… poor Jayne!) 

So anyhooo, thinking fast, C quickly texts our blogging partners at California Golden Blogs and asks if they can revise their prediction of the final score of this game. Actually, C and R are nervous about Jayne being out. She is our emotional leader and if she does well on the court, our team does well and vice versa. We could very well lose this game. 

Cal does a very nice senior tribute before the game for the Cal seniors. Alexis Gray Lawson is everyone’s favorite and the Stanford section even stands up for her. They also thank the Cal seniors in the band and on the spirit squad. We thought that was classy. They gave flowers to the Stanford seniors, too. Then they introduced the Stanford starters. Freshman Joslyn Tinkle gets the nod to start in Jayne’s place. Maybe Tara thinks Cal might think Joslyn is Jayne out there, they do look alike. Then they do a lot of theatrics with lights and stuff for the Cal starters. Reminded us of an NBA game. It was fun and certainly energetic, but we know Tara would never stand for that at Maples. 

We win the jump but we look nervous. Cal is pressuring point guard Jeanette Pohlen, just one guard on her, not a full court press and yet she turns it over. When we do get it to our basket, we have no inside presence and it is clear we are missing Jayne offensively. It’s like four players are on the court and the fifth is missing from the middle. What do we do? This does not look good. Then our defense kicks in. 

When we are on the defensive end of the court, it is like Stanford mentally says, okay, this is what I know how to do. I don’t need Jayne, just cover my assignment. Every PAC-10 coach’s pick for defender of the year, Ros Gold-Onwude is on Cal’s Alexis Gray Lawson like glue. 

C and R have been watching Stanford for years and C has even written a post conveying her surprise that Stanford is holding PAC-10 foes to low scoring totals because we are not known for our defense, but she sees she has clearly been off the mark all season long. Our defense, while not flashy, is stifling. They just do it so effortlessly you forget it is there. UConn likes to defend by stealing the pass and quickly taking the ball the other way for points. That creates highlights you see on ESPN. Stanford really just shuts you down. They shut down your leading scorer. They shut down your passes. They shut the door on getting any rebounds. They might guard you for the whole shot clock and make you take a bad last second shot or get the shot clock violation. Those plays might not make the highlight reels, but they consistently stop offenses from scoring. How could C have been so blind all season? Oh, they do one more thing on defense really well, something C has never seen another team do, and that is defend the screen really well. 

So let’s say Ros is guarding Alexis at the top of the three-point line, Ros’ back is to the basket. A Cal player comes up and makes a wall on Ros’ right shoulder. Alexis will continue moving to Ros’ right and get around both bodies and either pull up and shoot uncontested or dribble around both bodies and head to the basket. This usually works. What Stanford does in a case like that is double team the ball handler. So as the Cal player on Ros’ right shoulder is holding her in place, Nneka is behind the Cal player, now on Ros’ right side, too. As Alexis dribbles to Ros’s right, Nneka comes out to meet the ball as Ros fights over the top of the screen. Alexis cannot shoot uncontested or drive to the basket. If Alexis crosses over to her other hand away from Nneka, she meets Ros. So the most logical thing to do is…dribble backwards away from the basket. Now, in that fleeting moment Nneka and Ros are both on Alexis, the screener is open. But the guard cannot see her or get a clean pass to her because of Ros and long-armed Nneka. It is a little thing, but done well and stops the scoring. All the Stanford bigs do it well: Kayla, Jayne, Joslyn, Nneka. Cal tried to screen all night and could not get their best scorer, Alexis, free. Around the second or third play of the game, Nneka came out to double team off the screen and harassed the ball handler so much she stole it. She was alone with a path to the basket. Unfortunately she had to dribble the ball half the court. Did we mention Nneka is not the best dribbler? She lost it, of course. Hmm, might want to work on that in the off-season! 

Just under the 15-minute mark left in the first half, Nneka committed her first foul. C and R held their collective breath. Tara takes her out of the game. Nooooo, not with Jayne on the bench. I mean, we hate it anyway when she takes Nneka out any time, but we need Nneka and Kayla if we are to win this game. Tara agrees with us because a minute and a half later she puts Nneka back in. Whew. It was just a token punishment. Later Nneka dribbles off her foot. Nneka, off-season. 

With about three minutes left in the first half, the score is 17-20, Stanford. We have held them without a basket for 6 minutes and then 4 minutes. So yes, this is a low scoring game for both teams, and we are only up 3 points. Tara puts in veteran Micelle Harrison with 4 minutes left. We like the fifth year veteran, and even though she might not score a lot, she can add her maturity and poise to Stanford.  She gets a lay-up, a rebound, an assist and a block, followed by another rebound in her four minutes of play. She also looked aggressive and gave us a spark off the bench. We go into the locker room with a 26-19 lead. Seven points is great, but had we had Jayne in there, you could probably add about 8 more to that total. We are still not out of the woods yet. 

We wander around at half time and see that group of Stanford fans with the matching red shirts. They say “House of Jayne” and “UnstoppAppel” on the back and a picture of Jayne on the front. We find out it is about 60 of Jayne’s family and friends who came out to support her. We figuratively cry that Jayne could not play this last game of her regular season. We later find out from the TV broadcast that Jayne didn’t know about the shirts and said to her Dad a typical teenage, “Oh Dadddd,” when she saw them. We also read later that Jayne had missed only one other regular-season game, the first one of her freshman season. She had played in 138 straight games since, the most by any female player at Stanford. More than Candice Wiggins! What an incredible career! 

Then as we where coming out of the bathroom, R says to a woman in a Jayne shirt, “You’re Jayne’s Mom, aren’t, you?” She answered yes and we would have bugged her more, but another stranger was already talking her ear off and asking about Jayne’s ankle as we eavesdropped. She confirmed it wasn’t that bad. Cool, we got to see Jayne’s mom! 

Than in the closing seconds, as we were getting ready to go back to our seats R says, “Hey, there’s Jayne Appel!” Sure enough, Jayne, Sarah Boothe and assistant coach Kate Paye were heading to the women’s bathroom. (What, Cal, you don't have enough women’s facilities in your visitor’s locker room?). 

C and R, like the good stalkers we are, follow. Okay, R hates when C says we are stalkers, we are just fans who get star-struck and don’t really stalk or break the law or hide in bushes and take photos or anything, but this was stalking. C starts meticulously washing her hands. R announces loudly, “Boy I sure like those ‘House of Jayne’ shirts that group was wearing.” C embarrassed, looks at her and mouths, “Shut UP.” R announces again that the picture on the front sure was cool or some such nonsense, C can’t remember because she is thoroughly mortified and staring daggers at R. The women emerge from the stalls and surround C to wash their hands. R hides behind a wall mostly because she knows C wants to kill her. C says, “Give ‘em Heck,” to the trio, well, what she really said rhymed with tinkle bell, but the trio just want to get out of there as fast as they could. So Jayne and Sarah and Kate, that was us, those two idiots in the bathroom grinning like, well, idiots. Hi, we are usually not so dorky. We text the California Golden Blog Boys “Sorry we couldn’t meet, we were too busy stalking Jayne Appel and family!” 

The game blessedly begins again so we can’t make ourselves into fools anymore and Cal comes out in a full court press this time. They pressure Pohlen and they pass quickly to either Nneka or Kayla, our two remaining trees. We break the press and get some fast break points. We said it at the top of this (very long) blog, Nneka to the rescue, but we’ll say it again, she rescues us offensively again and again. We are up by 15, with the score 45-30 with 10 minutes gone in the second half. That means Cal has only scored 11 points in 10 minutes. 

At one point Nneka makes a great basket and gets fouled and looks to the Stanford beanh and screams and pumps her fist. We love the attitude! Wait, we recently wrote a post saying we didn’t like Brittney Griner’s attitude when she blocked our dunked on people. The difference is Brittney would look at them and make the gestures to intimidate. Nneka did the gesture to her bench and it was a celebration, not an intimidation play. That’s what we think about our polite and precious Nneka, anyway. 

Tinkle gets s a three and a lay up to go with her other 3 in the first half for a total of 8 points and our tinkle bells were busy. 

All game long during breaks the Cal spirit squad has been throwing T-Shirts to the crowd. C instinctively stands up and waves her arms, but for some reason when they see the sea of red, they don’t throw any our way. Now in the closing minutes of T-Shirt tossing, C stands up because it is an in-joke now with the Stanford fans, wink, wink, we know they won’t throw one our way. The guy in blue looks at C for a long moment…Will he…. 

He does. 

He lets it fly and it lands right in C’s hands. She doesn’t’ even have to climb over anybody! 

Someone says, “throw it back” like in baseball when the opposing team hits a home run ball. But no, C is keeping this. First, she breaks out her knife, because what good Stanford fan doesn’t travel to Cal with their knife? No, just kidding, just kidding! Really! C was a former Girl Scout and Boy Scout Leader so she is always prepared and carries one of those mini pocketknife all-in-one-tools around with her everywhere. You never know when you might need to unscrew a Phillips head screw (no serousily, she bleives that). So her little pocketknife thingie has scissors and she cuts the sleeves off the Cal shirt. Then she gets out her sharpie marker (remember, always prepared) and scratches out anything Cal on it and writes Stanford and “Fear The Trees!” (She forgot to get to Stanford to buy the real deal shirt) She was going to then draw pictures of a healthy Kayla and Nneka and a forlorn Jayne in her boot when she realized she really should pay attention to the game. Tinkle blocks the heck out of Cal. The TV announcers said that Tinkle contributed well with her rebounding. She had 9 for the game. 

She put the shirt on over her Stanford shirt so her red sleeves stick out. She watches Kayla gets that last basket as we mentioned to send Stanford home with a 63-48 victory. Kayla and Nneka combine for 45 of those 63 points and each had double figures in rebounds. Joslyn, our baby tree had 8 of those 63 points, so the those trees combined for 53 of the 63 points. Wow! Oh, those three trees had 33 of the 42 rebounds.

Hi, this is C here, reporting on something about women’s basketball that doesn’t have anything to do with Stanford. One thing I have been meaning to do is write about Baylor’s freshman sensation Brittney Griner, but I have been too busy/lazy. I thought I could continue being busy/lazy, but this week’s circumstances have sorta forced the issue. So here I am talking about Brittney Griner. 

Let’s recap. Brittney Griner is a freshman that stands 6’8" and has already been a You Tube sensation for her dunking abilities in high school, and was expected to "play above the rim”, meaning dunking many times in college and being an incredible shot blocker. Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, perhaps giving in to the hype, started her in their first game this year, against powerhouse Tennessee, of all teams. In my opinion, she was not ready to play college level ball, especially not against a well-coached Tennessee team. I watched her being tentative and she stood around with her hands down while rebounding. She did not move if the rebound did not come directly to her. I was sure she would be great player soon, but questioned the coach’s decision to start her with so much media attention on her. Looking back, even Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer did not start Jayne Appel in her first game as a freshman, but used her off the bench wisely. She made sure she was ready before inserting her (permanently) in the starting line up. 

Since that first game Brittney has become more confident, has dunked in several games, and even twice in a game, the first women’s player to do so. Not only do defenses have to worry about her dunking and shooting at the top of her elevation, which is nearly unstoppable, but they have also have to worry about her blocking shots like nobody’s business. She makes opposing players alter their game when they drive in on her. She already holds the Big 12 single-season blocks record. Good for her, glad to see her coming along. ESPN’s Graham Hays agrees.

Although I did read one team beat Baylor by raining threes down on Griner and company, with Griner standing helplessly under the basket. If Stanford does play them in the NCAA tourney, I am sure Tara VanDeveer will take note of that.

However, something disturbing happened. On March 4^th, Brittney Griner punched Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the face after the two tangled in the second half. Watch the hit (and Jordan’s Barncastle’s foul) here. Brittney broke Jordan’s nose with that swing. 

In case you can’t get that video, Griner and Barncastle were battling for position near the lane before Barncastle spun around and sent Griner towards the ground. As a foul was called on Barncastle, Griner straightened up and took two steps toward her before throwing a roundhouse punch with her right hand. Make no mistake, Barncastle was playing dirty. However, it’s about on the same level we here at Stanford have seen teams do to Jayne Appel and Nneka Ogwumike. Neither has punched anybody. 

After the hit, both teams pushed and shoved, players had to be separated and technicals were given. Officials stopped play to review the tape for about 10 minutes before assessing a flagrant and technical foul against Griner and ejecting her from the game. Baylor’s Morghan Medlock was also given a technical foul and the Tech bench also received a technical.  Baylor still won 69-60.

Brittney will be suspended for two games. She will miss the last regular season game and the next game she will miss happens to be the start of the Big 12 Tournament. She also issued a written apology. 

Mechelle Voepel, also with ESPN weighs in with her opinion, one C and R highly value. Mechelle makes a very astute observation. In that same game where Brittney dunked twice, her team was beating Texas State 99-18 at the time. Brittney, being about 19 years old, got a little emotional. Mechelle wrote:
“At one point, she swatted away a shot, and then sort of hovered over and stared down at her opponent. It was brief but noticeable. And after one of her dunks, she ran back up the court yelling, shaking her head and tapping her chest.” 

C and R never like “showboating, trash talking, taunting or bullying” of any kind, and it has no place in sports. Neither does punching.

Quoting Mechelle again:
“People can, and will, point out the physical contact that came before the punch. But players getting locked up, frustrated and overly forceful with each other happens quite often in basketball. Usually a foul is called on one side or both, and the official tells the participants to cool it…. However, taking it to the next level of ‘losing your cool’ -- throwing a punch -- is a place you just don't go. And if you do, you know you're in trouble.” 

I agree. There is no place for throwing a punch in basketball. And if so, you get punished. Okay, I just paraphrased Mechelle, but I think you know where I stand.

See ya at Cal for an early 12:30 PM tip-off,
C-

Last post, we answered questions about the upcoming Cal vs. Stanford Women’s Basketball game posed by the TwistNHook and Nor Cal Nick of California Golden Blogs. Today they answered our Q’s. The answers were surprisingly intelligent! Hee hee. No, really! 

Check out the link below to the story about the Stanford Tree! It’s a classic and they have won a special place in C and R’s hearts, even though they are still from Cal. BTW, C once bet R that she wouldn’t touch the ref as he ran up and down the court when we were sitting court side. She grabbed his pants twice before we had to stop her. He didn't notice but C was sure we were all going to get kicked out. Funny the Tree gets special protection at Cal games! 

Here we go (and of course C and R can’t be quiet for more than a paragraph, so we added some comments in parenthesis).  

1) A lot was made about the incoming freshmen crew Cal recruited. We have been too busy paying attention to Stanford to notice. Give us a run down on how have the Fab Freshmen have been this year and what they can improve upon for next year. 

A: Inconsistent, but not in a way that’s particularly surprising.  Unfortunately, one of the seven, Tierra Rogers, was diagnosed with a heart condition prior to the season and will never suit up again.  But besides that setback, most events have been positive.  The names you’ll hear most often would be Layshia Clarendon and DeNesha Stallworth.  Layshia is the best guard of the class and can look pretty great at times, especially when she’s attacking the basket.  DeNesha has impressive post moves for a frosh and dropped 30 points on USC earlier in the year.  Gennifer Brandon is a great rebounder and is gradually learning to control her explosiveness.  Eliza Pierre has great defensive instincts and has been a solid distributor when she plays the point.  Talia Caldwell and Brenna Heater are the other bigs.  Talia is a solid all-around player with the exception of her free throw shooting.  Brenna’s season has been derailed by a number of injuries and her main goal for next season will be to not get concussed again.

(We were very saddened to hear last fall that Tierra Rogers was diagnosed with a heart ailment and could not continue her career in basketball- C and R) 

2) This explanation of the PAC-10 standings and the place Cal could end up for the PAC-10 tournament in is form the Cal website:  Cal enters the week in sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 standings, holding a half-game advantage over the USC Trojans. Cal and USC both have six losses, but Cal has 11 wins. USC will play a pair of games this week, hosting Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday. If Cal and USC end up in a tie for third, USC holds the tiebreak advantage over Cal and would earn the three seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, pushing Cal into the fourth seed. If Arizona State wins both of their games and Cal loses, then ASU and Cal would be tied for third. Once again, Arizona State owns the tiebreak advantage and Cal would be seeded fourth. Cal could also end up as the five seed if ASU, USC, and Cal tie for third place (with a Cal loss, two ASU wins, and a USC victory over Arizona)  Between this, the infield fly rule in baseball and the biased way soccer refs call off sides, which is easier to understand?

A: Well, I’m a gigantic basketball nerd, so the only thing I don’t understand about the scenario is the necessity for conference tournaments.  I’ll say that the infield fly rule probably causes more confusion.  It’s easy to understand soccer calls, but only if you have connections with the Italian mafia that dictate the calls.  This question also reminded me that Cal lost to ASU and USC on two different buzzer beaters.  So I guess what I really don’t understand is why the cruel hand of fate mocks me so!

3) At the same moment, the Stanford band leaves Stanford by train for the PAC-10 tournament in LA at USC and the CAL band leaves Berkeley by bus for the very same tournament and the train from Stanford is moving at speed of 40 miles per hour, and the bus from Berkeley is moving at speed of 60 miles per hour, except when they got pulled over and ticketed for doing 60 in a 45 MPH construction zone and the distance to LA from Stanford is 370 miles and Berkeley is about 40 more miles up the road and a plane takes 6 hours to fly from San Francisco to New York, and 5 hours to return back. What is the name of the guy in the Stanford Tree outfit? 

A: Twistnhook is the most qualified to answer this question, based on his up close and personal relationship with the Stanford tree. And since I majored in Geography my ability to answer a math question died upon my alleged graduation from high school.  So I’ll have to make a wild guess…Condleezza Rice?

(No, sorry, we were going for Dayton, Ohio, and Jeff Tedford, but keep that last part a secret-C and R)

4) PAC-10 SCORING RACE- Going into the final game of the regular season, Alexis Gray-Lawson leads the race for the Pac-10 scoring title. Gray-Lawson is averaging 18.1 points per game with Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike at 18.0. Gray-Lawson has scored three more points this season, with 508 to Ogwumike's 505. In Conference games, Gray-Lawson is averaging 20.6 ppg to Oregon's Taylor Lilley's 19.7. Ogumike is in third with 17.9. How long will it be before Nneka gets a foul and Tara VanDerveer banishes her to the bench? Bonus points for correctly guessing the minute mark and estimating how many points she would have scored if not on the bench!

A: Man, Ogwumike burned us for 24 last time, and unless the high pitched cheering of a few thousand children sway the refs, Cal will have their hands full.  Hopefully Gennifer Brandon and DeNesha Stallworth are feeling aggressive on offense, because foul trouble would be the best way to take the Appel/Ogwumike/Pedersen monster out.  If the Bears can hold Nneka below 20 I’ll be thrilled…but only if nobody else from Stanford scores over 20 to make up for it.

(Ohh, good point. You can stop one of the three trees, but there is always another to take its place-C and R)

5) Predict how many points Alexis Gray-Lawson will drop on Stanford.

A: Well, she scored 37 the last time in Berkeley, but only 9 earlier this year in Maples.  Average that out and we get…24?  Hmm, that sounds high when she’ll be the complete focus of the Cardinal defense.  Lexi is unusual this year in that she tends to score either 35 points or 15, but rarely in between.  When she knows she’s on she’ll keep shooting, but when she knows she’s off she usually doesn’t force up a bunch of shots.  Cal had better hope she’s on, but I’ll predict a conservative 17 points.

See ya Saturday at Cal. Anyone know of a good place to eat in Berkeley?

Most of C and R’s fans know we have been working with Swish Appeal, which is building up articles on Women’s PAC-10 basketball and the WNBA. Well, Swish Appeal put us in touch with…the enemy. Namely, TwistNHook and Nor Cal Nick of California Golden Blogs.

Here are CGB Qs. 
1.  I've heard a rumor that Jane Appel is a space alien from the planet Xyanatron.  I believe this rumor to be true, because no human could play as well as her.  What evidence do you have that Stanford has not been playing with an illegal alien recruit the entire time?????? 

A: Her green card

2.  Stanford is in a weird position - clearly the #2 team in the nation, but behind a historically great team they've already lost to.  What would qualify as a successful conclusion to the season for Stanford fans?  National Championship or bust?

A: Between National Championship or bust, C and R will always pick National Championship. Honestly, we hope to meet UConn in the final game and not embarrass ourselves.

3.  Besides UConn, the only time all season that the Cardinal came close to losing was on the road against UCLA.  Is there anything the Bruins did in that game that Cal could learn from when they try to pull the upset?

A: We don’t know because the game was NOT TELEVISED! All we saw was that stupid Gametracker with the little red and blue icons running around and jumping whenever there was a shot. If you want to stop Stanford, you have to stop the little red icons from shooting and make the little blue icons get every rebound.

4.  Stanford will be losing Jayne Appel and Rosalyn Gold-Onyuwe (and potentially JJ Hones, Michelle Harrison and Melanie Murphy, depending on whether they decide to return).  Any chance some other team has a shot at winning the conference next year, or will a whole new set of blue chip recruits fill the gaps?

A: Cal Golden Blogs, meet incoming freshmen Chiney Ogwumike, Nneka’s inch taller and just as good if not better than sister. Nneka’s sister, meet the Cal Golden Blog boys. Now jump over their heads.

5.  Predict a final score.

A: C will eat one hot dog with lots of mustard,
one soft pretzel with lots of mustard
and garlic fries.
R will have a sprite with lots of ice
and popcorn.
C wins the Pepto Bismol.
Oh, And Stanford 86 Cal 67

Here are C and R's Qs for CGB: 

1. A lot was made about the incoming freshmen crew Cal recruited. We have been too busy paying attention to Stanford to notice. Give us a run down on how have the Fab Freshmen have been this year and what they can improve upon for next year. 

2. This explanation of the PAC-10 standings and the place Cal could end up for the PAC-10 tournament in is form the Cal website:
-Cal enters the week in sole possession of third place in the Pac-10 standings, holding a half-game advantage over the USC Trojans. Cal and USC both have six losses, but Cal has 11 wins. USC will play a pair of games this week, hosting Arizona on Thursday and Arizona State on Saturday. If Cal and USC end up in a tie for third, USC holds the tiebreak advantage over Cal and would earn the three seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, pushing Cal into the fourth seed. If Arizona State wins both of their games and Cal loses, then ASU and Cal would be tied for third. Once again, Arizona State owns the tiebreak advantage and Cal would be seeded fourth. Cal could also end up as the five seed if ASU, USC, and Cal tie for third place (with a Cal loss, two ASU wins, and a USC victory over Arizona)-

Between this, the infield fly rule in baseball and the biased way soccer refs call off sides, which is easier to understand? 

3. At the same moment, the Stanford band leaves Stanford by train for the PAC-10 tournament in LA and the CAL band leaves Berkeley by bus for the very same tournament and the train from Stanford is moving at speed of 40 miles per hour, and the bus from Berkeley is moving at speed of 60 miles per hour, except when they got pulled over and ticketed for doing 60 in a 45 MPH construction zone and the distance to LA from Stanford is 370 miles and Berkeley is about 40 more miles up the road and a plane takes 6 hours to fly from San Francisco to New York, and 5 hours to return back. What is the name of the guy in the Stanford Tree outfit? 

4. PAC-10 SCORING RACE Going into the final game of the regular season, Alexis Gray-Lawson leads the race for the Pac-10 scoring title. Gray-Lawson is averaging 18.1 points per game with Stanford's Nnemkadi Ogwumike at 18.0. Gray-Lawson has scored three more points this season, with 508 to Ogwumike's 505. In Conference games, Gray-Lawson is averaging 20.6 ppg to Oregon's Taylor Lilley's 19.7. Ogumike is in third with 17.9. How long will it be before Nneka gets a foul and Tara VanDerveer banishes her to the bench? Bonus points for correctly guessing the minute mark and estimating how many points she would have scored if not on the bench! 

5. Predict how many points Alexis Gray-Lawson will drop on Stanford. 

We’re still waiting for your answers, boys…(We think they had a little trouble on the math portion)

Well, C and R are afraid this will not be a very good run down of the Stanford Women’s Basketball game against Arizona. It wasn’t on TV, of course, and Gametracker was down for every game, at least on our computer. We got KZSU live on the Internet, but it was hard for us to follow the action. But then luck of all luck, a fan who was there courtside sent us a first-person account of the game! Stick around for the end of this post to get an eye-witness view. 

We did hear JJ Hones was a starter for Ros. We found out later that Ros Gold-Onwude was in the “black sweat suit of injury” because she took a blow to the head in the win over Arizona State two days ago. They wouldn’t’ come out and say it was a concession, but rather they were being cautious. Well, with all the uproar about t concussions in the news lately, we are glad they are being cautious. 

And we did hear when Jayne Appel grabbed her fifth rebound of the game for a total of 1,215. When she did that around the 4-minute mark in the first half, she broke Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 career rebounding record. Jayne would end up with 8 rebounds and 11 points it the game. 

Arizona kept it close in the first and got within 3 in the closing minutes. Stanford had the ball last and Jayne got a lay-up in the closing seconds so we took a shaky 32-27 lead into the locker room. 

Then C’s computer asked if I wanted to install updates. C absentmindedly clicked “yes”. Normally her computer installs updates in the background and she can keep working. This time the update was for stupid Windows Media Player, the device that was letting her listen to KZSU. Media Player shut down while it installed 11 updates. Several minutes later, the computer was still on one of 11 updates. (Apple computer fans, no need to write in). 

Ten minutes later, C gets KZSU back online and the score is 48-37. Still relatively close. Then Kayla Pedersen hits a three. Then she hits another and now its 54-37 and it doesn’t sound so close anymore Kayla would finish with 26 points and 8 rebounds.  Love hearing that Kayla is shooting and scoring, especially in front of friends and family as Kayla is from Arizona. Maybe we should fly them out to every game. Then all of a sudden it’s 64-38 us, with five minutes left and it seems we have really limited their scoring. With about two minutes left and the subs come in. The final score was Stanford 75-48 

Next is our Johnny-on-the-spot reporter, who we shall call MA, with his eyewitness account. The remarks in parentheses are C and R’s. 

>>>>>>
I'm back home from the game, a 75-48 win over Arizona, and ready to give my report.  I'm going to try this bullet-point style, since my memory doesn't seem to operate well in linear fashion...

• I have to note first that player of the game goes to Kayla Pedersen.  She was, as always, everywhere on the court, and with Nneka not too involved-more on that later, Kayla couldn't have been more clutch.  She was hitting three-pointers, putting in a couple of key put backs, and just generally seemed to be where she needed to be throughout the game.  I don't have the box score, but she accounted for at least a third of the team's points.
• Nneka Ogwumike didn't end up being a factor at all during the first half, primarily because of foul trouble.  The trouble all started with a phantom foul call within the first minute or so of the game.  One of the Arizona players was coming up the court with the basketball and tripped over her own legs on her way to half-court.  Nneka happened to be in the neighborhood, and even though the replay confirmed that Nneka didn't even come close to the other player, she got called for a tripping foul.  Tara yanked her right away and put Joslyn Tinkle in -and our bells got to tinkling!.  When Nneka went back in somewhere around the 12-minute mark, she got called for another foul pretty quickly -this one legitimate after Nneka didn't get position on a rebound- and came right back out.
• The upside of Nneka's absence was a good deal of playing time for Joslyn during the first half -not so much during the second, when Nneka stayed in the game for most of the half.  We started our bells ringing, and even had an extra set to pass to the Stanford-clad family sitting next to us.  They asked whether we had started the whole bells tradition, and we of course deferred credit to the C and R blog.  As it turned out, the nice folks sitting next to us were none other than the Tinkle family!  Joslyn's grandmother apparently lives nearby, and her mom was there for the game, too.  Mama Tinkle reads your blog, you will be happy to know, and loves the whole tinkle bell concept (Yes, C and R did know and a big shout out to Mrs. Tinkle and Family! And Grandma Tinkle, too! We gave a genuine Tinkle bell to Mr. Tinkle when he was at Stanford).  I, of course, turned into a gushing fan upon learning who the family was and went on and on about how great we think Joslyn will be for our team.  (Oh, aren’t we all just gushing fans?!) Joslyn, for her part, had a quiet but solid performance, getting just a few points but really playing good, active defense.
• I can't believe I've gone this long without mentioning Jayne, who got her Pac-10-record-setting 1215th rebound during the first half.  They played on for a little bit, and during the final media timeout of the first half, the stadium announcer recognized Appel for having broken Lisa Leslie's old record.  That's a heck of an accomplishment, and she's not done yet.  Any idea what the NCAA record is?  (Career NCAA Div 1 record 2,034—Courtney Paris, Oklahoma) Appel wasn't scoring a lot of points today as she got fronted and doubled all game long, but she was still a big presence, getting attention on the offensive end and doing her usual shot-blocking and rebound-gobbling on the defensive end.  And I only saw her get beat down the court once during the game, just over halfway through the first half, at which point I told my wife that Jayne was looking a little tired, and Tara apparently overheard me because she promptly subbed Jayne out for a breather.
• My wife, E, pointed out an amusing thing during the game.  One of Arizona's players, who was on Appel most of the game, would frequently supplement her defense by yelling/stuttering "B-b-b-b-b-b!"  I couldn't tell whether she was trying to communicate to her teammates-if she was, complete words might have been better or just trying to distract the ball-handler.  It was certainly amusing to listen to. (She was probably trying to say “ball”, and then yell “dead” if the player stopped dribbling, a common tactic to unnerve a player, but we are sure wouldn’t bother Jayne)
• It should be noted that Ros was in pants and a t-shirt for the game today.  She got knocked in the head pretty hard while scrambling for a ball Thursday at ASU, and was taken out of the game in what appeared to be a very appropriate precautionary move (we agree!).  The Tinkle family told us that Ros suffered a concussion from the incident-not sure of their source, but it was a reasonable inference, so she must have been kept out of today's game to make sure that she recovers.  I hope that she's feeling okay and that she's able to come back, but her health is top priority, and I'm glad to see that the team is protecting her.  We'll be glad to have her back when she's ready.
• My last note is a question:  what happened to Lindy LaRocque?  I haven't noticed her getting much playing time this season, but she did see a fair amount of court time in today's game, probably because of Ros's absence.  Lindy used to have more of a swagger, and would shoot the ball anytime she had a little bit of space -and sometimes when she didn't.  I don't think she shot the ball once in today's game, even though she had some open looks.  Maybe the coaches told her to cut back on her fire-away approach and she took it too much to heart?  I, for one, loved her fearlessness, and it just wasn't there today--I hope that's a fluke and not a trend.

OK, I think that about covers what stands out to me.  As for the Arizona fans, they weren't a problem because they mostly weren't there.  Attendance was barely over 2,000, and there were a sizeable number of Stanford fans accounting for a chunk of that total.  Arizona, for their part, didn't get a whole lot done to energize their fans.  They did hang around for much of the first half, but this was yet another game in the apparent pattern of Stanford starting slow and allowing teams to stay close until the second half march towards a big win.  Ibekwe, their best player-I think you all called her Arizona's version of Nneka- (yes, also baby Nneka and Nneka’s twin) was pretty quiet throughout the first, and didn't start making good-looking plays until it was already too late for them to mean much to the outcome (although we did hear Ibekwe wrapped her arms around Jayne at one point and Jayne got called for the foul).  But E and I had a lot of fun.  And I hope that you will give a big shout-out on our behalf to the Tinkle family, who were kind enough to lend us their Joslyn's talent for a few more years to come. 

Cheers,
MA

The Stanford Women’s Basketball game vs. Arizona State is, surprise, surprise, on TV, and R, being the resident season ticket holder, gets an email that a local bar in Los Gatos is showing the game and has invited ticket holders and all fans Stanford to attend. Wow. On TV and having the broadcast shown in a sports bar that serves alcohol no less, how lucky can we get? C and R will be there. We are warned it is a rare 6 PM start, so we head down there with plenty of time to get a table and order some food and have a grown up beverage. 

C and R nod to the other Stanford fans, all decked out in Stanford gear to show their Stanford support with the added bonus of receiving 15% off their bar bill, hee hee. Then we discover there will be a raffle and prizes! Could this day turn out any better? The prizes are the shirts they throw when Stanford makes a three point shot, which is good because during the Stanford games, they NEVER throw to the section where C and R sit. But wait, there’s more, as they say on TV. There is a grand prize of a Stanford basketball that has been autographed by this year’s team. C wants the grand prize! She asks if they will be throwing the shirts if a three pointer is made and she gets back a non-plussed “No”. Apparently her joie de vie of throwing and grabbing shirts goes unshared with the contest promoter. 

As the tables fill, we see our Number One Fan (NOF) come in, and offer her space at our table and we order drinks all around. The game starts and we cannot hear the sound, which is a bummer. We are rooting for Jayne Appel to get 13 rebounds to break Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 rebounding record. We just have to hope they flash a graphic if she does. Funny thing is we can hear the commercials perfectly. 

As the game goes on, C and R start talking to their NOF and we get caught up in our delightful conversation, first on Stanford basketball, and then broader topics at large. It is very engrossing. So much so that we barely register we are up10-0 due to poor Arizona State shooting in the first four minutes. That and we completely forget to make fun of Arizona State’s head coach Charli Turner Thorne’s high heels. 

When the first media time out happens, the contest promoter picks a name out of the raffle bin. It is not C nor R, and this is a good thing, C figures, as she now does not want to win the T-Shirt and wants two chances at the grand prize drawing in the end for the basketball. Sure enough, during the third media time out, C’s name gets picked out of the raffle tin and she has won a shirt! Oh well, a prize is a prize. R still has a shot at the basketball. C asks the contest promoter to throw the shirt at her, as if Stanford has just shot and made a three-pointer. He walks over and gives an unenthusiastic throw about three inches to her hands. Sigh. 

C did remember to bring her tinkle bell, and she shakes it when Joslyn Tinkle comes in the game. A knowledgeable fan says you can shake it here legally (see, audience members are not allowed to have artificial noise makers at the game, but our small tinkle bell is hardly a “noise-maker’). Tinkle would get 4 points and attempt one three-pointer but missed. Speaking of three pointers, with the shot clock winding down, Jayne had the ball on the three-point line and had to shoot. It had no chance of going in, and hit off the lip of the rim. I think that makes three attempts at three point shots in her career! 

We drift in and out of the second half and Stanford just can’t seem to pull away. In fact, Arizona State gets to within 8 around the 14-minute mark. Then Jayne took over, scoring easily. She would end the game with 19 points and her 8 rebounds. Kayla Pedersen would get 12 points, closely followed by Jeanette Pohlen’s 11. We would win 62-43, a low scoring affair.

February 23rd A Little This and That for Stanford

C and R are feeling lazy, what with all this rain in Northern CA, and us watching the Olympics and all (and yes, C IS old enough to have heard live Al Michaels exclaim “Do you believe in Miracles?” in the closing seconds of Team USA’s win over the Soviets in ice hockey in 1980. It truly was an amazing sports moment that gave her goose bumps and still makes her a little misty-eyed to this day). Speaking of the Olympics, C’s son is completely riveted by curling. C liked the Simpson’s episode on curling. (I mean come on, a pregnant woman is on the Canadian curling team as an alternate…how hard can it be?). Is it time for Lindsey Vonn to ski again?

First of all, Senior Jayne Apple was named the PAC-10 Player of the Week for the second consecutive week. She ties the PAC-10 record for career selections with nine, sharing with our fave of faves, Stanford’s own Candice Wiggins. Yeah, they kinda have to give it to Jayne, who earned her 2000^th career point and 1,000 rebounds. She needs just 13 rebounds to break the PAC-10 record set by Lisa Leslie. She also had two double doubles in the two games for the week, and helped Stanford clinch at least a tie for the PAC-10 regular season title. 

The Palo Alto Online had a cute quote, “The Three Trees got Seven. The three tall front court players for Stanford have combined for 7 PAC-10 Player of the Week awards this season. Jayne and Kayla Pedersen each have 2 this season, and Nneka Ogwumike has 3. 

Heard from a former Stanford player and she asked if C and R had seen the “Fear The Tree” Stanford T-shirt? She said it should read, “Fear the Trees” with an “S” at the end, to honor Jayne, Kayla and Nneka. We love it. We are going to go and buy that shirt and make an “S” out of masking tape! Maybe we can do it in time for the Cal game. 

Here is Michelle Smith’s take on the seniors and their injuries. And here is ESPN’s own Mechelle Voepel’s view of the Stanford Senior Night game. C and R thought they spied her there on press row. And just for a little home town cookin’ check out the Stanford Daily’s write up on Senior Night.

Sorry for posting this story so late but C and R finally stopped crying. It was senior night and Jayne Appel’s last game at Maples in the regular season. (There’s a chance she and Stanford could play the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Maples). 

Four other seniors were also honored, although three of them could come back. Strange, I know. The true seniors are Jayne and Ros Gold-Onwude. The other “seniors”,  JJ Hones, Michelle Harrison and Melanie Murphy, each have a year of eligibility left, although only JJ hinted she would be back. 

Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer finally figured out after Jayne’s freshmen year that the seniors get too emotional to do the tribute before the game and don’t play as well, so they have wisely moved the senior tribute to after the game on the Maples floor. Then the real fun begins as a smaller party moves a building over to sit down with the families and listen to them tell funny and embarrassing stories about the seniors. Last night most of the stories involved golf carts and Jayne’s flip-flops. 

But first there was a game to be played against Oregon State. So, remember how C and R said when the Stanford Women’s Basketball team played Oregon and Oregon pushed the ball up court and played a quick game, we enjoyed it and responded with a lot of energy and baskets? ‘Member? Well, Oregon State came out slower and more plodding and we did too, missing Oregon’s energy. We took an 11-1 lead with five minutes gone in the game and with 10 minutes gone it was 21-7 Stanford. We know, we know, we are spoiled and we should be happy for the lead, but it just seemed so…routine. Every time we spotted Jayne one-on-one, we gave it to her and she scored. Nneka Ogwumike couldn’t be stopped or even held to the ground, except when she was all alone on a fast break, and we mean ALL alone, no one from Oregon State even in the front court with her and she did a stutter step without dribbling to get the traveling call. Who was she trying to fake out? The cheerleaders? 

Jayne ONLY scored 12 and got 10 rebounds, a double-double, but around the 8 minute mark she got her 2,000^th point. That, coupled with her over 1,000 rebounds puts her as only the third Stanford women’s basketball player to get to the 2,000-1,000 club. The other two are Val Whiting and Nicole Powell. What’s more astounding to C and R is the fact she is 13 rebounds shy of Lisa Leslie’s PAC-10 career record. Jayne has 3 road games left, so we are confident she can do it. Wow, to pass Lisa Leslie is fantastic! 

Oh, the win in the game (you didn’t doubt the outcome, did you? Final score 82-48, Stanford) gave us a tie for the PAC-10 regular season title, and a win in any of our next three road games will clinch it outright. But as we said, our opponent was lacking in energy and made us feel slow, too. In the first half Oregon State could only muster 26% shooting percentage for 21 points. Contrast that with 70% shooting percentage for Stanford and 46 first half points and you can see why we won. 

It was interesting when they did the senior tribute on the big video screen. They showed still pictures and video of the women in action. The song playing in the background had the lyrics “Here comes the rest of our lives”. Basketball has been a big part of these players’ lives for so long. Will they be able to walk away from it? Jayne Appel has a good chance to be drafted by the WNBA. We wonder if she really wants to go? She has mentioned she would love to go to law school and give back to the community by being an advocate for the mentally and physically challenged. Maybe she should get on with “the rest of her life” and go to law school. Then again, a few years in the WNBA might enable her to build up tuition for law school. With her eligibility used up, she can’t keep attending Stanford for free, ya know. Still, it’s nice to know she has options. 

Swish Appeal, your one stop shopping for PAC-10 blogging (hey, let's put that on a T-Shirt!), has a nice article on Stanford’s Kayla Pedersen. They charmingly call her “The Calming Force of Stanford’s Three-Headed Monster”. C and R get quoted, too. Maybe that’s why we are partial to this website! Warning, the Three Headed Monster Article might reveal our beloved Nneka Ogwumike in a possibly bad light (RE: She missed her defensive assignment and left Jayne Appel out to dry-but it’s okay, Stanford is smart and can adjust). You know, the article expresses all the great things we have said about Kayla’s smarts through the years… oh just go read the article.

Speaking of articles, Mechelle Voepel of ESPN wrote a great article about Stanford. It’s a “We-Get-No-Respect-But-That’s-Okay-With-Us” type. It sounds like Mechelle was at the Stanford Women’s Basketball Game vs. Oregon, as she described that great play Nneka had almost out jumping an Oregon player from behind for a rebound. I wonder if Stanford threw her a red victory ball? 

Oh, this was interesting to C and R, a little tidbit about Tennessee in the ESPN article:
-Tennessee left center Kelley Cain in Knoxville on Thursday because she had missed a lot of class work and needed to catch up. The fact that Tennessee was playing at the SEC's last-place team, Alabama, certainly made that decision easier. But it contributed to a much closer than expected game, which Tennessee still won, 74-67.- 

The first time the Stanford Women’s Basketball team played the high-scoring Oregon Ducks, it seemed the more Oregon pushed the ball up court and played up tempo, the more Stanford responded and scored. They would go on to win that game 100-80. Well, it was an almost duplicate night. The more Oregon pushed, the more Stanford enjoyed, no relished, the tempo and scored, scored, scored. The main difference between this game and the last was that Oregon seemed resigned to losing. 

We are sorry to be so harsh, Oregon and Coach Paul Westhead, who has C and R’s vote for PAC-10 coach of the year. The first game, coach, you had your team believing they could out run and out gun Stanford and win. And your team did a great job and were only down by 5 points with 8 minutes left in that contest before Stanford pulled away. Tonight your team seemed slower and not as confident. Your team made all-kinda-crazy shots in the first contest. For this game, your team missed open shots, only hitting 28% in the first half. They weren't feelin' it. 

Back to the current game, Oregon came out in a full court press, and anyone watching game film on Stanford this year knows our guards have trouble dribbling out of the press. We either dribble into a two-guard trap or get the ball stolen from our hands. If we survive that, we give into the pressure and make an ill-advised pass that gets stolen or goes out of bounds. So Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer came up with an ingenious way to beat the press. Don’t have the guards dribble in pressure. Beat them with fast breaking players and even faster passes. We noticed three new offensive sets for the full court press. Mostly we would have Kayla Pedersen inbound it near the basket and then we would throw it right back to her. Kayla Pedersen, at 6 foot 4 inches is arguably our surest dribbler and smartest player. As two Oregon players moved to trap her, two of our guards would streak up the left and right sidelines, one who would be sure to be open. Kayla would hit one of them like a quarterback delivering a pass and now our guard has it at the half court line moving quickly and three Oregon players are stuck back at their free throw line trying to trap. A few unpressured dribbles and we now have three Stanford players on two Oregon players near our basket, usually resulting in a score. We would beat the first wave of players waiting to trap us by quick passes over them and not let them get near us as we dribbled. 

Of course our favorite set was when Oregon went to a full court man to man press. So we had every Stanford player in our backcourt, along with the whole Oregon team. No one is back by the Stanford basket. Kayla and Jeanette would look at each other and do play number two. Guard Jeanette Pohlen would stand even with Oregon’s free throw line and put her hand out to the Stanford basket and then run. Kayla would throw it from out of bounds in a huge arc to about the half court line. With Jeanette’s Oregon player closer to Kayla, she would be behind Jeanette.  Jeanette would catch teh ball at the half court line while running full speed and dribble for an uncontested lay up, as the rest of the Oregon team is back doing their assignment of guarding their man. No one was back to help. Brilliant! 

We only had 10 turnovers for the whole game. Usually we have that by half. And guard Jeanette Pohlen had ZERO. Hmm, maybe C and R should reconsider who deserves the PAC-10 coach of the year award. 

No she dit-int!
Say it like this, put your left hand on your hip, hold your right index finger in the air and wag it back and forth to the syllables: “No-she-dit-int!” 

Yes she did. Kayla Pedersen, the player C and R say is the smartest on a Stanford team that has a combined SAT score of 20 billion, was inbounding the ball under our basket with the five second count winding down and finding no Stanford player open because Oregon was pressuring the pass with their back to the basket, threw the ball at an Oregon player’s backside, stepped inbounds, picked up the ball under the basket and got an easy lay up before anyone knew what was happening. So much so, that C turned to R and said, “Did she just inbound the ball off a Duck’s butt?” Later in the evening during a break in action, the scoreboard operator put together game highlights and included that play! You get away with a play like that once a game, heck, maybe once a season! 

All five starters were in double figures that added up to 94 points. Jayne Appel had 26, Nneka Ogwumike had 17, although it seemed like more as she was all over the court when she was in, Kayla had 14 and Ros Gold-Onwude had 11. The biggest surprise was Jeanette Pohlen’s career high 26 points. She is not known for her scoring. We would go on to win 104-60. Joslyn Tinkle was the one to put us over at 100 and C and R proudly shook our tinkle bells. 

A word about Jayne.
Senior Jayne Appel had a great game, scoring 26 points. She looked great under the basket and can take anyone one-on-one. She started out the season slow, for two reasons. One, she was still recovering from a knee injury and two, Tara VanDerveer positioned her away from the low post under the basket to the high post at the foul line to give Nneka Ogwumike room to create and score. Jayne’s strength is under the basket and cannot hit a jumper at the foul line or beyond to save her life. She was averaging around 13 points a game this season. Now Tara takes out Nneka for most of the first half and has moved Jayne back to the low post for most of the game and she is averaging about 21 points a game in the last 5 games. 

We have some Internet theories we want to test. You want to hear them? On second thought, nah, who wants to hear crack pot Internet theories by two people who have no scientific or journalistic or coaching pedigrees or insider information to back it up? What? Oh, turns out a lot of people do, that’s what the Internet is here for…so here goes. 

Okay, one, Tara wants Jayne’s stock to go up for the WNBA draft, so she is putting her back in the low post and sending Nneka to the bench. Nneka can have her chance next year. Unconfirmed Internet theory number two, something is wrong with Nneka, she must be injured. It is weird, when Nneka touches the ball, she is incredible in her creative scoring ability which is greatly aided by her leaping ability. She got some incredible rebounds last night. But when she is away from the ball she shuffles slowly and it looks like her knees are in pain. She only played 26 minutes last night and Tara would take her out for long stretches, even though she would be on fire offensively. Usually something a coach would do to rest a player. 

Either way, we need Jayne to be prolific at scoring, as it seems when she has a great night the team calms down and feels good and limits their mistakes. Also, Jayne needs help to score. Last year we got sorta one dimensional always going to Jayne and Nneka is the perfect antidote to teams doubling Jayne, as Jayne has great court vision and passes well and Nneka near the basket can out leap anybody. R says we are peaking at the right time and we look back on track to focus on the PAC-10 tournament and the NCAA tournament. 

This game was a Pink Zone Night, where the fans ands players are encouraged to wear pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. C and R only have pink bandanas and the free pink shirts were all gone by the time C and R got to the game, so we were disappointed. A big thank you to the volunteer who ran down to our section and threw a pink Stanford shirt right to R! And she actually caught it! C wore it the rest of the night even though it was a size too small. We just love our freebies. Although Stanford, you better throw us a red ball on senior night! 

Sorry C and R are late talking about the Stanford Women’s Basketball game against Washington State, but C went to play in the snow and she has the keys to the computer. 

To recap, Stanford won. The End. 

Well, okay Stanford scored 98 to their 67 and to be fair, senior Jayne Appel had a great night, scoring 25 points and getting 14 rebounds. Many remarked she looked like the Jayne of old, well, of last year. So much so that the PAC-10 gave her the PAC-10 Player of the Week Award. This is her first Player of the Week Award this season. She won it seven other times over the last three years, for a total of 8. Candice Wiggins won it 9 times in her four year career. 

Nneka Ogwumike added 21 points and Kayla Pedersen had 13 and when you get our trio of trees involved, they are hard to stop and we are going to win games. Our baby tree, Joslyn Tinkle (tinkle bells) also added 12. Nice to see such an offensive output and spread around as well. 

Oh, one thing C and R did manage to catch on TV was the UConn v Oklahoma game on TV. Imagine our glee when we discovered UConn was actually losing! And in the second half, too! Then UConn went on a patented 13-2, lead by Maya Moore and won 76-60. 

The next two games will be your last chance to see Stanford on their home court in the regular season. Thursday is a Pink Zone Night, where you are encouraged to wear pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. We are playing the high flying Oregon team, coming off a four game win streak, the last two against the Arizona teams. 

Then Saturday come on out and bring your hankies as it is senior night and Stanford will have a ceremony for its seniors, Jayne Appel among them There are other seniors of course, but with red-shirting and knee injuries C and R never know who is senior at the moment and who is not. That game is at 7 PM against Oregon State, not the stated 8 PM. Got it?

R comes to C’s house so they can get the Stanford Women’s Basketball game vs. Washington on C's computer and watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics on C's fancy HD TV. R has the fancy phone, C has the fancy TV, call it even. The Stanford game is set for 7 PM, and the opening ceremony is advertised to begin at 7:30 PM. 

We dial up Gametracker and the entire site goes down for the first few minutes. Then we discover from 7:30 – 9:00 PM the network is just showing fluff and filler on the Olympics and the real opening ceremony starts at 9 PM. Bummer. Then Gametracker goes down again. 

The Olympic coverage does start out with the somber news that luger Nodar Kumaritashvili from the country of Georgia had crashed during his training run and died of his injuries. We are very saddened by the news. 

We get Gametracker back up and discover Nneka is on fire, again. Stanford Sophomore Nneka Ogwumike has scored 6 of the 8 points in the first 6 minutes. She always starts out the game hot. Then she fouls and goes to the bench and for some reason, we do not see her again for the rest of the half. C and R always wonder what head coach Tara VanDerveer is thinking by sitting down your best and most creative scorer, and for the rest of the game? But then we are always questioning Tara and she has 2 National Championships and 17 PAC-10 titles and counting and we have none so needless to say she doesn’t need to listen to us. 

It’s hard to get a feel for the game reading off a play-by-play, and the half ends with Stanford only scoring 28. That should be bad news for Stanford, but Washington only has 12 points for the half. Twelve points? Come on PAC-10! USC only mustered 10 points at half against Stanford on February 7^th of this year. Washington only made 4 of 31 shots in the first half. Now, we love Stanford and all to an obsessive point, but we don’t think they play such stifling defense that teams cannot get to 15 or more points in a half. Heck, we don’t even utilize a full court press! Make a shot!

With Nneka on the bench Jayne saves the day. Senior Jayne Appel ended with 18 points and 13 rebounds in the game, 12 of those rebounds coming in the first half. We win 58-36. Nneka would finish with “only” 12 points, well below her 19 points a game average but still great, as she single-handedly tied Washington’s first half output. As C and R have said before, the only person who can stop Nneka from scoring is Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. See, if Tara benches her… she can’t score…oh, if we have to explain it, it just isn’t funny…what, you got the joke but thought it wasn’t funny anyway? Them’s fightin’ words…wait, R is tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to knock it off. 

So after the Stanford game and the slog of the parade of nations, the opening ceremony from Vancouver was pretty creative and clever. C really liked the use of lights and projection on the floor and on the sheets of fabric in the sky to create magical places. Too bad the fourth pillar of the Olympic flame cauldron got stuck and they had to do with an impromptu tri-pod. Should be a fun Olympics if the snow shows up. 

See you at Washington State this Sunday on Candice Wiggins’ birthday, otherwise known as Valentine’s Day.

So I rush home Thursday night after dropping off the boys at water polo practice and log on to my computer and navigate to the Stanford schedule page and call up Gametracker, only to discover that the Stanford Women’s Basketball team is not playing that night. They play the following night, Friday. Geez, who ever heard of a Friday night game? But be kind to me, (this is C writing by the way) as I have had another rough week. 

Remember how I wrote in a previous post that my 16 year old son uses his cell phone to text pretty blonde girls and never calls me, and when he finally did it was because he had split his head open on a water polo post and was bleeding all over the place? ‘Member? Well, I was driving home from work and checked my phone for any calls from R, who usually calls me with something interesting about women’s basketball she saw on the web when lo, and behold my little phone said I missed a call from my son. Two in one month, how did I get so luck…wait a minute, last time he called it was bad news. Ah, this is not going to be good. I listen to the message and discover, yes, this is not good. My son, who has had his driver’s license for all of a month and a half, has hit a parked car! And he was driving his sister’s car. Luckily no one was injured, good news. Bad news, he hit the gas instead of the brake and  bent the heck out of his sister’s car. The hood, the frame in two places, has to be realigned, busted out the lights on the passenger side… and you should have seen the other car! Pushed in the back door of a little Rav 4. Man, maybe we should push the driving age up to 18. Needless to say he is learning an expensive lesson and is paying for the damages out of our pocket. 

Time to open up the ol’ mail bag, or email bag, now that we actually have mail from Stanford Women’s Basketball fans. 

Thanks to all who wrote in to say they heard the Tinkle Bells mentioned on the USC-Stanford TV broadcast! The announcer mentioned that Stanford fans (that’s us) like to shake little jingle bells whenever Stanford’s Joslyn Tinkle does something good on the court. What started out as a little social experiment has hit the big time! We were hoping to get on National TV, too, as the announcer asked where we were seated but it wasn’t meant to be. 

Oh, Mrs. Tinkle wrote in, too! For C and R, it’s like saying Mrs. Claus dropped off some cookies. (It’s funny, with the Tinkle Bells, we forget “Tinkle” stands for someone’s last name and there are real people attached to the Tinkle name). We hope to catch up with her, too, the next time she is in town. 

Another fan saw the same report as C that Florida State University (FSU) got penalized for cheating. C went to the University of Florida for Grad School and our archrival was Florida State, much like the Stanford-Cal rivalry. Anyway, Florida State was sanctioned in part for letting 61 student-athletes cheat and they must give up wins in various programs, including some in football. The men’s basketball team lost all 22 wins from 2006-07, and women’s basketball lost 16 victories that year, including two in the NCAA tournament. Super Fan TG pointed out that FSU beat Stanford in the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2007. Do we get that back as a win? How does that work? Does anyone know?