Top-Ten Texas

No. 11 Stanford (1-0)
vs. No. 8 Texas (0-0)
Monday, Nov. 14 • 5 p.m.
Maples Pavilion • Stanford, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Tickets
Television • ESPN2
Live Statistics •Available via GoStanford.com

THE GAMENo. 11/10 Stanford has its first national television broadcast of the season when it hosts No. 8/6 Texas on Monday, Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. Paul Sunderland and Nell Fortner have the call on ESPN2.

THE RUNDOWNStanford returns 74.8 percent of its scoring and 70.2 percent of its rebounding from a season ago ... Stanford's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,005-312 (.763), tied for the seventh-winningest program by victories and fourth by percentage ... Entering her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 981-225 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and is 19 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins ... Stanford is No. 11 in the Associated Press women's basketball poll, the 17th consecutive preseason appearance for the Cardinal ... Stanford is 63-30 (.677) against AP ranked opponents the past decade and 30-19 (.612) against top-10 teams ... Stanford is 138-7 (.952) in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08 ... Senior Erica McCall is on the five-person preseason All-Pac-12 Team and also checked in at No. 23 in espnW's preseason list of the best women's college basketball players in 2016-17 ... Karlie Samuelson's 3-point field goal percentage (.473) last season was third nationally and second in Stanford single-season history behind Jennifer Azzi (.495; 1988-89) ... Stanford signed the nation's second-ranked recruiting class on Wednesday, including three top-50 recruits ... Marta Sniezek, who is averaging 5.3 assists with a 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio in her last 16 games, is the only underclassman in its starting lineup.

VS. TEXASStanford leads the all-time series 6-4, but Texas has won two in a row, including last season in Austin, 77-69. In the Longhorns most recent visit to Maples Pavilion, then-No. 10 Texas beat then-No. 6 Stanford in overtime, 87-81, on Nov. 20, 2014. The result snapped the Cardinal's 28-game home winning streak just three days after the Cardinal knocked off No. 1 Connecticut in overtime, the Huskies' last loss. Texas won the first two meetings in 1981 and 1988 before Stanford reeled off six consecutive victories in 1991, 1993, 1995, 2010, 2011 and 2013. Stanford is 2-1 against Texas at home.

CATCHING YOU UP

• The Cardinal returns nine letterwinners and four starters to a team coming off its ninth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance and its 10th Elite Eight in the past 13 seasons.
• Stanford returns 74.8 percent of its scoring and 70.2 percent of its rebounding from last year.
• The Cardinal won its 16th consecutive season opener on Friday over Cal Poly, 83-55. Briana Roberson led five players in double figures with 16 points, Marta Sniezek handed out 10 assists and Stanford used a 20-4 run over the second and third quarters to put the game away.
• The win was the 981st in Tara VanDerveer's Hall of Fame career. She is 19 away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.

AMONG THE BEST EVER

• Stanford's victory over Oregon State on Feb. 26, 2016 was the 1,000th in program history. With 1,005 wins, the Cardinal is the tied with Stephen F. Austin as the seventh-winningest program in women's college basketball history. The country's other 1,000-victory programs are Tennessee (1,300), Louisiana Tech (1,073), Connecticut (1,046), James Madison (1,045), Old Dominion (1,014), Texas (1,012) and Stephen F. Austin (1,005).
• The Cardinal's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,005-312 (.763) and 829-174 (.827) with Tara VanDerveer at the helm.
• Stanford's .763 winning percentage is fourth all-time in Division I, trailing Tennessee (.814) and Louisiana Tech (.784) and Connecticut (.779).

SETTING THE STAGE

• Stanford is 63-30 (.677) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
• Only Connecticut (.897), Baylor (.752), Notre Dame (.711), Stanford (.677), Tennessee (.620), Duke (.547), Maryland (.538) and Texas A&M (.514) have winning records against ranked teams the past decade.
• Against top-10 teams over the last 10 seasons, Stanford is 30-19 (.612), and 14-4 at home (.778).
• Stanford is 138-7 (.952) in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08.

MORE MILESTONES ON THE HORIZON FOR TARA

• Entering her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 981-225 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 829-174 mark on The Farm. Her teams have won 20 or more games 31 times, including each of the last 15 seasons.
• In November 2013, VanDerveer became just the fifth college women's basketball coach to win 900 career games and is 19 victories shy of joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins. In March 2015 she won her 800th game at Stanford, becoming the 10th college basketball coach – men's or women's – with that many victories at a single Division I school.

Winningest Coaches (By Victories)

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS

• On Nov. 1, Stanford came in at No. 11 in the Associated Press women's basketball poll, the 17th consecutive preseason appearance for the Cardinal.
• It has been ranked 496 times out of 711 total polls since 1977 (69.7 percent), with an average positioning of 7.0. It's been in the past 287 polls, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (432).
• The Cardinal's 496 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (693), Georgia (522) and Texas (502).
• The country's coaches picked Stanford 10th in the USA Today Top 25, also the program's 17th consecutive appearance in those preseason rankings and its 295th straight coaches' poll appearance.
• Stanford was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 when the conference announced the results of the preseason coaches' poll. It's the second consecutive season Stanford has come in second in the preseason poll. The Cardinal had topped the rankings for 15 consecutive years beginning in 2000-01.
• The Cardinal totaled 110 points and garnered two first-place votes. UCLA was the leading vote getter, receiving eight first-place votes and collecting 116 points.

GLOBETROTTING

• Last summer it was Erica McCall with the United States at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea and Alanna Smith with Australia at the FIBA U19 Women's World Championship in Chekhov, Russia. This summer it was Canadian freshman Mikaela Brewer who represented her country abroad.
• Brewer captained Canada to silver at the FIBA Americas U18 Women's Championship in Valdivia, Chile in July, averaging 11.8 points on 49 percent shooting (24-of-49) in five games.
• She was 10-of-23 from behind the arc (43.5 percent) and added 3.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 24.4 minutes per outing.
• Brewer had a perfect performance in group play against Chile, scoring 22 on a flawless 9-of-9 shooting in Canada's 88-39 win. She scored a team-high 16 points, made 7-of-12 from the floor and hit both of her 3-point attempts in the championship against the United States.
• Brewer is the second international recruit in program history (Alanna Smith - Australia).

APPLYING PRESSURE

• The Cardinal finished sixth nationally in field goal percentage defense (.338) and ninth in blocks per game (6.0) last year. Its field goal percentage defense was third in Stanford history and its 211 total blocks set a school record.
• The Cardinal is third in the nation in field goal percentage defense the past 10 years, holding its 333 opponents to 34.5 percent shooting (6,922-of-20,082).

BIRD IS THE WORD

• Senior Erica McCall closed her junior year by averaging 20.3 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in Stanford's last 10 games. She shot 55 percent from the floor and 41 percent from behind the arc over that span.
• McCall's 66 blocks last season are tied for third in school history. Jayne Appel, Chiney Ogwumike and Joslyn Tinkle are the only other Stanford players to have as many in a single year. Her 137 career blocks are sixth in school history.
• McCall finished 10th in the Pac-12 in scoring, fifth in rebounding, third in blocks and fourth in field goal percentage. She was also 13th in the nation with 18 double-doubles, scoring in double figures 30 times and grabbing at least 10 rebounds in 20 games.
• On Nov. 3 she was named to the five-person preseason All-Pac-12 Team by the league's media and also checked in at No. 23 in espnW's preseason list of the best women's college basketball players in 2016-17.

TAKE AIM

• Karlie Samuelson was 80-of-169 from behind the arc in 2015-16 and checked in at third in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.473). She is second in Stanford single-season history in 3-point field goal percentage behind Jennifer Azzi (.495; 1988-89) and ninth in 3-point makes (80).
• The senior is the active NCAA leader in career 3-point field goal percentage (.421).
• In her last 22 games, Samuelson is 54-of-104 on 3-pointers (.519).
• She returned to practice last Tuesday for the first time in roughly six weeks after she recovered from a hairline fracture in her wrist.

SNIEZEK STEPS UP

• Marta Sniezek is the only underclassman in Stanford's starting lineup and one of the best pure point guards around.
• In her last 16 games, the sophomore is averaging 5.3 assists with a 2.8 assist-to-turnover ratio. Sniezek averaged 1.8 assists and owned an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.9 in her first 20 career games.
• Last year, Sniezek became the eighth Stanford freshman to reach 100 assists (109) and fourth to tally that many in the past 20 seasons (Amber Orrange, Ros Gold-Onwude, Nicole Powell).
• Against Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 4, she had 13 assists against zero turnovers. Her assist total was a Pac-12 Tournament record and also the most for a Stanford player in a single game since 1991.

CARDINAL FOURTUNE

• On Nov. 9, the Cardinal announced the signings of Maya Dodson (Alpharetta, Ga./St. Francis), Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Harbord Collegiate), Estella Moschkau (Mount Horeb, Wisc./Edgewood) and Kiana Williams (San Antonio, Texas/Karen Wagner).
• Stanford's four-member recruiting haul is one of the nation's strongest, collectively rated No. 2 by espnW HoopGurlz and No.6 by Prospects Nation.
• Dodson is a five-star talent and the No. 11 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100, Moschkau is a five-star prospect rated No. 44 and Williams is a five-star point guard and the No. 8 prospect in her class. Williams is Stanford's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.
• Jerome is a veteran of Canada Basketball and represented her country this summer at the both the aforementioned FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain and the FIBA Americas U18 Championships in Valdivia, Chile (alongside Brewer).

FOREVER STANFORD

• It was a big summer for Stanford alumnae, headlined by Nneka Ogwumike '12 winning the 2016 WNBA MVP award and hitting the game winner in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals with 3.1 seconds left to lift the Los Angeles Sparks to the championship.
• Ogwumike is Stanford's seventh WNBA champion, joining Jeanette Pohlen (Indiana Fever, 2012), Candice Wiggins (Minnesota Lynx, 2011), Brooke Smith (Phoenix Mercury, 2009), Nicole Powell (Sacramento Monarchs, 2005), Olympia Scott (Phoenix Mercury, 2007; Sacramento Monarchs, 2005) and Sonja Henning (Houston Comets, 1999).
• She the third Cardinal to win a league most valuable player award in any sport, joining NFL quarterbacks John Brodie (San Francisco 49ers; 1970) and John Elway (Denver Broncos; 1987).
• On Oct. 17, the 2012 Stanford graduate was voted president of the WNBA players' union executive council, a post she will hold for three years. She will serve alongside her sister Chiney '14, who will serve as the organization's vice president. Jayne Appel Marinelli, who retired this September after a seven-year WNBA career with the San Antonio Stars, will begin her post-playing days as the union's Associate Director of Player Relations.
• Sebnem Kimyacioglu '05, the fifth Stanford alumna to compete in the Olympics, helped Turkey advance to the quarterfinals in the country's second appearance in women's basketball at the Games.
• Kimyacioglu was Turkey's fifth-leading scorer, averaging 4.3 points in 22.2 minutes over the six games and shot 40 percent from behind the 3-point line (8-of-20).
• Kimyacioglu was one of 39 Stanford athletes to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Cardinal contingent in Rio hailed from 10 countries and spanned 17 varsity sports. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games resulted in a school-record 27 medals, the most of any NCAA institution.

THAT'S HIM

• Those who come to a Stanford practice might recognize a familiar face in two-time All-American Casey Jacobsen, who is a practice player for both the Cardinal women and men. Jacobsen left Stanford after three seasons and was the 22nd overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns. He enjoyed a five-year NBA career and also played professionally in Spain and Germany.
• Jacobsen is back on campus finishing his degree in communication, which he will complete in December, and will walk with his class next June.
• He is fourth in Stanford history in points (1,723), sixth in scoring average (18.1) and fourth in 3-pointers made (222).

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM

• Sophomore guard Alexa Romano was among 40 student-athletes from Stanford and Duke who traveled to one of five countries during the summer for three weeks as part of the Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement Program.
• Romano served as a coaching assistant for sports activities, taught English as a second language courses and promoted computer literacy initiatives for youth at a community center in Dakshinpuri, New Delhi.
• She is in the process of copying her journal from the trip - 50 typed pages on the computer - to a leather-bound version she purchased the Dili Haat open-air craft bazaar in New Delhi.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY

• VanDerveer is constantly evolving and finding new ways to push herself and do her job well depending on the makeup of her team and communication was the focus this offseason.
• One day in mid-September, the Cardinal spent just more than an hour in a "Championship Communication" workshop with Betsy Butterick to develop communication techniques and understand how a teammate might react to a certain approach from another.
• On one Friday, Stanford played water polo at the Avery Aquatic Center. The team later had conversations with football coach David Shaw and former Stanford dean Julie Lythcott-Haims, who wrote "How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success." Stanford also did a Skype session with author Jon Gordon, who wrote "The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy."
• On Thursday, three-time Olympic volleyball champion and current U.S. women's coach Karch Kiraly — who has done his own communication exercises with the Americans through peer evaluations — spoke to the team before he worked TV for the USC-Stanford volleyball match at Maples Pavilion.