What's Next
The No. 16 Stanford women’s basketball team will take the court for the first time in 2015-16 when it hosts Academy of Art in an exhibition on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. in Maples Pavilion.
A live stream along with live stats of the game will be available on GoStanford.com.
Tickets
All youth (8th grade and under) can stop by the Maples Pavilion box office prior to the game to receive free admission.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Oct 26, 2015 at 5:04pm PDT
General admission tickets are $10, while reserved sideline seats are $20 and lower chairbacks are $25. Tickets are available by calling 800-STANFORD or visiting GoStanford.com/tickets.
Academy of Art
The Urban Knights have already started their regular season and went 0-3 at the Disney Tip-Off Classic in Anaheim last weekend with losses to NYIT (92-87), Winona State (77-55) and Alaska Anchorage (87-82).
Five-foot-6 senior Zoie Cheng (18.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg), 5-foot-7 senior Regina Camera (15.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg) and 5-foot-6 senior Jasmin Guinn (14.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg) all average more than 30 minutes per game and are AAU's three leading scorers and rebounders.
Stanford alumna Lindsey Yamasaki joined the Urban Knights as the program's first women's basketball head coach in 2008. She was at the helm for AAU's first three seasons before current coach LaNay Larson took over in 2011-12.
In the Rankings
On Tuesday, Stanford came in at No. 16 in the Associated Press women's basketball poll, the 16th consecutive preseason appearance for the Cardinal.
Stanford has appeared in the AP rankings a possible 478 times out of 693 total polls since 1977 (69.0 percent), with an average positioning of 6.8. It’s been in the past 259 polls, the fourth-longest active streak behind Tennessee (535), Connecticut (413) and Duke (342).
The Cardinal’s 478 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (679), Georgia (523) and Texas (483).
Stanford in 2015-16
Stanford returns nine letterwinners and three starters to a team that won the program's 11th Pac-12 Tournament Championship in 2014-15, advanced to its eighth consecutive Sweet Sixteen and was victorious in 20+ games for the 14th straight year.
Back is 58.4 percent of Stanford’s scoring, 65.4 percent of its rebounding and 60.8 percent of its minutes.
| Returners' 2014-15 Stats | |||
| Player | PPG | RPG | MPG |
| Lili Thompson | 13.3 | 3.0 | 30.4 |
| Briana Roberson | 6.4 | 1.7 | 16.6 |
| Karlie Samuelson | 6.4 | 2.4 | 23.0 |
| Kaylee Johnson | 5.9 | 9.6 | 23.6 |
| Erica McCall | 5.6 | 5.4 | 17.1 |
| Brittany McPhee | 3.5 | 2.3 | 9.9 |
| Kailee Johnson | 1.1 | 1.6 | 7.6 |
| Alex Green | 0.9 | 0.3 | 4.0 |
| Tess Picknell | 0.5 | 1.1 | 3.2 |
The Cardinal's veterans are joined by a heralded freshman class made up of 6-foot-5 center Shannon Coffee, 5-foot-10 guard Alexa Romano, 6-foot-3 forward Alanna Smith and 5-foot-8 point guard Marta Sniezek.
Stanford must replace departed starters in point guard Amber Orrange and stretch-4 Bonnie Samuelson. Orrange, one of just five Stanford players with 1,000 career points and 500 assists, was an AP All-America honorable mention selection last season and taken by the New York Liberty with the 23rd pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft.
One of the best 3-point shooters in league history, Samuelson hit at 39.6 percent from behind the arc and is third in school history and 10th in Pac-12 history in 3-point makes (237).
So International
Stanford forward Erica McCall won her fourth gold medal representing the United States at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea in July.
A United States co-captain, McCall finished the event tied for eighth overall in scoring (15.2), was eighth in rebounds (8.5), tied for third in blocks (1.8) and led all players in South Korea in field goal percentage, converting 37 of her 62 attempts from the floor (.597). Team USA went a perfect 6-0 and defeated its opponents by an average of nearly 22 points per game.
Champ. 🏆🇺🇸 @birdstheword_24 @gostanford @usabasketball #GoStanford
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In July, freshman Alanna Smith led Australia to a third-place finish and was named to the All-Star Five at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Championship in Chekhov, Russia.
The first international recruit in Stanford women’s basketball history, Smith tied for 12th in the entire tournament in points per game (12.6), tied for 15th in rebounds (7.0), tied for third in blocks (2.7), tied for 23rd in steals (1.3) and led Australia in each of those categories.
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Smith’s father had a 12-year professional career in Australia, playing for four teams in the National Basketball League (NBL). Her uncle, Jason Smith, played collegiately at California Lutheran University and captained the Australia men’s national team, known as the Boomers, at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Her aunt, Jo Straatsma, played in the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBL) in Australia for the Islanders in Tasmania and won a championship in 1991.
More Milestone on the Horizon for Tara
Entering her 30th season on the bench at Stanford, Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 953-217 (.815) record in her 36 years as a collegiate head coach and an 801-166 (.828) on The Farm.
In November 2013, she became just the fifth college women’s basketball coach to win 900 career games. This past March 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, Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Andy Landers (Georgia), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Robin Selvig (Montana) and Jim Phelan (Mount St. Mary’s).
One of the greatest leaders in any sport at any level, VanDerveer enters the 2015-16 season as the third-winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball history and is 47 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only coaches with 1,000 career wins.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Sep 11, 2015 at 4:13pm PDT
VanDerveer is the 16th Division I women’s basketball coach in NCAA history to coach 30 or more seasons at the same institution and is one of five on the active coaching list. Pat Summitt (Tennessee; 1975-12), Harry Perretta (Villanova; 1979-15), Robin Selvig (Montana; 1979-15), Andy Landers (Georgia; 1980-15), Cindy Russo (FIU; 1978, 1981-15), Debbie Ryan (Virginia; 1978-11), Kay Yow (North Carolina St.; 1976-09), Wanda Watkins (Campbell; 1982-15), Kathleen Delaney-Smith (1983-15), Frank Bennett (Lipscomb; 1981-12), , Mike Granelli (Saint Peter’s; 1973-04), Jody Conradt (Texas; 1977-07), Marian Washington (Kansas; 1974-04), Lynne Agee (UNC Greensboro; 1982-11), Shirley Walker (Alcorn; 1979-08) are the others.
Among the Best Ever
The Cardinal is 977-304 (.763) all-time since its first varsity season in 1975. Stanford would join an exclusive list with 23 more wins, a total it has reached in each of the past 14 seasons. Tennessee (1,277), Louisiana Tech (1,059) and James Madison (1,018) are currently the only Division I institutions with 1,000 victories. Stanford is seventh on that list, also behind Old Dominion (997), Stephen F. Austin (987) and Texas (981).
Stanford’s .763 winning percentage is fourth all-time in Division I, trailing Connecticut (.832), Tennessee (.817) and Louisiana Tech (.791).
The Cardinal is fourth in the NCAA over the last five years by both wins and percentage. From 2011-15, Stanford has gone 160-22 (.879). Connecticut is 182-12 (.938), Baylor is 173-14 (.925) and Notre Dame is 174-18 (.906).