What's Next
For the first time since 1992, two Pac-12 schools will meet in the Elite Eight when No. 4 Stanford (27-7) plays No. 7 Washington (25-10) at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. on Sunday, March 27 (1 p.m. ET). Dave Pasch, Debbie Antonelli and Allison Williams have the call on ESPN.
NCAA Tournament Notes
Stanford is making its 18th overall trip to the Elite Eight and 10th in the last 13 years.
Since its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1982, Stanford has won two national championships (1990, 1992), reached 12 Final Fours (1990-92, 1995-97, 2008-12, 2014), 18 Elite Eights, 23 Sweet 16s and compiled an NCAA Tournament record of 80-27 (.748).
It's a Pac-12 party in Kentucky. Stanford 90 - Notre Dame 84. #GoStanford #Elite8
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Mar 25, 2016 at 8:41pm PDT
Overall, this year marks the Cardinal's 30th NCAA Tournament appearance and 29th straight. Stanford is 12-5 all-time in the Elite Eight.
Stanford's 12 Final Four appearances are the third-most by any school entering this year's tournament and its 30 overall appearances rank third behind only Tennessee (35) and Georgia (32).
Tennessee is the only school that has a longer active streak of NCAA Tournament appearances than Stanford's 29. The Lady Vols have earned a bid to all 35 NCAA Tournaments.
The Cardinal's 80 wins in the NCAA Tournament are third all-time behind Tennessee (123) and Connecticut (106) as are its 107 tournament games. Tennessee has appeared in 149 and Connecticut 123.
Stanford's .748 NCAA Tournament winning percentage is fourth all-time among programs with a minimum of 20 appearances. Connecticut is No. 1 (.862; 106-17), Tennessee is No. 2 (.826; 123-26) and Baylor is No. 3 (.760; 38-12).
#BackThePac
The Pac-12 had four women's basketball teams in the Sweet 16 for the first time in conference history.
The league's five first-round wins were its most since 2006 and its 12 NCAA Tournament wins this season are a conference record for a single tournament. The Pac-12 finished with nine NCAA Tournament victories in 2009 and 1992.
The last time the Pac-12 had two teams in the Elite Eight was 2009 (ASU and Stanford).
The last time Pac-12 teams faced each other in the Elite Eight was 1992. Stanford beat USC, 82-62, en route to the program's second NCAA title.
The Pac-12 has three teams in the Elite Eight for the first time.
The Pac-12 has had a Final Four team in seven of the last eight years, including seven straight from 2008-2014. The league has never had multiple Final Four teams.
What To Watch For
Stanford is 47-16 all-time against Washington and 1-0 in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinal beat UW in a West Regional Semifinal at UNLV on March 21, 1991, 73-47.
The two split this year's matchups, with Stanford winning on The Farm on Jan. 29, 69-53, and Washington coming out on top in the quarterfinals in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 4, 73-65.
In the win in Maples Pavilion, Lili Thompson scored 17 of her 27 points in the first quarter as the Cardinal built a 26-13 advantage. She was 6-of-7 shooting in the first 10 minutes, including 5-of-5 from beyond the arc.
In early March, the Huskies handed Stanford its first quarterfinal loss in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Cardinal had never been one-and-done at the event and was 13-0 in that round before this season.
Against Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 4, freshman Marta Sniezek 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.
The 13 assists are tied for third in program history and only equaled by a pair of Stanford greats in Jennifer Azzi and Sonja Henning. Azzi had a program-record 16 on Jan. 15, 1987 against BYU while Henning handed out 15 at Cal on March 1, 1991. Azzi also had 13 against Arizona on Jan. 24, 1987 and Henning the same number against Arkansas on March 24, 1990.
Sniezek has 103 assists this season, the eighth Stanford freshman to reach triple digits and second in the last 10 seasons (Ros Gold-Onwude - 117; 2006 and Amber Orrange - 112; 2012).
This season is the first since 1999-2000 that the Cardinal has not won some form of a Pac-12 championship - regular season or tournament.
The Cardinal has won 25 games for the 15th straight year and reached double-digit Pac-12 victories for the 29th consecutive season.
In 2015-16, Stanford is without a senior starter for the first time in 13 seasons. The 2002-03 campaign was the last time the Cardinal didn't have a senior in its first five.
Stanford's 90 points against Notre Dame were its most in the NCAA Tournament since it scored 96 in a second-round matchup vs. Iowa in 2010.
Erica McCall is averaging 20.7 points on 59 percent shooting, 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in the last eight games. She has scored in double figures in 18 of the last 19 and had 20-point efforts in six of the Cardinal's last eight.
Karlie Samuelson is 76-of-162 from behind the arc this season and is fifth in the nation (min. two made per game) in 3-point field goal percentage (.469). A career 41.7 percent 3-point shooter, Samuelson has made 149 from deep in her career.
She had the second 20-point game of her career against Notre Dame on Friday.
Eighty-one percent (550-of-680) of her career points have come on 3-pointers (447) and free throws (103). Her 76 3-pointers this season are ninth in school history.
Notes entering the weekend »
Madness In Maples
Stanford advanced by running its winning streak in NCAA Tournament games at Maples Pavilion to 14 with wins over No. 13 San Francisco (85-58) and No. 12 South Dakota State (66-65).
Monday's game against the Jacks was Tara VanDerveer's 1,000th as the head coach at Stanford.
As a city, Stanford has served as a host for 65 NCAA Tournament games, the third-most behind Knoxville, Tenn. (82) and Norfolk, Va. (67).
Each of those games has been played in Maples Pavilion, which has hosted more NCAA Tournament games than any other facility except Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena (66).
The Cardinal is 34-4 all-time in NCAA Tournament games at Maples Pavilion and has won 14 straight. Its last loss came to Florida State, 68-61, in the Second Round on March 19, 2007.
This season is the 20th in which Stanford hosted NCAA Tournament games in Maples since staging its first in 1989 and the 19th in which the Cardinal has opened up its postseason at home. Of the program's four home losses in the NCAA Tournament one came in the First Round (Harvard, 1998), two came in the Second Round (Florida State, 2007 and Minnesota, 2003) and one came in a Regional Final (Purdue, 1994).
Stanford is 135-7 (.951) in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08.
Against Notre Dame
This will be just the fourth all-time meeting between the two schools with rich basketball histories and second in the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, Notre Dame eliminated Stanford in the Sweet 16 in Oklahoma City, 81-60. Lindsay Allen scored 24 of her career-high 28 points in the first half, while Jewell Loyd scored 17 of her 21 after the break. Bonnie Samuelson had 17 and Erica McCall and Amber Orrange each added 12 for Stanford.
Stanford had won the two previous matchups with Notre Dame, beating the Irish in Maples Pavilion, 97-67, on Dec. 2, 1990 and then doing the same in South Bend, 88-76, on Nov. 24, 1991.
Sonja Henning led the Cardinal to the first victory with an 18-point, 12-assist double-double. Julie Zeilstra added 16 points and Molly Goodenbour and Val Whiting each contributed 12. Stanford was 9-of-19 from deep, a season-high for 3-point makes, while Notre Dame was 0-of-4.
In the 1991 meeting at Notre Dame, Val Whiting posted one of her 14 double-doubles that season with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Chris MacMurdo led the Cardinal with 22 points and Molly Goodenbour chipped in 16 and handed out eight assists. Stanford tallied a season-high 19 steals and forced Notre Dame into 30 turnovers, also a season-high for any opponent. Current Stanford assistant coach Kate Paye was a freshman on that squad playing in her second career game.
Pac-12 All-Century
Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball Tara VanDerveer was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Century and a conference-best eight players were named to the 20-member all-century squad when the league revealed the Pac-12 All-Century Women's Basketball roster on Feb. 29.
.@StanfordWBB's @taras_tweets is the #Pac12WBB Coach of the Century! #100Pac12https://t.co/PgR1VcrWHZ
— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) March 1, 2016
Stanford's all-century representatives are: Jennifer Azzi (1987-90), Molly Goodenbour (1990-93), Sonja Henning (1988-91), Chiney Ogwumike (2011-14), Nnemkadi Ogwumike (2009-12), Nicole Powell (2001-04), Kate Starbird (1994-97) and Candice Wiggins (2005-08).
Postseason Awards
Erica McCall was named to both the All-Pac-12 squad and the Pac-12 All-Defensive team, Lili Thompson earned her second All-Pac-12 nod and was a Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention, Karlie Samuelson was picked All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention, Kaylee Johnson earned a spot on the Pac-12 All-Defensive honorable mention team and Marta Sniezek was a Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention pick. Stanford now has 70 all-time Pac-12 all-conference honorees, the top total in league history.
1K Conquered
Stanford's victory over Oregon State on Feb. 26 was the 1,000th in Cardinal program history. Stanford is the seventh Division I institution to reach the 1,000-win plateau, joining Tennessee, Louisiana Tech, James Madison, Old Dominion, Texas and Stephen F. Austin. The Cardinal's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,003-311 (.763) and 827-173 (.827) with Tara VanDerveer at the helm.
Stanford, which reached the milestone in 1,310 total games, is the third-fastest to the mark, behind Louisiana Tech (1,210) and Tennessee (1,232).
Entering this season, the Cardinal was fourth in the NCAA over the last five years by both wins and percentage. From 2011-15, Stanford went 160-22 (.879). Connecticut was 182-12 (.938), Baylor was 173-14 (.925) and Notre Dame was 174-18 (.906).
Bird Is The Word
Erica McCall is averaging 19.9 points on 58 percent shooting, 9.1 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in the last eight games. She has scored in double figures in 17 of the last 18 and has posted three straight NCAA Tournament double-doubles dating back to last season.
The Cardinal's junior captain received the first weekly honors of her career on Feb. 29 when she was named both espnW National Player of the Week and Pac-12 Player of the Week for her performances in 20-points victories over No. 7 Oregon State (76-54) and Oregon (69-42). McCall posted back-to-back 20-point games for the first time in her career in the wins, averaging 25.0 points and 11.5 rebounds. She shot 56 percent from the floor and 44 percent from behind the arc.
Most impressively, McCall started taking and making the first 3-pointers of her career. She was 4-of-9 (44.4 percent) from behind the arc on the weekend after attempting just one 3-pointer in her first 99 career games. She is 8-of-21 (.381) on 3-pointers overall this season.
Bird watching. ???? @_mediumE #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/TFQ6zJZLkq
— Stanford WBB (@StanfordWBB) March 1, 2016
McCall also has 65 blocks this season, fifth in school single-season history. Jayne Appel, Chiney Ogwumike and Joslyn Tinkle are the only other Stanford players to have as many in a single year. Her 136 career blocks are tied for sixth in school history.
McCall has 17 double-doubles this season, tied for 18th in the nation.
A psychology major with a 3.53 cumulative GPA, she was selected to the 2015-16 CoSIDA Academic All-District Women's Basketball Team on Feb. 11. Her honor continued a run of five straight years with a Cardinal receiving academic all-district accolades, the longest streak in the Pac-12.
For her urban education class, McCall visited third and fifth-grade classrooms in East Palo Alto and wrote a paper on teacher-student interaction in the urban school setting.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Feb 11, 2016 at 1:28pm PST
Sniezek Steps Up
Marta Sniezek is averaging 4.9 assists in Stanford's last 13 games with a 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. She has 24 assists and just three turnovers in the last three games. In the first 20 games of the year, the freshman was handing out 1.8 assists and owned an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.9.
She handed out nine of Stanford's 20 assists in its NCAA Tournament win against San Francisco on March 19, the most for a Stanford player in the tournament since Amber Orrange had nine against South Dakota on March 22, 2014.
Against Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 4, the freshman 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.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Feb 29, 2016 at 1:28pm PST
The 13 assists are tied for third in program history and only equaled by a pair of Stanford greats in Jennifer Azzi and Sonja Henning. Azzi had a program-record 16 on Jan. 15, 1987 against BYU while Henning handed out 15 at Cal on March 1, 1991. Azzi also had 13 against Arizona on Jan. 24, 1987 and Henning the same number against Arkansas on March 24, 1990.
Season Quick Hitters
The Cardinal has won 25 games for the 15th straight year and reached double-digit Pac-12 victories for the 29th consecutive season.
In 2015-16, Stanford is without a senior starter for the first time in 13 seasons. The 2002-03 campaign was the last time the Cardinal didn't have a senior in its first five.
Stanford is 4-5 against the AP top 25 and has had multiple wins over ranked opponents in every season starting in 2002-03.
This season is the first since 1999-2000 that the Cardinal has not won some form of a Pac-12 championship - regular season or tournament.
Applying Pressure
The Cardinal has held 25 of 33 opponents below 40 percent shooting, 10 below 30 percent and one below 20 percent. Stanford is second in the nation in field goal percentage defense (.328) and 19th in scoring defense (54.2).
Says Tara VanDerveer » Our defense is what we've been hanging our hat on...This is one of the most committed defensive teams we've had.
In its last 25 games (beginning with Tennessee), the Cardinal has surrendered an average of 52.0 points and has surrendered more than 60 just four times, including one overtime affair. In its first eight games of the season, Stanford gave up 61.2 points and allowed more than 60 points six times.
| Opponent Field Goal Percentage - Stanford History | ||
| No. | Pct. | Year |
| 1. | .316 | 2012-13 |
| 2. | .328 | 2015-16 |
| 3. | .336 | 2010-11 |
| 4. | .339 | 2009-10 |
| .339 | 2011-12 | |
| 6. | .346 | 2001-02 |
| .346 | 2006-07 | |
| 8. | .351 | 2004-05 |
| 9. | .352 | 2008-09 |
| 10. | .355 | 2007-08 |
One game after holding Chattanooga to 30 points on Dec. 28, the sixth-fewest for an opponent in program history, the Cardinal only surrendered 34 on Jan. 2 at Arizona, a total now tied for 10th in its record books and for the fewest allowed by the program in a Pac-12 game. Stanford had never before held back-to-back opponents to less than 35 points.
Stanford has held its opponent below 10 points 30 times in 132 regulation quarters, or 23 percent of the time this season.
Stanford is also eighth in the country in blocked shots per game (6.3) and has tallied seven or more blocks in a game 15 times this season after doing it five times all of last year. Its 207 total blocks are a school record.
The Cardinal's 13 blocks against USC on Jan. 22 tied the school record from Feb. 3, 1989 against Arizona State. Stanford also had 12 against CSU Bakersfield, 11 against Utah, 11 against Oregon and 10 against UC Davis. Stanford has had a school-record five games with double-digit blocks in a single season. Its 2000-01 squad had four games with at least 10 blocks.
| Stanford Single-Season Blocks | ||
| No. | Blocks | Year |
| 1. | 207 | 2015-16 |
| 2. | 196 | 2001-02 |
| 3. | 189 | 2006-07 |
| 4. | 187 | 2007-08 |
| 5. | 186 | 2012-13 |
| 6. | 177 | 2011-12 |
| 177 | 2008-09 | |
| 176 | 2000-01 | |
| 9. | 166 | 2014-15 |
| 10. | 158 | 2009-10 |
Its defensive prowess this season is a return to normal for the Cardinal. Last year's 37.0 percent field goal percentage defense mark was 43rd and the lowest in some time. Stanford hadn't surrendered a better percentage since 2005-06 (36th; .373) and hadn't finished a season ranked lower in that category since 2002-03 (57th; .384).
From 2006-07 to 2013-14, the Cardinal did not finish outside the nation's top 15 in field goal percentage defense, capping that stretch with a 35.7 percent mark to check in 14th in the country in 2013-14.
Stanford was the nation's best with a school record field goal percentage defense in 2012-13 (.316). The Cardinal was seventh in 2011-12 (.339), fifth in 2010-11 (.336), third in 2009-10 (.339), 13th in 2008-09 (.352), 11th in 2007-08 (.355) and sixth in 2006-07 (.346).
Tracking Thompson
Against Colorado on Jan. 10, Lili Thompson became the 36th Stanford player to surpass 1,000 career points. Now at 1,220 she is 28th all-time at Stanford between Julie Zeilstra (1,259; 1988-91) and Maggie Nelson (1,180; 1974-78).
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jan 10, 2016 at 12:57pm PST
Thompson has scored 20 or more seven times this season, including in recent wins against Washington and Washington State. In those two, she averaged 28.5 points per game and shot 63 percent from the field (22-of-35) and 71 percent from the 3-point line (10-of-14). Thompson scored 41 percent of Stanford's points (57) and was named both espnW National Player of the Week and Pac-12 Player of the Week for her efforts.
It was the second espnW National Player of the Week award of Thompson's career. Last November, she was honored after averaging 26.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in Stanford's games against No. 1 Connecticut and No. 10 Texas. Her conference accolade was her league-leading third of the season and the fourth of her career.
Thompson, a science, technology and society major with a 3.32 GPA, has coded numerous computer programs for her programming abstractions class using C++, including a bacteria growth simulation program and hangman.
Good Stretches
Brittany McPhee has made 19 of her last 50 attempts from 3-point range (.380) after starting her career going 9-of-48 (.188) in her first 37 career games.
Kaylee Johnson has come on strong in Stanford's last 25 games, averaging 7.5 points on 54.4 percent shooting (74-of-136) to go along with 7.6 rebounds.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Feb 29, 2016 at 1:29pm PST
The sophomore opened the year averaging 1.1 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting just 22.2 percent from the floor in the Cardinal's first eight games. Johnson has scored 10+ 10 times in those 25 games after doing it all of six times as a freshman.
Different Samuelson, Same Story
Stanford lost Bonnie Samuelson to graduation after a career in which she finished third in school history and 10th in Pac-12 history in 3-point makes (237), but younger sister Karlie Samuelson has stepped in to keep up the family's sharpshooting legacy.
Karlie is 71-of-156 from behind the arc this season and is fourth in the nation (min. two made per game) in 3-point field goal percentage (.455). A career 41.0 percent 3-point shooter, Samuelson has made 144 from deep in her career.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Feb 29, 2016 at 1:30pm PST
Eighty-one percent (532-of-660) of her career points have come on 3-pointers (432) and free throws (100). The junior captain has made more than twice as many field goals from behind the arc as she has from inside, converting 64 2-point attempts. She is 26-of-62 (.419) on such shots this season.
Fourteen of her 28 career games in double figures scoring have come in Stanford's last 24 outings and in her last 19 games, Samuelson is 43-of-87 on 3-pointers (.494). In the Cardinal's 22-point win over No. 7 Oregon State on Feb. 26, the junior tallied the first double-double of her career, with 13 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
A human biology major with a 3.38 cumulative GPA, Samuelson spent last summer interning in the Stanford Radiology Department, evaluating the change of cartilage in MRI scans.
More Milestones On The Horizon For Tara
In her 30th season on the bench at Stanford, Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 979-224 (.814) record in her 37 years as a collegiate head coach and an 827-173 (.827) on The Farm.
In November 2013, she became just the fifth college women's basketball coach to win 900 career games. Last 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, P. Summitt (Tennessee), M. Krzyzewski (Duke), G. Auriemma (Connecticut), D. Smith (North Carolina), A. Rupp (Kentucky), A. Landers (Georgia), J. Boeheim (Syracuse), R. Selvig (Montana) and J. Phelan (Mount St. Mary's).
| Winningest NCAA Coaches All-Time (By Victories) | ||||
| Coach | Years | Won | Lost | Percentage |
| Pat Summitt | 38 | 1,098 | 208 | .841 |
| Tara VanDerveer | 36+ | 979 | 224 | .814 |
| Sylvia Hatchell | 40+ | 975 | 358 | .731 |
| C. Vivan Stringer | 44+ | 971 | 366 | .726 |
| Barbara Stevens | 38+ | 957 | 267 | .782 |
One of the greatest leaders in any sport at any level, VanDerveer is the second-winningest coach in NCAA women's basketball history and is 21 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only coaches with 1,000 career wins.
Off the court, she served as Stanford football's honorary captain for its Oct. 3 home win over Arizona. In another football connection, former Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh and one of Tara's coaching confidants delivered a pregame address to the team before its win over Utah on Jan. 8.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jan 8, 2016 at 6:45pm PST
On Jan. 26, VanDerveer was honored with the 2016 Coaching Corps Lifetime Achievement Award at the organization's 2nd Annual Game Changer Awards at The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. VanDerveer's award was presented by former Stanford All-American and current San Francisco head coach Jennifer Azzi. The event supported Coaching Corps' mission to provide youth from under-resourced communities access to trained coaches and the benefits of sports activities and team-based learning.
Checking The Polls
Stanford finished No. 13 in the AP top 25 and is No. 16 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
Stanford has appeared in the AP rankings 495 times out of 710 total polls since 1977 (69.7 percent), with an average positioning of 7.0. It's been in the past 286 polls, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (431). Stanford has also been in 293 consecutive coaches polls.
The Cardinal's 495 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (692), Georgia (522) and Texas (501).
Past and Future
On Jan. 25, former Stanford All-American sisters Chiney and Nneka Ogwumike were named as two of 25 finalists for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Women's Basketball Team. The 25 finalists were chosen by the USA Basketball Women's National Team Player Selection Committee, which will select the official 12-member U.S. Olympic Team later this year.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jan 25, 2016 at 12:28pm PST
On Jan. 17, incoming freshmen DiJonai Carrington, Nadia Fingall and Anna Wilson were named to the West roster for the 15th annual McDonald's All American Game on March 30 in Chicago.
Of the 24 girls selected to be McDonald's All Americans, Stanford and Maryland have the most players suiting up next fall with three commits each.
They will be the 16th, 17th and 18th Cardinal signees featured in the nation's premier high school basketball all-star event. Stanford most recently had a pair of McDonald's All Americans in 2013 in current juniors Kailee Johnson and Erica McCall.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jan 20, 2016 at 9:00am PST
The three commits to earn roster spots ties a program record from 2007 when Ashley Cimino, Kayla Pedersen and Jeanette Pohlen were each named McDonald's All Americans.
On March 15, the same trio was selected to the West Team for the Jordan Brand Classic on April 15 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. They will be the first to represent Stanford at the event, now in its second year on the women's side.
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
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jul 13, 2015 at 12:20pm PDT
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.
A photo posted by Stanford Women's Basketball (@stanfordwbb) on Jul 27, 2015 at 10:22am PDT
Always Learning
Last year it was Mike D'Antoni, Joe Prunty, Jenny Boucek and others who helped Tara VanDerveer and her staff learn the intricacies of a more guard-oriented, fast-paced, pick-and-roll offense as Stanford moved away from the triangle for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
This year it has been a give-and-take with the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors practiced at Stanford on Oct. 5 before preseason game in San Jose and assistant coach Kate Paye attended another Golden State practice in the East Bay. When the Warriors were on the road in San Diego, VanDerveer's sister and UCSD women's coach, Heidi VanDerveer, attended a practice.
Solid start to the first day of practice. Warriors warmed up the court for the Cardinal. #GoStanford #Warriors pic.twitter.com/JyPwgPlEHo
— Stanford WBB (@StanfordWBB) October 5, 2015
Warriors assistant coach and former Stanford star Jarron Collins » "It goes back to, men's team or women's team, basketball's basketball and we're all trying to improve. There's this synergy of just talking shop. We've had a level of success, obviously, and you just want to borrow from those that have achieved a certain level. Our practices are very open to coaches who want to come and watch and observe. It's pretty cool for us getting to interact with Coach VanDerveer."
VanDerveer, who also asks former Stanford guard and now-Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude of her observations on what Golden State is doing, says "it's kind of a little clinic happening every two or three nights on television."