Right Back to Work

No. 11 Stanford (2-0)
vs. Gonzaga (2-0)
Friday, Nov. 18 • 7 p.m.
Maples Pavilion • Stanford, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Tickets
Television • Pac-12 Bay Area
Live Statistics •Available via GoStanford.com

THE GAMENo. 11/7 Stanford (2-0) hosts Gonzaga (2-0) on Friday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. Krista Blunk, Mary Murphy and Layshia Clarendon have the call on Pac-12 Bay Area.

CANNED FOOD DRIVEFans can bring a canned food item to receive a voucher for a $5 ticket to the game. All donations will go to Second Harvest Food Bank.

THE RUNDOWNStanford is coming off a win over No. 8 Texas to run its winning streak against top-10 opponents to three ... Stanford's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,006-312 (.763) ... The Cardinal is the nation's 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 982-225 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and is 18 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 and has appeared in 288 straight ... Stanford is 139-7 (.952) in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08 ... Brittany McPhee torched Texas for 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting (.733), the most efficient performance for a Cardinal guard against a ranked team since 1999-00 ... Since the start of 2015-16, Erica McCall is one of two players in the country averaging 15+ points, 9+ rebounds and 2+ blocks while shooting better than 50.0 percent ... McCall is third in the country in blocks per game (4.50) ... Karlie Samuelson is the active NCAA leader in career 3-point field goal percentage (.419) ... Stanford signed the nation's second-ranked recruiting class on Nov. 9, including three top-50 recruits ... Marta Sniezek, who is averaging 5.2 assists with a 2.54 assist-to-turnover ratio in her last 17 games, is the only underclassman in Stanford's starting lineup.

VS. GONZAGAStanford is 7-0 against Gonzaga and won 73-45 in the teams' last meeting in Maples on Dec. 14, 2013. Following a one-year hiatus after featuring matchups every year from 2009-13, the series resumed last November in Spokane, a 65-48 Cardinal win that featured a 23-point, 13-rebound double-double from Erica McCall. Stanford closed the game on a 19-1 run over the last 5:28 and held Gonzaga to 0-of-12 shooting over that stretch. The Zags' Elle Tinkle is the younger sister of former Cardinal Joslyn Tinkle, who played in three Final Fours and is fifth in school history in blocks (150).

CATCHING YOU UP

• Brittany McPhee scored a career-high 28 points, Erica McCall added 17 points and six blocked shots and Stanford beat No. 8 Texas 71-59 in Maples Pavilion on Monday night.
• The victory was the Cardinal's third consecutive over a top-10 opponent, the program's longest streak since it won five straight in the 2010-11 season.
• The win was also the 982nd in Tara VanDerveer's Hall of Fame career. She is 18 away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.
• Stanford is eighth in the nation in field goal percentage through the season's first two games (.539) and the Cardinal has shot better than 50 percent in back-to-back games for the first time since the 2015 NCAA Tournament when it made 51.0 percent against CSUN and 52.2 percent against Oklahoma.
• The Cardinal hasn't made more than half its attempts in three straight since doing it in four consecutive games in Jan. 2014.

AMONG THE BEST EVER

• Stanford's victory over Oregon State on Feb. 26, 2016 was the 1,000th in program history. With 1,006 wins, the Cardinal is the seventh-winningest program in women's college basketball history. The country's other 1,000-victory programs are Tennessee (1,302), Louisiana Tech (1,073), Connecticut (1,047), James Madison (1,047), 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 1,006-312 (.763) and 830-174 (.827) with Tara VanDerveer at the helm.
• Stanford's .763 winning percentage is fourth all-time in Division I, trailing Tennessee (.813) and Louisiana Tech (.784) and Connecticut (.780).

SETTING THE STAGE

• Stanford and Gonzaga are two of the nation's most efficient offensive teams over the past decade.
• Gonzaga is eighth in the country in scoring the past 10 years (75.1) and Stanford is ninth (74.3).
• Stanford is fifth nationally in field goal percentage over that time (.460) and Gonzaga is ninth (.445).
• Gonzaga ranks seventh in the NCAA in assists per game since 2007-08 (16.5) and Stanford ninth (16.2).
• Stanford is 139-7 (.952) in Maples Pavilion since 2007-08.
• The Cardinal's 139 home wins are the fifth-most in the nation the last decade and its .952 home winning percentage is third behind Connecticut (.970) and Baylor (.959).

MORE MILESTONES ON THE HORIZON FOR TARA

Winningest Coaches (By Victories)

• Entering her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 982-225 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 830-174 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 18 victories shy of joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.
• Summitt (1,098) along with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke (1,045) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,032) on the men's side are the only college basketball coaches with 1,000 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.

McPHIRE

• Junior guard Brittany McPhee torched No. 8 Texas for a career-high 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting (.733) on Monday night. She scored all of her points in the first three quarters and staked Stanford to a 58-50 lead heading in the fourth.
• Her performance from the floor was the most efficient for a Stanford guard against a ranked opponent with records dating back to 1999-00 (minimum 10 field goals made).
• Four-time All-American Candice Wiggins is second on that list, converting 55.6 percent in games against No. 16 Minnesota on Nov. 20, 2005 (10-of-18) and No. 23 UTEP on March 24, 2008 (15-of-27).
• Including McPhee, Stanford guards have made 10 field goals in a game against top-25 teams nine times since 1999-00. Wiggins has seven of them.

BIRD SOARING

• Since the start of her junior year, Erica McCall is averaging 15.0 points on 50.9 percent shooting, 9.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks.
• McCall and Utah's Emily Potter are the only players in the country averaging 15+ points, 9+ rebounds and 2+ blocks while converting more than half of their shots since the beginning of last season.
• McCall closed 2015-16 by averaging 20.3 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in Stanford's last 10.
• Her 66 blocks last season tied for third in Stanford single-season history and her 146 career blocks rank sixth at Stanford behind Jayne Appel (278), Chiney Ogwumike (202), Val Whiting (201), Kristen Newlin (163) and Joslyn Tinkle (150).
• She is third in the nation averaging 4.50 blocks per game thus far in 2016-17.
• McCall's 20 career double-doubles are tied for 19th among active NCAA players. Among those active players, only Lexi Martins of George Washington (24), Alaina Coates of South Carolina (21) and Nia Coffey of Northwestern have had more than McCall's 18 double-doubles since the start of last season.
• On Nov. 3, McCall was named to the five-person preseason All-Pac-12 Team by the league's media and she also checked in at No. 23 in espnW's preseason list of the best women's college basketball players in 2016-17.

TAKE AIM

Active 3-Point FG% Leaders

• 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 (.419).
• In her last 23 games, Samuelson is 55-of-108 on 3-pointers (.509).
• She returned to practice on Nov. 8 for the first time in roughly six weeks after she recovered from a hairline fracture in her wrist.

SNIEZEK STEPS UP

• In her last 17 games, Marta Sniezek is averaging 5.2 assists with a 2.54 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• The sophomore averaged 1.8 assists with 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.

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 334 opponents to 34.5 percent shooting (6,946-of-20,150).

FG% Defense Leaders (Since 2007-08)

PRESEASON PROGNOSTICATIONS

• Stanford is No. 11 in the AP top 25 and No. 7 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
• It has been ranked 497 times out of 712 total AP polls since 1977 (69.8 percent), with an average positioning of 7.1. It's been in the past 288, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (433). Stanford has been in 296 consecutive coaches polls.
• The Cardinal's 497 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (694), Georgia (522) and Texas (503).
• 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 South Korea and Alanna Smith with Australia at the FIBA U19 Women's World Championship in 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.
• 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).

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), a group collectively rated No. 2 by espnW HoopGurlz.
• 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 overall.
• 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).
• Dodson and Williams were named to the 50-person Naismith Trophy High School Girl's Preseason watch list on Nov. 16.

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 is 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 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.
• 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.
• Late last spring, 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 Nov. 10, 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.