No. 6 Stanford (28-5)
vs. New Mexico State (24-6)
Saturday, March 18 • 12:30 p.m. CT/10:30 a.m. PT
Bramlage Coliseum • Manhattan, Kan.
Complete Release (PDF)
Television • ESPN2
Radio • KZSU 90.1FM
THE GAMEMaking its 30th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, No. 6 Stanford (28-5) begins its postseason as the No. 2 seed in the Lexington Region when it plays 15th-seeded New Mexico State (24-6) on Saturday, March 18 at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan. at 12:30 p.m. CT/10:30 a.m. PT.
THE RUNDOWNStanford is 80-28 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and 46-24 in games away from Maples Pavilion ... The Cardinal earned the Pac-12's automatic berth to the field after winning its 12th conference tournament championship ... On Feb. 3, Tara VanDerveer became the third Division I basketball coach to win 1,000 games when Stanford beat USC 58-42 ... She owns a 1,008-230 career record and has more wins than 341 of the country's 349 Division I programs ... Stanford is 170-36 (.825) in games away from Maples Pavilion the past 10 years (road/neutral), one of only three schools to have more than 150 such wins ... Alanna Smith is averaging 13.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the last 10 games ... She was one of three non-starters in the country to average 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks in the month of February ... Erica McCall is 25th in school history in points (1,311), seventh in rebounds (921) and fourth in blocks (191) and has 31 double-doubles in her last 67 games, the 10th most in the country over the past two seasons ... Karlie Samuelson is fourth among active players in career 3-point field goal percentage (.438), fourth in school history in 3-point makes (233) and 33rd in points (1,111) ... She is fourth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage this season (.476) ... Brittany McPhee's 6.2 per game scoring increase over last season is the third-best in the Pac-12.
NCAA TOURNAMENT NOTES• Stanford earned its 30th consecutive and 31st overall NCAA Tournament bid by collecting the Pac-12's automatic berth into the field after winning its 12th conference tournament championship.
• 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 80-28 (.741).
• Stanford's 12 Final Four appearances are the third-most by any school entering this year's tournament, and its 31 overall appearances rank third behind only Tennessee (36) and Georgia (32).
• Tennessee is the only school that has a longer active streak of NCAA Tournament appearances than Stanford's 30. The Lady Vols have earned a bid to all 36 NCAA Tournaments.
• The Cardinal's 80 wins in the NCAA Tournament are third all-time behind Tennessee (123) and Connecticut (109), as are its 108 tournament games. Tennessee has appeared in 150 and Connecticut 126.
• Stanford's .741 NCAA Tournament winning percentage is fourth all-time among programs with a minimum of 20 appearances. Connecticut is No. 1 (.865; 109-17), Tennessee is No. 2 (.820; 123-27) and Baylor is No. 3 (.750; 39-13).
• The Cardinal is a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time and first since 2014. Stanford has gone on to reach the Final Four as a No. 2 seed five times (1991, 1995, 2008, 2009, 2014), defeating the No. 1 seed in the regional final in 1991 (Georgia) and 2008 (Maryland). No. 2 seeds are 335-130 all-time in the tournament.
• This will be the 12th time that the Cardinal has opened the draw away from Maples Pavilion. Stanford is 15-4 in first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games away from home and is currently on a 12-game winning streak.
• The Cardinal is unable to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament because the Pac-12 Women's Gymnastics Championships, which rotate to host sites around the conference each year, will be in Maples Pavilion on Saturday, March 18.
• Maples Pavilion has hosted more NCAA Tournament games (65) than any other facility except Tennessee's Thompson-Boling Arena (66).
#TARA1K• In her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,008-230 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 856-179 mark on The Farm.
• Her teams have won 20 or more games 32 times and collected at least 30 victories 13 times. Pat Summitt (36) and C. Vivian Stringer (34) are the only coaches to lead their teams to more 20-win seasons.
• In November 2013, VanDerveer became just the fifth college women's basketball coach to win 900 career games and on Feb. 3 she joined her good friend Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.
• Summitt (1,098) along with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke (1,070) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,053) on the men's side are the only college basketball coaches with 1,000 wins.
• VanDerveer has more career wins than 341 of the country's 349 Division I programs.
• There were 13,945 days between her first career win on Dec. 1, 1978 and her 1,000th on Feb. 3, 2017.
• Through her first 37 seasons, VanDerveer averaged 26.5 victories and just 6.1 losses per year.
• VanDerveer has been a four-time national coach of the year (1988, 1989, 1990, 2011), 14-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year and two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year.
• Overall, she has coached her players to two Wade Trophy Player of the Year honors, two Naismith Player of the Year honors, 30 first-team All-America honors (WBCA and Associated Press), 18 Pac-12 Player of the Year awards, 70 first team All-Pac-12 selections and nearly 40 appointments to USA Basketball teams.
HOW WE GOT HERE• Stanford's 28 wins are its most entering the NCAA Tournament since the program was 29-3 in 2014.
• The Cardinal won its 12th Pac-12 Tournament in 16 tries thanks to a comeback that relied on stifling defense against No. 6 Oregon State in the championship game.
• Alanna Smith scored 18 points off the bench, Karlie Samuelson added 14 and after surrendering 22 points and nine field goals in the first quarter, the Cardinal allowed just 21 points and seven made field goals over the game's final 30 minutes.
• Stanford, which finished tied for second in the league regular-season standings, has not won a Pac-12 regular-season title since 2014, the first three-year drought in program history.
• Stanford has 20 wins for the 16th straight season and 28th overall and tallied double-digit Pac-12 victories for the 29th consecutive year.
• The Cardinal has won its 28 games with a balanced attack featuring six different leading scorers and three players (Erica McCall, Brittany McPhee, Karlie Samuelson) averaging over 12 points per game for the first time since 2010-11 (Nneka Ogwumike, Jeanette Pohlen, Kayla Pedersen).
• Stanford is 28th in the nation in field goal percentage (.448), sixth in field goal percentage defense (.342), 15th in scoring defense (55.5), 54th in scoring offense (72.1) and 13th in scoring margin (+16.6).
• The Cardinal is one of seven programs in the country in the top 30 nationally in both field goal percentage and field goal percentage defense along with Baylor, Duke, Connecticut, Central Arkansas, Green Bay and South Carolina.
SETTING THE STAGE• Stanford is 170-36 (.825) in games away from Maples Pavilion the last 10 years (road/neutral), one of only three schools to have more than 150 road and neutral wins along with Connecticut (191) and Notre Dame (162).
• The Cardinal is 16-2 this season in road and neutral games, its 88.9 winning percentage tied for third in the country with Notre Dame. Connecticut is first (18-0; 1.000) and Maryland second (16-1; .941).
• Tara VanDerveer and Stanford faced current New Mexico State head coach Mark Trakh 14 times when he was the head coach at USC for five seasons from 2005-09. The Cardinal was 13-1 in those games, its only loss coming in Los Angeles on Jan. 6, 2008, 73-72.
• Trakh also served as the head coach at Pepperdine from 1994-2004 and Stanford won three meetings with the Waves during those 10 seasons in Nov. 2001 (75-63), Jan. 2003 (91-58) and Nov. 2003 (69-61).
• Stanford has never played in Manhattan, Kansas, but its head coach is familiar with the campus and its surroundings. Kansas State hosted the 1974 AIAW Women's Basketball Tournament from March 20-23, 1974, which included Tara VanDerveer and the Indiana Hoosiers. IU knocked off Wayland Baptist 59-56 to open the tournament behind a career-high 26 points from its junior guard VanDerveer. Indiana would lose to eventual national champion Immaculata 60-56 in the quarterfinals the next day.
PAC-12 POSTSEASON AWARDS• Erica McCall, Brittany McPhee and Karlie Samuelson were voted to the 15-person All-Pac-12 squad, Briana Roberson was one of six named to Pac-12 All-Defensive team and Nadia Fingall earned Pac-12 All-Freshman honorable mention accolades on Feb. 28.
• Stanford now has 70 All-Pac-12 honorees in program history and 151 all-time Pac-12 awardees including honorable mention, freshman and defensive teams, the top totals in league history.
AGAINST RANKED• The Cardinal is 5-3 against ranked teams this season, 3-1 against the top 10, and has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 15 seasons.
• Stanford has won five of its last six against top-10 opponents, beating No. 7 Oregon State (Feb. 26, 2016), No. 2 Notre Dame (March 25, 2016), No. 8 Texas (Nov. 14, 2016), No. 7 Washington (Jan. 29, 2017) and No. 6 Oregon State (March 5, 2017) around a road loss to the No. 10 Beavers (Feb. 24, 2017).
• Stanford is 68-33 (.673) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
• Connecticut (.904), Baylor (.762), Notre Dame (.726), Stanford (.673), Tennessee (.620), Duke (.559), Maryland (.537) and Texas A&M (.513) have winning records against ranked teams the past decade.
CONFERENCE OF CHAMPIONS• A Pac-12-record seven teams were selected to participate in the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament from a league boasting the country's top collective RPI.
• From 2000 to 2012, Stanford played 27 conference and conference tournament games against ranked opponents and went 21-6. In just the last five seasons, the Cardinal has played a ranked Pac-12 team 30 times in conference and conference tournament games, going 20-10.
• For the second time and second-straight year, the Pac-12 has four teams ranked in the final Associated Press poll in Stanford (No. 6), Oregon State (No. 8), Washington (No. 12) and UCLA (No. 15).
SUPER SUB• The first international recruit in program history, Australian Alanna Smith is looking increasingly comfortable at the end of her sophomore season.
• In her last 10 games, Smith is averaging a team-high 13.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 23.4 minutes off the bench.
• Of her 17 career games in double figures scoring, nine have come since Jan. 1.
• Smith has come off the bench in 30 of her 33 appearances this season. Her 8.4 points per game average in those 30 outings as a substitute is the third-best in the Pac-12. Minyon Moore averaged 12.0 points in 26 games off the bench for USC and Alexys Swedlund 10.6 in 16 games off the bench for Washington State.
This was big.
— Stanford WBB (@StanfordWBB) February 26, 2017
?? » @Pac12Network #GoStanford https://t.co/wG4uo5Dg0F
• Smith averaged 13.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the month of February, one of three non-starters in the country with those numbers along with Georgia's Caliya Robinson and Oklahoma's Vionise Pierre-Louis.
• She accounted for 38 percent of Stanford's points in the Pac-12 Tournament title game against Oregon State and was named to the league's all-tournament team after averaging 10.3 points in Seattle.
BIRD SOARING• On March 1, Erica McCall was named to the 2016-17 CoSIDA Academic All-American Division I second team to become the eighth academic All-American in program history along with Chiney Ogwumike, Kristin Folkl, Kate Starbird, Chris MacMurdo, Julie Zeilstra, Jeanne Ruark Hoff and Louise Smith.
• She is averaging team highs in points (14.6), rebounds (8.7) and blocks (1.6), has scored in double figures in 28 games and led the team in scoring 26 times and rebounding 19 times.
• McCall was named the Most Outstanding Player at the Pac-12 Tournament after averaging 11.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in Stanford's three wins.
• The senior is one of only four players at Stanford with 1,300 career points, 900 rebounds and 190 blocks (Jayne Appel, Chiney Ogwumike, Val Whiting).
• Since the start of her junior year, McCall is averaging 14.8 points and 9.1 rebounds, one of nine players in the country with those numbers over the past two seasons along with Kristine Anigwe (Cal), Nia Coffey (Northwestern), Jessica Shepard (Nebraska), Brionna Jones (Maryland), Kaylee Jensen (Oklahoma State), Ally Lehman (Northern Illinois), Channon Fluker (CSUN) and Maya Hood (San Diego).
• McCall, who at one point or another has been on watch lists for the Naismith Trophy, Wade Trophy, Wooden Award and Ann Meyers Drysdale Award as well as a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award, became Stanford's 37th 1,000-point scorer at George Washington on Dec. 21. She is currently 25th in program history with 1,311.
• Her 191 career blocks are fourth at Stanford. Jayne Appel (278), Chiney Ogwumike (202) and Val Whiting (201) own the top three spots in program history.
• She is also seventh with 921 rebounds and one of 32 players in Pac-12 history with 900 career boards.
• McCall is 10th nationally in double-doubles since the start of 2015-16 with 31 in her last 67 games and tied for 13th among active NCAA players in career double-doubles (33).
• At Stanford since 2000, McCall is sixth in double-doubles behind Chiney Ogwumike (85), Nicole Powell (58), Nneka Ogwumike (51), Jayne Appel (46) and Kayla Pedersen (40).
• In Pac-12 games, McCall averaged 13.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, one of 13 players in the nation to do that in conference (minimum 10 games played).
TAKE AIM• Karlie Samuelson is fourth in career 3-point field goal percentage (.438) among active NCAA players and with 233 3-pointers made is fourth in Stanford history, four behind older sister Bonnie.
• She is averaging career highs in points (12.7), rebounds (3.6) and assists (2.6) and personal bests in field goal percentage (.482) and 3-point field goal percentage (.476).
• Three of her four career games with six 3-pointers made have come this season as have 23 of her 53 games scoring in double figures and five of her seven 20-point efforts.
• Will likely finish her career fifth in the Pac-12 in 3-point field goal percentage and with the best clip for any player since 1990.
• Rosalind Moore-Senior (Arizona State - 1987-89; .494), Chris Holten (Cal - 1987-90; .467), Jennifer Azzi (Stanford - 1987-90; .452) and Michelle Eble (Oregon - 1987-90; .443) are the only Pac-12 players to finish their careers making more than 43 percent from behind the arc.
• On Feb. 10 against Utah she became the program's 38th 1,000-point scorer and is now 33rd (1,111).
• Samuelson averaged 13.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists while shooting 49.7 percent from the field and 49.4 percent from deep in league games. She was one of two players in the country averaging 13/4/3 while shooting 49 percent from the floor and on 3-pointers in conference (Savannah Scott - Northern Colorado).
• Her .494 3-point percentage (44-of-89) in conference games led the Pac-12 and was sixth nationally.
• Samuelson's career 3-point percentage would be second in program history to Jennifer Azzi (.452). Krista Rappahahn and Kelley Suminski are the only other Cardinal to make more than 40 percent of their 3-pointers in a career (minimum 150 3FGM). Rappahahn converted 152-of-372 from 2003-06 (.409) and Suminski 208-of-514 from 2002-05 (.405).
• Samuelson will also likely go down owning two of the three best single seasons in terms of 3-point percentage in program history. Azzi has the record of .495 in 1988-89 and Samuelson's .473 clip as a junior last season is currently second.
• Since older sister Bonnie arrived on campus as a freshman for the 2011-12 season, the Samuelson sisters have made 470 of Stanford's 1,310 3-pointers during that time, or 35.9 percent.
• In her last 54 games, is 132-of-268 on 3-pointers (.493). She is currently fourth in the country in percentage from behind the arc this season (.476).
• More than 70 percent of her career attempts are from 3-point range and more than 80 percent of her points have come on 3-pointers and free throws. Samuelson is 118-of-244 (.484) on two-point shots.
• Against Arizona on Jan. 20, Samuelson became the eighth Stanford player to make 200 3-pointers in a career, joining Candice Wiggins, Jeanette Pohlen, Bonnie Samuelson, Vanessa Nygaard, Kelley Suminski, Sebnem Kimyacioglu and Nicole Powell.
McPHIRE• Junior Brittany McPhee is 15th in the Pac-12 averaging 12.7 points per game.
• McPhee, who averaged 6.5 points per game as a sophomore, has increased her average output by 6.2 points, the third-best improvement in the Pac-12.
• She is one of four players in the conference who have upped their scoring output by at least six points from a year ago - Kennedy Burke, UCLA (+6.7); Ivana Kmetovska, Washington State (+6.5); Alexys Swedlund (+6.2).
• McPhee is the 14th-best shooting guard among Power 5 conference players in the country with a field goal percentage of .451. She is shooting 25.6 percent on threes (23-90) and 51.7 percent from inside the arc (137-265).
• Twenty-one of her 31 career games scoring in double figures have come this season.
• The junior torched then-No. 8 Texas on Nov. 14 for a career-high 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting (.733) and followed that up with 22 points against Gonzaga her first back-to-back 20-point games.
• Her performance from the floor against the Longhorns 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).
DISHIN'• Marta Sniezek, who has handed out five or more assists in 23 of her 68 career appearances, is averaging 4.3 assists per game this season.
• In the last 20 years, only Nicole Powell, Milena Flores, Jeanette Pohlen and Amber Orrange have averaged more assists for Stanford over the course of a season. Powell averaged 6.3 in 2001-02 and 4.7 in 2000-01. Flores averaged 7.3 in 1998-99, 6.1 in 1997-98 and 5.9 in 1999-00, Pohlen averaged 4.8 in 2010-11 and 4.5 in 2009-10 and Orrange averaged 4.5 in 2013-14.
• Sniezek has handed out 47 assists against just 15 turnovers in the last 11 games.
• Her 3.13 assist to turnover ratio since Feb. 1 leads the Pac-12 and is tied for 12th nationally.
IN THE POLLS• Stanford is No. 6 in the AP top 25 and No. 6 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
• It has been ranked 514 times out of 729 total AP polls since 1977 (70.5 percent), with an average positioning of 7.1. It's been in the past 305, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (450). Stanford has been in 313 consecutive coaches polls.
• Stanford is also sixth in the NCAA RPI and has played the nation's 10th-toughest schedule.
• The Cardinal is 16-5 against the RPI top 100 and has the fifth-most such wins in the country. Connecticut (23), Notre Dame (20), Mississippi State (18) and Oregon State (18), are the only schools with more wins against the RPI top 100.
• Tara VanDerveer (523 weeks) recently moved to No. 2 behind Pat Summitt (618) in all-time AP women's basketball poll appearances, passing Andy Landers (522).
CARDINAL FOURTUNE• On Nov. 9, Stanford signed 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), collectively rated No. 5 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 FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain and the FIBA Americas U18 Championships in Valdivia, Chile.
• Dodson and Williams were selected to participate in both the McDonald's All American Game on March 29 in Chicago and the Jordan Brand Classic on April 14 in Brooklyn.
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 women's basketball's seventh WNBA champion and 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 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.
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.
• 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."
• 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.