No. 6 Stanford (32-5)
vs. No. 3 South Carolina (31-4)
Friday, March 31 • 6:30 p.m. CT/4:30 p.m. PT
American Airlines Center • Dallas, Texas
Complete Release (PDF)
Television •ESPN2
Radio • Westwood One | KZSU 90.1FM
THE GAMENo. 2 seed and Lexington Region winner Stanford (32-5) makes its 13th Final Four appearance when it plays No. 1 seed South Carolina (31-4), winner of the Stockton Region, in a national semifinal at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on Friday, March 31 at 6:30 p.m. CT.
THE RUNDOWNStanford is 84-28 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, 50-24 in games away from Maples Pavilion and 4-8 in the national semifinals ... Stanford has won 30 games for the 14th time in program history ... 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 1,012-230 career record and has more wins than 341 of the country's 349 Division I programs ... VanDerveer's 82 wins in the NCAA Tournament are third all-time ... Stanford is 174-36 (.829) 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 14.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in the last 14 games ... Erica McCall is 24th in school history in points (1,362), seventh in rebounds (962) and fourth in blocks (198) and has 32 double-doubles in her last 71 games, the eighth most in the country over the past two seasons ... Karlie Samuelson is fourth among active players in career 3-point field goal percentage (.445), third in school history in 3-point makes (249) and 31st in points (1,164) ... She is second nationally in 3-point field goal percentage this season (.490) ... Brittany McPhee's 6.9 per game scoring increase over last season is the best in the Pac-12 ... Stanford is 8-3 against ranked teams this season and 4-1 against the top 10.
STANFORD IN THE TOURNAMENT• Stanford is making its 13th overall trip to the Final Four and seventh in the last 10 years.
• Since its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1982, Stanford has won two national championships (1990, 1992), reached 13 Final Fours (1990-92, 1995-97, 2008-12, 2014, 2017), 19 Elite Eights, 24 Sweet 16s and compiled an NCAA Tournament record of 84-28 (.750).
• Overall, this year marks the Cardinal's 31st NCAA Tournament appearance and 30th straight. Stanford is 4-8 all-time in national semifinal games. It last advanced to the national championship in 2010.
• Stanford's 13 Final Four appearances are the third-most by any school, 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 84 wins in the NCAA Tournament are third all-time behind Tennessee (124) and Connecticut (113), as are its 112 tournament games. Tennessee has appeared in 152 and Connecticut 130.
• Stanford's .750 NCAA Tournament winning percentage is tied for third all-time among programs with a minimum of 20 appearances. Connecticut is No. 1 (.869; 113-17), Tennessee is No. 2 (.816; 124-28) and Baylor is tied at No. 3 (.750; 42-14).
• 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 six times (1991, 1995, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2017), defeating the No. 1 seed in the regional final in 1991 (Georgia), 2008 (Maryland) and 2017 (Notre Dame).
AGAINST SOUTH CAROLINA• This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two schools and second in the NCAA Tournament.
• Stanford beat South Carolina 76-60 in the Sweet 16 in Fresno, Calif. on March 24, 2012 behind 39 points and 10 rebounds from Nneka Ogwumike. Toni Kokenis scored 12 points and had seven rebounds, Joslyn Tinkle added seven with three blocks while Amber Orrange dished out five assists.
• Stanford led 59-54 with just 7:02 to play but the Cardinal's size took over and Stanford went on a 14-2 run over the next 3:54 to seal the victory.
• In the most recent meeting, Stanford won 53-49 on the road on Dec. 19, 2012. Chiney Ogwumike had 21 points and 15 boards and Toni Kokenis hit six foul shots in the closing minutes to preserve the win.
• The Cardinal also was victorious 70-32 in Maples Pavilion on Nov. 26, 2010, 78-47 on the road on Dec. 19, 2008 and 69-54 at home on Jan. 8, 2007.
Old friends. #GoStanford #WFinalFour pic.twitter.com/dUa6LEEhTz
— Stanford WBB (@StanfordWBB) March 29, 2017
• South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley was on the Virginia teams Stanford beat in the Final Four in 1990 and 1992 en route to its two national championships.
• Staley was also Tara VanDerveer's point guard on the 1996 Olympic team which won gold in Atlanta.
THIS AND THAT• Stanford has won 30 games for the 14th time and first since 2014.
• The Cardinal's 32 wins are tied for eighth in program history.
• In NCAA Tournament games the past two seasons Karlie Samuelson is 30-of-51 on 3-pointers (.588).
• Her 96 makes this year are tied with Jeanette Pohlen both for the school record and for fifth in Pac-12 single-season history.
• Samuelson, a .445 career 3-point shooter, leads the country in that department this season (.490).
• Erica McCall has had double-digit rebounds in eight of her last 10 NCAA Tournament games and double-doubles in five of her last nine.
• Samuelson and McCall were recently named WBCA All-Region and AP All-America honorable mention.
• Brittany McPhee is averaging 19.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals in the NCAA Tournament, one of only two players with those numbers (Napheesa Collier).
• Stanford set a school record with 211 blocks last season and its 207 this year are second all-time.
• The Cardinal's 12 blocks in the first round against New Mexico State were a school tournament record and are now tied as the ninth-most in a single game in tournament history.
• In her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,012-230 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 860-179 mark on The Farm.
• VanDerveer's 82 tournament wins are third behind Pat Summitt (112) and Geno Auriemma (112).
• The Cardinal has won 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 has been down by at least seven points and come back to win six times this season, including in five of its last six games.
• The Cardinal is 8-3 against ranked teams this season, 6-1 in road and neutral-site games and 4-1 against the top 10. Stanford has won six of its last seven against top-10 opponents.
• Stanford is 71-33 (.683) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
• In her last 14 games, Alanna Smith is averaging a team-high 14.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. • Stanford's 12 made 3-pointers in its Elite Eight win over Notre Dame were a season-high surpassing the 11 it had at Colorado on Jan. 15.
#TARA1K• In her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,012-230 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 860-179 mark on The Farm.
• Her teams have won 20 or more games 32 times and collected at least 30 victories 14 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 (1,071) 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.
HOW WE GOT HERE• The Cardinal earned the Pac-12's automatic berth to the field after winning its 12th conference tournament championship in 16 tries.
• 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.
• Stanford is 26th in the nation in field goal percentage (.447), ninth in field goal percentage defense (.349), 21st in scoring defense (56.3), 49th in scoring offense (72.2) and 12th in scoring margin (+15.9).
• 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.
COMEBACK KIDS• Stanford has been down by at least seven points and come back to win six times this season, including in five of its last six games.
• The Cardinal erased an 18-point deficit on the road at No. 7 Washington on Jan. 29, a 13-point hole in the Pac-12 Tournament final against No. 6 Oregon State on March 5 and nine-point deficits against Oregon in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals on March 4 and New Mexico State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 18.
• It trailed Texas by seven points late in the second quarter in the Sweet 16 and fought back from a 16-point, second-half deficit to knock off top-seeded Notre Dame in Sunday's Elite Eight.
• Says Karlie Samuelson, "We keep our heads in the game. I think there's a difference between feeling panicked and having a sense of urgency. We always know we can come back, so just keep playing hard."
ROAD WARRIORS• Stanford's second-round win at Kansas State was the program's eighth true road contest in the NCAA Tournament and moved its record to 3-5 in such games.
• Stanford had previously won at Montana on March 20, 1988 (74-72 [OT]) and at San Diego State on March 23, 2009 (77-49). It's road tournament losses came at Maryland on March 14, 1982 (82-48), at Texas on March 24, 1988 (79-58), at Louisiana Tech on March 25, 1989 (85-75), at Georgia on March 20, 2000 (83-64) and at Oklahoma on March 19, 2001 (67-50).
• This is the 11th time in Stanford's 31 tournament appearances that it will not host a game at home. The last time it happened in 2012, the Cardinal also advanced to the Final Four in Denver, Colo.
• Stanford is 20-2 in road and neutral-site games this season and its .909 winning percentage when it plays away from The Farm is second nationally behind Connecticut (20-0).
• The Cardinal was 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, was 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).
• Stanford is 174-36 (.829) 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 (193) and Notre Dame (163).
AGAINST RANKED• The Cardinal is 8-3 against ranked teams this season, 6-1 in road and neutral-site games and 4-1 against the top 10. Stanford has won six of its last seven against top-10 opponents.
• Stanford has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 15 seasons.
• The Cardinal has won six of its last seven 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), No. 6 Oregon State (March 5, 2017) and No. 2 Notre Dame (March 26, 2017) around a road loss to the No. 10 Beavers (Feb. 24, 2017).
• Stanford is 71-33 (.683) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
• Connecticut (.906), Baylor (.758), Notre Dame (.722), Stanford (.683), Tennessee (.615), Duke (.559), Maryland (.542) and Texas A&M (.509) have winning records against ranked teams the past decade.
STANFORD'S NCAA TITLES• Women's basketball is responsible for two of Stanford's 112 NCAA championships, a total which is second to UCLA's 113. The school has won 135 national team titles overall.
• The Cardinal has already won three NCAA titles this year in men's soccer, women's volleyball and women's swimming and diving.
• It's the most for the department since three Stanford teams won NCAA crowns in 2003-04. Cardinal programs last won four NCAA championships in 2001-02.
• Stanford has won at least one NCAA team title for 41 consecutive academic years.
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.
• All seven won in the first round and a conference-record five made the Sweet 16.
• 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 14 games, Smith is averaging a team-high 14.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 25.3 minutes off the bench.
• Those numbers have been even better in the NCAA Tournament, where Smith is second on the team in scoring (15.8) and rebounding (8.0) and first in blocks (2.5). She's shooting a team-high 55.3 percent from the floor (26-of-47) this postseason.
• Of her 21 career games in double figures scoring, 12 have come since the start of Stanford's conference slate, including in each of the past five games.
• Smith has come off the bench in 34 of her 37 appearances this season. Her 9.3 points per game average in those 34 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.
• 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.
• McCall graduated from Stanford a quarter early and finished her requirements for her psychology degree at the end of the winter session which concluded while the team was in Kentucky last week.
• She is averaging team highs in points (14.4), rebounds (8.9) and blocks (1.6), has scored in double figures in 30 games and had 10 or more rebounds 16 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 14.7 points and 9.2 rebounds, one of 10 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), Monique Billings (UCLA) and Maya Hood (San Diego).
• McCall, who at one point or another was 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 24th in program history with 1,362.
• Her 198 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 962 rebounds and one of 33 players in Pac-12 history with 900 career boards.
• McCall is tied for eighth nationally in double-doubles since the start of 2015-16 with 32 in her last 71 games and tied for 11th among active NCAA players in career double-doubles (34).
• 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 (.445) among active NCAA players and with 249 3-pointers made is third in Stanford history, 12 in front of older sister Bonnie.
• In NCAA Tournament games the past two seasons Samuelson is 30-of-51 on 3-pointers (.588). She has the most tournament makes in the nation over the past two years, four more than Kia Nurse.
• Samuelson's 96 made 3-pointers this season are tied with Jeanette Pohlen both for the school record and for fifth in Pac-12 single-season history.
• Samuelson (96; 2017), Pohlen (96; 2011), Krista Rappahahn (91; 2006) and Candice Wiggins (90; 2006) are the only players to make 90 in a season for the Cardinal.
• She is averaging career highs in points (12.8), rebounds (3.5) and assists (2.7) and personal bests in field goal percentage (.485) and 3-point field goal percentage (.490).
• Three of her four career games with six 3-pointers made have come this season as have 26 of her 56 games scoring in double figures and five of her seven 20-point efforts.
• Samuelson will likely finish her career fourth or 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 31st (1,164).
• 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).
• 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 486 of Stanford's 1,345-pointers during that time, or 36.1 percent.
• In her last 58 games, she is 148-of-296 on 3-pointers (.500).
• She leads the country in percentage from behind the arc this season (.490).
• Nearly 70 percent of her career attempts are from 3-point range and 64 percent of her points have come on 3-pointers. Samuelson is 119-of-249 (.478) 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 13.4 points per game.
• In the NCAA Tournament, the junior is averaging 19.0 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 steals. McPhee and Connecticut's Napheesa Collier are the only players putting up those numbers in the tournament.
• In her first 33 games of the season, McPhee shot 24.2 percent on 3-pointers (23-of-95). In the last three games against Kansas State, Texas and Notre Dame, she is 11-of-19 from deep (.579).
• She scored 16 of her game-high 21 in the first half against Kansas State on March 20 and also had seven rebounds, five assists and a career-high five made 3-pointers.
• Against the Irish on Sunday, McPhee scored 19 of her game-high 27 in the second half to go along with five rebounds, four assists, two blocks and another five made 3-pointers.
• McPhee, who averaged 6.5 points per game as a sophomore, has increased her average output by 6.9 points, the best improvement in the Pac-12.
• She is one of four players in the conference who upped their scoring output by at least six points - Alexys Swedlund (+6.9); Ivana Kmetovska, Washington State (+6.8); Kennedy Burke, UCLA (+6.4).
• McPhee is the 12th-best shooting guard among Power 5 conference players with a field goal percentage of .453. She is shooting 29.8 percent on threes (34-114) and 51.2 percent on twos (152-297).
• Twenty-five of her 35 career games scoring in double figures have come this season as have seven of her nine 20-point efforts.
THE ART OF THE ASSIST• Marta Sniezek, who has handed out five or more assists in 26 of her 72 career appearances, is averaging 4.4 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 69 assists against just 25 turnovers in the last 15 games.
• Her 2.76 assist to turnover ratio since Feb. 1 is 18th nationally.
• In eight career NCAA Tournament appearances, Sniezek has 43 assists against 18 turnovers.
• In Stanford's Elite Eight win over Notre Dame, the Cardinal's ballhandlers of Sniezek and Bri Roberson combined for 11 assists and zero turnovers.
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.