Stanford (32-6, 15-3 Pac-12)
Overall Stats
Pac-12 Stats
NCAA Tournament Stats
NCAA Statistical Rankings
FINAL FOUR WRAP• Stanford made 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 84-29 (.743).
• Overall, this year marked the Cardinal's 31st NCAA Tournament appearance and 30th straight.
• 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.
THIS AND THAT• Stanford won 30 games for the 14th time and first since 2014.
• The Cardinal's 32 wins tied for eighth in program history.
• Stanford set a school record with 212 blocks, one better than last year's 211.
• The Cardinal 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).
• Seniors Erica McCall and Karlie Samuelson received WBCA and AP All-America honorable mention recognition at season's end.
• Stanford was down by at least seven points and came back to win six times this season, including in five of its final seven games. It also had three double-digit comebacks.
• The Cardinal finished ninth in the country in field goal percentage defense (.350), third in blocks (212) and third in rebounds (1,562).
• Stanford was 20-3 in games away from Maples Pavilion, second in the country in wins (road/neutral) and third by percentage (.870).
• The Cardinal had a school-record eight Pac-12 All-Academic picks, surpassing seven from 1988, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
CARDINAL FEVER• Erica McCall became the 25th Stanford player overall and 11th in the past 11 years to hear her named called in the WNBA Draft when the Indiana Fever selected the forward with the 17th pick.
• Since the WNBA's inaugural season (1997), 27 Stanford alumnae (28 when McCall takes the floor for the first time) have appeared in a regular-season game, four have gone on to earn All-Star nods and seven have won a combined eight WNBA championships.
• Stanford's influence on the professional basketball landscape peaked this past year when Nneka Ogwumike was voted the 2016 WNBA MVP, the Associated Press player of the year, a unanimous selection to the All-WNBA First Team and a WNBA All-Defensive First Team performer. Her baseline jumper with 3.1 seconds left in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals lifted the Los Angeles Sparks to the franchise's first title since 2002.
#TARA1K• Following her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,012-231 record in her 38 years as a collegiate head coach and an 860-180 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 Nov. 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 THERE• 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 collected 20 wins for the 16th straight season and 28th overall and tallied double-digit Pac-12 victories for the 29th consecutive year.
• Stanford was 30th in the nation in field goal percentage (.445), ninth in field goal percentage defense (.350), 22nd in scoring defense (56.5), 56th in scoring offense (71.7) and 14th in scoring margin (+15.2).
• The Cardinal was 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 was down by at least seven points and came back to win six times this season, including in five of its last seven 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 the Elite Eight.
• Said 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 was the 11th time in Stanford's 31 tournament appearances that it did 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 was 20-3 in road and neutral-site games this season, second in the country in wins (road/neutral) and third by percentage (.870).
• 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 174-37 (.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 (193) and Notre Dame (163).
AGAINST RANKED• The Cardinal was 8-4 against ranked teams this season, 6-2 in road and neutral-site games and 4-2 against the top 10. Stanford has won six of its last eight 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 eight 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). It also lost to No. 3 South Carolina in the 2017 Final Four (March 31, 2017).
• Stanford is 71-34 (.676) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
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 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 had 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 looked increasingly comfortable at the end of her sophomore season.
• In her last 14 games, Smith averaged a team-high 14.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks.
• Those numbers were even better in the NCAA Tournament, where Smith put up 15.4 points on 52.5 percent shooting, 8.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in five games.
• Of her 22 career games in double figures scoring, 13 came since the start of Stanford's conference slate, including in each of the last six games.
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 for the regional semifinal and final.
• She averaged team highs in points (14.4), rebounds (9.0) and blocks (1.7), scored in double figures in 31 games and had 10 or more rebounds 17 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 finished her career as one of only four players at Stanford with 1,300 career points, 900 rebounds and 190 blocks (Jayne Appel, Chiney Ogwumike, Val Whiting).
• 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 23rd in program history with 1,376.
• Her 200 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 976 rebounds and one of 33 players in Pac-12 history with 900 career boards.
• McCall is 22nd in Pac-12 history in rebounds and 10th in blocks.
• 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 finished second in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.485), a clip that is second in school single-season history and fourth in Pac-12 history.
• Samuelson's 96 made 3-pointers this season tied with Jeanette Pohlen both for the school record and for fifth in Pac-12 single-season history and her 249 career 3-pointers are third in Stanford 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 averaged career highs in points (12.4), rebounds (3.4) and assists (2.7) and personal bests in field goal percentage (.482) and 3-point field goal percentage (.485).
• Three of her four career games with six 3-pointers made came this season as did 26 of her 56 games scoring in double figures and five of her seven 20-point efforts.
• Samuelson finished her career fourth in the Pac-12 in 3-point field goal percentage and with the best clip for any player since 1990 (.443).
• 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 is second in program history to Jennifer Azzi (.452).
• Samuelson also goes 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 now third.
• In her last 59 career games, she was 148-of-298 on 3-pointers (.497).McPHIRE• Junior Brittany McPhee was 15th in the Pac-12 averaging 13.3 points per game.
• In the NCAA Tournament, the junior averaged 16.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals.
• In her first 33 games of the season, McPhee shot 24.2 percent on 3-pointers (23-of-95). In the last four games against Kansas State, Texas, Notre Dame and South Carolina she was 12-of-22 from deep (.545).
• 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 in the Elite Eight, 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, increased her average output by 6.8 points, the second-best improvement in the Pac-12.
• She was 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).
• Twenty-five of her 35 career games scoring in double figures came this season as have seven of her nine 20-point efforts.
• McPhee was honored as this year's women's basketball Elite 90 award winner. The Elite 90 is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.
• McPhee, a human biology major with a 3.73 GPA, was Stanford's 15th winner of the award since it was instituted prior to the 2009-10 season and first since men's water polo player BJ Churnside was honored in Dec. 2014.
• She's the second Stanford women's basketball player to earn Elite 90 status following Erica Payne in 2014. Stanford and Baylor are the only schools with multiple Elite 90 award winners in women's basketball.
THE ART OF THE ASSIST• Marta Sniezek, who has handed out five or more assists in 27 of her 73 career appearances, averaged 4.4 assists per game this season.
• In the last 20 years, only Nicole Powell, Milena Flores, Jeanette Pohlen and Amber Orrange 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 handed out 75 assists against just 28 turnovers in the last 16 games of the season.
• In nine career NCAA Tournament appearances, Sniezek has 49 assists against 21 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.
- Erica McCall »
- CoSIDA Second Team Academic All-American
- Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player
- WBCA All-America Honorable Mention
- AP All-America Honorable Mention
- Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American
- All-Pac-12
- WBCA All-Region
- Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team
- Karlie Samuelson »
- WBCA All-America Honorable Mention
- AP All-America Honorable Mention
- Lexington Region All-Tournament Team
- All-Pac-12
- WBCA All-Region
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Brittany McPhee »
- Elite 90 Award (highest GPA at Final Four)
- All-Pac-12
- Lexington Region All-Tournament Team
- Pac-12 All-Academic Second Team
- Briana Roberson »
- Pac-12 All-Defensive Team
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Nadia Fingall »
- Pac-12 All-Freshman Honorable Mention
- Alanna Smith »
- Pac-12 All-Tournament Team
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Shannon Coffee »
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Kaylee Johnson »
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Alexa Romano »
- Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention