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Women's Basketball

Trip to The City

No. 16 Stanford (4-3)
at San Francisco (2-3)
Wednesday, Nov. 29 • 7 p.m.
War Memorial Gym • San Francisco, Calif.
Tickets
Stream • TheW.tv
Radio •GoStanford.com
Live Statistics • USFDons.com
Complete Release (PDF)
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THE GAME: No. 16 Stanford (4-3) returns to the site of Tara VanDerveer's 800th career victory when it plays at San Francisco (2-3) on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. A live stream will be carried on TheW.tv and Kevin Danna will have the radio call on GoStanford.com.
 
THE RUNDOWN: Stanford returns 10 letterwinners, but just two starters to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons ... Marta Sniezek is the only player on the roster that has averaged over 20 minutes per game in her career ... Stanford is the only school in the nation that has played three AP top-10 opponents and will add a fourth when it plays at No. 9 Baylor on Sunday ... Eight of the Cardinal's last 13 games have been against ranked foes ... Alanna Smith is coming off the country's first 30-point, 15-rebound double-double against a top-10 team since 2013 ... On Saturday against Ohio State, Anna Wilson became the 10th player in Stanford history to make seven 3-pointers in a game ... DiJonai Carrington pulled down 22 rebounds on Nov. 17 against UC Riverside, tied for the third-most in school history ... Marta Sniezek is one of three players in the Pac-12 averaging 5.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game ... Of Brittany McPhee's 10 career 20-point games, four have come against ranked teams ... McPhee (USA), Smith (Australia) and Alyssa Jerome (Canada) represented their countries this summer at tournaments around the globe ... McPhee (Ann Meyers Drysdale Award/Wooden Award) and Smith (Lisa Leslie Award) are the Cardinal's representatives on major preseason watch lists.
 
VS. USF: Stanford is 22-9 all-time against the Dons and has won 16 straight. Its last loss came at USF on Dec. 9, 1983, 69-63. In Stanford's most recent trip to War Memorial Gym, the Cardinal won 100-45 on Dec. 22, 2010 to secure Tara VanDerveer her 800th career victory. Molly Goodenbour, a two-time national champion at Stanford, is in her second year as head coach at USF after taking over for Jennifer Azzi. Azzi guided the Dons for six seasons and her final game as coach came in an 85-58 NCAA Tournament loss on The Farm on March 19, 2016.
 
WHAT'S BACK, WHAT'S NOT »

  • The Cardinal returns 10 letterwinners, but just two starters to a team coming off its seventh Final Four in the past 10 seasons.
  • Stanford posted a 32-6 overall record last season and a 15-3 mark in Pac-12 play. The Cardinal won its 12th Pac-12 Tournament championship and celebrated Tara VanDerveer's 1,000th career victory during the program's 14th 30-win campaign.
  • Gone are Erica McCall, Karlie Samuelson and Briana Roberson, seniors that accounted for 45 percent of Stanford's minutes, 46 percent of its scoring and 35 percent of its rebounds in 2016-17.
  • The Cardinal's young squad has eight underclassmen and just one player on the roster that has averaged more than 20 minutes per game in her career (Marta Sniezek).
  • New faces include a pair of McDonald's All-Americans in forward Maya Dodson and point guard Kiana Williams. Both were also Jordan Brand Classic All-Americans and Williams was named MVP of the West Team after scoring a game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED »

  • Stanford came in second place at the Play4Kay Showcase in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving, beating Kent State (79-54) and Belmont (74-53) before falling in overtime to No. 9 Ohio State, 94-82.
  • It was the Cardinal's second defeat to the Buckeyes in as many weeks. Stanford began its season with an 85-64 loss in Columbus on Nov. 10.
  • Stanford was much improved in its second meeting with OSU and led by as many as 12 in the second half, but was unable to hang on against an experienced group that played five seniors and two redshirt juniors.
  • Alanna Smith and Anna Wilson were named to the all-tournament team after some big performances in the title game. Smith, who also had a 23-point, 11-rebound double-double against Belmont on Friday, went for 33 and 16 against Ohio State, while Wilson poured in a career-high 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting from 3-point range.
  • DiJonai Carrington collected her second double-double of the season with 24 points and 10 rebounds in the Play4Kay opener against Kent State on Thursday.
  • Senior Brittany McPhee, Stanford's leading scorer (16.5 ppg) missed all three games with a right foot injury and is day-to-day.

BAPTISM BY FIRE »

  • Stanford leads the nation with three games against top-10 teams already this season and the Cardinal will add a fourth when it plays at No. 9 Baylor on Sunday.
  • As difficult an opening weekend as Tara VanDerveer has put together for her team in some time, Stanford played ranked teams in the first two games of its season for the first time since Nov. 1998 when it lost to No. 18 Arkansas (76-71) and No. 4 Duke (77-57) at the Nike Four in the Fall in San Jose, Calif.
  • Dating back to last season, eight of Stanford's past 13 games have been against ranked opponents, including six in the top 10 and four in the top five.
  • Before playing UC Riverside on Nov. 17, Stanford had played six ranked teams in a row, tying a program record last done in 1998-99 when it played six top 25 opponents to begin the season.

FROM DOWN UNDER »

  • A candidate for this year's Lisa Leslie Award, Alanna Smith was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for the first time following her three games in Vegas. She averaged a double-double of 23.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in Stanford's 2-1 week, shot 64.6 percent from the field (31-of-48), 40 percent from deep and also averaged 2.0 blocks per game.
  • Smith's 33-point, 16-rebound performance against No. 9 Ohio State is the nation's only 30-point, 15-rebound double-double against a ranked team this season and the first against an AP top-10 team since Stanford's Chiney Ogwumike went for 32 points and 20 boards against No. 3 Tennessee on Dec. 21, 2013.
  • It's also just the fourth by a Pac-12 player against a top-10 team since 2000 and the others are all Cardinal. In addition to Ogwumike's in 2013, Nneka Ogwumike had 42 points and 17 rebounds against No. 6 Tennessee on Dec. 20, 2011 and Nicole Powell put up 32 points and 16 rebounds against No. 2 Tennessee on Dec. 14, 2003.
  • Smith's point total is the highest single-game effort in the Pac-12 this season and the most at Stanford since Chiney Ogwumike dropped in 37 against Washington State on March 1, 2014.
  • In her last 22 games, Smith is averaging 14.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in just under 26 minutes of action.
  • In her first 57 career appearances, the first international recruit in program history averaged just 5.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks 13 minutes per game.

CARRINGTON EMERGES »

  • After averaging 2.5 points and 2.3 rebounds in 7.8 minutes as a freshman, sophomore DiJonai Carrington has emerged as Stanford's third-leading scorer (11.9 ppg) and its best rebounder (8.9 rpg) this season.
  • She dropped in 21 points against No. 1 UConn on Noc. 12 and pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds one game later against UC Riverside on Nov. 17.
  • The 5-foot-11 guard's rebound total is now tied for third in school history with Kaylee Johnson and Mikaela Ruef. Johnson grabbed as many twice during her freshman season against New Mexico on Nov. 24, 2014 and Santa Clara on Dec. 14, 2014. Ruef had her 22-rebound performance at Washington on Feb. 9, 2014.
  • Chiney Ogwumike, who totaled a school-record 24 rebounds against Oregon on Feb. 24, 2013, and Nneka Ogwumike, who had 23 at Oregon on Jan. 23, 201, are the only Cardinal players with more boards in a game.
  • No player under 6-feet has had more rebounds in a game in the country since Texas A&M's 5-foot-11 Anriel Howard grabbed 27 in March 19, 2016 against Missouri State.
  • Carrington scored a career-high 24 points and had 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season in Stanford's 79-54 win over Kent State on Nov. 23.
  • Carrington's brother Darren is a senior wide receiver at Utah and was second team All-Pac-12 in 2015 while at Oregon. Her father, also Darren, played football at Northern Arizona and was a fifth-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in the 1989 NFL Draft. He appeared in Super Bowl XXIV with the Broncos and Super Bowl XXIX with the Chargers.
  • Carrington herself played two years of tackle football in middle school with the Clairemont Hawks in San Diego.

ON TARGET »

  • Sophomore Anna Wilson, who battled injures as a freshman and only played 48 total minutes in six games, came off the bench against Ohio State on Sunday and poured in 21 points in 19 minutes, making 7-of-8 from behind the arc.
  • Wilson became the 10th Stanford player to make seven 3-pointers in a game and the first since Bonnie Samuelson dropped in eight against UCLA on Feb. 15, 2015.
  • The school record for 3-point makes in a game is nine shared by Lindsey Yamasaki (Feb. 24, 2001 at Washington) and Molly Goodenbour (Dec. 21, 1993 at Tennessee).

McPHIRE »

  • Senior Brittany McPhee had a breakout junior campaign and was named All-Pac-12 and to the Lexington Regional All-Tournament Team as a result. She was second on the team in scoring at 13.3 points per game and improved her scoring average by 6.8 points over her sophomore season.
  • A candidate for this year's Ann Meyers Drysdale Award and John R. Wooden Award, McPhee scored in double figures 25 times, had seven 20-point efforts and led Stanford offensively in its run to the program's 13th Final Four, averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game and making 44.4 percent from behind the arc in the NCAA Tournament.
  • In the season opener at No. 5 Ohio State, McPhee poured in 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Of her 10 career 20-point games, four have come against ranked teams.
  • A human biology major with a 3.73 cumulative GPA, McPhee was also honored at the 2017 Final Four as women's basketball's Elite 90 award winner, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's 90 championships.
  • In her first 33 games of 2016-17, McPhee shot 24.2 percent on 3-pointers (23-of-95). In the final four games against Kansas State, Texas, Notre Dame and South Carolina she was 12-of-22 from deep (.545).
  • McPhee made her USA Basketball debut this summer at the U24 Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo. She averaged 9.3 points on 61.1 percent shooting (11-of-18) and 4.0 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game and the United States swept its three games against Australia, Canada and Japan.
  • McPhee made the 12-person roster from a group of 36 hopefuls following a week of camp at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. Athletes eligible were U.S. citizens, 23 years old or younger and were freshmen, sophomores or juniors during the 2016-17 collegiate season.
  • She has missed the past five games with a right foot injury and is day-to-day.

THE ART OF THE ASSIST »

  • Marta Sniezek, who has handed out five or more assists in 31 of her 80 career appearances, averaged 4.4 assists per game as a sophomore and has upped that to 5.0 apg this season.
  • Sniezek, also scoring 5.1 points per game and grabbing 5.7 rebounds per game, is one of three players in the Pac-12 averaging 5.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game (Sabrina Ionescu - Oregon; Mikayla Pivec - Oregon State).
  • 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 than Sniezek did last year. 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.
  • She played at least 20 minutes without committing a turnover five times and handed out 110 assists against 46 turnovers in her last 23 games, a 2.39 assist-to-turnover ratio.

SO INTERNATIONAL »

  • Prior to Alanna Smith's arrival in 2015, Stanford had not recruited an international prospect to The Farm and now has three on its 2017-18 roster in Smith and a pair of Canadians (Brewer/Jerome).
  • This summer, Smith was a late add as an injury replacement to the Opals' roster, Australia's senior national team, for the FIBA Asia Cup in Bangalore, India. She showed well at the program's selection camp in Phoenix in late June and didn't disappoint in her first action at the senior level, finishing second on the team in scoring and field goal percentage and third in rebounding.
  • One of two Opals to score in double figures for the tournament, Smith averaged 10.8 points on 58.3 percent shooting and 5.3 rebounds. Australia took home silver and qualified for the 2018 FIBA World Cup by virtue of its top-four finish.
  • Jerome captained Canada to bronze at the U19 World Cup in Udine and Cividale del Friuli, Italy, its first podium finish at the event. In her fourth FIBA tournament, Jerome averaged 7.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 26.3 minutes per game.
  • Brewer was invited to Canada's U19 National Team tryouts in July 2017 for the FIBA U19 World Cup, but elected to remain on campus to prepare for her sophomore season.

NEW LOOK ON THE BENCH »

  • On April 13, Amy Tucker stepped away from coaching following an illustrious career spanning more than 30 years at Stanford. She remains with the program in an administrative role.
  • Tucker arrived on The Farm with Tara VanDerveer in 1985-86 and helped guide the Cardinal to an 889-183 (.829) overall record. She was promoted to associate head coach prior to the 1996-97 season.
  • When VanDerveer was tabbed to lead the USA Basketball National Team during the 1995-96 campaign and for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Tucker was named interim head coach. Stanford's 29-3 season, which included the program's fifth NCAA Final Four appearance of the 1990's, earned Tucker UPI (United Press International) National Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors.
  • Tucker began coaching soon after completing her successful playing career at Ohio State. She joined VanDerveer on Ohio State's bench as a graduate assistant in 1983-84 and a year later was promoted to assistant coach.
  • The season opener at Ohio State was the first college game since March 12, 1980 that Tara VanDerveer coached without Tucker involved as either a player or assistant. Cal State LA beat VanDerveer's Idaho team that day, 84-81, in the AIAW Tournament.
  • Stanford hired alumna Lindy La Rocque to fill Tucker's coaching role. La Rocque, who spent the past two seasons on staff at Belmont, played in 138 career games for Stanford, the eighth most in program history. She was instrumental in helping the Cardinal compile a 137-12 record during her four years, including a 71-1 mark in conference. Stanford appeared in the Final Four each season during her undergraduate career and advanced to the national title game in 2010.

#TARA1K »

  • In her 32nd season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,016-234 record in her 38+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 864-183 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, 2017 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 (1,079) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,057) 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.

PROGNOSTICATIONS »

  • Stanford is No. 16 in the Associated Press women's basketball poll released on Monday.
  • It has been ranked 518 times out of 733 total polls since 1977 (70.7 percent), with an average positioning of 7.2. It's been in the past 309 polls, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (454).
  • The Cardinal's 518 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (701), Texas (524) and Georgia (522).