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Women's Basketball

Cardinal Starts Conference

Stanford (6-6)
vs. No. 11 UCLA (9-2)
Friday, Dec. 29 • 5:30 p.m.
Maples Pavilion • Stanford, Calif.
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Television • Pac-12 Networks
Radio •GoStanford.com
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THE GAME: Stanford (6-6) opens conference play against No. 11 UCLA (9-2) in Maples Pavilion on Friday, Dec. 29 at 5:30 p.m. Kate Scott and Mary Murphy have the call on Pac-12 Networks and Kevin Danna will handle the radio broadcast 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 fell out of the AP poll for the first time since 2001 on Monday ... The Cardinal has six losses heading into league action for the first time since 1998-99 ... Stanford is the only school in the nation that has played five AP top-10 opponents ... Ten of the Cardinal's last 18 games have been against ranked foes ... Stanford is 28-3 in Pac-12 openers and hasn't lost since the 1999-2000 season ... Against the Bruins, the Cardinal will be playing a ranked conference opponent for the 31st time in the past six seasons ... In the previous 13 years that had only happened 27 times ... Brittany McPhee returned to the lineup against Tennessee after missing nine games and scored 27 points ... The Cardinal has had a full contingent of healthy bodies just twice this season ... Stanford started a pair of freshmen for the first time in four seasons on Dec. 21 against the Lady Vols ... Kaylee Johnson is 10th in program history in rebounds (822) and seventh in blocks (140) ... Brittany McPhee (Ann Meyers Drysdale Award/Wooden Award/Naismith Trophy) and Alanna Smith (Lisa Leslie Award) are the Cardinal's representatives on major preseason watch lists.

VS. UCLA: Stanford is 59-24 all-time against UCLA dating back to Feb. 11, 1978 and 27-10 against the Bruins in Maples. One game after Tara VanDerveer notched career victory No. 1,000 on Feb. 3, 2017, No. 15 UCLA beat Stanford on Feb. 6, 85-76, to snap the Cardinal's 16-game home winning streak in the series. UCLA has won two in a row after dropping 21 straight to Stanford. The Bruins' 56-36 win in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 24, 2016 handed the Cardinal its first 20-point Pac-12 loss since a 73-53 setback at Arizona State on Feb. 7, 2004.
 
WHERE WE STAND »

  • Stanford enters conference play with a 6-6 record, the program's worst 12-game start since beginning the 1998-99 season 5-7. That year was also the last time the Cardinal had at least six losses heading into league action. Stanford was 4-7 in its regular-season nonconference slate in 1998-99.
  • The Cardinal dropped out of the AP poll for the first time in 17 years on Monday. Stanford was last unranked in the 2001 season, when a 72-54 loss at No. 20 Oregon on Jan. 13 knocked the No. 24 Cardinal out of the polls. It wouldn't get back in until opening the next season at No. 9.
  • The Cardinal had been in 521 AP polls, the fourth most all-time, and 312 in a row. Stanford's streak is tied for the third longest in the history of the poll. Tennessee had the longest run at 565 weeks, Connecticut has an active 458-week streak and Duke also appeared in 312 consecutive rankings.
  • Stanford is 45th in the NCAA RPI and has played the nation's sixth-toughest schedule.

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 - 22.4).

BAPTISM BY FIRE »

  • Stanford leads the nation with five games against top-10 teams. No other school has more than two.
  • For comparison, Stanford played five top-10 opponents all of last year, which was the program's most since 2010-11 (7).
  • Dating back to last season, 10 of Stanford's past 18 games have been against ranked opponents, including eight in the top 10 and four in the top five.
  • "We can schedule it so that we are 12-0 or 10-2, but this team went to the Final Four last year and that's the level that we have to get to," Tara VanDerveer said after last Thursday's loss to No. 7 Tennessee. "We need our tough schedule to pay off for us, but it only pays off if we build on it. Don't get frustrated. Get mad and go to work. We are looking up at people right now. We need people to look up at where we need to be and embrace that challenge."
  • Stanford was 8-4 against ranked teams last season and has won multiple games against top 25 opponents for each of the last 15 seasons.

HEADING INTO CONFERENCE »

  • Stanford is 28-3 in Pac-12 openers. Its last loss came at Arizona State (74-68) on Jan. 6, 2000.
  • Since 2007-08, the Cardinal owns a conference road record of 79-11 and a Pac-12 home record of 84-6.
  • Stanford has the most conference wins of any team the past decade with 163. Connecticut, Marist and Green Bay are tied for second (160).
  • Stanford's all-time Pac-12 record is 486-72 and 150 wins clear of the next closest team (UW - 335).
  • Stanford was picked to finish in a tie for second in the Pac-12 when the conference announced the results of the preseason coaches' poll on Oct. 20. It's the third 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 108 points and garnered two first-place votes. Oregon also collected 108 points, including three first-place votes. UCLA was the leading vote getter for the second consecutive year, receiving seven first-place votes and 115 points.

AGAINST RANKED »

  • 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.
  • Stanford is 71-39 (.645) against AP ranked opponents since 2007-08, fifth in the country in such wins over that span and fourth in percentage.
  • Connecticut (.903), Baylor (.756), Notre Dame (.725), Stanford (.645), Tennessee (.624), Duke (.562), Maryland (.531) and South Carolina (.505) have winning records against ranked teams the past decade.

BRITT'S BACK »

  • Stanford welcomed its top player back to the lineup against No. 7 Tennessee in Brittany McPhee.
  • The senior had missed the previous nine games recovering from a right foot injury.
  • McPhee was marvelous in her return against the Lady Vols, scoring 27 points, one off her career best.
  • In the season opener at No. 5 Ohio State, she poured in 24 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Two days later she scored nine in Stanford's loss to No. 1 UConn on Nov. 12 and hadn't played since.
  • At her best against the best, of McPhee's 11 career 20-point games, five have come against ranked teams and her three highest-scoring performances have come against top-10 foes. She scored a career-high 28 against No. 8 Texas on Nov. 14, 2016 and also dropped in 27 in the Elite Eight against No. 2 Notre Dame on March 26, 2017.
  • McPhee, an All-Pac-12 performer as a junior and candidate for this year's Ann Meyers Drysdale and John R. Wooden awards, averaged 13.3 points per game last season, including 16.8 points on 44.4 percent shooting from behind the arc in the NCAA Tournament.
  • She made her USA Basketball debut this summer at the U24 Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo. McPhee 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.

INJURY WOES »

  • McPhee is back, but the Cardinal has also been forced to play the past three games without its third-leading scorer and rebounder in sophomore DiJonai Carrington, who has been sidelined after taking an elbow in practice.
  • Of the 11 players on its roster averaging more than 10 minutes per game, Stanford has had an entirely healthy unit just twice, the first two games of its season at No. 5 Ohio State and against No. 1 UConn.
  • After averaging 2.5 points and 2.3 rebounds as a freshman, Carrington had emerged as Stanford's third-leading scorer (11.7 ppg) and its third-best rebounder (7.7 rpg) this season.
  • She dropped in 21 points against No. 1 UConn on Nov. 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 tied for third in school history with Kaylee Johnson and Mikaela Ruef. 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.
  • 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 just finished his career as a wide receiver at Utah and was a two-time All-Pac-12 second teamer. 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.

LEARNING ON THE FLY »

  • New faces at Stanford 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.
  • The two were both in the starting lineup against Tennessee, the first time the Cardinal started a pair of freshmen since Erica McCall and Briana Roberson at UCLA on Feb. 23, 2014.
  • Stanford hasn't consistently started two freshmen since Jillian Harmon and Ros Gold-Onwude did so 16 times together in the 2005-06 season.

HOME ON THE FARM »

  • Stanford is 152-12 (.927) at home the last 11 years and one of 11 schools to have more than 150 home wins during that span.
  • Its .927 home winning percentage since 2007-08 is third behind Connecticut (.973) and Baylor (.959)
  • With the Dec. 18 loss to Western Illinois, the Cardinal has dropped a nonconference game at home to an unranked opponent for three consecutive seasons (Gonzaga - 2016; Santa Clara - 2015).
  • With results against WIU and Tennessee, Stanford lost multiple regular-season, nonconference home games for the first time since 1998-99 when it fell against No. 24 Illinois on Nov. 19 (76-58) and No. 15 Texas Tech on Nov. 27 (75-69). Those results sandwiched a 73-72 takedown of No. 1 Purdue on Nov. 22.
  • The Cardinal, which has lost back-to-back home games for the first time since Dec. 2012 and Jan. 2013 against No. 2 Connecticut (61-35) and No. 7 Cal (67-55), has not dropped three in a row at home since 1985-86. In what was Tara VanDerveer's first year on The Farm, the Cardinal lost four straight in Maples to UCLA, USC, Fresno State and Cal in late January and early February as part of an overall nine-game winless skid.
  • Interestingly enough, that last time Stanford had dropped two straight at home, the Cardinal righted the ship against No. 14 UCLA on Jan. 18, 2013, 75-49, behind 25 points and 13 rebounds from Chiney Ogwumike, 16 points from Joslyn Tinkle and 15 points from Amber Orrange.

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 on Nov. 27 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 was the nation's first 30-point, 15-rebound double-double 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.
  • On Dec. 13, Mississippi State's Teaira McCowan also did it with a 35-point, 19-rebound effort as part of a 90-79 Bulldog win against No. 9 Oregon.
  • Smith's is 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 second-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 27 games, Smith is averaging 14.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in just over 26 minutes of action. Her strong stretch actually started with a 14-point, six-rebound performance off the bench against No. 15 UCLA last Feb. 6.
  • 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.
  • Smith has put together double-doubles in four of her last seven games and is averaging 17.3 points on 52.1 percent shooting and 10.0 rebounds since Thanksgiving.
  • Her four double-doubles are tied for third in the Pac-12 with Marie Gulich (Oregon State) and Annika Jank (Colorado). Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu has six, including three triple-doubles, and UCLA Monique Billings has five.

WATCH WILLIAMS »

  • Freshman Kiana Williams, who started the first game of her career on against UNLV on Dec. 16, has been Stanford's third-leading scorer in its past five games, averaging 12.2 points and a 37.8 percent clip from behind the arc (14-of-37).
  • Williams, who was averaging 3.1 points and shooting 20.7 percent (6-of-29) in her first seven collegiate games, scored a career-high 17 at San Francisco on Nov. 29 and followed that up with 13 points in 34 minutes at No. 9 Baylor on Dec. 3, 14 points in 18 minutes against UNLV on Dec. 16 and another 17 in 30 minutes against Western Illinois on Dec. 18.
  • Her 15.3 points per game average since Nov. 29 is the third-best among Pac-12 freshmen over that time behind Colorado's Annika Jank (14.4) and Oregon's Satou Sabally (13.0).
  • A five-star talent, rated as the eighth best player in the country according to ESPN HoopGurlz, Williams was the Cardinal's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.

GETTING ON THE GLASS »

  • Kaylee Johnson has pulled down 10+ rebounds in four of the last five games.
  • With 822, the senior is in 10th in program history. Next on the list is Katy Steding, who grabbed 864 from 1986-90.
  • Johnson's 822 rebounds are third among active Pac-12 players behind UCLA's Monique Billings (922) and Utah's Emily Potter (890).
  • Her 7.4 career rebounds per game average would be eighth in Stanford history. Johnson has pulled down 10 or more 36 times in 111 career games and owns a pair of 22-rebound outings as a freshman.
  • She is also seventh in school history with 140 career blocks.

THE ART OF THE ASSIST »

  • Marta Sniezek had nine assists and just one turnover on Dec. 21 against No. 7 Tennessee, her fourth career game with at least nine assists.
  • She has handed out five or more assists in 33 of her 85 career appearances and is 10th in the Pac-12 averaging 4.8 assists per game this season.
  • Sniezek, also scoring 4.3 points per game and grabbing 4.7 rebounds per game, is one of six players in the Pac-12 averaging 4.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game (Sabrina Ionescu - Oregon; Minyon Moore - USC; Jordin Canada - UCLA; Mikayla Pivec - Oregon State; Mikayla Cowling - Cal).
  • 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's 4.4 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.

NONCONFERENCE PERFORMANCES »

  • 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 Nov. 25 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).
  • In an 81-57 loss at No. 9 Baylor on Dec. 3, Shannon Coffee scored a career-high 14 points and was 4-of-8 on 3-pointers.
  • Stanford's center became the first player in the nation at least 6-foot-5 to hit four 3-pointers in a game since Delaware's Elena Delle Donne made the same number against Georgia State on March 6, 2013. Delle Donne made four or more 3-pointers 15 times in her career.
  • Down four at halftime, Stanford scored 62 second-half points and made 15-of-31 3-pointers to beat San Francisco on the road on Nov. 29, 86-66.
  • Against the Dons, Stanford was 4-of-10 on triples in the first half and then exploded in the second, going 11-of-21 across the third and fourth quarters.
  • The 11 3-point makes in the second half are the most in a half in program history and the 15 total makes on 31 attempts (.484) are tied for third at the school all-time behind a pair of 16 3-point efforts at UCLA (Feb. 24, 2002) and at Washington (Feb. 24, 2001).

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.

#TARA1K »

  • In her 32nd season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,018-237 record in her 38+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 866-186 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 second NCAA women's basketball coach with 1,000 career wins.
  • Summitt (1,098) along with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke (1,083) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,062) on the men's side, and Connecticut's Geno Auriemma (1,001) and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell (1,000), are the only college basketball coaches at any division with 1,000 wins.
  • VanDerveer has more career wins than 341 of the country's 349 Division I programs.