Stanford University Athletics

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THE GAME: No. 24 Stanford (9-6, 3-0) will play its seventh game against a ranked team this season at No. 25 Arizona State (12-3, 3-0) on Sunday, Jan. 7 at 2 p.m. MT/1 p.m. PT. Paul Sunderland and Andy Landers have the call on ESPN2 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 Dec. 25, but re-entered at No. 24 on Monday after wins over UCLA and USC ... In those victories, Stanford shot 10 percent better than it had during nonconference ... The Cardinal had six losses heading into league action for the first time since 1998-99 ... Stanford leads the nation with six games against ranked opponents ... In her four games since returning from injury, Brittany McPhee is averaging 20.5 points ... She was named espnW National Player of the Week on Monday ... The Cardinal has had a full contingent of healthy bodies just five times this season ... Stanford is 9-0 when holding its opponent under 70 points ... Alanna Smith is 15th in the Pac-12 in scoring (14.0), tied for sixth in rebounding (8.3) and second in blocks (2.2) ... Stanford, which hasn't consistently put two first-year players in its starting five since 2005-06, has started a pair of freshmen in four consecutive games ... Kaylee Johnson is 10th in program history in rebounds (841) and seventh in blocks (143) ... Marta Sniezek has 31 assists against just 10 turnovers in the past five games.
 
VS. ARIZONA STATE: Stanford is 59-15 all-time against Arizona State dating back to Jan. 5, 1979 and 23-11 against the Sun Devils on the road. After dropping four of its previous five against ASU, the Cardinal took both meetings last season, including a 64-57 win in Tempe on Dec. 30 in which it scored the game's final six points to secure the victory.  The Cardinal won the most recent matchup, 66-56, at home last Jan. 22. Sunday's game will be the 10th consecutive with both teams ranked in the AP Top 25. Stanford is 5-4 in the previous nine.
 
WHERE WE STAND »

• Stanford entered conference play with a 6-6 record, the program's first time heading into league action with at least six losses since 1998-99. Stanford was 4-7 in its regular-season nonconference slate in that season, which was also the last time the Cardinal lost multiple regular-season, nonconference home games as it has this year with results against Western Illinois and Tennessee.
• The Cardinal dropped out of the AP poll for the first time in 17 years on Dec. 25 after those two losses, but worked its way back in on Monday at No. 24 following its home victories  over UCLA and USC.
• Stanford avoided dropping three consecutive games at home for the first time since 1985-86 with its win over UCLA on Dec. 29.
• The one-week respite was the first time Stanford had been unranked since 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 459-week streak and Duke also appeared in 312 consecutive rankings.
• Stanford is 31st in the NCAA RPI and has played the nation's fifth-toughest schedule.

SETTING THE STAGE »

• Since 2007-08, the Cardinal owns a conference road record of 80-11 and a Pac-12 home record of 86-6.
• Stanford has the most conference wins of any team the past 11 years with 166. Marist and Connecticut are tied for second (162) and Green Bay is fourth (161).
• Stanford's all-time Pac-12 record is 489-72 and 154 wins clear of the next closest team (UW - 335).
• The Cardinal is 9-0 this season when holding its opponent under 70 points and has used six different starting lineups in its 15 games.
• Stanford is 116-25 (.823) on the road the last 11 years, third in both wins and percentage. Connecticut is 120-6 (.952) and Green Bay is 119-25 (.826).
• The Cardinal has started 3-0 in conference for the ninth time in the past 10 seasons.

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 - 22.8).

BAPTISM BY FIRE »

• Stanford leads the nation with six games against ranked teams - each against top-15 squads - and is 1-5 in those contests, notching its first win of the year against No. 11 UCLA in its conference opener, 76-65. In beating the Bruins, Stanford snapped a six-game losing streak against ranked foes.
• The Cardinal has played five top-10 teams in No. 5 Ohio State (Nov. 10), No. 1 UConn (Nov. 12), No. 9 Ohio State (Nov. 25), No. 9 Baylor (Dec. 3) and No. 7 Tennessee (Dec. 21). No other school has more than three games against top-10 opponents this season.
• 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, 11 of Stanford's past 21 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 of her team's nonconference schedule. "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.

NEW YEAR, NEW FEELING »

• Stanford, which had lost three of four just before into conference play, has an entirely different vibe heading into 2018 and won three straight.
• The Cardinal offense was much more efficient last weekend that it had been at any point during November and early December. Stanford only averaged six points more against UCLA and USC than it did during nonconference (74.0-67.8), but did so shooting nearly 10 percent better from the field.
• Stanford converted 39.4 percent in its first 12 games and was just 29.5 percent from deep. Last weekend, the Cardinal made 48.6 percent of its field goals and was 39.4 percent from 3-point range.
• The team is playing at a much faster pace this season. The Cardinal averages 73 possessions per 40 minutes, which is in the top third of the NCAA. The previous three years it had been in the bottom third, averaging between 66 and 68 possessions per game.

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 six seasons, the Cardinal has played a ranked Pac-12 team 31 times in conference and conference tournament games, going 21-10.
• Stanford is 72-39 (.649) 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 (.649), Tennessee (.624), Duke (.562), Maryland (.531) and South Carolina (.510) have winning records against ranked teams the past 11 seasons.

BRITT'S BACK »

• Brittany McPhee's return has had a big impact on Stanford's play of late.
• The senior guard came back on Dec. 21 against No. 7 Tennessee after missing the previous nine games recovering from a right foot injury. In four games since, McPhee is averaging 20.5 points and 6.3 rebounds.
• On Monday, McPhee was named espnW National Player of the Week after averaging 23.5 points on 54 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in Stanford's home victories to start conference play.
• She totaled 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists in a 76-65 victory against the No. 11 Bruins and followed that with 21 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals in a 72-65 win against the Trojans. At her best when it mattered most, 22 of McPhee's 47 points in the two games came in the fourth quarter.
• McPhee has scored 20+ in four of her six games this season and is averaging 19.2 points per game to go with 5.8 rebounds. Because she missed so much time, McPhee won't appear in the national statistical rankings until the NCAA Tournament should Stanford advance to play 36 total games this season.
• Of McPhee's 13 career 20-point games, six have come against ranked teams and her four highest-scoring performances have come against top-15 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 in addition to her 27 and 26-point efforts against No. 7 Tennessee and No. 11 UCLA.
• In fact, eight McPhee's last 10 games dating back to last season have come against top-25 teams and she is averaging 19.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists in those ranked contests.
• McPhee, an All-Pac-12 performer as a junior and candidate for this year's Ann Meyers Drysdale, John R. Wooden and Naismith 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.
• 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.

INJURY WOES »

• McPhee is back and so is sophomore DiJonai Carrington, who had missed Stanford's final three nonconference games after taking an elbow in practice. The Cardinal has had its full roster available five times all season, the last three games and the first two 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 has emerged as Stanford's third-leading scorer (10.5 ppg) and its third-best rebounder (7.0 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, 2010, 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 have both in the starting lineup the past four games. Stanford hadn't started a pair of freshmen since Erica McCall and Briana Roberson at UCLA on Feb. 23, 2014.
• The Cardinal hasn't consistently started two freshmen since Jillian Harmon and Ros Gold-Onwude did so 16 times together in the 2005-06 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 on Nov. 27 following her three games in Las 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 30 games, Smith is averaging 14.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 27 minutes.
• 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 five of her last 10 games and is averaging 15.9 points on 52.2 percent shooting and 9.3 rebounds since Thanksgiving.
• Her five double-doubles are tied for fourth in the Pac-12 with Ruthy Hebard (Oregon). Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu has seven, including four triple-doubles, as does UCLA's Monique Billings. Oregon State's Marie Gulich has six double-doubles.
• Smith is averaging 14.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game this season, one of just 16 players in the country putting up 14/8/2. In the Pac-12 it is just Smith and Gulich with those averages.
• The Australian is 15th in the Pac-12 in scoring, tied for sixth in rebounding and second in blocks.

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 six games, averaging 11.3 points.
• 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.
• She put up four combined points against Tennessee (Dec. 21) and UCLA (Dec. 29), but regained her stroke and scored 13 against USC (Dec. 31) and 12 at Arizona (Jan. 5).
• She is ninth among Pac-12 freshmen in scoring average, but fourth in conference games (9.7 ppg).
• 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's 841 career rebounds are 10th in program history. Next on the list is Katy Steding, who grabbed 864 from 1986-90.
• Johnson's 841 rebounds are third among active Pac-12 players behind UCLA's Monique Billings (948) and Utah's Emily Potter (907).
• Her 7.4 career rebounds per game average would be eighth in Stanford history. Johnson has pulled down 10 or more 37 times in 114 career games and owns a pair of 22-rebound outings as a freshman.
• She is also seventh in school history with 143 career blocks.
• Johnson, who had started 87 career games and 31 in a row, has come off the bench the past three games, a role in which she shoots almost 15 percent better from the field.
• In her career as a starter, Johnson averages 5.2 points on 45.2 percent shooting and 7.7 rebounds. In her 27 games as a sub, she averages 5.2 points on 59.6 percent shooting and 6.2 rebounds.

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 36 of her 88 career appearances and is 10th in the Pac-12 averaging 4.9 assists per game this season. No Stanford player has averaged 5.0 assists in a season since Nicole Powell in 2000-01 (6.3).
• The 5-foot-8 Sniezek was Stanford's leading rebounder against USC on Dec. 31, pulling down a career-high 10 to go with eight points, six assists and only one turnover.
• Sniezek has 31 assists against just 10 turnovers to go with 4.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in the last five games.
• Her assist rate is is in the top four percent of the country. Sniezek assists on 31 percent of her teammates' field goals when she's on the floor.
• Sniezek, also scoring 4.5 points per game and grabbing 5.0 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).

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).

#TARA1K »

• In her 32nd season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 1,021-237 record in her 38+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 869-186 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 (1,084) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,063) on the men's side, and Connecticut's Geno Auriemma (1,003) and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell (1,000) are the only college basketball coaches at any division with 1,000 wins.