2020-21 Season in Review2020-21 Season in Review
Women's Basketball

2020-21 Season in Review

Stanford (31-2, 19-2 Pac-12)
Overall Stats
Pac-12 Stats
NCAA Statistical Rankings

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS• For the first time since 1992, Stanford won the national championship, its third in program history.
• The Cardinal navigated the most unprecedented season in the sport's history, achieving the highest level of success throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic.
• Stanford finished the year on a 20-game win streak, winning both the Pac-12 regular season and tournament championships, along with the national title.

TARA AT THE TOP• Not only did Stanford ascend to the top of the country by winning its third national championship, Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in women's basketball history, surpassing Pat Summitt's record of 1,098 wins on Dec. 15, 2020 at Pacific. 
•  VanDerveer has more wins to her name than 344 of the NCAA's 351 Division I programs.
• VanDerveer owns the fifth-highest winning percentage (.815) among Division I women's basketball coaches all-time and her 36 20-win seasons are tied with Summitt (36), behind C. Vivian Stringer (37)
• She has accounted for 973 of Stanford's 1,149 total victories since its first varsity season in 1975.

UNPRECEDENTED TIMES• There are numerous, and obvious, reasons why the 2020-21 season has been the strangest in the history of the sport, but no team has had a year quite as difficult as Stanford.
• The Cardinal was temporary relocated for training and competition due to the emergency directive issued by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department from Nov. 29-Jan. 31. Stanford spent Dec. 2-12 in Las Vegas, playing UNLV and Washington, Dec. 12-16 in Berkeley, playing California and Pacific, and Dec. 16-21 in Los Angeles, playing USC and UCLA. The Cardinal spent its holiday break in San Mateo County before traveling to Arizona on Dec. 27 and returned to the Bay Area from Jan. 3-5. Stanford practiced and played in Santa Cruz, Calif. from Jan. 5-10 and Jan. 19-24, with a trip to Utah and Colorado between the two, before ending its road trip in Washington.
• In all, Stanford spent 65 days without being able to return to campus.

ALL-CONFERENCE AWARDS• The Cardinal raked in a number of postseason awards from the Pac-12, highlighted by Anna Wilson being named the Co-Defensive Player of the Year, Lacie Hull the Sixth Player of the Year and Tara VanDerveer the Coach of the Year.
• Lexie Hull, Haley Jones and Kiana Williams all earned spots on the 15-player All-Pac-12 squad, while Wilson landed on the All-Defensive team and Cameron Brink on the All-Freshman team. Brink was an honorable mention on the All-Pac-12 squad.
• Stanford now has 84 All-Pac-12 honorees and 174 all-time Pac-12 awardees, including honorable mention, freshman and defensive teams, both tops in league history.

RETURN OF HALEY JONES• Named an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press and USBWA, along to the 15-player All-Pac-12 team, Jones proved herself as one of the nation's most versatile players, named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. 
• Jones led Stanford in rebounding, averaging 7.4 per game, and ranks second with 13.2 points per game and a total of 92 assists, just behind Kiana Williams in both categories. Her shooting percentage of 54.5 percent was the second-best in the conference and ranked 20th nationally. Jones finished with eight double-doubles this year, including two at the Pac-12 Tournament, and scored in double figures 23 times, with 10 double figure rebounding performances. She ranked third on the team with 23 blocks and featured the defensive rebounds (184) of any player in the league.
• Jones was named Pac-12 Player of the Week once, following a weekend in which she combined for 54 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, three blocks and two steals on 81 percent shooting from the field at UNLV and vs. Washington.
• Jones shot 14-of-15 (.933) from the floor against Washington, the second-best shooting percentage in a single game for a Stanford player and best since 1981. It was the second-best single-game shooting percentage (min. 10 made FGs) in the country this year. She was the only player in the Pac-12 to lead her team in points, rebounds and assists for the majority of the season.

STREAKING• Stanford featured two long win streaks during season, sandwiched around back-to-back losses to Colorado and UCLA. Its 20-game win streak is the longest active streak of any team that played during the 2020-21 season.
• Stanford didn't lose a game in the regular season by more than five points for the first time since 2004-05. It is the only team in the conference to beat every Pac-12 team at least once.

ALL-AMERICAN KIANA• Named an All-American by both the WBCA and Associated Press, Kiana Williams leds the Cardinal in minutes played, points, assists and made 3-pointers, doing so for the second year in a row.
• Leading the team with averages of 14.0 points and 3.1 assists per game, Williams again has proved herself as the heartbeat of Stanford's success. Her 82 made 3-pointers led the Pac-12 Conference and ranked seventh nationally. She broke Candice Wiggins' all-time Stanford 3-point record in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and sits atop the history books with 311.
• Williams solidified her name as one of the program's all-time great players, also finishing her time on The Farm ranking 10th in career scoring (1,834 points). She scored in double figures in 26 of Stanford's 33 games and was named the Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player, featuring performances of 20 and 26 points in the semifinals and championship game. Her 206 career points at the Pac-12 Tournament rank fourth all-time in conference history, behind Sabrina Ionescu, Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Chiney Ogwumike.
• Williams also broke into Stanford's top-10 list for career assists, dishing 464 with the Cardinal, good for ninth all-time. She is second in program history in career free throw percentage, converting from the line at an 83.3% clip. Williams made the fourth-most 3-pointers of any player in the nation since the beginning of her freshman season.
• Her season-best performance in points this season came at USC, as Williams dropped 27 points in Los Angeles, tying a career-best with seven made 3-pointers. She nearly surpassed that with 26 points against UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game, going 6-of-7 from deep. Stanford was 20-0 this season when Williams hits at least two 3-pointers. Consistently regarded as the key to the team by VanDerveer, Williams made 128 consecutive starts for the Cardinal.
• Williams averaged nearly 15.0 points per game in the postseason (Pac-12 and NCAA), shooting 51.9% from deep. Her six 3-pointers against Utah Valley were the most for a Stanford player in the NCAA Tournament since Bonnie Samuelson made six against South Dakota in 2014.
• Williams is one of 22 women's basketball players since 2000 to boast over 1,800 points, 450 assists and 300 assists - just one of three from the Pac-12 (Sabrina Ionescu, Sydney Wiese).
 

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MAKING THE MOST OF IT• Granted a fifth year by the NCAA, Anna Wilson made the most of it, starting all 33 games for the Cardinal after only starting in five her previous four years combined.
• Her 14-point performance at Pacific was her most points since scoring 21 vs. Ohio State on Nov. 25, 2017 as a sophomore and she posted a career-high 10 rebounds against Colorado.
• Wilson entered the year with a career-high of six rebounds. She had nine or more rebounds in three games last season. She has already surpassed her season-high in scoring with 153 points last season.
• Wilson was particularly impressive in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 6.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, shooting 14-of-21 (.667) from the field and 8-of-10 from behind the 3-point line.
• Wilson scored in double figures in back-to-back games for the first time in her career against Oklahoma State and Missouri State.

BIG TIME BLOCKER• Cameron Brink broke Stanford's single-season blocks record in her first season on campus, swatting 88 shots on the year.
• The seventh player to earn a spot on the All-Freshman team since its inception in 2010 made an immediate impact for Stanford, both as a vital scoring weapon on the frontline, as well as a rim protector defensively.
• Brink leds the conference and was fourth nationally, first among all freshman, in blocks. The Cardinal was 24-0 when Brink blocked at least two shotss in a game and her 318 points were the most for a Stanford freshman through 33 games since Chiney Ogwumike in 2010.
• She was also the first freshman since Britney Griner in 2009-10 to have at least three blocks in her first six career starts. 
• Featuring an efficient 58.1 shooting percentage from the floor, Brink's season-best performance came in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament against Oregon State with 24 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. She also produced a monster performance of 12 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks and five assists at Washington State, the first from Stanford with such a stat line.

BETTER BELIBI IT• Sophomore Francesca Belibi became the first woman to dunk in a college basketball game since Britney Griner in 2013 and only the eighth all-time, doing so on Dec. 13 at California.
• She repeated the feat just over a week later, at UCLA.

THIS AND THAT• Stanford is 238-56 (.808) in games away from Maples Pavilion the last 14 years (road/neutral), one of only four schools to have more than 200 road and neutral wins along with Connecticut, Notre Dame and Baylor. The Cardinal was 24-2 last season in road and neutral games.
• Stanford's .926 winning percentage (25-2) was its best entering the tournament since it was 31-2 in 2013 (.939).
• 10 of Stanford's 21 total opponents were held to their lowest shooting percentages of the season when facing the Cardinal.
• Stanford won 21 games by 20+ points for the first time since 2010-11 (22).
• Stanford has advanced to the Final Four in eight of the last 13 tournaments.
• Stanford set a record with 59 3-pointers through the NCAA Tournament, the most for any team in history. It's 15 3-pointers in the Sweet 16 are the second-most ever in a regional semifinal and ties a Stanford NCAA Tournament record, set in the first round against Utah Valley.
• Stanford's 43-point win over UVU was its second-largest in tournament history. It's 27-point win over Missouri State is the second-largest Sweet 16 win for the Cardinal in program history.
• Stanford overcame a 12-point halftime deficit in the Elite 8 to defeat Louisville by 15 - that is the largest win by any team (men's or women's) trailing by double digits at halftime in the NCAA Tournament since 2001.
• The 14-point comeback was Stanford's largest since a 15-point comeback vs. USC on Feb. 17, 2019. It's Stanford's largest postseason comeback since overcoming a 16-point deficit vs. Notre Dame in the  Elite 8 on March 26, 2017.
• Stanford's 30 points in the fourth quarter vs. Louisville is the second-most of any team in a single quarter in Elite 8 history.
• Stanford blocked 12 shots in its win over South Carolina, tied for the most ever by any team in a national semifinal. It is the most blocks for Stanford in any game since March 18, 2017 vs. New Mexico State in the NCAA Tournament, and most blocks against a Dawn Staley-led USC team ever. Cameron Brink's six blocks vs. South Carolina are tied for the second-most by a player in a national semifinal.
• Stanford is now 5-2 in games decided by one point in the NCAA Tournament.
• Stanford's 19 regular seasons in the Pac-12 is a new conference record.
• The Cardinal was ranked in the top-10 the duration of the season.

  • Kiana Williams »
    • WBCA All-America
    • Associated Press All-America Third Team
    • USBWA All-America Second Team
    • WBCA All-Region
    • NCAA Tournament Alamo Region Most Outstanding Player
    • Pac-12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player
    • Tom Hansen Medal Winner
    • All-Pac-12
    • Naismith Trophy National Player of the Year (Feb. 16)
    • CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team
    • CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Lexie Hull »
    • All-Pac-12
    • NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team
    • NCAA Alamo Region All-Tournament Team
    • Pac-12 All-Tournament Team
    • CoSIDA Academic All-America First Team
    • CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Haley Jones »
    • Associated Press All-America Honorable Mention
    • USBWA All-America Honorable Mention
    • All-Pac-12
    • NCAA Tournament Final Four Most Outstanding Player
    • Cheryl Miller Award Finalist
    • Pac-12 Player of the Week (Dec. 7, 2020)
  • Lacie Hull »
    • Pac-12 Sixth Player of the Year
    • CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Cameron Brink »
    • Pac-12 All-Freshman Team
    • All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention
    • NCAA Alamo Region All-Tournament Team
    • Pac-12 All-Tournament Team
  • Anna Wilson »
    • Pac-12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year
    • Pac-12 All-Defensive Team
  • Jenna Brown »
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Alyssa Jerome »
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Hannah Jump »
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll
  • Ashten Prechtel »
    • Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll