wbb, Stanford Pre-UConn Quotes
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Stanford braces for physical ballgame
Kansas City, Mo. -- Connecticut is the three-time defending national champion with a 20- game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford is the No. 1-ranked team in the country with a 22-game winning streak, unbeaten in 2005.
It's a matchup way too sweet for the Sweet 16. But the NCAA women's selection committee deemed it so, which means the second-seeded Cardinal and third-seeded Huskies will take the court at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium tonight and by game's end, one of the country's best teams will go home, three games before a national title is decided.
That fact is now "extraneous" to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who has spent the week preparing the Cardinal for an athletic, aggressive Huskies squad that is, at last, playing at its peak.
Connecticut, meanwhile, will be facing a Stanford team reaping the benefits of balance, experience and confidence, a group that isn't merely hoping for more, but expecting it.
Huskies coach Geno Auriemma thinks the Cardinal represent the biggest challenge his team has faced in this round in 10 years.
"I think we have our work cut out for us obviously, but we're also playing our best basketball of the year and it couldn't have come at a better time,'' Auriemma said.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that these two traditional basketball powers, each the dominant force on their own side of the country, haven't met in seven years. On Dec. 21, 1997, Connecticut, led by Nykesha Sales, defeated the Cardinal 94-78.
This much VanDerveer knows about her well-known opponent: The Huskies like a physical game and her team is going to have to be ready to match up.
"If we aren't, we are going to be on the first charter back from Kansas City,'' VanDerveer said. "If we don't step it up, if we are not as physical or aggressive as I know Connecticut is going to be, it's going to be a done deal."
Auriemma can only draw on his experience playing other Pac-10 teams, Arizona State and USC in the past two years.
"Those are unbelievably physical teams,'' Auriemma said. "So if that is the way they play in the Pac-10, I would think it's going to be a very physical game. I know that's how we like to play. No matter what, I think there's going to be a lot of big bodies running around on the floor. I would venture to say, the referees are going to have their hands full."
VanDerveer was lamenting as recently as two seasons ago that her team could not dish out or take much of the physical play being directed at them in the postseason. She vowed she would toughen her program up.
So, now, are the Cardinal tough enough? The Huskies will almost certainly provide an answer.
"We aren't going to sit there and take it,'' Stanford senior guard Kelley Suminski said. "People go at each other in practice every day. We are ready to give it out."
"We are definitely capable of putting bodies on people," Stanford senior forward T'Nae Thiel said. "It has been our tournament experience that refs don't make the same calls they make during the season. We are ready for it."
Getting Thiel back on the floor will be a huge boost to the Cardinal. The senior forward is considered the team's most physical post presence, a strong and sound defender who knows how to use her body to move opposing players off the block.
But Thiel is recovering from a broken left foot that has kept her inactive for a month. VanDerveer hesitated allowing Thiel to practice this week to avoid getting that foot stepped on or possibly re-injured. But the coach said Saturday that Thiel will play.
Stanford is playing for just its second trip to the Elite Eight since 1997. Connecticut, meanwhile, has failed to reach the regional final just once (1999) in the last 11 tournaments.
Auriemma said he considers these two games -- the regional semifinals and finals -- the toughest two games of the tournament.
"The players and the coaches put such a premium on getting to the Final Four and these are the games that get you there,'' Auriemma said. "You're so close to it. Everybody is so anxious to play and crazy with anticipation. Kids get crazy over this weekend. Sometimes they play their best basketball, sometimes they play themselves out of it."
Kansas City, Mo. -- Connecticut is the three-time defending national champion with a 20- game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament. Stanford is the No. 1-ranked team in the country with a 22-game winning streak, unbeaten in 2005.
It's a matchup way too sweet for the Sweet 16. But the NCAA women's selection committee deemed it so, which means the second-seeded Cardinal and third-seeded Huskies will take the court at Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium tonight and by game's end, one of the country's best teams will go home, three games before a national title is decided.
That fact is now "extraneous" to Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, who has spent the week preparing the Cardinal for an athletic, aggressive Huskies squad that is, at last, playing at its peak.
Connecticut, meanwhile, will be facing a Stanford team reaping the benefits of balance, experience and confidence, a group that isn't merely hoping for more, but expecting it.
Huskies coach Geno Auriemma thinks the Cardinal represent the biggest challenge his team has faced in this round in 10 years.
"I think we have our work cut out for us obviously, but we're also playing our best basketball of the year and it couldn't have come at a better time,'' Auriemma said.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that these two traditional basketball powers, each the dominant force on their own side of the country, haven't met in seven years. On Dec. 21, 1997, Connecticut, led by Nykesha Sales, defeated the Cardinal 94-78.
This much VanDerveer knows about her well-known opponent: The Huskies like a physical game and her team is going to have to be ready to match up.
"If we aren't, we are going to be on the first charter back from Kansas City,'' VanDerveer said. "If we don't step it up, if we are not as physical or aggressive as I know Connecticut is going to be, it's going to be a done deal."
Auriemma can only draw on his experience playing other Pac-10 teams, Arizona State and USC in the past two years.
"Those are unbelievably physical teams,'' Auriemma said. "So if that is the way they play in the Pac-10, I would think it's going to be a very physical game. I know that's how we like to play. No matter what, I think there's going to be a lot of big bodies running around on the floor. I would venture to say, the referees are going to have their hands full."
VanDerveer was lamenting as recently as two seasons ago that her team could not dish out or take much of the physical play being directed at them in the postseason. She vowed she would toughen her program up.
So, now, are the Cardinal tough enough? The Huskies will almost certainly provide an answer.
"We aren't going to sit there and take it,'' Stanford senior guard Kelley Suminski said. "People go at each other in practice every day. We are ready to give it out."
"We are definitely capable of putting bodies on people," Stanford senior forward T'Nae Thiel said. "It has been our tournament experience that refs don't make the same calls they make during the season. We are ready for it."
Getting Thiel back on the floor will be a huge boost to the Cardinal. The senior forward is considered the team's most physical post presence, a strong and sound defender who knows how to use her body to move opposing players off the block.
But Thiel is recovering from a broken left foot that has kept her inactive for a month. VanDerveer hesitated allowing Thiel to practice this week to avoid getting that foot stepped on or possibly re-injured. But the coach said Saturday that Thiel will play.
Stanford is playing for just its second trip to the Elite Eight since 1997. Connecticut, meanwhile, has failed to reach the regional final just once (1999) in the last 11 tournaments.
Auriemma said he considers these two games -- the regional semifinals and finals -- the toughest two games of the tournament.
"The players and the coaches put such a premium on getting to the Final Four and these are the games that get you there,'' Auriemma said. "You're so close to it. Everybody is so anxious to play and crazy with anticipation. Kids get crazy over this weekend. Sometimes they play their best basketball, sometimes they play themselves out of it."
Huskies will rely on defense to hold down Stanford
Sunday, March 27, 2005
By Roger Cleaveland
Copyright ? 2005 Republican-American
KANSAS CITY The UConn's basketball team has relied on its defense all season to carry it through some ups and downs, and it may be tested this weekend more than ever.
The Huskies are allowing only 50.6 points per game defensively, making this year's team a full point better defensively than the previous best mark by the Huskies (51.6) set during the 2001-02 season.
In NCAA Tournament play, UConn has allowed only an average of 49.5 points in their two games so far.
The Huskies have also allowed opponents to shoot only 33.1 percent from the field this season, which would be the fourth-best all-time in school history.
"Right now we're playing to our strength a little more than we have in the past," Coach Geno Auriemma said. "Our strength has been our defense. We have been able to consistently be good defensively. We've rebounded the ball fairly well and we've been able to, for the most part, keep teams from scoring so many points that it put pressure on our offense because offensively this is not one of our strongest teams."
The Huskies go into tonight's game having counted heavily on their defense.
Going into the NCAA Tournament, they were 22-1 in games in which they held their opponents to under 60 points, and they were 1-6 when allowing 60 or more points.
During the entire regular season and Big East Tournament, the Huskies allowed only two teams to score 70 or more points against them North Carolina (71) and Rutgers (76) and they lost both of those games.
Auriemma said the team may now need to pick up its offensive execution.
So we've given up a little bit on the offensive end in terms of how we've executed in the past and some of the firepower that we've had. But I think we've made up for it a little bit on the defensive end and this is probably the best defensive team we've had in the time that I've been here. I think that's what's gotten us to this point.
"But I'm afraid that this weekend our offense if what's going to have to win it for us because I don't know that we'll be able to contain the three teams that are in that regional with us. They're all very, very good offensively."
Three threats: The addition of 6-foot-3 center Brooke Smith, who sat out last season after transferring from Duke, has made the Cardinal a much more dangerous team. Of course, Stanford can score more easily inside as Smith established herself as the Cardinal's second leading scorer (13.4) as well as a First Team All-PAC-10 player. But another big added benefit Smith has had on the team is that she has made their three-pointer shooters more dangerous.
Forced to respect Smith's inside play, opponents have given the Cardinal a little more room outside, and they have taken advantage of it. Four different players have made 30 or more threes.
Kelly Suminski has made a team-high 66 with Susan Borchardt making 38, Sebnem Kimyacioglu 33 and Candice Wiggins 32. As a team, Stanford is shooting 206-541 (.381) from three-point range. By contrast, the Huskies have only one player who has made 30 or more three-pointers in Ann Strother (85). UConn has shot 173-for-518 (.334) as a team from beyond the arc.
Cold front: UConn's Jessica Moore and Stanford's Azella Perryman are childhood friends and high school rivals from Alaska. Moore grew up in Palmer Alaska and went to Colony High School while Perryman lived in Anchorage and went to East High.
"There was (a rivalry in high school), but I actually played with Azella since I was like 12 so it was always friendly," Moore said. "You like want to go out there and kill, but you're not going to take it off the court. She's a really good player and I really admire her. I know her father. Our family goes back like a long time ago."
The two may not match up against each other. Moore, 6-foot-3, will start at center for the Huskies while Perryman, 6-1, will play forward for Stanford.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," Moore said. "I haven't seen Azella in a long time. I still watch her on TV and I keep I touch with her, and whenever she does good I e-mail her like "good job." The last time the two played against each other was during the 2000 Alaska state championship game. Perryman's East High team beat Moore's Colony High team.
"We were up by like 16 points at the half," Moore said. "I banked in a three-pointer at the half. We weren't supposed to win that year because East was good, but we were all excited. Then we let the game get away from us so I definitely owe her one this time."
In the lane: Ann Strother has been the Huskies' most consistent perimeter player this season, but of late she has also started stepping up her game inside.
Auriemma said that Strother had to decide not to just be a perimeter player, and the last third of the season she has committed herself to going inside more. It's made a difference in the team.
Strother's more aggressive mindset can be seen in her statistics as she has consistently tried to take more shots, score more points and take the ball inside considerably more over the last third of the season than she did over the first two thirds.
The first two thirds of the season (21 games) she made only 32 two-point baskets. In the last 11 games she has made 25.
Over the first 21 games she made only 24-for-39 from the free throw line while over the last 11 games she has been 30-for-37.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
By Roger Cleaveland
Copyright ? 2005 Republican-American
KANSAS CITY The UConn's basketball team has relied on its defense all season to carry it through some ups and downs, and it may be tested this weekend more than ever.
The Huskies are allowing only 50.6 points per game defensively, making this year's team a full point better defensively than the previous best mark by the Huskies (51.6) set during the 2001-02 season.
In NCAA Tournament play, UConn has allowed only an average of 49.5 points in their two games so far.
The Huskies have also allowed opponents to shoot only 33.1 percent from the field this season, which would be the fourth-best all-time in school history.
"Right now we're playing to our strength a little more than we have in the past," Coach Geno Auriemma said. "Our strength has been our defense. We have been able to consistently be good defensively. We've rebounded the ball fairly well and we've been able to, for the most part, keep teams from scoring so many points that it put pressure on our offense because offensively this is not one of our strongest teams."
The Huskies go into tonight's game having counted heavily on their defense.
Going into the NCAA Tournament, they were 22-1 in games in which they held their opponents to under 60 points, and they were 1-6 when allowing 60 or more points.
During the entire regular season and Big East Tournament, the Huskies allowed only two teams to score 70 or more points against them North Carolina (71) and Rutgers (76) and they lost both of those games.
Auriemma said the team may now need to pick up its offensive execution.
So we've given up a little bit on the offensive end in terms of how we've executed in the past and some of the firepower that we've had. But I think we've made up for it a little bit on the defensive end and this is probably the best defensive team we've had in the time that I've been here. I think that's what's gotten us to this point.
"But I'm afraid that this weekend our offense if what's going to have to win it for us because I don't know that we'll be able to contain the three teams that are in that regional with us. They're all very, very good offensively."
Three threats: The addition of 6-foot-3 center Brooke Smith, who sat out last season after transferring from Duke, has made the Cardinal a much more dangerous team. Of course, Stanford can score more easily inside as Smith established herself as the Cardinal's second leading scorer (13.4) as well as a First Team All-PAC-10 player. But another big added benefit Smith has had on the team is that she has made their three-pointer shooters more dangerous.
Forced to respect Smith's inside play, opponents have given the Cardinal a little more room outside, and they have taken advantage of it. Four different players have made 30 or more threes.
Kelly Suminski has made a team-high 66 with Susan Borchardt making 38, Sebnem Kimyacioglu 33 and Candice Wiggins 32. As a team, Stanford is shooting 206-541 (.381) from three-point range. By contrast, the Huskies have only one player who has made 30 or more three-pointers in Ann Strother (85). UConn has shot 173-for-518 (.334) as a team from beyond the arc.
Cold front: UConn's Jessica Moore and Stanford's Azella Perryman are childhood friends and high school rivals from Alaska. Moore grew up in Palmer Alaska and went to Colony High School while Perryman lived in Anchorage and went to East High.
"There was (a rivalry in high school), but I actually played with Azella since I was like 12 so it was always friendly," Moore said. "You like want to go out there and kill, but you're not going to take it off the court. She's a really good player and I really admire her. I know her father. Our family goes back like a long time ago."
The two may not match up against each other. Moore, 6-foot-3, will start at center for the Huskies while Perryman, 6-1, will play forward for Stanford.
"It's going to be a lot of fun," Moore said. "I haven't seen Azella in a long time. I still watch her on TV and I keep I touch with her, and whenever she does good I e-mail her like "good job." The last time the two played against each other was during the 2000 Alaska state championship game. Perryman's East High team beat Moore's Colony High team.
"We were up by like 16 points at the half," Moore said. "I banked in a three-pointer at the half. We weren't supposed to win that year because East was good, but we were all excited. Then we let the game get away from us so I definitely owe her one this time."
In the lane: Ann Strother has been the Huskies' most consistent perimeter player this season, but of late she has also started stepping up her game inside.
Auriemma said that Strother had to decide not to just be a perimeter player, and the last third of the season she has committed herself to going inside more. It's made a difference in the team.
Strother's more aggressive mindset can be seen in her statistics as she has consistently tried to take more shots, score more points and take the ball inside considerably more over the last third of the season than she did over the first two thirds.
The first two thirds of the season (21 games) she made only 32 two-point baskets. In the last 11 games she has made 25.
Over the first 21 games she made only 24-for-39 from the free throw line while over the last 11 games she has been 30-for-37.
