After disappointment in Pac-12, Stanford regroups
Laughter and good-natured screams echoed off the walls of Stanford's locker room Thursday morning with NCAA Tournament preparation in full swing.
You'd never know these were the same women who made an early exit from the Pac-12 Tournament a week ago, bounced by UCLA.
Shaken, Stanford needed a serious heartto-heart to find that joy again. The players and the coaching staff sat together in a circle after dinner at the hotel in Las Vegas and talked about accountability and what would be needed from everybody to make another special March run.
Then, they came home to the Bay Area and met again, players-only this time.
“Obviously the Pac-12 Tournament didn't end the way we wanted it to but we've had a great week of practice and we're a completely different team than we were a week ago,” senior Hannah Jump said. “We're completely ready to bounce back and just have fun, play with a smile, and just play with joy.”
Top-seeded Stanford (28-5) will open its NCAA quest Friday with a matchup against 16th-seeded Sacred Heart (19-13), which beat Southern 57-47 in a First Four game Wednesday night for its first NCAA win in school history.
Despite the disappointment at the conference tournament, Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara Vanderveer considers the rest that her players received as key benefit. She sensed they were spent during that full team meeting.
“What came through, the message from the team was that they're close and they are committed to each other, and that's where you want them to be, that they're going to work hard, that they want to play, play hard,” Vanderveer said. “What I saw more than anything was just, we need a break. I saw this with our Olympic team, maybe people feeling some pressure. I'm just like, ‘Let's just take a break, get away from it, and just say, all right, now we're coming back with the tournament.'”
Fighting Irish star out for season: Notre Dame point guard Olivia Miles will miss the remainder of the season with an undisclosed injury to her right knee.
The Fighting Irish (25-5) are a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host No. 14 Southern Utah (23-9) on Friday. No. 11 Mississippi State faces sixth-seed Creighton in the other game.
Miles suffered the injury in a 68-65 win over Louisville in the regular-season finale and sat out the ACC Tournament. She will undergo surgery next week.
The second-team Associated Press All-american led Notre Dame to the ACC regular season title. She averaged 14.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 2.1 steals.