On a roll at the right time
In the season that started so unremarkably for the Stanford women, the No. 14 Cardinal look to be in excellent position heading into the final weeks of the regular season. And Tara VanDerveer merits strong consideration to win her 15th Pac-12 Coach of the Year honor.
With just one home game left — Thursday night against Cal — Stanford (18-8, 12-2) is locked in a tie with Oregon and UCLA atop the conference. Stanford’s RPI is 14 and the Cardinal figure to host games in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Considering how far the Cardinal have come, VanDerveer deserves praise for getting them where they are now. Anybody who thought she would be winding down at age 64 and in her 39th year as a head coach — 32nd at Stanford — was dramatically mistaken.
The 6-6 nonconference season was one of the worst for Stanford in recent memory. It lost to powerhouses Ohio State (twice), No. 1 UConn, Baylor and Tennessee, mainly without top player Brittany McPhee, who missed nine games with a foot injury.
They lost a dispiriting home game to an undersized mid-major, Western Illinois, which then lost three of its next four games. Both McPhee and DiJonai Carrington missed the game, but it was a bad loss, no matter how you slice it.
VanDerveer’s team has sorely missed the top scorer, Erica McCall, and best three-point shooter, Karlie Samuelson, from last year’s Final Four team. It has lacked a consistent low-post scorer this season, and is the conference’s worst threepoint-shooting team. Additionally, it is mediocre at rebounding and one of the worst free-throw-shooting teams in the country.
The Cardinal, who finish the regular season with a visit to Cal on Saturday and a trip to the Washington schools next week, nevertheless have coalesced around their solid defense. They hit their pinnacle of the regular season by sweeping then-No. 16 Oregon State and then-No. 6 Oregon on the road.
As for other conference postseason awards, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, a Miramonte-Orinda alum, looks like a lock for Player of the Year despite the late-season push by McPhee.
Hitting a peak in a 31point second half against Oregon, McPhee averages career highs in points (17.9), rebounds (5.3), assists (2.4) and steals (1.2). In four February games, she is averaging 23.5 points on 58.5 percent shooting and 7 rebounds.
Stanford’s Kiana Williams is a strong contender for Freshman of the Year although Oregon’s Satou Sabally is probably the favorite. Williams averages 8.5 points. Sabaly, a native of Germany, is at 11.3 points.
McPhee and Kaylee Johnson, the team’s leading rebounder (7.6), make their regularseason farewells to Maples Pavilion at the Cal game. … The Cardinal have beaten the Bears (17-8, 8-6) five straight times and 18 times in the past 20 meetings. … VanDerveer hopes the game is a lot cleaner than Sunday’s matchup against Colorado, which committed 28 fouls. “Fouling negates hustle — that’s Pete Newell,” she said, referencing the late USF and Cal men’s coach. “If you’re fouling, you’re not doing the right thing. It does not make for an enjoyable coaching, playing or spectating experience.”