Stanford looking to avoid another ‘C’ game
At times, the Stanford women’s basketball team soared.
The overall top-seeded Cardinal looked every bit the favorites to win their first NCAA championship since 1992 during stretches of their second-round game Tuesday night against Oklahoma State.
But those were fleeting moments for Stanford (27-2), which held off the eighth-seeded Cowgirls 7362 to advance to the Sweet 16 this weekend in San Antonio, Texas. It plays No. 5 Missouri State, which easily eliminated Wright State 64-39 on Wednesday.
The game is scheduled for noon on Sunday in the Alamodome and broadcast on ABC.
When not floating to a 20-point lead in the third quarter the Cardinal played as if scattered despite being the country’s
most road-tested team. Those nine weeks away from Maples Pavilion because of Santa Clara County’s strict COVID-19 regulations were supposed to be Stanford’s superpower when the entire NCAA Tournament was moved to San Antonio.
Instead, Stanford sometimes unraveled like a dropped ball of yarn. The aggressive Cowgirls (19-9) forced the Cardinal into 16 turnovers and rallied in the third quarter to keep the game in doubt until the final minutes.
Stanford won’t get many more opportunities to keep playing with that kind of unsightly performance.
Just ask the Cardinal’s Tara VanDerveer, women’s basketball’s all-time winningest coach with 1,121 victories.
“After the game, I asked our team, ‘Was that our A game, our B game or C game?’ That was our C game,” she said.
Fifth-year senior Anna Wilson volunteered as much during her video news conference: “We know we have so much more to give,” she said. “We’re lucky we have another opportunity to play.”
Stanford is headed to its 13th consecutive Sweet 16 riding a 16-game win streak. It also is the Cardinal’s 27th third-round appearance to underscore the success VanDerveer has had in the Bay Area.
If the second round serves as some kind of wake-up call, Stanford should play in its 21st regional final next week. By all accounts, the Cardinal should get past Missouri State to reach the Elite Eight.
From there, the path to the Final Four will not be as simple as showing up with its first overall No. 1 seeding since 1996. Stanford has some formidable opponents on the horizon.
The outlook became clearer Wednesday when No. 6 Oregon upset thirdseeded Georgia 57-50, and No. 2 Louisville escaped against Northwestern 62-53.
Oregon (15-8) does not have starting point guard Te-Hina Paopao, a talented freshman whose foot injury kept her out of the Pac-12 tournament. But the Ducks, who finished fourth in the Pac-12, have an imposing frontline behind 6-7 Sedona Prince and 6-5 Nyara Sabally. The forwards dominated Georgia (21-7) scoring 22 and 15 points, respectively. Sabally also had nine rebounds while Prince had four blocked shots.
Oregon is peaking at an opportune moment while reaching its fourth consecutive Sweet 16. The Ducks’ opponent Sunday is Louisville (25-3), which needed a big second half to overcome No. 7 Northwestern.
Louisville is led by AllAmerican guard Dana Evans, the two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. The Cardinals, who spent three weeks atop the AP rankings, won the ACC regular-season title but lost to North Carolina State in the tournament final. The victory led to N.C. State earning one of the four top seedings in the NCAAs.
At this point, don’t count out Oregon, which would present Stanford with a difficult matchup in an allPac-12 game. Stanford won both contests against the Ducks this season.
If Stanford reaches its eighth Final Four in 13 years it probably would face longtime rival Connecticut in the semifinals. UConn ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll with the Cardinal No. 2.
But in a season without a dominant team, the Huskies and coach Geno Auriemma are not assured of another Final Four appearance. They are barreling toward a heavyweight showdown against secondseeded Baylor. Like Oregon, the Bears seem to be peaking while looking like one of the country’s most complete teams. Stanford graduate transfer Dijonai Carrington averages 13.9 points per game as Baylor’s top substitute.
With so much good competition VanDerveer said she and the Cardinal understood from the start of the second-round game nothing would come easy.
But the Hall of Fame coach saw enough Tuesday night to steady her nerves. Freshman Cameron Brink impressively slowed Oklahoma State’s senior AllAmerican forward Natasha Mack, who led the country in blocks. On Tuesday, Brink had five blocks, Mack had one.
“Cam can guard anyone when she puts her mind to it,” said Wilson, the Pac-12’s defensive player of the year.
Wilson held Oklahoma State’s other big threat, Ja’Mee Arberry (17.4 points per game), to five points.
Wilson made all three of her 3-point attempts, had four rebounds and three assists in a game Stanford star Kiana Williams struggled.
It seems Stanford has had one hold-your-breath triumph during every Final Four run since 2008. But it does not feel as if the Oklahoma State game will be the last of it.
“We were discombobulated on offense,” VanDerveer said. “We weren’t playing with the fluidity that we wanted. We made some big shots, but we missed shots people routinely make.”
Cardinal players did not get to Stanford as C students. It’s time for their A games if they plan to reach the April 4 championship.