Stanford earns top overall seed for first time since 1996
The Stanford women’s basketball team spent nine weeks on the road this season because of COVID-19 restrictions in Santa Clara County.
Three more weeks won’t be a problem, senior guard Kiana Williams said after the Cardinal received the top overall seeding for the NCAA tournament that begins Sunday in San Antonio.
After being away for more than two months, Williams said, “We can do it for three weeks. In that aspect, we will be the most prepared team.”
All 64 games of the women’s tournament will be held in San Antonio as part of safety precautions during the health crisis that canceled the event a year ago.
The Cardinal (25-2) got the top seeding ahead of Connecticut, which finished the Associated Press poll ranked No. 1. The recognition did not impress Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.
“What I really tell our team is seeds do not matter,” she said Monday after the tournament berths were announced. “It’s not like you get any extra points when you show up at the gym.”
Besides, she said, “having gone through every imaginable thing in this tournament” they know better than to look beyond the upcoming opponent.
Stanford will open the tournament Sunday night against first-timer Utah Valley. The winner advances to face either fifthseeded Missouri State or Wake Forest.
The selection committee placed Stanford in the Alamo region with No. 2 Louisville, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Arkansas.
UConn, North Carolina State and South Carolina earned the other top seedings for their respective regions. The tournament is designed with four regions of 16 teams given names of popular San Antonio locales — Alamo, Hemisfair, Mercado and River Walk.
The national semifinals are scheduled for April 2, with the championship game on April 4.
Stanford earned its first overall top seeding since 1996 and is making its 33rd consecutive NCAA appearance. VanDerveer takes a talented group to San Antonio hoping to win Stanford’s first championship since 1992.
The Cardinal had not reached the Final Four since 2017 in Dallas but has been one of the country’s best teams this season with the help of two great recruiting classes.
Williams, who leads the team with 14.3 points per game, said the Cardinal endured tough times on the road, including not always wanting to practice.
The guard said the most trying moment came after Stanford lost to UCLA for its second consecutive defeat of the season. Williams recounted how the team practiced in a high school gym without lights and a slippery floor.
“How much worse can things get?” she recalled thinking. “What else is going to be thrown at us?”
Stanford has won 14 in a row since the defeat, beating UCLA 75-55 on March 7 in the Pac-12 tournament finale.
The balanced Cardinal has one of the deepest teams VanDerveer has seen in the last decade.
Sophomore Haley Jones averaged 13.0 points and 7.7 rebounds and 6-foot-4 Cameron Brink has been a breakout freshman with 10.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. The Cardinal has not lost since she joined the starting lineup.
“She definitely has a unique skill set,” VanDerveer said. “Her size, her defense, her hands, her ability to run. It gets our team off to a really good start.”
Stanford is one of six Pac-12 teams to make the tournament, joining Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and Washington State.
VanDerveer said having played that many tournament teams in the regular season will help the Cardinal in San Antonio.
But so will the team’s depth. Sophomore post players Ashten Pretchel and Fran Belibi did not get to play in the tournament last year when the coronavirus pandemic canceled the postseason competition.
VanDerveer said the sophomores’ improvement this season has allowed the Cardinal to play tag-team with its liberal substituting.
“We can just keep running,” VanDerveer said. “We don’t drop off when one of them comes into the game.”
Williams said she was most excited for the sophomores to experience their first tournament.
“March Madness is the best time of the year,” Williams said.
VanDerveer added that although the tournament will be held in one city it does not take away from how much the players appreciate the opportunity.
“It was taken away from us” last year, she said. “The gym was taken away from us, games at home were taken away from us.
“We know we have to do everything to stay healthy and keep playing.”