San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Stanford women’s next test comes from Missouri State.
Each team has only two losses this season. One team carries a 16game winning streak, the other a 19gamer. One team’s head coach owns the most wins in the history of women’s college basketball, the other’s head coach has gone a mere 496 in her first two seasons.
Yes, Sunday’s Sweet 16 matchup in San Antonio between Stanford, the top overall seed in the field of 64, and Missouri State, the fifth seed in the Alamo Region, pits two teams with a lot in common.
Stanford (272) has appeared in 34 NCAA Tournaments, including the past 33. Tara VanDerveer led the Cardinal to national titles in 1990 and ’92.
Stanford’s body of work dating to the late 1980s ranks among the nation’s best. VanDerveer, whose 1,121 victories are the most in women’s history, knows the Lady Bears have a history of success as well.
“What they have is a tradition,” VanDerveer said in a Zoom news conference Friday morning. “They have a tradition of winning basketball. They have a tradition of playing hardnosed, team basketball.”
This is Missouri State’s 16th NCAA Tournament appearance. Jackie Stiles, the thirdleading career scorer (3,393 points) in women’s basketball history, took the Lady Bears to their second Final Four in 2001.
Their first came in 1992, when the school then known as Southwest Missouri State set a school record with 21 consecutive wins. The current Lady Bears (232) are two shy of that mark.
“We know that we were born to be in this spotlight,” said guard Brice Calip, who won the Jackie Stiles Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year award.
Calip scored seven points when Missouri State lost 5546 to Stanford in a Sweet 16 matchup in Chicago two years ago. It would not be termed the most aesthetically pleasing game; Missouri State went 16for63 (25.4%) from the floor. Stanford went 17for68 (25%), including 3for29 from beyond the arc.
“We did not play well against them the last time,” VanDerveer said, “so it will be a challenge for us to shoot the ball better than we did.
“I have to think that we can.” Soon after that game, head coach Kellie Harper left Missouri State to take over the program at Tennessee, her alma mater. Missouri State replaced Harper with Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, who had spent the previous six seasons as an assistant at Michigan State.
Two seasons into her first headcoaching job, Agugua-Hamilton faces VanDerveer with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line.
“She’s a legend in our game, one of the best coaches to ever to do it,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “So, I respect her, for sure. But just like I tell our team, we respect all, fear none. So, I’m not going to go in there scared just because of everything she’s accomplished.”
Agugua-Hamilton said the Lady Bears do have something of a chip on their shoulders.
“We’ve earned the right to be respected, and we do get disrespected and overlooked — so that drives our players,” she said. “They want to prove that they can play with some of the best players in the country and that they are some of the best players in the country.
“If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. Stanford is the best.”
Briefly: The winner of the Missouri StateStanford game faces the winner of Sunday’s OregonLouisville game in the Alamo Region final Tuesday. … Calip leads Missouri State in points (13.5) and assists (4.1) per game. Forward Jasmine Franklin averages 12 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. … Entering the weekend, the Cardinal ranked second in the nation in fieldgoal percentage defense (32.7), behind only Baylor (31.7).