ABOVE THE BASKET
The Cardinal’s size, depth and versatility have given VanDerveer high expectations
STANFORD >> Practice is over. The coaches have departed, the players too. Except for two, their sneakers squeaking on the Maples Pavilion hardwood.
Lob — jump — miss. Lob — jump — dunk. Repeat.
If their legs aren’t too numb after a three-hour practice, if Stanford’s academic demands don’t intercede, freshmen Fran Belibi and Haley Jones stay late to work on something special. Jones lobs 30 passes at the rim, and Belibi leaps in an attempt to dunk them.
Yes, Stanford has a player who can dunk. Routinely.
“We want to get it into a game,” says Jones, the nation’s No. 1 recruit and the pride of San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty High. “So, sometimes it’ll be my fault with the pass. Most of the time it’s her fault not finishing. Because I be dropping her some dimes.”
“Haley seems to think the hardest part about a lob is the pass,” said Belibi, who stands only 6-foot-1. “But in reality, I’m the one doing the jumping.”
The freshman class that will play under Tara VanDerveer this season comes with considerable flash. In addition to Jones at No. 1 and Belibi (the No. 19 recruit), there are Ashten Prechtel (No. 15) and Hannah Jump (No. 50), another local who played at Pinewood High School in Los Altos Hills.
As a recruiting class, Stanford was second only to South Carolina. The Fab Four bolsters a deep and talented team that could bring VanDerveer her third national championship and first in 27
years.
“We have all the pieces, and people are being very coachable,” VanDerveer said after a recent practice. “They push each other. We don’t have a starting five and then scrubs, so to speak, we can play.”
Belibi, born in Kansas City to a Cameroonian couple, didn’t display much basketball talent growing up, but her height pushed her into the game. She took up basketball as a high school freshman in Colorado, mostly messing around at the gym before the season started. She had little to no skill, couldn’t dribble and fell on an instinctive basketball IQ and singular ability to rebound and kick the ball out. In a word, she said, her game “sucked.”
Belibi didn’t learn about the WNBA and her favorite player, Washington Mystics’ MVP Elena Delle Donne, until recently. So she grew up on LeBron James in his every iteration, her basketball dreams inspired by James’ vision and command of the court.
“And obviously the dunks,” Belibi said. “They’re just so empowering and make you want to get up and yell. And as someone who dunks, or up until sophomore year wanted to dunk my whole life, I was so empowered watching him dunk.”
One day, while messing around in her high school gym, Belibi jumped and touched rim. Onlookers told her to put a ball through the rim, she obliged. It earned her a spot on the Regis Jesuit squad, where she became the first woman to dunk in the state of Colorado and, eventually, one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation.
But it’s the pregame dunk that
Belibi finds most potent.
“I’d dunk a lot before games just to intimidate people,” Belibi said.
Two other Stanford players can dunk — Prechtel (6-5) and Maya Dodson (6-3) — but Belbi, with her 30-inch vertical, is the flashiest.
“I don’t think it’s that big a deal, honestly,” VanDerveer said. “But the fact that she can dunk means she can dunk. And she’s got to get up and get rebounds. Our freshmen are doing phenomenally well. Part of the reason they are doing so well is because the upper classmen help them and aren’t threatened by them.”
Another feature of this recruiting class is that it can play positionless basketball, a trend sweeping all levels of the game. With its depth and positional flexibility, Stanford not only can play faster offensively and more simply defensively, but it also can employ a rotation that keeps players fresh.
“We have more people on the team who can play multiple positions,” guard DiJonai Carrington said. “So whoever gets the rebound, go ahead and push it, and then everyone else fill a lane.”
A couple freshmen, in particular, allow Stanford to operate with this scheme. Jones’ biggest strength is her positional flexibility, she can play the 1, 2 and 3 (point guard, shooting guard and small forward), but she can defend the 2-through-5. Jump can play the 2,3 and 4 on both ends.
Carrington and junior guard Estella Moschkau can transition into the forward positions offensively and defensively. Lexi Hull — twin to Lacie Hull — can play the 1, 2 and 3. Junior forward Alyssa Jerome can handle any front-court position.
This recruiting class joins a Stanford team that fell to Notre Dame in last year’s Elite Eight round. Carrington averaged 14 points and 7.5
rebounds in 29 minutes last season. Kiana Williams averaged 14.3 points in 35 minutes per game. Point guard Anna Wilson — her brother plays quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks — is expecting big things in her senior season. Forward Nadia Fingall will return to the team soon after tearing her ACL last January.
“This might be one of our deepest teams, if we can just stay healthy,” VanDerveer said. “They’re unselfish, and it’s going to be hard, because honestly the best thing that can happen is that some people will play less. Kiana maybe played too many minutes last year, or DiJonai maybe too many minutes. So it’s going to be getting Haley in the game, Hannah Jump, Ashten, Fran. They’re going to be out there contributing . ... We call it a tag team.”
VanDerveer is now in her 34th season at Stanford, and the Cardinal hasn’t won a national title since the 1991-92 season. She’s coached a few good teams well beyond their limits. Stanford has 30 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, 24 conference championships and 13 Pac12 Tournament titles, including last year’s revenge upset of Oregon.
The Ducks have been their biggest challenge of late. Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard’s lethal pick-androll has claimed the Pac-12 spotlight with the Cardinal a tough challenger.
But, with this kind of depth and talent — melded with a touted freshman class and esteemed upper classmen — the Cardinal could be in position to reclaim the glory of their past.
“That’s going to be a huge thing with other teams, where they don’t have as much depth in their bench that we have,” Carrington said. “I think we’ll definitely be able to take advantage of that and it will help us we’re trying to get into March and deep in the NCAA Tournament.”