Fanhouse NCAA Basketball Blog - womens-basketball

Stringer Takes No Pleasure in Facing Iowa

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-19T18:46:00 00:00

Filed under: Iowa, Stanford, Big East, Big Ten, Women's Basketball

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- C. Vivian Stringer found herself standing in the hallway in the Stanford athletic department building chatting with Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder.

She had already run into Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby in the hallway, exchanging updates about their now-grown children.

The ties that bind are everywhere this weekend for Rutgers' head coach.

VanDerveer and Stringer go back more than 25 years as friends and coaching adversaries. Bluder and Stringer share more than the common experience of being the Iowa head coach. And Stringer and Bowlsby used to stand on the soccer fields together in Iowa City and watch their sons -- now young men -- play on youth teams. Bowlsby is the former Iowa athletic director.

"This is really ironic," Stringer said Friday. "There's a real personal kind of connection here. It's like a family reunion."

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Alexander Leads Iowa Into NCAA Tourney

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-19T18:23:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Iowa, Big Ten, Women's Basketball

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Kachine Alexander strapped a plastic brace to her lower right leg as she prepared for Iowa's practice on the day before the eighth-seeded Hawkeyes open the NCAA tournament against No. 9 seed Rutgers.

That brace, that injury -- a mysterious stress fracture that forced her to sit for seven games -- could be the defining symbol of her junior season.

But it isn't.

Instead, Alexander's season has been defined by her leadership in the face of adversity, her work ethic in pursuit of her goals and a nose for the ball off the rim.

The Hawkeyes junior forward enters Saturday's game as the team's leading scorer, averaging 15.5 points, and its leading rebounder at 11.1.

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Stanford's Tinkle Taking Advantage of Luck of the Draw

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-18T13:51:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Stanford, Pac-10, March Madness, Women's Basketball

Joslyn Tinkle has it all worked out with her humanities professors. The Stanford freshman was a little worried. But it turns out her professor is a big basketball fan.

And he's from Montana.

Tinkle has rescheduled her final exam Thursday in order to be in the stands that night at HP Pavilion in San Jose to watch her father's team, Montana, playing in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Wayne Tinkle is in his fourth season as Montana's men's basketball head coach and will be making his first appearance in the NCAA tournament with the Grizzlies.

It will be his daughter's first appearance in the NCAA tournament as well. Joslyn Tinkle is a reserve forward for the Cardinal, the top seed in the Sacramento Regional.

"I don't know how it worked out this way, but I'm not complaining," Joslyn Tinkle said. "I was hoping they would end up here. It's great."

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Anonymous Xavier Can Be X Factor

Milton Kent — 2010-03-18T12:02:00 00:00

by Milton Kent

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

Call Xavier the Stealth Contender.

The Musketeers enter this weekend's NCAA women's basketball tournament ranked fifth in the polls and riding the twin waves of an unbeaten run through their league as well as an 18-game winning streak.

Yet, you'll hardly find Xavier (27-3), the No.3 seed in the Sacramento Regional, on anyone's list of national title hopefuls.

For coach Kevin McGuff, the anonymity comes with the territory of being in the Atlantic 10.

"The Atlantic 10 is a terrific conference with great coaches and great players and I think (it's) underappreciated nationally," said McGuff, after Xavier beat Temple 57-55 in the A-10 title game. "For us to be able to go undefeated during the regular season and win the conference tournament says a lot about our players."

What it should say is that the Musketeers, who face East Tennessee State Sunday in a first-round game, have a solid blend of experience, interior play and long distance range to go deep into the tournament.

"They're a really good basketball team. They have a chance to do a lot in the postseason, no question,'' Charlotte coach Karen Aston said. "They have experienced players. They have players who have been around the block. I think that's the biggest difference. All you need is eight in the tournament and they have eight or nine that can really get the job done."

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Princeton Preps for NCAA Debut

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-17T17:59:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

Niveen Rasheed's friends didn't entirely get it. They didn't understand why she would pass up a scholarship to play basketball in the Pac-10 or the West Coast Conference to go across the country to play basketball in the Ivy League.

They might get it now.

Rasheed's outstanding freshman season has led Princeton to its first appearance in the NCAA tournament.

The Tigers -- their 11th-seed the highest-ever for an Ivy League team -- will debut Saturday in Tallahassee against No. 6 seed St. John's.

Princeton went 26-2 overall and made a 14-0 run through the Ivy League.

Uncharted territory was the destination coach Courtney Banghart was hoping to discover when she took the job three years ago.

Banghart is Ivy League-basketball bred. She played and coached at Dartmouth. She was a two-time All-Ivy League selection as a player and coached in the NCAA tournament in 2004 and 2006 as an assistant coach at her alma mater.

Banghart has been working hard to sell Princeton as a viable basketball option to the top student-athletes from around the country. Her sales pitch opens with "It worked for me."

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UNC's Breland Back at Practice as She Continues Cancer Battle

Milton Kent — 2010-03-16T17:00:00 00:00

by Milton Kent

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

Cancer has done a number on Jessica Breland.

It's taken away a year of basketball. It made her sweat so much at night that she had to change her clothes two or three times. It's even gotten into her dreams, and, for a time, took away her composure.

But for all that has been taken from the North Carolina senior, the cancer that was in Breland's body has also given her some things too, mostly an inner strength and resolve that weren't there before the Hodgkin's lymphoma was spotted in May.

"I hate to be (known as) a basketball player that's a survivor of cancer, but I think it shows the person I am," Breland said. "It really put character on me as being a strong person. I'd like to take that aggressiveness on the court. If I could do that, I feel like I could be a very successful person."

There was little doubt that Breland, a 6-foot-3 forward from Kelford, N.C., was going to be a successful basketball player this season. She was voted onto the preseason All-Atlantic Coast Conference team and a selection in the top five of the first round of the WNBA Draft seemed a certainty.

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UConn Repeat a Given ... or Is It?

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-16T13:47:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Connecticut, Iowa State, Ohio State, Stanford, Tennessee, Big East, March Madness, Women's Basketball

Let the coronation begin.

Connecticut's run at destiny and a second consecutive NCAA title rounded into the final turn Monday with the announcement of the NCAA brackets. Now, apparently, all that's left for the Huskies is to play a few more games, stand under the confetti and hoist a trophy.

But if the ending seems predestined -- and good luck trying to find somebody who is willing to pick anyone else as the national champion -- the road may just be more interesting than the season that preceded it.

Because let's face it, for most of this season, for all the times the Huskies were on TV, you knew you could watch the first five minutes and the last two and find out everything you needed to know.

The Huskies travel to Norfolk, Virginia, to open NCAA play, making a rare trip outside of Connecticut for the opening rounds.

Bracket Analysis: Memphis | Kansas City | Sacramento | Dayton
Maryland, USC, Syracuse Among Those On Outside Looking in

This will be the first time since 2006 that Connecticut hasn't opened tournament play in the Nutmeg State. And this will be the first time in 22 years that the Huskies won't play any part of the tournament in their home state

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Maryland, USC, Syracuse Among Those On Outside Looking in

Milton Kent — 2010-03-16T00:45:00 00:00

by Milton Kent

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

In the end, coach Brenda Frese had no excuses and didn't offer any for her Maryland team, which, one season removed from a top seed and an Elite Eight appearance, failed to get an NCAA tournament bid when the draw was announced Monday.

Granted, the Terps (19-12) lost 4,000 points of offense, when Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman graduated from last year's team, but Maryland did itself no favors by finishing ninth in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 5-9 league mark.

"From our end the only ones to blame is us in terms of not being able to see things through," said Frese last night. "At the same point, with this young team, to be able to grow and develop like they did and win 19 games and still have an opportunity to play in postseason in the WNIT is a chance for us to continue to practice and develop."

The 10-member NCAA women's basketball committee made interesting choices across the nation in distributing 33 at-large bids.

The panel extended two of the last bids to Green Bay (27-4) of the Horizon League and to Arkansas-Little Rock (26-6) of the Sun Belt, while leaving out such notable teams as Southern California (19-12), Syracuse (22-10), Boston College (17-15) and Wake Forest (18-13).

Jane Meyer, the senior women's administrator and chair of the women's basketball committee, said Green Bay and Arkansas-Little Rock, which received its first ever bid, were singled out for their willingness to schedule tough teams and their success against those schedules.

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Memphis: 'Embarrassed' Tennessee on Road to Redemption

Milton Kent — 2010-03-15T23:55:00 00:00

by Milton Kent

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

What's in the water in Morgantown?

First, West Virginia men's coach Bob Huggins spent Sunday evening and Monday morning griping that his team ended up in the same region with Kentucky.

Then, Huggins' women's counterpart, Mike Carey griped Monday night about his team, the third seed in the Memphis Regional, having to start the tournament in Austin, where they might have to play Texas.

"I think Pittsburgh was a realistic option," said Carey. "We are a third seed and finished second in the Big East, and we have to go and play someone on their home floor, I don't see why that happened. But once again, we just have to get ready to play. It just shows you that we don't get the respect that we need to get."

If West Virginia can get out of Texas, it's likely to run smack into a Duke team, the Memphis region's No. 2 seed that ranks 17th in the nation in scoring defense. Junior guard Jasmine Thomas has blossomed into one of the nation's top lead guards, and is as adept at scoring as she is distributing.

Much of the country will be watching Baylor freshman center Brittney Griner in her first extended national exposure since she was suspended for throwing a punch at a Texas Tech opponent.

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Kansas City: Nebraska Looking to Complete Turnaround

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-15T23:50:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

At this time last year, Nebraska was in the WNIT. And for not very long, either, as a second-round loss ended a disappointing 15-16 season.

How far they've come.

Nebraska became just the second team to earn a No. 1 seed the year after not making the NCAA tournament when its 30-1 record landed it the top spot in the Kansas City Regional.

"To put Nebraska on the map in the women's basketball world with teams like UConn -- never would you imagine little old Nebraska would be up there," senior forward Cory Montgomery said Monday night to the local media gathered in Lincoln.

The Huskers will stay relatively close to home, opening play in Minneapolis against Northern Iowa, before a likely meeting with the winner of an intriguing UCLA-North Carolina State matchup.

This whole season has been new territory for Nebraska but the pressure really gets intense now. The Huskers withstood an unbeaten run through the Big 12 regular season and set a conference record with 30 straight wins before they lost to Texas A&M in the conference tournament semifinals Saturday.

Notre Dame is the No. 2 seed in this region, the Irish, perhaps, underrated as a Final Four contender because of their decisive losses to UConn earlier this season.

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Sacramento: Stanford's Been Here Before

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-15T23:35:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

Stanford won't have to go farther than a two-hour bus ride to pave a path back to its third straight Final Four. But the roadblocks are plentiful.

The Cardinal (31-1) are the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament by virtue of Sunday's Pac-10 tournament championship in Los Angeles. Stanford is scheduled to play at home for the first two rounds, opening Saturday with No. 16 seed UC Riverside, and is the only team in its bracket with a host bid.

Should the Cardinal advance as expected, they will head to Sacramento.

Unlike Connecticut, the team that Stanford has been looking up at all year, the Cardinal have had their health issues. Jayne Appel (pictured right) has battled knee, foot and ankle injuries this season. Experienced guards JJ Hones and Mel Murphy have experienced limited playing time with persistent knee swelling. Starting point guard Jeanette Pohlen had an ankle injury.

Stanford is a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1998, when it made history by becoming the first No. 1 seed ever to lose to a No. 16 seed when Harvard pulled off the now infamous upset at Maples Pavilion.

Texas A&M (25-7) lurks on the other end of the bracket. The Aggies won the Big 12 tournament for the second time in three years last weekend in Kansas City, in the process handing Nebraska its first loss of the season.

Bracket Analysis: Memphis | Kansas City | Sacramento | Dayton
Maryland, USC, Syracuse Among Those On Outside Looking in

A&M has won nine of 10 games, the only loss in that span a two-point loss against Baylor in College Station.

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Dayton: UConn Casts Mighty Shadow

Milton Kent — 2010-03-15T22:00:00 00:00

by Milton Kent

Filed under: March Madness, Women's Basketball

Say you're Ohio State coach Jim Foster and you've coached your Buckeye team to a 30-4 mark, capturing the regular season and tournament champions.

Or perhaps you're Sue Semrau, the Florida State coach, whose Seminoles shared the regular season Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title with Duke.

You'd think either coach would feel reasonably comfortable with their chances to reach the Final Four in San Antonio, given they received the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively in the Dayton regional.

That is, until they looked at the top of the bracket and saw who the No. 1 seed was, namely Connecticut. The Huskies' 72-game winning streak -- two of them against Florida State -- appear as daunting a challenge as any contender has faced since the 1999 tournament, when three-time defending champion Tennessee, fresh off an unbeaten 1998 season, entered the field as prohibitive favorites.

Bracket Analysis: Memphis | Kansas City | Sacramento | Dayton
Maryland, USC, Syracuse Among Those On Outside Looking in

The Lady Vols were knocked out that year in the regional final by Duke, and Ohio State and Florida State, not to mention Iowa State, the region's fourth seed, will need something miraculous to happen to take out Connecticut.

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NCAA 2010 Women's Basketball Tournament Selections and Pairings

Matt Romanoski — 2010-03-15T20:01:00 00:00

by Matt Romanoski

Filed under: March Madness, NCAA Tournament, Women's Basketball

Four teams that went a combined 123-4 -- Connecticut (33-0), Nebraska (30-1), Stanford (30-1) and Tennessee (30-2) -- were awarded No. 1 seeds Monday night for the 2010 NCAA women's basketball tournament.

UConn, winner of a record 72 straight games, will open defense of its national championship March 21 against Southern (23-8) in Norfolk, Va. The Huskies defeated Louisville, 76-54, in last year's title game.

The 2010 tournament opens at 16 sites March 20 and 21 and culminates with the national championship game April 6 in San Antonio.

Bracket Analysis: Memphis | Kansas City | Sacramento | Dayton
Maryland, USC, Syracuse Among Those On Outside Looking in

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Stanford Women Cakewalk Into NCAA Tourney

FanHouse Newswire — 2010-03-15T01:33:00 00:00

by FanHouse Newswire

Filed under: Stanford, UCLA, Women's Basketball

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA's shakeup of the Pac-10 power structure isn't quite ripe.

Stanford completed an undefeated run through the Pac-10 with a dominating trio of games in the conference tournament, culminating Sunday with a 70-46 win over UCLA in the title game at the Galen Center.

Stanford became the first team in Pac-10 history to go through the conference schedule undefeated and win the conference tournament. The Cardinal ran their winning streak to 21 games and their record to 30-1.

"We are ready. It's tournament time," said Stanford senior center Jayne Appel, ice bags on both knees and her still-healing right ankle. "There's no excuses, no injuries. We need to find out who are playing, but we are very excited right now that it's tournament time."

The Cardinal will almost certainly be a No. 1 seed when the brackets come out on Monday. They have to be considered a Final Four favorite and still considered the best hope at ending Connecticut's never-ending winning streak.

The burning question is, is Stanford up for a title run?

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UCLA Stops USC, Now Faces Stanford

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-14T00:08:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Stanford, UCLA, USC, Pac-10, Women's Basketball

LOS ANGELES -- It all started here at the Galen Center, back on January 17 when USC beat UCLA and Trojans coach Michael Cooper opened his post-game press conference with a very, very bad word directed at the rival Bruins.

Since then, UCLA has been very, very good.

UCLA earned its first spot in the Pac-10 Championship game since 2006 Saturday on USC's home floor, defeating the Women of Troy 59-53. The Bruins, the No. 2 seed, will take on top-seeded Stanford Sunday at 3 p.m., looking to put an exclamation point on an impressive run.

Since that loss at USC back in mid-January and the after-moments that had everybody talking, UCLA has reeled off 14 wins in 15 games, the only loss at Stanford (74-53) on Feb. 4.

But this is a program with all upside right now, not to mention a good dose of momentum.

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Cal's Alexis Gray-Lawson Carted Off on Stretcher After Fall

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-13T23:19:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: California, Pac-10, Women's Basketball

LOS ANGELES -- Cal senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson was taken from the court on a stretcher with five minutes remaining in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals Saturday at the Galen Center on the USC campus.

Gray-Lawson sustained a neck injury and was transported to a local hospital, where she was evaluated and released later Saturday night. The fifth-year senior guard was treated for a neck strain. She will be re-evaluated by team physicians when she returns to the Bay Area on Sunday.

Gray-Lawson was alert, awake, conscious and had full movement in all extremities after her fall, according to team trainer Ann Caslin.

Coach Joanne Boyle visited Gray-Lawson after the game before the rest of the Cal team returned to the Bay Area and said she was joking, talking and having "normal" conversations with Boyle and family members.

Play was stopped for approximately 12 minutes after Gray-Lawson went up for a shot and was blocked by Stanford forward Michelle Harrison. Gray-Lawson fell hard to the floor, hitting her head on the court.

She lay face-down on the court for more than 10 minutes while being evaluated by the team trainer. Eventually paramedics came on, fitted Gray-Lawson with a neck brace and put her on a stretcher.

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Griner Returns, but Baylor's Ousted

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-13T00:24:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Women's Basketball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Baylor's Brittney Griner returned to the floor Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament, and the results were mixed all the way around.

Oklahoma, riding a stellar night from junior point guard Danielle Robinson, closed strong and finished with a 59-54 victory that sends the Sooners into the semifinals against rival Oklahoma State on Saturday.

But even a thrilling game that featured 16 ties and 11 lead changes couldn't dim the spotlight on Griner, playing in her first game since she punched Texas Tech's Jordan Barncastle in the face on March 3. She was subsequently suspended for two games by Bears coach Kim Mulkey.

Griner was introduced to the crowd, exhaled as she left the Baylor bench and said she drowned out the smattering of boos that were audible. The boos were soon overwhelmed by cheers from the crowd.

But Mulkey heard them.

"I was disappointed," Mulkey said. "She's a teenager that made a mistake. She's good for the women's game and she's human."

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Oklahoma State Rides Riley's 43 to Upset Of Iowa State

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-12T22:44:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Women's Basketball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Maybe Oklahoma State coach Kurt Budke isn't ready to admit it, but his life will be infinitely less interesting when Andrea Riley isn't on his team anymore.

Riley re-wrote the Big 12 record book Friday night on the way to leading her team to a very big win. She scored 43 points to lead seventh-seeded Oklahoma State to a 62-59 upset victory over second-seeded Iowa State at Municipal Auditorium.

Riley broke the Big 12 career scoring mark with her first jumper at 19:10 (2,772 points) and then proceeded to break the conference single-season mark (846), career assists (697) and field-goal attempts in a game (44).

She also broke the single-game scoring mark she set just Thursday with a 37-point game against Kansas.

She took 44 shots. Yes, 44. That was three attempts short of the NCAA record.

She had the go-ahead to take even more from Budke, who told her at halftime that, if she took 50 shots and they lost, he could live with that. But he bet that if she took 50 shots, his team would probably win.

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Nebraska Now 30-0, Faces Texas A&M in Big 12 Semis

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-12T19:34:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Kansas State, Texas A&M, Texas, Big 12, Women's Basketball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Nebraska's sports information director stood off to the side as coach Connie Yori and her players were to begin their post-game press conference and offered some game notes to the media.

The first one: this is the Huskers' first win in a Big 12 Tournament game in five years.

Yet here the Huskers sit at 30-0, the No. 1 seed in this tournament and now, after a 63-46 win over Kansas State in the tournament quarterfinals Friday at Municipal Auditorium, likely a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Nebraska will take on Texas A&M in Saturday's semifinal. The Aggies made it seven straight victories over rival Texas with a 77-64 win.

This notion that Nebraska is an overnight sensation, that its rise to the top of women's basketball has been more meteoric than methodical ... well, that's just not how it went, says Huskers coach Connie Yori.

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Baylor Survives Without Brittney Griner

Michelle Smith — 2010-03-11T23:54:00 00:00

by Michelle Smith

Filed under: Big 12, Women's Basketball

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- From Brittney Griner's seat in the front row behind the Baylor bench, she had to see it clearly: her team needs her back.

Playing without its star center for the second straight game -- Griner's penalty for punching Texas Tech's Jordan Barncastle eight days ago -- Baylor played nearly to the wire with 11th-seeded Colorado Thursday night in the opening game of the Big 12 tournament, and came away with a 72-65 victory.

The fifth-seeded Bears move on to face No. 4 seed Oklahoma Friday.

They move on, but it was close. Baylor lost its first game in Griner's absence last weekend against Texas, and the Buffaloes challenged the Bears on this night with a persistent zone defense.

But Baylor, down by eight points at halftime, turned up the full-court pressure and changed the game.

The Bears assumed the lead for good on a jumper by Kelli Griffin to make it 64-62 with 4:40 to go and outscored Colorado 14-3 over the final 6:25.

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