This season was arguable the most important and successful for the Stanford program since the 1992 national championship. It certainly re-hooked me after being a very casual fan for the prior 15 years.
Those prior 15 years fielded good teams that seemed to be always in the hunt to repeat the 1992 success but never quite did. This was especially true in the 1990s. But after the 96-97 final four appearance (starters were Kate Starbird, Olympia Scott, Vanessa Nygaard, Jamila Wideman, and many others in the final spot--Folkl played only 5 games) in which we lost a one point overtime game to Old Dominion, we did not get back to the final four for 10 years. It was beginning to seem as if time had passed us by. I honestly thought that our success early on was because Stanford had the foresight to embrace Title IX when few other universities did, but as the years went on everyone else had caught up. I doubted that we could return to those earlier levels since the competition had become so much better.
2007-2008 proved that wrong, and was the season that announced that Stanford was back. It began a succession of 5 final four appearances in a row.
This was Candice Wiggins' senior year, and she was joined by a very talented youngish team which included sophomore Jayne Appel, Frosh Kayla Pedersen, Sophomore JJ Hones, and Junior Jillian Harmon. Ros Gold-Onwude, another sophomore, got increasing minutes as the season went on.
It was a year in which we lost in the Virgin Islands early on to freshman Maya Moore and UConn, but came back in our best performance of the season to beat UConn in a brilliant semifinal match in the NCAAs. It was a year in which we beat Tennessee at home in an exciting overtime thriller, taking down Candace Parker and Pat Summit in her prime, and went on to beat everyone else along the way except dropping the road trip to both UCLA and USC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvS3yJezT9Y
This season was so memorable since we seemed like a Cinderella team again--not having been back to the final four for a decade. We felt snubbed when Maryland was given a 1 seed and we a 2 seed, but when we played them in the elite 8 in Spokane and won, Candice cried with tears of joy in the post game interview. In the highlights below I continue to be impressed with JJ Hone's steal for a layup, plucking the ball out of her opponent's stationary hands. Also Candice's three point shots from way outside the arc, and Jayne's unnaturally long arms reaching up to sink layups off glass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ34XW45unI
Then it was revenge time against UConn. In one of the most brilliant games Stanford has ever played, with incredible ball movement to defeat a UConn second half zone, we triumphed in the semifinals against our nemesis. After the game, Geno was asked about Tara and was generous. "She has always been a great coach, but she hasn't always had great players. Now she does." (Stanford recap begins halfway through the following video.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwqiWH81is
Sadly, we did not repeat the December magic against Tennessee, and their full court press cost us 25 turnovers and the game in the final. But with three future WNBA players this may have been our best team since the championship years, and it was certainly a team that began a Renaissance for Stanford WBB.
Those prior 15 years fielded good teams that seemed to be always in the hunt to repeat the 1992 success but never quite did. This was especially true in the 1990s. But after the 96-97 final four appearance (starters were Kate Starbird, Olympia Scott, Vanessa Nygaard, Jamila Wideman, and many others in the final spot--Folkl played only 5 games) in which we lost a one point overtime game to Old Dominion, we did not get back to the final four for 10 years. It was beginning to seem as if time had passed us by. I honestly thought that our success early on was because Stanford had the foresight to embrace Title IX when few other universities did, but as the years went on everyone else had caught up. I doubted that we could return to those earlier levels since the competition had become so much better.
2007-2008 proved that wrong, and was the season that announced that Stanford was back. It began a succession of 5 final four appearances in a row.
This was Candice Wiggins' senior year, and she was joined by a very talented youngish team which included sophomore Jayne Appel, Frosh Kayla Pedersen, Sophomore JJ Hones, and Junior Jillian Harmon. Ros Gold-Onwude, another sophomore, got increasing minutes as the season went on.
It was a year in which we lost in the Virgin Islands early on to freshman Maya Moore and UConn, but came back in our best performance of the season to beat UConn in a brilliant semifinal match in the NCAAs. It was a year in which we beat Tennessee at home in an exciting overtime thriller, taking down Candace Parker and Pat Summit in her prime, and went on to beat everyone else along the way except dropping the road trip to both UCLA and USC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvS3yJezT9Y
This season was so memorable since we seemed like a Cinderella team again--not having been back to the final four for a decade. We felt snubbed when Maryland was given a 1 seed and we a 2 seed, but when we played them in the elite 8 in Spokane and won, Candice cried with tears of joy in the post game interview. In the highlights below I continue to be impressed with JJ Hone's steal for a layup, plucking the ball out of her opponent's stationary hands. Also Candice's three point shots from way outside the arc, and Jayne's unnaturally long arms reaching up to sink layups off glass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ34XW45unI
Then it was revenge time against UConn. In one of the most brilliant games Stanford has ever played, with incredible ball movement to defeat a UConn second half zone, we triumphed in the semifinals against our nemesis. After the game, Geno was asked about Tara and was generous. "She has always been a great coach, but she hasn't always had great players. Now she does." (Stanford recap begins halfway through the following video.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwqiWH81is
Sadly, we did not repeat the December magic against Tennessee, and their full court press cost us 25 turnovers and the game in the final. But with three future WNBA players this may have been our best team since the championship years, and it was certainly a team that began a Renaissance for Stanford WBB.