Publication Date: Wednesday, January 05, 2005
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Stanford goal: get physical
Stanford goal: get physical
(January 05, 2005) Women will focus on getting tougher, men might as well, too
by Rick Eymer
Stanford freshman Candice Wiggins called it a New Year's resolution while Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said it's a missing piece of the puzzle.
Entering Tuesday night's game against visiting Washington, the Stanford women's basketball team is focused on toughness.
"Our goal was to be more aggressive," VanDerveer said after the fifth-ranked Cardinal beat visiting Washington State, 72-39, on Sunday in a Pac-10 contest. "We need to be physically and mentally tough."
Those traits would be especially welcome when the Cardinal (2-1, 10-2) travel to Arizona State on Friday and Arizona on Sunday. Stanford lost both games in Arizona last year, including a 20-point defeat at the hands of the Sun Devils, easily Stanford's worst loss of the season.
"The jury is still out in terms of the players' aggressiveness and confidence," VanDerveer said. "We have to continue to do that. I was most disappointed in our missed opportunities at both Tennessee and Oregon."
Both losses served as motivation for the Cardinal.
"It upsets us and angers us," Stanford guard Kelley Suminski said. "We don't feel like we should have lost. It's not the coaches' responsibility to push us in practice. It's on us to make practice hard every day. It has been competitive. We don't want another experience like (losing)."
Arizona State has experience, depth and plays extremely well at home. The Sun Devils returned all five starters from a team that went 13-1 in Wells Fargo Arena.
With four seniors and four juniors among 12 returning players, Arizona State has more than 99 percent of its offensive and rebounding production back.
It's a similar story in Tucson, where the Wildcats return four starters and have the size and muscle to match Stanford in the middle. Arizona won all 14 of its home games last year.
Junior center Shawntinice Polk (6-foot-5) and senior guard Dee-Dee Wheeler are the conference's top returning scorers, and both are two-time all-Pac-10 picks.
"Obviously there are things that need to be better," junior center Brooke Smith said. "But we're headed in the right direction."
Smith, who came off the bench, scored 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half against the Cougars. Stanford could have pounded the ball into her at will but after taking control of the game, Smith spent most of her time on the bench. She needed just 19 minutes for her scoring, seven rebounds and three steals.
None of the starters played more than 19 minutes. Cissy Pierce played 24 minutes, and Krista Rappahahn played 22.
"They constantly have fresh legs," Washington State coach Sherri Murrell said. "It's not only depth but depth that is good. They play well together with people off the bench. I thought we did a good job defensively but they are so darn good."
Stanford won its 19th straight Pac-10 home opener, and improved to 38-0 against the Cougars.
"You can't think one game like this fixes something," VanDerveer said. "We should be working every game and try to take care of the little things."
The Cardinal seem to be paying attention.
"Toughness was one of our resolutions this year," Wiggins said. "It's a whole new year and every one is focused now. You can always step it up a notch."
Stanford has the second-best scoring offense (73.3) in the conference and the second-best scoring defense (50.8). That will be put to the test this week as Arizona State is the top defensive team and Arizona is the offensive leader.
Men's basketball
Stanford lost its first two conference games for the first time since the 1990-91 season, and yet there's reason to feel better about the team.
The Cardinal (0-2, 6-6) responded to a 60-51 loss to host Washington State on Friday with a much better showing against 13th-ranked Washington.
Stanford lost, 76-73, to the Huskies but redshirt freshman guard Tim Morris called it Stanford's best game of the season.
"This was our best game of the year," Morris said. "Washington is good, but we could have beaten them."
Instead the Cardinal will have to wait until Thursday for their chance at a conference victory. That's when Arizona State visits for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Arizona comes in for a noon showdown on Saturday.
"I feel good when we do certain things," Stanford coach Trent Johnson said. "We know we have to take care of the ball. We know we have to defend, and we have to execute in the halfcourt offense. It's amazing what happens when the ball goes down. It covers all those other discrepancies."
Stanford shot 47 percent against the Huskies and held a 65-62 lead in the final minutes after recovering from a 60-49 deficit.
The Huskies took advantage of Stanford's foul situation to regain the lead. Washington went to the charity stripe 27 times while the Cardinal were 5-of-5 from the foul line, all in the first half.
Washington did not commit a foul in the final 8:58 of the contest.
Stanford lost its first two conference games for the first time since the 1990-91 season, when the Cardinal eventually won the NIT. The Cardinal haven't lost a conference home opener since the 1992-93 season.
In fact, Washington State beat Stanford for the first time in 18 games dating to 1996.
Stanford brings a 13-game winning streak against the Sun Devils to Maples on Thursday. The Cardinal have won 17 of the past 18 games played between the schools.
Chris Hernandez and Dan Grunfeld each had 15 points for Stanford, while Rob Little and Morris each added 12 and Nick Robinson had 11.
Grunfeld scored 18 against the Cougars.
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