It's Saturday night, March 12, and the Stanford women's basketball team is enjoying some much-deserved, seldom-received attention from the Bay Area's television media. After thrashing then-No. 17 Washington by 27 points, the Cardinal actually makes the highlight clips on all of the local 10 and 11 o'clock news broadcasts.
Almost too good to be true, it's Kate Paye, Stanford's most underrated player, right there on KTVU (Channel 2). She's throwing up an acrobatic reverse, duck-under-the-hoop flip shot that has no chance but still goes in.
"For the Cardinal," reads the announcer, "Christy Hedgpeth had a career-high 29 points."
"Doesn't surprise me," Paye says. "My grandmother can't tell us apart."
That about sums up Kate Paye's Stanford career: Overshadowed and underappreciated by those outside the diminutive world of women's college basketball, her value is recognized by only a select few-- most prominently the defense-oriented Cardinal coaching staff. KTVU might spell Paye with two "h"s, but Tara VanDerveer would spell it with a capital "D".
"It's like I said when they picked the All-Pac 10 team," VanDerveer explained after Stanford's 66-62 second-round NCAA tournament win over Montana Saturday night. "If they even factored in defense, Kate would be MVP of the conference."
The same could be said about the NCAA's West Regional. Saturday, in a game that denigrated into ugly-uglier-ugliest offenses, it was Paye's ferocious defense on Lady Griz point guard Kelly Pilcher that made the difference.
"She's a great defender," said Pilcher, whose average of 7.2 assists per game had ranked seventh in the county. Then she glanced down at the box score. "I notice that I had 12 turnovers. I'm not exactly pleased by that."
Neither was Paye, but for totally different reasons.
"Personally, I didn't think I played very well on defense on her," Paye said. "The No. 1 rule on defense is to keep her in front of you ... Sometimes (Pilcher) blew past me; I needed to keep her in front of me more." Never mind that Hedgpeth and Bobbie Kelsey, who occasionally drew the Pilcher assignment, were thoroughly toasted. Never mind that Paye matched Pilcher's seven assists and had only one turnover of her own.
Never mind, because Paye may never feel totally safe. The three-time California Division V Player of the Year graduated from Menlo school in 1991 to a host of offers from Ivy League schools, but not a peep from Stanford. The fact that she had to walk on to the Cardinal has made sure that her family work ethic--older brother John, you may recall, held down starting positions on Stanford's football and basketball teams--hasn't diminished through the years.
Never mind, because all that the Montana victory means is that Paye has a shot at someone even more important: Shelley Sheetz.
Last year, Sheetz, Colorado's shooting guard, single-handedly put Stanford's hopes of repeating as national champions to rest. On a cold night in Missoula, Mont., then-sophomore Sheetz heated up for 28 points as the Lady Buffaloes sent the Cardinal packing, 80-67, in the West Regional semifinals.
Thursday night at Maples Pavilion, Stanford gets its rematch. And Paye gets another chance. The second-seed Cardinal (24-5) plays third-seed Colorado (27-4) at 8:30 p.m.
"(Sheetz) really hurt us last year," said Paye, who covered Sheetz during at least part of last year's loss. "We're going to have to do something about her."
Of course, the Cardinal will also have to watch out for senior forward Jamillah Lang--Colorado's top scorer, with 19.3 points per game. But it was Sheetz (a 13.5 ppg scorer this season) who came up with last year's most crucial baskets, including a three-pointer with three minutes left that gave Colorado the lead for good.
VanDerveer is more optimistic about the Sheetz matchup this time around. "I think (Paye) should do a better job than last year," VanDerveer said.
The fact that Stanford hosts the West Regionals at Maples means the Cardinal won't have to travel, nor adjust to high-altitude Missoula, as the Stanford players did in 1993.
"I had never seen our team so tired," VanDerveer explained of last year. "We just looked exhausted."
Thursday, it's Colorado coming to the Cardinal's atmosphere and style of play--not that anyone will admit to caring about it. Paye, for one, claimed indifference.
"Obviously, we're very aware of the teams in our draw, but we're not looking ahead. I'm sure (the rematch) is in the back of some people's minds, but we're a different team this year."
It certainly is--now the Cardinal has The Pony-tail Pair, Hedgpeth and Paye, as backcourt starters.
Which means more trouble for Paye's grandmother, the one who couldn't tell Christy Hedgpeth from her own granddaughter.
To figure out which is which, Paye explained, her grandmother, "has to pull us really close to figure it out."
You can bet Thursday night that Shelley Sheetz will need to look no farther than right in front of her face.
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