After battling through four tough rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Stanford women’s basketball team heads to Indianapolis this weekend to tackle its tallest test yet: the Final Four.
The Cardinal pounded Gonzaga 83-60 to reach its fourth consecutive Final Four, and the next matchup for Stanford will be a bit unexpected.
Texas A&M reached the Final Four for the first time in the school’s history by upsetting No. 1 seed Baylor in the Dallas regional with a 58-46 victory, the first time that the Aggies had beaten the Bears in four matchups this season.
Baylor presented a unique challenge with 6-foot-8 sophomore center Brittney Griner roaming the paint, and Stanford had been preparing for that test for several months now.
“Baylor is a Final Four caliber team, but it’s almost like musical chairs, you had five great teams going for four spots,” said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. “I had felt from January on that we were going to be in Baylor’s bracket.”
Regardless of the somewhat surprising opponent, freshman forward Chiney Ogwumike says the Aggies are not to be overlooked by anyone.
“Any team in the Final Four is worthy of being there,” Ogwumike said. “I think we’ll be just as focused as we would be with any other team.”
The Aggies may not have the height of Griner, but they present an interior challenge as well, with powerful All-American forward Danielle Adams anchoring the middle around several guards that both VanDerveer and senior guard Jeanette Pohlen described as “athletic” and “aggressive.”
Adams averages 22.3 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, both team highs, but the guard play looks to be an important factor in Sunday’s game because the 6-foot-1 Adams is undersized compared to Stanford’s frontcourt. Senior guard Sydney Colson averages 6.2 assists per game, the ninth-best average in the nation, and junior guard Sydney Carter averages 10.5 points per game.
VanDerveer said that challenge will take a lot of preparation, but she is up to the task.
“I was up at 4:30 this morning watching tape. I feel like I’m taking a businesswoman’s approach, just saying ‘Okay, so what do we need to do?’” VanDerveer said. “I’m very focused on preparation. We haven’t played A&M before, so we need to get to know them.”
The Cardinal players say they’ll take that need for intense preparation with a special sense of purpose, motivated by the senior leaders who have never missed a Final Four in their time wearing cardinal and white.
“We’re really focused and we’re really excited,” Pohlen said. “Though we do know that this is our last chance at [winning a national championship].”
Similarly, senior forward Kayla Pedersen said that this Cardinal team was more prepared for the task at hand than it had been in years, but that came with a caveat.
“We are in more control, and we’re more confident,” Pedersen said. “But I’ve been more anxious because it is our last hurrah.”
Before the Aggies can think about getting past the Cardinal, though, they’ll have to get past the Ogwumike sisters junior forward Nnemkadi and freshman forward Chiney.
Nnemkadi Ogwumike was named the west regional’s Most Valuable Player after averaging 21 points and seven rebounds a game in that portion of the tournament, and Chiney Ogwumike averaged a double-double, with averages of 17 points and 13 rebounds a game.
Pedersen credited Chiney, the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, with giving the team an extra spark throughout the tournament.
“Chiney brings a new dynamic to our team I think freshness is the perfect word,” Pedersen said. “That’s the teammate and friend you want at all times, and especially going to battle with you.”
In the end, the Cardinal said that even in the midst of an already historic season, the preparation, hard work and enthusiasm was focused only on achieving the one win that has eluded Stanford for the past three years a national championship.
“I would love that for our seniors and for our team,” VanDerveer said. “There was one [Stanford] team once, in 1990, they didn’t cut down the net in the regional because they wanted the Final Four net. We want the Final Four net.”
The Cardinal and Aggies square off on Sunday, April 3rd in Indy’s Conseco Fieldhouse at 4 p.m.