The No. 2 Cardinal will face one of the tougher tests of its still-young Pac-10 season this weekend when the team heads to Los Angeles to play USC and UCLA. After soundly defeating rival Cal its last time out, Stanford will look to continue its momentum en route toward a 10th consecutive conference title.
While it may be difficult to imagine the 10-1 Cardinal facing a considerable challenge in both games of a road trip, the Trojans (8-5, 2-0 Pac-10) and the Bruins (9-4, 2-0) perennially find themselves in contention for competitive spots in conference and national tournaments. While the Cardinal managed to win all of its matchups against the L.A. schools last season, the games were not easy, including hard-fought Pac-10 tournament games. The Trojans in particular posed a significant threat to Stanford, barely losing the race to a regular season conference title and earning runner-up behind Stanford in the Pac-10 tournament.
By all indications, it would appear that both teams are off to fantastic seasons. Just last weekend, in fact, the L.A. schools each managed to sweep nationally ranked Arizona State and Arizona.
“Both teams look great,” emphasized Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. “I’ve been watching so far, and USC had Tennessee down by 10 at one point on the road, and UCLA had an opportunity to beat Duke at Duke, so they’ve both done well with a tough non-conference schedule. But that’s the nature of it. We want to play teams that have done well and will make us better. This is definitely a very tough road trip, and it might be the toughest combination of teams we face.”
Given what they’ve already been through this season, Stanford should be well prepared to compete on this road trip. The Cardinal purposely scheduled a tough non-conference season, including several games against top-10 teams, and managed to outscore opponents in 21 of 22 halves that it played — the exception being a disappointing second half against defending champion Connecticut.
“We played a brutal non-conference season, arguably the toughest ever for Stanford and probably one of the toughest in the country,” VanDerveer said. “I think our team played terrific basketball. I think we learned a lot, and we’re very excited about the Pac-10.”
Stanford already played one game in its conference season, knocking off the Golden Bears by an apparently convincing margin of 79-58. Never one to rest on her team’s laurels, however, VanDerveer wasn’t entirely satisfied with the team’s performance.
The Cardinal was able to hold Cal to just 35.9 percent shooting and picked up a combined 49 rebounds, but shot a somewhat underwhelming 41.8 percent. Last season, the Cardinal shot an average of 47.3 percent for the year.
“I wasn’t really pleased with how we played against Cal, and I think we’ve really cleaned some things up since,” she said. “We’re doing some new things and getting everyone on the same page. Our rebounding and our defense was great, but we’ve since been working really hard to clean up our offense, and it looks a lot better.”
Good teams need good players, something the Trojans and Bruins certainly are not lacking. USC is led on the court by sophomore guards Ashley Corral (15.7 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game, 5.8 assists per game) and Briana Gilbreath (12.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg). Heading up UCLA’s offense, meanwhile, are standout freshman guard Markel Walker (12.9 ppg, 8.5 rpg) and sophomore guard Jasmine Dixon (12.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg).
Stanford’s roster, meanwhile, is absolutely packed with star power. Sophomore guard Nnemkadi Ogwumike and junior forward Kayla Pedersen hold the Pac-10’s top spots in scoring with 18.8 and 18.0 points per game, respectively. Senior Jayne Appel’s 9.7 rebounds per game are good enough for third in the conference; Ogwumike and Pedersen are fourth and fifth. Besides these “big three,” another impressive playmaker has been redshirt junior guard JJ Hones, who is leading the conference with a 2.00 assist-to-turnover ratio after returning from her second major ACL injury.
Ogwumike, in particular, has impressed of late. After the game with Cal, in which the some of her teammates had a harder time finding the net, the Cypress, Texas, native secured her sixth game with more than 20 points (she had 24) and fourth double-double of the season. She is currently second in the conference with 63.4 shooting percentage.
“Some people talk about a sophomore slump,” VanDerveer said. “That’s not the case with Nneka . . . she’s been nothing but sophomore spectacular.”
Ogwumike worked her way into a starter’s role for a portion of her freshman season, and expectations for her couldn’t be much higher.
“My biggest goal was to become more of a threat for my team,” Ogwumike said. “I wanted to work on my outside shot and get more of an aggressive mentality.”
Whatever her plan was, it seems to be working. One contribution that was less anticipated — but certainly welcome — was her defense. Ogwumike had two blocked shots and a steal against Cal. She now is second on the team in both steals (13) and defensive rebounding (72).
I don’t see myself as the best defensive player, but I think I’m improving,” she said. “Our coaches have definitely been helping us work and improve our defense. It’s progressing right now, and I’d like to be more of a locked-down defensive player.”
Stanford will begin its first Pac-10 road trip tonight at 7 p.m., when it faces the Trojans. After a practice day, the Cardinal will head to UCLA for a 2 p.m. game on Sunday.