Another UT

THE GAME: No. 15/14 Stanford (6-2) continues its storied rivalry with No. 14/16 Tennessee (7-2) in Maples Pavilion on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m. Tiffany Greene and Carolyn Peck have the call on ESPNU.

THE RUNDOWN: Stanford is without a senior starter for the first time since the 2002-03 season ... Wednesday is the 33rd all-time meeting between Stanford and Tennessee and the first in which at least one of the teams isn’t ranked in the top 10 ... The Cardinal boasts the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country and is No. 2 in the official NCAA RPI ... The Cardinal’s .338 field goal percentage defense is second in the Pac-12 and is 26th nationally ... Stanford is 13th in the nation in both percentage (.396) and 12th field goals made per game (9.3) from behind the arc ... Entering her 30th season on the bench at Stanford, Tara VanDerveer is 41 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women’s basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins ... The Cardinal is 983-306 (.763) all-time since its first varsity season in 1975 and would join the exclusive 1,000-victory club with 17 more wins ... Stanford is fourth in the NCAA over the last five years by both wins and percentage ... The Cardinal has four junior captains this season in Erica McCall, Briana Roberson, Karlie Samuelson and Lili Thompson ... Erica McCall and Chiney Ogwumike (2013-14) are the only Cardinal players in the past decade to start a season with four straight double-doubles ... McCall entered this season with two career double-doubles and her six already in 2015-16 are fifth in the country ... Lili Thompson is 78 points away from 1,000 in her career.

VS. TENNESSEE: Stanford is 9-23 all-time against the Lady Vols, but has won three of the last four and four of the last six. Last season the Cardinal dropped a 59-40 decision to No. 11 Tennessee in Knoxville. Seven of Stanford’s nine wins in the series have come in Maples Pavilion and the Cardinal has won four straight at home - 76-70 (2013), 97-80 (2011), 67-52 (2009) and 73-69 [OT] (2007). Tennessee’s last win on The Farm came on Dec. 4, 2005 (74-67). Following an 11-game Lady Vol win streak from 1997-2006, the two have split their last eight.

STORIED RIVALRY IN DEPTH »

Wednesday’s match-up will be the 33rd all-time in a series that began December 1988, when the Cardinal traveled to Knoxville and lost to the Lady Volunteers, 83-60.
Since then, the teams have met annually, in some cases twice a year and in the case of 1990-91, three times. Tennessee took control of the rivalry with an 11-game winning streak from 1997-2006, but since a 73-69 overtime win at Maples Pavilion on Dec. 22, 2007, Stanford has slowly turned the tide. The Cardinal has won three of the past four and four of the past six.
Wednesday marks the 32nd time both will be ranked in the top 20. They’ve met as top-5 foes 14 times.
This is the first time in series history that at least one of the teams is not ranked in the top 10.
Tennessee is Stanford’s second-most frequent non-conference opponent behind only the Cardinal’s 34 games against Santa Clara. Third on the list is Fresno State (28).
Over the past eight seasons, Stanford has received a load of memorable performances which have helped it nab five of the past nine meetings. In December 2007 it was Rosalyn Gold-Onwude scoring nine of Stanford’s 10 points in overtime as the Cardinal captured a 73-69 win.
In a 67-52 win at Maples on Dec. 19, 2009, it was a balanced team effort which featured 16 points from Kayla Pedersen, 14 rebounds from Jayne Appel, and a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds from Nnemkadi Ogwumike.
Ogwumike and Toni Kokenis would steal the show together at Maples two years later, as Ogwumike scored a career-high 42 points while Kokenis added a career-best 26 to the 97-80 Cardinal win.
On Dec. 22, 2012 Chiney Ogwumike scored 21 points with 19 rebounds, while Bonnie Samuelson scored 11 points off the bench to help Stanford to a 73-60 win in Knoxville.
In 2013, Tennessee put together a 9-0 run to narrow what had been a 70-59 Stanford lead to just two with 1:03 to play, but Amber Orrange responded with a driving layup that drew a foul and resulted in a three-point play to put the Cardinal up 73-68 with 28 seconds to go, effectively icing the game. Orrange finished the game with nine points and five assists, many of those passes setting up Ogwumike, who scored 32 points and pulled down a season-high 20 rebounds to pace the Cardinal.

CATCHING YOU UP »

Lili Thompson scored 21 and Erica McCall posted her sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds, but No. 5 Texas beat Stanford in Austin on Sunday, 77-69.
The game was the Cardinal’s first in 14 days following its annual two-week break for final exams.
Stanford moved to 13-4 all-time since first taking a two-week hiatus for exams in 1999-2000. It was the Cardinal’s first loss following the break since 2002.

WHAT’S AT STAKE »

Stanford, which went 3-6 against the AP top 25 last season is looking for its second such victory this year. The Cardinal beat No. 22 George Washington, 84-63, on Nov. 21, its largest victory over a ranked opponent since beating No. 14 Penn State by 25 in the NCAA tournament on March 30, 2014.

STARTING LINEUP »

In 2015-16, Stanford is without a senior starter for the first time in 13 seasons. The 2002-03 campaign was the last time the Cardinal didn’t have a senior in its first five. That 13-player roster featured two junior and 11 underclassmen.

FROM DEEP »

In a press conference prior to the start of the season, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said that this year’s Cardinal would replace dead-eye shooter Bonnie Samuelson, 10th in Pac-12 history in 3-point makes, with at least seven consistent and capable threats from behind the arc.
At the recently concluded Gulf Coast Showcase, Stanford shot 45.3 percent (34-of-75) from deep and had four players at better than 43 percent. Briana Roberson went 9-of-14 (.643), Alanna Smith was 6-of-11 (.545), Karlie Samuelson hit 7-of-15 (.467) and Lili Thompson made 10-of-23 (.435).
As Tara predicted, Stanford has had seven different players make a 3-pointer this season. The Cardinal is 13th in the nation in both percentage (.396) and 12th field goals made per game (9.3) from behind the arc.
Stanford was 11-of-24 on threes against Dayton, 15-of-33 against Missouri State and 10-of-32 against Santa Clara. It’s the only time in the past decade Stanford has made 10 or more 3-pointers in three straight games.

APPLYING PRESSURE »

The Cardinal’s .338 field goal percentage defense is second in the Pac-12 and is 26th nationally.
Stanford has held seven of eight opponents to below 40 percent shooting. The Cardinal disrupted the Aggies in its opener, holding UC Davis to just 23.6 percent shooting (13-of-55). It was the Stanford’s best performance in that category since Washington converted just 16.9 percent (12-of-71) on Feb. 28, 2013.
Stanford is also 23rd in the country in blocked shots per game (5.8) and its 10 blocked shots against UC Davis were better than any effort last season. The Cardinal hadn’t hit double digits in rejections since tallying 10 in the Pac-12 Tournament against USC on March 8, 2014.

ROLLING INTO DECEMBER »

Lili Thompson has scored 20 or more in five of Stanford’s eight games this season. She’s had 10 career 20-point efforts, with eight coming in the month of November. The only non-November 20-point efforts came at USC on Jan. 25, 2015 (21) and on Sunday at Texas (21).
Her 26-point outing against Missouri State on Nov. 27 was her fourth consecutive, making the junior captain the first Cardinal guard to score 20 in four straight games since Candice Wiggins in 2008.
She is also the first Stanford guard to start a season with eight straight games in double figures scoring in a decade. Candice Wiggins scored 10 or more in all 34 games in 2005-06.
In 21 career November games, Thompson is averaging 15.0 points. The junior scores 10.5 points per game in her 58 other career games in December, January, February, March and April.
At 19.5 points per page, the junior is third in the Pac-12 in scoring and 31st in the nation. With 922 career points she is close to becoming Stanford’s 36th 1,000-point scorer.
Thompson also leads the league in 3-pointers made per game (3.0) and is 26th in the country. She is 12th in the Pac-12 in 3-point field goal percentage and 77th in the NCAA (.421) and 11th in the nation in free throw percentage (.900) and second in conference
On Nov. 17, Thompson was named to the John R. Wooden Award Women’s Preseason Top 30 and she was part of the Naismith Trophy Women’s Watch List released on Dec. 9.

FLYING HIGH »

Erica McCall, who entered 2015-16 with just two career double-doubles, has already more than doubled that total eight games into her junior season. Against Gonzaga, McCall set a career high with 23 points, added 13 rebounds and set another personal best with four steals.
McCall has six this season, including four straight to open the year. In the past decade, only Chiney Ogwumike has had a better start to a year for the Cardinal. Ogwumike also had four straight double-doubles to start the 2013-14 campaign. McCall’s six double-doubles are fifth in the nation.

AMONG THE BEST EVER »

The Cardinal is 983-306 (.763) all-time since its first varsity season in 1975. Stanford would join an exclusive list with 17 more wins, a total it has reached in each of the past 28 seasons. Tennessee (1,284), Louisiana Tech (1,063) and James Madison (1,024) are currently the only Division I institutions with 1,000 victories. Stanford is seventh on that list, also behind Old Dominion (999), Stephen F. Austin (991) and Texas (989).
Entering this season, the Cardinal was fourth in the NCAA over the last five years by both wins and percentage. From 2011-15, Stanford went 160-22 (.879). Connecticut was 182-12 (.938), Baylor was 173-14 (.925) and Notre Dame was 174-18 (.906).

MORE MILESTONES ON THE HORIZON FOR TARA »

Entering her 30th season on the bench at Stanford, Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 959-219 (.814) record in her 36 years as a collegiate head coach and an 807-168 (.828) on The Farm.
In November 2013, she became just the fifth college women’s basketball coach to win 900 career games. This past March she won her 800th game at Stanford, becoming the 10th college basketball coach – men’s or women’s – with that many victories at a single Division I school, Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Geno Auriemma (Connecticut), Dean Smith (North Carolina), Adolph Rupp (Kentucky), Andy Landers (Georgia), Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Robin Selvig (Montana) and Jim Phelan (Mount St. Mary’s).
One of the greatest leaders in any sport at any level, VanDerveer enters the 2015-16 season as the third-winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball history and is 41 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only coaches with 1,000 career wins.
VanDerveer is the 16th Division I women’s basketball coach in NCAA history to coach 30 or more seasons at the same institution and is one of five on the active coaching list. Pat Summitt (Tennessee; 1975-12), Harry Perretta (Villanova; 1979-15), Robin Selvig (Montana; 1979-15), Andy Landers (Georgia; 1980-15), Cindy Russo (FIU; 1978, 1981-15), Debbie Ryan (Virginia; 1978-11), Kay Yow (North Carolina St.; 1976-09), Wanda Watkins (Campbell; 1982-15), Kathleen Delaney-Smith (1983-15), Frank Bennett (Lipscomb; 1981-12), , Mike Granelli (Saint Peter’s; 1973-04), Jody Conradt (Texas; 1977-07), Marian Washington (Kansas; 1974-04), Lynne Agee (UNC Greensboro; 1982-11), Shirley Walker (Alcorn; 1979-08) are the others.
Off the court and on the gridiron, she served as Stanford football’s honorary captain for its Oct. 3 home win over Arizona, 55-17.

PROGNOSTICATIONS »

Stanford is No. 15 in the AP top 25 and No. 14 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
Stanford has appeared in the AP rankings a possible 483 times out of 698 total polls since 1977 (69.2 percent), with an average positioning of 6.9. It’s been in the past 264 polls, the fourth-longest active streak behind Tennessee (540), Connecticut (418) and Duke (347). Stanford has also been in 280 consecutive coaches polls.
The Cardinal’s 483 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (684), Georgia (523) and Texas (488).
In the official NCAA RPI released on Dec. 14 Stanford sits at No. 2 and has played the nation’s toughest schedule. The Cardinal is 5-2 against the RPI top 100. Only Connecticut (7) and Notre Dame (5) have as many RPI top 100 wins.
Stanford was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 when the conference released the results of the preseason coaches’ poll on Oct. 14. Those results snapped Stanford’s 15-year streak at the top of the league’s preseason rankings. Before that announcement, UCLA was the last team to finish atop the preseason poll, receiving the honor two straight years in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.
The Cardinal, last year’s Pac-12 Tournament champion, totaled 104 points. Oregon State, the league’s 2015 regular-season winner, was the leading vote-getter, garnering 11 first-place votes and 121 points.

SO INTERNATIONAL »

Stanford forward Erica McCall won her fourth gold medal representing the United States at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea in July.
A United States co-captain, McCall finished the event tied for eighth overall in scoring (15.2), was eighth in rebounds (8.5), tied for third in blocks (1.8) and led all players in South Korea in field goal percentage, converting 37 of her 62 attempts from the floor (.597). Team USA went a perfect 6-0 and defeated its opponents by an average of nearly 22 points per game.
In July, freshman Alanna Smith led Australia to a third-place finish and was named to the All-Star Five at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Championship in Chekhov, Russia.
The first international recruit in Stanford women’s basketball history, Smith tied for 12th in the entire tournament in points per game (12.6), tied for 15th in rebounds (7.0), tied for third in blocks (2.7), tied for 23rd in steals (1.3) and led Australia in each of those categories.

ALWAYS LEARNING »

Last year it was Mike D’Antoni, Joe Prunty, Jenny Boucek and others who helped Tara VanDerveer and her staff learn the intricacies of a more guard-oriented, fast-paced, pick-and-roll offense as Stanford moved away from the triangle for the first time since the 2002-03 season.
This year it has been a give-and-take with the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors practiced at Stanford on Oct. 5 before preseason game in San Jose and assistant coach Kate Paye attended another Golden State practice in the East Bay. When the Warriors were on the road in San Diego, VanDerveer’s sister and UCSD women’s coach, Heidi VanDerveer, attended a practice.
Warriors assistant coach and former Stanford star Jarron Collins » “It goes back to, men’s team or women’s team, basketball’s basketball and we’re all trying to improve. There’s this synergy of just talking shop. We’ve had a level of success, obviously, and you just want to borrow from those that have achieved a certain level. Our practices are very open to coaches who want to come and watch and observe. It’s pretty cool for us getting to interact with Coach VanDerveer.”
VanDerveer, who also asks former Stanford guard and now-Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude of her observations on what Golden State is doing, says “it’s kind of a little clinic happening every two or three nights on television.”

ANOTHER TOURNAMENT TRIP »

Stanford made its 22nd overall trip to the Sweet Sixteen and eighth straight in 2014-15.
Since its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1982, Stanford has won two national championships (1990, 1992), reached 12 Final Fours (1990-92, 1995-97, 2008-12, 2014), 17 Elite Eights, 22 Sweet 16s and compiled an NCAA Tournament record of 77-27 (.740).
Overall, last year marked the Cardinal’s 29th NCAA Tournament appearance and 28th straight.
Stanford’s 12 Final Four appearances are the third-most by any school and its 29 overall tournament appearances rank third behind only Tennessee (34) and Georgia (31).
Tennessee is the only school that has a longer active streak of NCAA Tournament appearances than Stanford’s 28. The Lady Vols have earned a bid to all 34 NCAA Tournaments.
The Cardinal’s 77 wins in the NCAA Tournament are third all-time behind Tennessee (120) and Connecticut (103) as are its 104 tournament games. Tennessee has appeared in 146 and Connecticut 120.
Stanford’s .740 NCAA Tournament winning percentage is fourth all-time among programs with a minimum of 20 appearances behind Connecticut (.858), Tennessee (.822) and Baylor (.750).

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