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East meets West
By Maureen Mullen, Special to CNNSI.com While Pac-10 teams were quite comfortable in their roles as the queen bees of West Coast basketball, some eastern opponents have shattered their prowess. No team got a better lesson than Washington, which hosted No. 1 UConn, the returning national champs, on Friday. The Huskies of Washington were slaughtered 100-54 by the Huskies of Connecticut, posting only 31.4 percent shooting in the match. Washington's leading scorer, senior guard Meghan Franza, a preseason all-Pac-10 selection, was limited to only six points. Arizona experienced a thrashing of its own, as the Wildcats traveled to South Bend to face Notre Dame. The No. 5 Fighting Irish overwhelmed Arizona 95-65. Returning to sunny skies and western foes, the Wildcats looked much more comfortable against UC-Santa Barbara, defeating the Gauchos 71-63 behind junior forward Elizabeth Pickney's 20 points. Stanford was able to overcome non-ranked, eastern visitor St. Joseph's. However, the Cardinal needed both their home court and overtime to do it. The Cardinal prevailed over the University of the Pacific 73-65 at home Sunday, leading critics to believe that floor-thumping, crowd shattering environment of Maples Pavillion could prevent another disruption in the Cardinal win-loss column, at least until their Christmas road trip. Washington State was unlucky enough to open its season on the eastern seaboard this past week, but faired better than many of its conference rivals. The Cougars posted an opening win over American University before traveling north to the Rutgers University Coca-Cola Classic where they fell in a close contest to George Washington and prevailed over Vermont. USC stayed on its home court this weekend, posting a pair of wins over Santa Barbara and St. Joseph's. Freshman Ebony Hoffman continues to look strong for the Trojans, putting up 26 points over the two games. Meanwhile California headed south, falling to Alabama before redeeming themselves for their first win this season over South Alabama in the UIC Thanksgiving Tourney consolation game. With a comfortable 88-56 win over Portland, Oregon remains as the team to beat, looking confident in each of its early contests.
Tournament powerOregon State made an impressive run through its own Beaver Classic, capturing the victors trophy over Thanksgiving weekend. Arizona State narrowly missed another tourney crown at the Rainbow Wahine Classic, falling to No. 22 N.C. State 54-51 in the championship game. The Beavers plowed through Princeton and Wyoming en route to the championship, naming Felicia Ragland , Ericka Cook and Nicole Funn to the all-tournament team in the process. Meanwhile, ASU traveled to tropical Hawaii, but the team didn't get to spend much time relaxing in paradise. ASU streaked through the opening round with wins over Stephen F. Austin and Hawaii before eventually meeting N.C. State in the final. "It was great for us to show some toughness early in the season," Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "We would have liked to get our offense going a little better, but I think fatigue from playing three straight days got the best of us a little. We played some really good basketball this weekend."
Commanding transfersSun Devil juniors Melody Johnson and Amanda Levens aren't as familiar with Pac-10 basketball as many of their fellow classmates. But the transfers from Colorado and Old Dominion, respectively, are having little trouble making an immediate impact. Fresh out of the gates, Johnson became the season's first Pac-10 player of the week after her performance this weekend. But Johnson's contribution tells only half of the story. In ASU's opening round win over Stephen F. Austin, Levens lead the team with 28 points and nine rebounds, Johnson was her partner in offensive crime, adding 16 points and nine boards. A second round win over Hawaii left Johnson leading the way with 23 points and 10 rebounds, with Levens chipping in another 15 scores. In the final, Levens added 13 points and Johnson 12 as they both secured Wahine Classic All-tournament honors. Combine the transfer duo with Sun Devil freshman Becky Boardman and Arizona State's offense is nearly unstoppable. The trio netted 41 of the Sun Devil's 51 points in the championship game.
VanDerveer nets 500With 21 seconds remaining, freshman Susan King was at the line shooting to put the Cardinal up by nine, and slowly the signs proclaiming 500 began to be raised. By the time the buzzer sounded just moments later, ending Stanford's 73-65 win over Pacific, all of the 3,154 fans in Maples Pavillion were on their feet saluting coach Tara VanDerveer's landmark 500th win. VanDerveer, a three-time national coach of the year, is just the 17th coach in women's basketball history to reach the 500-win milestone. She has redefined the Stanford women's basketball program, taking the helm 12 years ago, and has coached the team to two NCAA championships, five Final Fours, and eight Pac-10 titles. In addition, she served as the coach of the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in 1996. "The reason you win 500 basketball games is because you have wonderful, wonderful players," said VanDerveer. "I have coached some excellent players and some excellent people and it was great to see them in the stands and on the court."
Bruin bluesWith another loss against Brigham Young, UCLA drops to 0-4 in their worst start in recent memory. Having lost all five starters from a year ago, the Bruins have looked to junior guard Michelle Greco to pilot their ranks. While Greco has captained the squad with three 20-plus scoring efforts, she is battling recurrent injuries and can't pick up all the slack on her own. UCLA eagerly awaits the return of sophomore guard Nicole Kaczmarski , who returns to the squad on December 16. Kaczmarski, named to the Pac-10 freshman squad a year ago, returns after leaving school for personal reasons. The Bruins hope her sharp shooting will lift the squad as they attempt to rebuild this season.
A look aheadWhile ranked opponents don't dominate the Pac-10 schedule this week, all teams will look to develop sound rotations and offensive coordination as they perfect their game for the upcoming conference season. In some highlighted contests this week, Stanford will take on UMass at home on Sunday. Arizona State will host the Laselle ASU Tournament over the weekend, while Oregon State will take a midwest road trip, facing Marquette and Ohio University. Things won't get any easier for UCLA as they travel to University of Colorado. The Ducks remain at home, facing Santa Clara in their only contest of the week. Maureen Mullen is a reporter for The Stanford Daily, the student newspaper of Stanford University.
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