November 29, 2010

Results of the week ending Nov 28

1. Stanford, 5-0.

Next Games: Dec 12, Fresno State


2. UCLA, 5-0 beat Temple 71-61. Markel Walker had 15 points and 9 rebounds while Darxia Morris had 15 points including 3 of 4 from three. UCLA made 5 of their 9 three point attempts.

Next Games: Dec 3 at Loyola Marymount, Dec 5 Montana State, Dec 12 at St Mary’s


3. USC 4-2, Beat # 18 Georgia at home 72-63. Ashley Corral scored 15 points and Jackie Gemelos scored 14. Three other Trojans scored 9 points each.

Lost to Princeton 60-59 in a game where USC shot only 35% and were even in rebounds. The Trojans were also just 9 for 18 in Free Throws. Ashley Corral scored 21 points, Cassie Harberts scored 12 and had 8 rebounds and Christina Marinacci had 11 points and 8 rebounds.

Beat Quinnipiac 78-59 as they outrebounded their rival by 22. Still the Trojans again shot only 35% and a woeful 3 of 21 from three. But they were aggressive, hitting 25 of 35 from the free throw line. Briana Gilbreath had 18 points and 14 rebounds while Christina Marinacci scored 11 points and had 18 rebounds. Ashley Corral had 16 points and 5 assists.

Next Games: Dec at Xavier, Dec 5 at North Carolina State, Dec 18 Colorado.


4. Cal, 5-1. Beat Yale 64-41. Talia Caldwell scored 17 points and had 16 rebounds. DeNesha Stallworth added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Cal had 29 turnovers.

Beat Cal Sate Fullerton 74-62. Layshia Clarendon had 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting, although also 8 turnovers. DeNesha Stallworth had 19 points and 8 rebounds, Talia Caldwell scored 17 points.

Beat Portland State 82-49. Stallworth had 25 points, Clarendon 15, with 7 assists and only 2 turnovers and Caldwell added 13 points. Lindsay Sherbert scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds. 6-5 Post Rama did not play this past weekend as her knee flared up. Cal is playing with a roster of 8 as Gennifer Brandon is still out.

Next Games: Dec 4 at Texas A&M, Dec 11 Long Beach State


5. Arizona, 5-1, beat Arkansas Pine Bluff 93-54. Ify Ibekwe had 12 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 blocked shots. Brooke Jackson with 4 threes in 7 attempts for 13 points. 30 assists to 20 turnovers for the Wildcats.

Lost to highly ranked Texas A&M 87-78. The Wildcats were led by five different players scoring between 11 and 16 points. They shot 46% and were even in rebounds with Texas A&M although did have 7 more turnovers.

Beat Bradley 82-59. Ibekwe had 21 points and 8 rebounds and Soana Lucent had 19 points. Frosh Erica Barnes had 12 points and 10 rebounds. The Wildcats shot 49% and had 17 assists to 14 turnovers.

Next games: Dec 2 at Nevada, Dec 7 at New Mexico, Dec 19 New Mexico State


6. ASU, 3-2 beat Providence 63-56. Becca Tobin led with 11 points and 8 rebounds. ASU had only 8 assists for the game as everyone played, as usual.

Lost to # 14 Florida State 65-55. Janee Fulcher scored 13 points. The Sun Devils were 3 of 30 from three.

Next Games: Dec 3, Cal Poly, Dec 4, Lamar or New Mexico, Dec 11 Colorado State


7. Oregon, 5-1. Oregon was down 16 in the first half but came back to beat Portland 83-79. Amanda Johnson had 20 points and 12 rebounds while Nia Jackson added 18 points.

Beat Idaho 74-48 with Amanda Johnson scoring 20 points and gathering 9 rebounds. Jackson had 10 points and 7 assists.

Lost to Cal State Bakersfield 82-78 for their first loss. It should be noted that Oregon has the easiest non conference schedule in the Pac 10. Johnson had 29 points and 14 rebounds and Nia Jackson scored 23 points.

Beat Sac State 110-60 Johnson had 13 points and 8 rebounds and Jackson had 18 points and 7 assists. Kristi Fallin scored 26 points hitting 6 of 8 from three. The Bench scored 65 points.

Next Games: Dec 3 at Boise State, Dec 14 UC Riverside.


8. Oregon State, 4-2, beat UNLV 57-45 as Alyssa Martin continued her great play with 4 threes and 23 points. Of interest, Lenita Sanford who once tried to play at Cal had 8 points and 9 rebounds in 30 minutes for UNLV. Coach Scott Rueck was called for two Technicals.

Lost to Rutgers 65-52 as Martin had 13 points. The Beavers shot only 30% but outrebounded Rutgers by 7.

Next Games: Nov 30 Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 3, Pepperdine, Dec 14 at Weber State


9. Washington 3-2, lost to Kent State 59-58 despite 30 points from Kristi Kingma. Kingma was 10 for 20 including 4 of 6 from three. Mackenzie Argens had 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Beat San Jose State 49-27. 27?? San Jose shot 27% and had 31 turnovers. Kigma had 14points and Regina Rogers was not able to play again.

Next Games: Dec 1 at Utah, Dec 8 at Cal State Northridge, Dec 12 UC Riverside.


10. WSU, 1-6, lost to Nebraska 87-79 in a game that was very close until the end. Nebraska was ranked # 26 going into the game. Carly Noyes had 19 points while Roseta Adzusu had 9 assists. The Cougars played by far their best game of the season and had 23 assists to 17 turnovers

Lost to ranked North Carolina 93-55 as the Cougars shot 27% and were 7 of 37 from three. Of course being behind leads to many three point attempts. Carly Noyes scored 11 points.

Beat Long Beach State 87-63 for their first win. Sage Romberg led with 13 points as WSU had 26 assists to only 15 turnovers.

Lost to Gonzaga 67-65 in a real heartbreaker. Romberg had 11 points and 8 rebounds and Jazmine Perkins scored 14 points. The game was tied with 12 seconds left.

Next Games: Dec 5, Nevada, Dec 7, South Dakota State, Dec 11 at Gonzaga

Others:

Colorado, 5-1, beat Evansville 55-53 with Brittany Speaks scoring 19 points and also had 10 rebounds. Chucky Jones added 17 points but had 10 turnovers.

Beat Loyola of Chicago 65-34 as Jones had 10 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Next Games: Dec 1, Texas State, Dec 4, Illinois, Dec 8 Colorado State, Dec 18 at USC


Utah, 3-3, lost to Penn State 70-58 as Michelle Harrison had 8 points.

Beat Hartford 51-45 as Harrison again scored 8 points.

Lost to Wisconsin Green Bay 6-40 with Harrison being shut out.

Next Games: Dec 1 Washington, Dec 4 Arkansas, Dec 6 Westminster, Dec 8 Idaho State, Dec 11 at Mississippi State


USF, 2-3. Lost at New Mexico 73-38, shooting only 22%.

Beat Rhode Island 87-76 shooting 52%. Katy Keating scored 19 points and Kelly Jo Mullaney 18 points.

Next Games: Dec 1 at Sac State, Dec 5 UCSB, Dec 8 Pacific, Dec 15 at Cal Poly

November 22, 2010

Results of the week ending Nov 21

1. Stanford, 3-0.

Next Games: Nov 26, South Carolina, Nov 28, Texas


2. UCLA, 4-0, beat Notre Dame at South Bend, 86-83 in double Overtime. A huge win for the Bruins and for the Pac 10. Jasmine Dixon had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Markel Walker had 16 points and Darxia Morris had 17 points. Atonye Nyingifa had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Doreena Campbell had 7 assists but 9 turnovers.

Beat UC Davis 65-49 for their best start in 14 years at 4-0. UCLA shot 54%, and held Davis to 37%. However the Bruins made only one three and had 29 turnovers. Four scored in double figures for the Bruins. Morris had 14 and Dixon 13. The Bruins had a big rebounding margin.

Next Games: Nov 28, Temple


3. USC, 2-1, Lost at Duke 75-50, trailing by 18 at the half. Briana Gilbreath scored 12 points, 3 of 6 from three, and Christina Marinacci had 10 rebounds. USC had only 8 assists and shot just 31%. Duke is very good of course, but a disappointing performance by the team picked by most to be 3rd in the Pac 10.

Beat Long Beach State 82-60. Jackie Gemelos had 14 points and 6 assists; Cassie Harberts 14 points and 8 rebounds and Ashley Corral hit 3 threes and scored 13 points. USC was 12 for 28 from three.

Next Games: Nov 23 Georgia, Nov 26 Princeton in Nashville, Nov 28, TBD in Nashville


4. Cal, 2-1. Lost at New Mexico in double Overtime 63-54. Cal shot 27% was 1 for 21 from three and outrebounded by 14. DeNesha Stallworth had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 23, Yale, Nov 27, Cal State Fullerton, Nov 28, Tulare or Portland State.


5. ASU, 2-1. Lost at Tennessee 80-64. Dymond Simon with 13 points, the only Sun Devil in double figures but she took 16 shots to get there.

Next Games: Nov 26 Providence, in the Bahamas, Nov 27, Alabama or Florida State, in the Bahamas.


6. Arizona, 3-0, beat Northern Arizona 71-49. Candice Warthen had 12 points and 13 rebounds, quite a rebound total for a 5-5 guard. Soana Lucent scored 15 points and had 9 rebounds. The Wildcats out rebounded Northern Arizona 64-28, but they did have 24 turnovers and made only 2 threes.

Beat Mississippi 72-70 at Mississippi. Ole Miss was picked for 10th in the SEC but still a good win for the Wildcats who start 3-0 for the first time in 9 years. Played before 272 people. Geesh. Ify Ibewke had a great game, 24 points and 17 rebounds. Soana Lucent and Davellyn Whyte each added 17 points. Shanita Arnold had 9 assists.

Next games: Nov 22 Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Nov 26, Texas A&M in Cancun, Nov 27, Bradley, in Cancun.


7. Oregon, 2-0. Beat Long Beach State 88-76 in Long Beach. Nia Jackson had 21 points and 8 assists while hitting all 3 from three. Frosh Deanna Weaver had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 22 at U of Portland, Nov 26, Idaho, Nov 27, Sac State or Cal State Bakersfield.


8. Oregon State, 3-1, played 3 games in a Hawaii tournament. Best Eastern Michigan 59-44 holding Eastern Michigan to 30% shooting. Sage Indendi scored 14 points, including 4 of 6 from three and El Sara Greer had 13 rebounds. The Beavers hit 11 of 24 from three.

Beat Cal State Northridge 49-32, again with great defense as Northridge shot only
26%. Greer and Angela Misa each had 11 rebounds while Alexis Bostick scored 10 points.

Lost in the Championship game to Hawaii 54-49. Indendi scored 11 points with 3 threes.

Next Games: Nov 26, UNLV, Nov 27, Rutgers or Pacific


9. Washington 1-1 lost to BYU 80-55, playing without Point Guard Sarah Morton and Center Regina Rogers. Both are expected back. Mackenzie Argens had 17 rebounds in only 24 minutes.

Next Games: Nov 23 Kent State at a tournament in Alaska, Dec 1 at Utah


10. WSU, 0-3, lost at Portland 91-80. Poor defense here as Portland made 12 Threes at 48%, and shot 48.4 % overall. Rosetta Adzasu scored 20 points and had 7 assists. Hana Potter had 17 points and 7 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 22, Nebraska, Nov 26, North Carolina in Hawaii, Nov 27 and 28 also in Hawaii

Others:

Colorado, 2-1, lost to Denver 70-69. Brittany Spears scored 24 points, including 5 of 6 from three and added 10 rebounds.

Beat Santa Clara 71-57 as four Colorado players scored in double figures.

Beat Tennessee Martin 79-67 with Chucky Jeffery scoring 25 points and Brittany Spears 20. Spears added 12 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 26, Evansville, Nov 27, Eastern Washington or Loyola of Chicago.


Utah, 2-1, beat Weber State 62-56. Michelle Harrison scored 9, Michelle Plouffe scored 12 and had 8 rebounds and Taryn Wicijowski scored 14 points and had 11 rebounds.

Lost at home to Stanford 62-53 as Michelle Harrison scored 14 with 4 threes.

Next Games: Nov 25, Penn State in Cancun, Nov 27, Wisc Green Bay in Cancun.


USF, 1-2. Jennifer Azzi’s first win, 71-59 over San Jose State. Azzi started several different players and one, Katy Keating, responded with 20 points, 6 of 7 from three. Donnisha Johnson also had 20. And in a turnaround, 17 assists to 13 turnovers.

Lost at Cal State Fullerton 69-66. Five players scored between 9 and 11 points.

Next Games: Nov 26 and 27 New Mexico, Rhode Island and Oklahoma State.

November 14, 2010

Week two results

1. Stanford, 1-0. Beat Rutgers 63-50.

Next Games: Nov 19 at Utah, Nov 21 at Gonzaga


2. UCLA, 2-0, beat Vanguard 79-43. Jasmine Dixon had 23 points and 16 rebounds. Rebekah Gardner scored 19 points and had 13 rebounds. Atonye Nyingifa made her return after missing last season with a knee injury to score 6 points and gather 5 rebounds in 15 minutes. The three Bruin Frosh were held scoreless in a combined 22 minutes. UCLA was 0 for 6 from three.

Beat San Diego State 55-48. Jasmine Dixon had 15 points and 11 rebounds while Doreena Campbell added 12 points and 6 assists. The Bruins did not make a three. Arizona transfer Courtney Clements scored 19 for San Diego State.

Beat UCSB 66-52. Jasmine Dixon scored 12 points and had 5 assists. UCLA had 4 players score 10-12 points. The Bruins had 22 assists and 14 turnovers, and only made one three.

Next Games: Nov 18 at Norte Dame, Nov 21 UC Davis


3. USC, 1-0, beat Biola in an exhibition 93-66. Kari LaPlante scored 19 points to lead the way. Christina Marinacci added 17 points and Frosh Cassie Harberts debuted with 14 points. Stephanie Gilbreath who has missed the past 3 years did not play. Michelle Jenkins is out for another 2 months or so recovering from her knee injury of last season and Frosh Thaddesia Southall is redshirting with her injury problem from last year. However Jackie Gemelos scored 12 points. Ashley Corral had 9 assists.

In their first game USC beat Gonzaga 79-73. Briana Gilbreath scored 21 points and Christina Marinacci scored 16 points. They both had 10 rebounds. USC shot 53 % for the game, however they did have 25 turnovers and only 12 assists. Cassie Harbarts made her debut with 16 points. Stephanie Gilbreath made her first appearance and played 5 minutes. She had missed her first 3 years with knee injuries.

Next Games; Nov 15 at Duke, Nov 21 Long Beach State, Nov 23 Georgia


4. Cal, 2-0. The Bears beat Rutgers in a big first game 66-57. DeNesha Stallworth had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Layshia Clarendon scored 16 points, on 6 of 10 shooting including 2 threes. Eliza Pierre had 6 assists.

Beat St Mary’s 89-63. Stallworth had 23 points and 10 rebounds. Frosh Lindsay Sherbert scored 20 points hitting 4 of 5 threes. Layshia Clarendon had 9 assists and no turnovers. Cal made 11 of 22 threes.

Next Games: Nov 20 at New Mexico


5. ASU, 2-0. The Sun Devils beat Northern Arizona 81-46 with 3600 Sun Devil fans in attendance. Dymond Simon led the way with 18 points. Kali Bennett and Becca Tobin both 6-5 players, started. Joy Burke, another 6-5 played also played and their combined stats were 56 minutes, 22 points and 28 rebounds. Bennett also had 5 assists. The Sun Devils made only one three.

Beat UC Riverside at Riverside 58-47. Dymond Simon led with 14 points and Kali Bennett had 11 rebounds. ASU shot only 31%, had 7 assists to 21 turnovers and didn’t make a three.

Next Games: Nov 21 at Tennessee.


6. Arizona, 1-0. The Wildcats won at Wichita State 81-72 in OT. A fine win for the Wildcats. Frosh Erica Barnes, Sara James former teammate, scored 16 points and gathered in 14 rebounds. Ify Ibekwe fouled out in only 22 minutes scoring only 4 points. Davellyn Whyte and Arkansas transfer Shanita Arnold each scored 16 points. Arnold added 7 assists and 4 steals. Brooke Jackson hit 3 of 6 threes and scored 15 points.

Next games: Nov 15, Northern Arizona, Nov 18 at Mississippi, Nov 22 Arkansas-Pine Bluff.


7. WSU, 0-2, lost to St Mary’s at St Mary’s 73-69. Now St Mary’s is a pretty good team, and Oregon State transfer Jasmine Smith scored 24, but not a good loss. The Cougars shot only 33%. Frosh Sage Romberg scored 19 in her debut but had 7 turnovers. Jazmine Perkins scored 17 but on 5 of 17. JC transfer Rosetta Adzasu scored 13 points and had 6 assists. St Mary’s was 30 of 36 from the foul line.

The Cougars lost at UC Davis 77-38 in a huge disappointment for Washington State. The Cougars shot 25%, went 0-19 from three, and had 28 turnovers.

Next Games: Nov 18 at Portland, Nov 22, Nebraska.


8. Oregon, 1-0. The Ducks beat Western Oregon 110-70. Amanda Johnson had 18 points and 11 rebounds as 6 Ducks scored in double figures. Frosh Deanna Weaver scored 16 points. The Ducks did have 26 turnovers, and made only 3 threes.

Next Games: Nov 19 at Long Beach State, Nov 22 at U of Portland


9. Washington 1-0 beat Portland State at home 51-50. Regina Rogers and Kristi Kingma each had 18 points. Kigma hit 4 of 8 threes. Mollie Williams had 13 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 20 at BYU, Nov 23 Kent State at a tournament in Alaska.


10. Oregon State, 1-0, beat Long Beach State in an amazing game 71-39. With only 2returning players, a weak recruiting class, and a couple of walk ons, the Oregon State staff deserves the Player of the Week award. Frosh Alyssa Martin scored 24 on 9 of 12 shooting including 5 of 7 from three. Oregon State caused 27 Long Beach turnovers with 20 steals. Angela Misa had 12 rebounds and 6 steals.

Next Games: Nov 19, 20 21 at a Tournament in Hawaii. The first game is against Eastern Michigan


Others:

Colorado, 1-0. The Buffaloes beat Regis 76-38. Forward Brittany Spears scored 20 points and Guard Chucky Jones scored 13 points and had 12 rebounds and 6 assists.

Next Games: Nov 16 at Denver, Nov 19 Santa Clara, Nov 21 Tennessee-Martin


Utah, 1-0, beat SMU 44-43 in their opener as Frosh Michelle Pouffe had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Michelle Harrison did not score in her 23 minutes. The Utes had 5 assists and 17 turnovers.

Next Games: Nov 16 at Weber State, Nov 19, Stanford.


USF, 0-1 lost to UC Davis 69-45 before this gung ho reporter. Jennifer has a long ways to go as the Dons scored only 14 on the first half and were outrebounded by
24.

Next Games: Nov 15, San Jose State, Nov 18 at Cal State Fullerton

November 8, 2010

Predictions and the first week’s results.

All the games this week were exhibitions but like our game against Vanguard it’s always great to see your team after 6 months and root them to victory.

My Pac 10 Predictions, at least the first go round, I’ll do it again at Christmas time.

1. Stanford, of course. The Cardinal have at 4.4 seconds the fastest Point Guard in the nation.

2. UCLA opens with an exhibition tonight against Vanguard.

3. USC does not have any exhibitions scheduled.

4. Cal beat Vanguard in an exhibition 79-41. DeNesha Stallworth scored 17 points and had 8 rebounds and Rama N’diaye returned after missing last season to score 11 points and grab 11 rebounds. Cal had 22 assists on 32 baskets, a change for the positive from last season.

5. ASU beat Fort Lewis 89-56 in an exhibition. Two players who missed last season with injuries, Dymond Simon and Markisha Patterson each scored 11 points. Kali Bennett led the scoring with 14 points and had 11 rebounds. 11 Sun Devils played between 16 and 21 minutes.

6. Arizona beat Grand Canyon in an exhibition 90-46. Brooke Jackson had 18 points and was 3 of 4 from three. Ify Ibekwe had 14 points, 2 of 2 from three and 11rebounds. JC transfer Candice Warthen had 13 points. The Wildcats were 9 of 18 from three.

Arizona also beat Western State of Colorado in an exhibition 109-62. Davellyn Whyte had 28 points, 5 of 10 from three. Arkansas transfer Shanita Arnold scored 22 points, 3 of 4 from three. Frosh Erica Barnes had 15 points and Ify Ibekwe scored 12points and had 12 rebounds. The Wildcats were 10 of 20 from three.

7. WSU barely beat Lewis and Clark in an exhibition 64-63. Frosh Sage Romberg scored the winning basket with 9 seconds left then blocked a shot as timed expired. Romberg scored 13 points in her debut.

8. Oregon beat Willamette in an exhibition game 121-41. The good news, in addition to the 121 points, were 35 steals resulting in 55 turnovers for Willamette. The bad, Oregon was only 8 of 35 from three and shot 37% overall. JC transfer Ashley Buis had 18 points and made 4 of the 8 threes.

In the 2nd exhibition game for the Ducks they beat Westmont 93-68 with Amanda Johnson scoring 24 points and adding 15 rebounds. Ashley Buis had 11 points hitting 3 of 4 from three. The Ducks had only 17 assists to 22 turnovers.

9. Washington beat Western Washington in an exhibition, 63-46. Mollie Williams had 14 points and 16 rebounds in only 19 minutes. The Huskies only made 2 threes. Regina Rogers had 7 turnovers in 14 minutes.

10. Oregon State didn’t play as they have no exhibitions scheduled.

Others:

Colorado beat Western State in an exhibition 93-62 led by Chucky Jeffrey’s 23 points and 10 assists. Brittany Spears had 17 points and 11 rebounds while Frosh Shae Kelly scored 22 points.

Utah beat Warner Pacific in an exhibition 112-56. Michelle Harrison scored 13 points in 20 minutes. Frosh Michelle Plouffe scored 19 points. Taryn Wicijowski had 15 points and 9 rebounds.

USF with Jennifer Azzi making her Coaching debut beating Sonoma State 61-34 with Ashley Boggs scoring 18 points.

November 3, 2010

The Basketball Season Begins

Wednesday, November 3rd is the first Pac 10 Women’s Basketball game. 8 of the 10 teams will open with an exhibition game or two before starting the official non conference games. Here are the starting dates by school:

Arizona: Nov 4 and 7 exhibition games, Nov 12 the first non conference game is at Wichita State.

ASU: Nov 7 exhibition then start Nov 12 against Northern Arizona

Cal: Nov 4 exhibition against Vanguard then Nov 12 against Rutgers

Oregon: Nov 3 and Nov 7 exhibition games, Nov 13, Western Oregon

Oregon State: No exhibition games, Nov 13 Long Beach State

UCLA: Nov 8 vs Vanguard then Nov 12 at San Diego State

USC: No exhibitions, they start with Gonzaga on Nov 12.

Washington: Nov 3 exhibition then start with Portland State on Nov 14

Washington State: Nov 7 Exhibition, then Nov 12 at St Mary’s

I mentioned Vanguard as we play them Nov 6th and the Vanguard Coach is the Samuelson’s Travel Coach and was Jeanette’s Travel Coach.


Strength of Schedule: I thought it would be interesting to see who is playing tough non conference games, then found that the rankings weren’t out as I wrote this. So I used Charlie Crème’s last April preview of this season where he listed his top 64 teams for 2010-2011. My ranking scale is as follows:

If a team is ranked in the Top 10, the Pac 10 team playing them gets 10 points then:
11-20 = 8 points
21-30 = 6 points
31-40 = 4 points
41-50 = 2 points
51-64 = 1 point

Probably I could be more finite, like more for a top 5 team than a team ranked 6-10, but here it is:

1. Stanford, 52
2. USC, 44
3. ASU, 33
4. UCLA, 20
5. Cal, 16
6. Washington State, 12
7. Arizona, 10
8. Washington, 6
9. Oregon State, 5
10. Oregon, 0


Three Point Shooting: What teams might be the best? Always a hard one before the first game but it could be Stanford. Here’s a run down of last year’s top 3 point shooting teams by 3 pointers made, with some comments on how that may or may not carry forward to this season.

1. Oregon: 284 at 35%. Top 2 with 171 graduated
2. Stanford: 237 at 34% 3-4 with 74 graduated
3. USC: 192 at 34% 2-3-4 with 85 graduated
4. WSU: 162 at 26%
5. Arizona: 152 at 31%
5. Cal: 151 at 27% Top shooter by far graduated
7. UCLA: 126 at 34% Top shooter graduated
8. Washington: 101 at 32% Top shooter graduated
9. Oregon State: 90 at 27% All gone
10. ASU: 88 at 29% Top shooter graduated

Stanford returns more who made 3’s than any team in the conference.

November 1, 2010

Cal hopes for the NCAA this year

Last season Cal won the WNIT with six straight wins at the end of the season. They finished with a 24-13 record, 11-7 in Pac play.

LOSSES:

Alexis Gray-Lawson is one of the greatest players in Cal history. She averaged 18 points and 5 rebounds per game, and made more threes (61) than the next three on the Cal team.

Natasha Vital averaged 6.5 points per game while averaging 24 minutes per game.

Lauren Greif saw her playing time reduced last season and averaged only 2.4 points per game. And she now works for Stanford.

Brenna Heater left mid year.

ADDITIONS:

Avigiel Cohen is a 6-0 Frosh Guard from Israel who played on their 19U team in
2009. However she hurt her knee for the 2nd time recently and is now out for the season.

Afure Jemerigbe is a 6-0 Guard. She was a McDonalds All American.

Mikayla Lyles is a 5-8 Shooting Guard who was named the 4th best shooter in the nation last year.

Lindsay Sherbert is a 6-0 Wing who also was a McDonalds All American.

NON CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

Not a very strong schedule, highlighted by Rutgers, Texas A&M (projected as a Top 10 team) and Illinois.

BY POSITION:

POSTS:
DeNesha Stallworth is a 6-3 Soph who ideally would be the Center but with the injury to Forward Gennifer Brandon, Stallworth may start the season at Forward. Last season Stallworth averaged 13 points, 6 rebounds in 30 minutes per game. All 2nd on the team. She’s a strong inside player with excellent post moves. Stallworth started every game this past season, most at the Forward position. She was a McDonalds All American and just turned 18 in May, having skipped a grade.

Talia Caldwell is another 6-3 Soph who averaged 5 points and 6 rebounds in 23 minutes per game while starting 27 of the 37 games at Center. Caldwell shot 61% from the floor, one of the top shooting percentages in Cal history.

Rama N’diaye is a 6-5, 5th year Sr who missed last season with a knee injury and most of the previous season with the same knee problem. As a Soph when Hampton missed the first 12 games, Rama averaged 10 points and 8 rebounds in her place.

POWER FORWARDS:

Gennifer Brandon is a 6-2 Soph nursing a stress reaction in her leg. She may miss some early season time, but probably, and hopefully, not much. Last season she averaged 7 points and led the Bears with 8.5 rebounds per game. Brandon only started a few games but played 22 minutes a game. She was a McDonalds All American.

Stallworth will also play here.

WINGS:

Layshia Clarendon is a 5-9 Soph, who averaged 9 points, 3rd on the team, and 4.5 rebounds per game last season. Clarendon was also 2nd on the team in assists and will also play Point Guard. Layshia scored 29 points with 6 assists in a WNIT game and had an assist to turnover ration of a great 2.1:1 in the 6 game WNIT run the Bears enjoyed.

Lindsay Sherbert is a 6-0 Frosh who was ranked as the # 6 wing in High School. Sherbert was a McDonalds All American and averaged 27 points per game in High School. She can light it up from all over the court and is a good rebounder.

Afure Jemerigbe is a 6-0 Frosh, the # 2 Guard in High School last season. Also a McDonalds All American. Afure is very quick and with Pierre will really be a defensive star.

Rachelle Federico is a 5-11 Sr who hasn’t played much but is a decent three point shooter when she plays more than her average of 10 minutes per game, which will be needed this season.

Mikayla Lyles is a 5-8 Frosh who can be an excellent three point shooter. She won’t create many shots but Cal figures to be strong inside offensively so if they kick out well Lyles can be a perimeter scorer this season. HoopGurlz named Lyles the # 4shooter last season.


POINT GUARDS:

Eliza Pierre is a 5-7 Soph who started more than half the games last year sharing the position with the Sr Vital. Pierre only averaged 2 points per game but led the team in steals by a lot and also had a plus assist to turnover ratio. She was a terrible shooter last year, excelling with her quickness. However we saw her hit two straight threes at Kezar and word is she has improved in this area.

Clarendon is the back up here.

FORECAST:

A very young team with 2 Srs and no Jrs. So the youth factor must be overcome. However they have talent with 4 McDonalds All Americans. They went into the WNIT with a record of 18-13 so they must improve by about 4 wins to achieve the NCAA.