The Pac 12 This Past Week

1. Stanford 11-1, 2-0. Beat USC in a very tough game 61-53. Nneka with 19 points and 15 rebounds, Chiney with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Stanford shot only 38% but held USC to 31%.

Beat UCLA 77-50. Nneka with 18 points and 10 rebounds, Chiney with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Stanford shot 51% and out rebounded the Bruins by 22.

Next Games: Jan 5 Oregon, Jan 7 Oregon State


2. Cal 9-5, 0-2. Lost to UCLA 60-55. The Bears out rebounded the Bruins by 20 but shot only 30% and made just 9 of 17 free throws. Gennifer Brandon scored 17 points and had 11 rebounds.

Lost to USC 74-54 shooting only 27% . Brittany Boyd led with 14 points and Gennifer Brandon had 12 rebounds. Cal shot just over 28% for the trip to LA.

Next Games: Jan 5 Oregon State, Jan 7 Oregon


3. Arizona State 10-2, 1-0 . Beat UTEP, 10-2, 47-45 on Alex Earl’s three pointer. Both teams shot 32%. Kimberly Brandon had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Beat Arizona 60-45. ASU had 19 assists on 25 field goals. Kali Bennett had 11 rebounds and Kimberly Brandon scored 13 points.

Next Games: Jan 5 USC, Jan 7 UCLA


4. USC 6-6, 1-1. Lost to Stanford 61-53. Ashley Corral scored 21 points. Brianna Gilbreath had 12 rebounds and 4 assists.

Beat Cal 74-54. Cassie Harberts had 23 points and 9 rebounds. Christina Marinacci also scored 23 points and had 7 rebounds. Ashley Corral was 4 of 5 from three for 13points.

Next Games: Jan 5 at ASU, Jan 7 at Arizona


5. UCLA 6-7 , 1-1. Beat Cal 60-55 with Thea Lemberger scoring a by far career high 26 points, including 3 of 6 from three and 9 of 10 from the free throw line. Thea scored UCLA’s last 9 points for the win. Markel Walker had 18 points and 8 rebounds, but 6 turnovers.

Lost to Stanford 77-50. The Bruins shot just 28%. Rebekah Gardner scored 17 points.

Next Games: Jan 5 at Arizona, Jan 7 at ASU


6. Arizona 11-2, 0-1. Beat UNLV 62-58. Davelyyn Whyte had 21 points.

Lost to ASU 6-45 as the Wildcats shot just 32% and were out rebounded by 13. Davelyyn Whyte scored 19 points but was only 5 of 17 from the floor.

Next Games: Jan 5 UCLA, Jan 7 USC


7. Washington State 8-6 , 2-0. Beat Oregon 75-47. Jazmine Perkins is really asserting herself and had 15 points and 12 rebounds. The Cougars were 10 of 26 from three in the rout.

Beat Oregon State in double overtime 61-54. Jazmine Perkins scored 11 points and had 15 rebounds.

Next Games: Jan 5 Utah, Jan 7 Colorado


8. Washington 8-4, 1-1. lost to Oregon State 60-55. Regina Rogers scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds. MacKenzie Argens scored 14 points and had 14 rebounds. The remaining Huskies scored only 22 points and had only 15 rebounds, and were just 9 of 33 from the floor.

Lost to Oregon 88-86. The Huskies led by 16 in the 2nd half only to lose at the end of the game. Kellie McCann-Smith scored 26 points, 6 of 11 from three. Argens had 18 points and 9 rebounds. Rogers fouled out in only 14 minutes.

Next Games: Jan 5 Colorado, Jan 7 Utah


9. Oregon 9-5, 1-1. Lost to WSU 75-47. Jasmin Holliday had 12 points and 10 rebounds but the Ducks shot only 26% in the loss.

Beat Washington 88-86. Five players scored in double figures led by Ariel Thomas with 21 points, 5 of 13 from three.

Next Games: Jan 5 at Stanford, Jan 7 at Cal


10. Utah 7-5, 0-1. Beat Utah Valley 82-51. Iwalani Rodrigues had her best game, and a return to last’s year’s form, with 26 points, 6 of 10 from three. She also had 5 assists and no turnovers.

Lost to Colorado 58-52. Taryn Wicijowski scored 16 points and added 11 rebounds.

Next Games: Jan 5 at WSU, Jan7 at Washington


11. Colorado 12-0, 1-0. Beat Utah 58-52. Julie Seabrook scored 17 points, 4 of 6 from three and added 7 rebounds. Colorado was 10 of 21 from three. The Buffs out rebounded the Utes by 11.

Next Games: Jan 5 at Washington, Jan 7 at Washington State


12. Oregon State 10-3, 1-1. Beat Washington 60-55. Ali Gibson had 14 points and Sage Indendi scored 13 including 3 of 8 from three.

Lost to Washington State in double overtime 61-54. Patricia Bright had 13 points and 9 rebounds.

Next Games: Jan 5 at Cal, Jan 7 at Stanford

Predicting the Pac 12 Race

1. Stanford, 9-1, no need to say more, we all know how we’ve done thus far.

2. Cal, 9-3, played a decent schedule and while they have almost won big games, not quite. Still they have played well except for free throw shooting which may have cost them 11-1. No injuries and playing 10 people, so different than recent years. Gennifer Brandon is 2nd in the league in rebounding, 11 per game, after missing last season.

3. ASU, 8-2, new coach for this year and playing as they have the past few years, minutes distributed among 10 people. The have lost big to some good teams. No go to player, no one scoring more than 10 a game.

4. USC, 5-5, down to 8 players now with Jackie Gemelos out for the year. Still they have some very good players in Brianna Gilbreath, Cassie Harberts and Ashley Corral averaging 13, 12 and 11 points per game respectively. Rebounding is a weakness as Gemelos was leading the team.

5. Arizona, 10-1, they have a star in Davellyn Whyte averaging 19 points per game and hitting 2.5 threes per game at 44%, both stats very high in the Pac 12. Soph Erica Barnes is averaging 12 points and 9 rebounds and Shanita Arnold is averaging 5.4 assists per game, 2nd in the Pac 12. Arnold is 2nd to Stanford’s Toni Kokenis is assist to turnover ratio.

6. Utah, 6-4, 6-4 Michelle Plouffe is averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds per game. 6-3 Taryn Wicijowski is averaging 13 points and 7 rebounds per game. Janita Badon leads the Pac 12 with 5.5 assists per game. Yet Utah lost some games that there were expected to win. They are deep but some nice starters. Can they make an impact in their first Pac 12 season?

7. WSU, 6-6, tough schedule, and they have done well, almost beating ranked Louisville. They are playing team ball after several years of one on one. Ireti Amojo has 20 threes at a league leading 51 %.

8. UCLA, 5-6, has really been hurt by injuries , losing their top two players Jasmine Dixon at the start of the season and this past week Atonye Nyingifa. They have only 8 players now, one Sr and 2 Jrs are the only upper class players.

9. Colorado, 11-0, heck of a start but they have played no one of importance, a very weak schedule. Still they have the exciting Chucky Jeffery averaging 17 points and 8 rebounds per game from her guard position. Lexy Kresel is the league’s top scoring frosh at 12 per game and 3rd in the league scoring three’s.

10. Washington, 8-2, Regina Rogers is now living up to her promise averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds put game and leading the Pac 12 in shooting % at 71%. But the loss of Kristi Kingma before the season will be too much for Washington to overcome.

11. Oregon, 8-4, the league’s biggest disappointment as they had a week pre season schedule. Their best player Amanda Johnson did miss their last three of games, and she is 2nd in the league at scoring, 20 points per game and tied for 2nd in rebounding, 11 per game.

12. Oregon State, 9-2, is still recovering from the mess of a year and a half ago. Frosh Ali Gibson leads the league in steals, 3 per game. Gibson also is second on the team in scoring at 12 per game.

The Pac 12 This Past Week

1. Stanford 9-1 Beat Tenneesee 97-80 behind Nneka’s tremendous performance of 42 points and 17 rebounds. Toni Kokenis had a career high 26 points and went 5 of 10 from three. Stanford shot 54% and had only 9 turnovers.

Beat Bakersfield 90-48. Jos Tinkle had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Bonnie Samuelson 14 points and power forward/point guard Erica Payne 12 points and 9 rebounds. Also Toni Kokenis with 6 assists in just 14 minutes.

Next Games: Dec 29 at USC, Dec 31 at UCLA, Jan 5 Oregon, Jan 7 USC


2. Cal 9-3 Beat Dartmouth 80-39 out rebounding Dartmouth by 21 and Cal had 17 less turnovers. However Cal was 15 of 27 from the free throw line continuing their woes there. Lindsay Sherbert had 15 points to lead the Bears.

Next Games: Dec 29 at UCLA, Dec 31 at USC, Jan 5 Oregon State, Jan 7 Oregon


3. Arizona State 8-2. Beat Army 83-46. ASU shot 56% and had 4 in double figures.

Next Games: Dec 29 UTEP, Dec 31 Arizona, Jan 5 USC, Jan 7 UCLA


4. USC 5-5 Beat Pepperdine 75-71 in Overtime. Jackie Gemelos tore her ACL again and unless she can swing an unheard of 7th year, has completed college basketball. It’s a very sad farewell for the former # 1 High School player in the country. But Jackie, you are a fighter. USC out rebounded Pepperdine by 15 but had 8 more turnovers. USC is now down to 8 players, with 4 out for the season. Cassie Harberts had 23 points and 9 rebounds for USC. Brianna Gilbreath had 8 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists.

Next Games: Dec 29 Stanford, Dec 31 Cal, Jan 5 at ASU, Jan 7 at Arizona


5. UCLA 5-6 Lost at Temple 59-52. They last lost their top player Atonye Nyingifa for the season with a knee injury after the previous game. UCLA is down to 8 players now. Thea Lemberger scored 13 points, 3 of 4 from three.

Lost at St Joseph’s 64-60. Markel Walker had 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 29 Cal, Dec 31 Stanford, Jan 5 at Arizona, Jan 7 at ASU


6. Arizona 10-1 Beat New Mexico 59-50. The Wildcats out rebounded New Mexico by 17 but had 9 more turnovers. Davellyn Whyte had 27 points, 3 of 4 from three, and 12 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 28 UNLV, Dec 31 at ASU, Jan 5 UCLA, Jan 7 USC


7. Washington State 6-6 Lost in the last seconds to # 13 Louisville 75-71. Oregonian Shoni Schimmel had 16 points for Louisville, 8 in the last 2 minutes for the win. Although Shonni was 0 for 8 from three, she did have 8 assists. Ireti Amojo had 22 points, 3 of 4 from three for the Cougars. Jasmine Perkins had 19 points, 4 of 8 from three.

Lost to Ohio State 79-57. Carly Noyes had 15 points and Jazmine Perkins had 11 points and 15 rebounds for the Cougars. The Fabulous Sami Prahalis had 20 points and 10 assists for Ohio State.

Next Games: Dec 29 at Oregon, Dec 31 at Oregon State, Jan 5 Utah, Jan 7 Colorado


8. Washington 8-2 Beat Southern 64-56. MacKenzie Argens had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Regina Rogers had 14 points.

Next Games: Dec 29 at Oregon State, Dec 31 at Oregon, Jan 5 Colorado, Jan 7 Utah


9. Oregon 8-4 Beat Cal State Northridge in the last seconds, and without star Amanda Johnson, 79-75. Jasmin Holliday had 23 points for the Ducks.

Lost to St Mary’s 72-62. Jasmin Smith had 35 points, 7 of 13 from three, for St Mary’s. The Ducks shot 24%, and were 8 of 38 from three.

Next Games: Dec 29 Washington State, Dec 31 Washingto, Jan 5 at Stanford, Jan 7 at Cal


10. Utah 6-4 Beat New Mexico State 74-37. Michelle Plouffe had 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 28 Utah Valley, Dec 31 Colorado, Jan 5 at WSU, Jan7 at Wsahington


11. Colorado 11-0 Beat Texas Pan American 67-49. Chucky Jeffery had 14 points and 10 rebounds while Rachel Hargis had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Both totals were personal bests for Hargis, the 6-4 Center.

Beat Creighton 52-49 to finish their pre season undefeated. I will point out it was a very weak schedule. Jen Reese had 15 points and 8 rebounds. Lexy Kresl also had 15 points.

Next Games: Dec 31 at Utah, Jan 5 at Washington, Jan 7 at Washington State


12. Oregon State 9-2 Lost to St Mary’s 81-61 as St Mary’s made 14 of 22 three’s. Ali Gibson had 14 points and 5 assists for the Beavers.

Next Games: Dec 29 Washington, Dec 31 Washington State, Jan 5 at Cal, Jan 7 at Stanford

The Pac 12 This Past Week

A couple of almost big quality Pac 12 wins as Cal lost by 2 to Ohio State and USC by 1 to Texas A&M.


1. Stanford 7-1. Beat Princeton 85-66. Nneka with 22 points and 12 rebounds and Chiney with 21 points and 9 rebounds. Chiney was 10 of 11 from the floor. However Princeton had one more offensive rebound than us.

Next Games: Dec 20 Tennessee, Dec 22 Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 29 at USC, Dec 31 at UCLA


2. Cal 8-3 Lost in the last second to 12th ranked Ohio State 77-75. The great Sami P scored 20 with 6 assists for Ohio State. Sad that this game was opposite the Stanford game. Gennifer Brandon had a tremendous game, 24 points and 24, yep, 24 rebounds. Cal out rebounded Ohio State by 16 but missed 18 free shots going 20 for 38.

Next Games: Dec 20 Dartmouth, Dec 29 at UCLA, Dec 31 at USC


3. Arizona State 7-1. Lost to Depaul, 73-55. DePaul is a top 20 team and this was a chance for the Pac 12’s first really quality win, but not to be. ASU out rebounded DePaul by 12, but had 9 more turnovers. Jeanae Fulcher had 16 points and 7rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 20 Army, Dec 29 UTEP, Dec 31 Arizona


4. USC 4-5 Lost at Arkansas State, wow, 58-56. Brianna Gilbreath had 20 points. Just a really bad loss for a maybe top 3-4 Pac 12 team.

Lost a the end to Texas A&M 71-70. Jackie Gemelos left the game with a knee injury at about the half way point of the game. Ashley Corral was 5 of 10 from three, 16 points, and USC was 9 of 17 from three. So close to the Pac 12’s first really quality win, men or women.

Next Games: Dec 21 at Pepperdine, Dec 29 Stanford, Dec 31 Cal


5. UCLA 5-4 Lost to LSU at LSU 5 8-41. 41 points? UCLA shot 31% and had 24 turnovers. Markel Walker played her first game and scored 11 points but had 9 turnovers.

Lost to Tennessee 85-64. The Lady Vols made 18 of their first 20 shots. WOW!!!. And was 69% for the game. Rebekah Gardner scored a career high 24 points.

Next Games: Dec 20 at Temple, Dec 22 at St Joseph’s, Dec 29 Cal, Dec 31 Stanford


6. Arizona 9-1 Beat Arkansas Pine Bluff 67-37. 11 assists by Arnold.

Next Games: Dec 21 New Mexico, Dec 28 UNLV, Dec 31 at ASU


7. Washington State 6-4

Next Games: Dec 19 Louisville, Dec 22 at Ohio State, Dec 29 at Oregon, Dec 31 at Oregon State


8. Washington 7-2 Beat Houston 85-60. MacKenzie Argens had 19 points and 17 rebounds in only 21 minutes. Kellie McCann-Smith was 4 of 9 from three for 14 points.

Next Games: Dec 20 Southern, Dec 29 at Oregon State, Dec 31 at Oregon


9. Oregon 7-3 Lost at Nevada 76-74. Playing without Amanda Johnson the Ducks were out rebounded by 12 and shot just 39%. Jasmin Holliday had 26 points, 9 rebounds and 6 steals for the Ducks. Oregon had 26 steals to keep the game close.

Next Games: Dec 19 Cal State Northridge, Dec 21 St Mary’s, Dec 29 Washington State, Dec 31 Washington


10. Utah 5-4 Beat Texas Southern 75-33. Michelle Plouffe had 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Utes shot 54%.

Next Games: Dec 21 New Mexico State, Dec 28 Utah Valley, Dec 31 Colorado


11. Colorado 9-0 Beat Weber State 77-59. Chucky Jeffery had 17 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

Next Games: Dec 20 at Texas Pan American, Dec 21 Creighton, Dec 31 at Utah


12. Oregon State 9-1 Beat Cal State Bakersfield 85-62. Bakersfield is 3-9 and played only 6 players. The Beavers shot 54% and out rebounded Bakersfield by 19. Oregon State had 30 assists on 36 baskets. Three Beavers had 6 or 7 assists, none of them the Point Guard. Patricia Bright led with 16 points and had 8 rebounds. She was the Pac 12 Player of the Week last week.

Beat Corban, of Salem, Or, 79-47. Earlysia Marchbanks had 17 points and 8 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 19 St Mary’s, Dec 29 Washington, Dec 31 Washington State

A look at Pac 12 teams and their Schedules

Strength of Schedule, known as SOS, is an involved formula used to determine who is playing the higher ranker, stronger teams and who is not. However being a simple guy I like to see who schedules top 35 or so teams and who didn’t and how those who stepped up their schedule fared. There are still two weeks until Pac 12 conference play begins and thus two more weeks of non conference play against possibly tougher teams.

My simplistic ranking is as follows: 3 points for playing a top 10 team, 2 for playing a team ranked 11-25 and 3 for a team that received ranking points but in the 26 to roughly 39 ranking.

The toughest non conference schedules for Pac 12 teams in order of toughest schedules:

USC 15 points. Lost to Nebraska, lost to Georgia, Lost to Notre Dame, beat Gonzaga, will play Texas A&M.

Stanford 9 points. Lost to UConn, to play Tennessee, Wins over Gonzaga and Texas

Washington State 8 points. Lost to Penn State, lost to Michigan, lost to Gonzaga, will play Louisville and Ohio State.

Cal 7 points. Lost to Rutgers, lost to Texas, beat Virginia, to play Ohio State

UCLA 7 points. Lost to Baylor, lost to LSU, will play Tennessee

ASU 4 points. Lost to Rutgers, will play DePaul

Utah 3 points. Lost to Michigan, lost to Arkansas, lost to BYU

Arizona 1 points. Lost to BYU

Colorado, zero points

Oregon, zero points

Oregon State, zero points

Washington zero points

The Pac 12 is 4-15 against ranked teams with all of those wins against Gonzaga, two wins, Texas and Virginia. Each of these teams rank about # 25. Of course the Pac 12 Men are 0-10 against ranked teams.

So we can say congrats to those teams with the tougher schedules but on the flip side, is winning is great. Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State and Washington are a combined 29-6.

The Pac 12 This Past Week

Not too many games with Finals for many teams.

1. Stanford 6-1.

Next Games: Dec 17 Princeton, Dec 20 Tennessee, Dec 22 Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 29at USC, Dec 31 at UCLA


2. Cal 8-2 Beat St Mary’s 65-55. Cal shot 8 of 15 from three but only 12 of 40 from two. 30%. Brittany Boyd had 15 points, 6 assists and 5 turnovers.

Beat Santa Clara 75-58. Outrebounded Santa Clara by 37 but shot only 39%. Gennifer Brandon had 13 points and 11 rebounds and Cal only had 11 turnovers, Boyd just one.

Next Games: Dec 17 Ohio State, Dec 20 Dartmouth, Dec 29 at UCLA, Dec 31 at USC


3. Arizona State 7-1. Beat Cal State Fullerton 63-49 as Kali Bennett had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 16 at DePaul, Dec 20 Army, Dec 29 URTEP, Dec 31 Arizona


4. USC 4-3

Next Games: Dec 15 at Arkansas State, Dec 18 at Texas A&M, Dec 21 at Pepperdine, Dec 29 Stanford, Dec 31 Cal


5. UCLA 5-2

Next Games: Dec 13 at LSU, Dec 17 Tennessee, Dec 20 at Temple, Dec 22 at St Joseph’s, Dec 29 Cal, Dec 31 Stanford


6. Arizona 8-1 Beat Long Beach State 66-42. Frosh Aley Rhode had 21 points and 13 rebounds. Erica Barnes had 13 points and 12 rebounds. The Wildcats out rebounded LB State by 21. LBS had two assists.

Next Games: Dec 18 at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Dec 21 New Mexico, Dec 28 UNLV, Dec 31 at ASU


7. Washington State 6-4 Beat 1-7 UC Riverside 74-35. Rosie Tarnowski had 14 points and 8 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 19 Louisville, Dec 22 at Ohio State, Dec 29 at Oregon, Dec 31 at Oregon State


8. Washington 6-2 Beat Portland 61-49. Regina Rogers had 26 points and 9 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 18 Houston, Dec 20 Southern, Dec 29 at Oregon State, Dec 31 at Oregon


9. Oregon 7-2 Lost to Denver 89-65. Amanda Johnson only played 11 minutes with a thumb injury, but a startling loss. Oregon shot 33 % and was out rebounded.
Next Games: Dec 14 at Nevada, Dec 19 Cal State Northridge, Dec 21 St Mary’s, Dec 29 Washington State, Dec 31 Washington


10. Utah 4-4 Beat Idaho State 56-31. Janita Baden had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.

Lost to BYU 63-58. Michelle Plouffe had 21 points and 9 rebounds and the 6-4 post was 5 of 7 from three.

Next Games: Dec 17 Texas Southern, Dec 21 New Mexico State, Dec 28 Utah Valley,
Dec 31 Colorado


11. Colorado 8-0 Beat Denver 71-36. Chucky Jeffrey had 20 points and 6 assists but also 9 turnovers. Colorado was 11 of 20 from three.

Next Games: Dec 17 Weber State, Dec 20 at Texas Pan American, Dec 21 Creighton, Dec 31 at Utah


12. Oregon State 7-1 Beat Pepperdine 63-52. The Beavers shot 48%. Patricia Bright had 16 points and 10 rebounds while Earlysia Marchbanks had 18 points.

Next Games: Dec 13 at Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 16 Corban, Dec 19 St Mary’s, Dec 29 Washington, Dec 31 Washington State

The Pac 12 This Past Week

1. Stanford 6-1. Beat UC Davis 93-44. Stanford made 11 three’s led by Bonnie Samuelson’s 5 of 8 from three and 15 points. Nneka had 20 points and 9 rebounds, Chiney 18 points and 9 rebounds. Jos Tinkle added 19 points and also had 9 rebounds as Stanford outrebounded UC Davis 47-16.

Beat Fresno State 93-59. Bonnie Samuelson hit 6 of 8 from three for 18 points. Nneka with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and Chiney with 13 points and 16 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 17 Princeton, Dec 20 Tennessee.


2. Cal 6-2 Beat Cal State Bakersfield 86-56. Cal shot 50% and outrebounded Bakersfield by 36. Reshanda Gray had 13 points and 10 rebounds as all the Cal players scored.

Beat UNLV 70-48. Gray had 23 points and was named the Tourney MVP. Cal outrebounded UNLV by 18. 9 assists by Brittany Boyd giving her 16 for the 2 games.

Next Games: Dec 8 at St Mary’s, Dec 10 Santa Clara, Dec 17 Ohio State


3. Arizona State 6-1. Beat Eastern Washington 74-43. Jada Blackwell had 12 points and 6 rebounds as every one played at least 10 minutes.

Beat Illinois State 77-54. Kimberly Brandon had 16 points and Alex Earl had 8 assists.

Next Games: Dec 6 Cal State Fullerton, Dec 16 at DePaul


4. USC 4-3 Beat UTSA 74-56 with Cassie Harberts scored 18 points and dishing out 4 assists. USC shot only 40% and had 25 turnovers.

Beat Gonzaga in Spokane 58-51. A big win for the Trojans before a crowd of 5600. Ashley Corral scored 19 points on 4 of 8 from three. Jackie Gemelos was only 1 of 8 from the field but had 14 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 15 at Arkansas State, Dec 18 at Texas A&M


5. UCLA 5-2 Beat San Diego State 78-71. UCLA led by 13 with 2 minutes left. Atonye Nyingifa had 20 points and 11 rebounds. Rebekah Gardner also had 20 points and had 8 rebounds.

Beat Loyola Marymount 84-43. Nyingifa had 28 points on 10 of 12 shooting and 14 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 13 at LSU, Dec 17 Tennessee


6. Arizona 7-1 Beat North Texas State 69-62 before 4,300 fans at Arizona. Davellyn Whyte had 20 points and Erica Barnes had 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Lost to BYU 82-73. Passing, passing, passing, BYU had 27 assists on 30 made shots. Also 11 of 21 from three. Whyte had 19 points and Barnes 17 points and 8 rebounds.

Beat Syracuse 80-74. It was Syracuse’s first loss. Whyte had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Chesti Poston had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Beat BYU-Hawaii 78-61. Barnes had 24 points and 11 rebounds. Candice Warthen had 22 points.

Next Games: Dec 11 Long Beach State, Dec 18 at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.


7. Oregon 7-1 Lost at Fresno State 81-71. Jasmin Holliday had 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Ducks. Amanda Johnson had 15 points and 9 rebounds. KiKi Moore was 5 of 8 from three and had 21 points with 12 rebounds for Fresno State. Madison Parrish was 4 of 4 from three, 14 points and 5 assists for the Bulldogs. Fresno was 17 of 39 from three, 11 of 29 from two.

Beat Portland 88-78. Johnson had 23 points and 13 rebounds, Holiday had 20 and Danielle Love had 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Ducks made 12 threes in 31 attempts.

Next Games: Dec 11 at Denver, Dec 14 at Nevada, Dec 19 Cal State Northridge


8. Utah 3-3 Beat Weber State 81-63. Michelle Plouffe had 21 points and 12 rebounds. Taryn Wicijowski had 20 points and 8 rebounds. Weber State is now 0-7.

Next Games: Dec 6 Idaho State, Dec 10 at BYU, Dec 17 Texas Southern


9. Washington State 5-4 Lost to Gonzaga 71-69 as Gonzaga scored with 3 seconds left to win. 2900 at WSU to watch. Tia Pressley had 16 points and Ireti Amojo hit 4of 5 threes for 12 points for the Cougars.

Beat San Diego State 65-50. A very nice non conference win. Amojo had 16 points, 4 of 6 from three.

Next Games: Dec 11 UC Riverside, Dec 19 Louisville


10. Colorado 7-0 Beat USF 84-66. Chucky Jeffery had 26 points and 9 rebounds, Julie Seabrook had 18 points and 8 rebounds and Jen Reese had 9 points and 13 rebounds.

Beat Idaho 69-59. Jeffery had 30 points, 4 of 5 from three, and 10 rebounds.

Next Games: Dec 8 Denver, Dec 17 Weber State


11. Washington 5-2 Beat Idaho 66-49. Regina Rogers had 27 points and 14 rebounds in 31 minutes.

Beat Long Beach State 80-49. Jasmine Davis had 18 points in the rout.

Next Games: Dec 9 Portland, Dec 18 Houston


12. Oregon State 6-1

Lost to North Texas State 60-53. Earlysia Marchbanks had 19 points and 10 rebounds, but the Beavers shot only 32% in the loss.

Beat Rice 63-57. Marchbanks had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Ali Gibson also had 14 points.

Next Games: Dec 10 at Pepperdine, Dec 13 at Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 16 Corban

The Pac 12 This Past Week

All the rankings are mine and I will re-do them soon.

1. Stanford 4-1. Lost at UConn 68-58. Nneka with 22 points and Chiney with 12 rebounds. Stanford had 16 turnovers, not a bad number but UConn only had 7.

Beat Xavier 80-64 with Nneka scoring 34 points and getting 13 rebounds while Chiney scored 18 points and had 8 rebounds. Toni Kokenis had 14 points and 6 assists. Stanford was only 3 of 18 from three.

Next Games: Nov 30 UC Davis, Dec 4 at Fresno State


2. USC 2-3 Lost to Notre Dame 80-58. Ashley Corral scored 17 and Jackie Gemelos had 13 points and 8 rebounds. The Trojans turned the ball over 21 times, 10 more than ND.

Beat Gardner Webb 82-41. Corral with 22 points, 6 of 9 from three. Christina Marinacci isn’t scoring at all but had 14 rebounds in 21 minutes.

Next Games: Nov 30 UTSA, Dec 4 at Gonzaga, Dec 15 at Arkansas State


3. Cal 4-2 Beat Hawaii 69-54. Brittany Boyd had 12 points, 7 assists and 5 steals. Reshanda Gray scored 16 points.

Lost to Texas 61-60 on a last second Texas shot. Boyd had 7 turnovers as Cal outrebounded Texas by 9 but had 23 turnovers, 7 more than Texas. Layshia Clarendon scored 13 points and Gennifer Brandon had 12 rebounds.

Beat Virginia who last week beat Tennessee 59-50. Clarendon had 16 points and 11 rebounds, although 7 turnovers. Gennifer Brandon had 12 points and 9 rebounds. A Big Win for Cal.

Next Games: Dec 3 Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 4 UNLV or Prairie View, Dec 8 at St Mary’s


4. Utah 2-3 Beat Detroit 64-55. Michelle Plouffe scored 19 and Janita Baden had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Lost to South Alabama 61-53 as foul trouble hurt the Utes. Both Baden and Plouffe fouled out playing less than 20 minutes each. Still a bad Pac 12 loss.

Next Games: Dec 1 Weber State, Dec 6 Idaho State, Dec at BYU


5. UCLA 3-2 Lost to West Virginia 63-54. The Bruins were outrebounded by 21. Rebekah Gardner scored 19.

Beat Colgate 68-48. Gardner had 21 points and 10 rebounds. Atonye Nyingifa had 19 points and 12 rebounds as UCLA played this game and most of the last with only 7 scholarship players due to injuries.

Next Games: Nov 30 San Diego State, Dec 4 at Loyola Marymount, Dec 13 at LSU


6. Oregon 6-0 Beat Weber State 88-73. Amanda Johnson, last week’s Pac 12 Player of the Week had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Four others were in double figures.

Beat UC Irvine 89-77. Former Oregon State player Kassandra McAlister of Sunnyvale scored 29 for UC Irvine. Johnson had 17 points and 9 rebounds. Former Stanford possible recruit Jordan Loera hit 5 of 8 threes for 17 points. Ariel Thomas played 15 minutes and scored 10, she had been out injured to start the season.

Beat Nicholls State 95-76 with Johnson scoring 27 points and adding 12 rebounds. Jasmin Holliday added 19 points.

Next Games: Dec 1 at Fresno State, Dec 4 Portland, Dec 11 at Denver


7. Arizona State 4-1. Beat Illinois (a 2-5 team) 51-50. No one scored in double figures but Kimberly Brandon did have 11 rebounds.

Lost to Rutgers 59-52. Deja Mann scored 11 for the Sun Devils. Kali Bennett had 10rebounds. The Sun Devils shot only 29%, but outrebounded Rutgers by 1.

Next Games: Dec 2 Eastern Washington, Dec 3 Illinois State or Arkansas State, Dec 6 Cal State Fullerton


8. Arizona 4-0 Beat New Mexico State 84-67 at their place. Davellyn Whyte scored 20 points with 5 assists and Candice Warthen also scored 20. Erica Barnes added 15 points and 9 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 28 North Texas, Dec 1 BYU in Hawaii, Dec 2 Syracuse, Dec 3 BYU-Hawaii, Dec 11 Long Beach State


9. Washington State 4-3 Beat Marquette 65-52. Sage Romberg scored 19 and hit
4 of 9 from three. Romberg also had 8 rebounds.

Lost to Michigan 69-39. No one scored in double figures or played more than 23 minutes.

Beat Prairie View 90-52. Everyone played at least 9 minutes. Tia Presley led with 13 points as all but one player scored.

Next Games: Nov 30 Gonzaga, Dec 2 San Diego State, Dec 11 UC Riverside


10. Colorado 5-0 Beat Valparaiso 60-32. Chucky Jeffrey had 14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and only one turnover.

Beat Wisconsin 58-48. Jeffrey had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Frosh Lexy Kresl had 16 points.

Next Games: Nov 30 USF, Dec 4 Idaho, Dec 8 Denver,


11. Washington 3-2 Beat Santa Barbara 46-37. Egads. Regina Rogers scored 16 points and played 28 minutes. UCSB shot only 23%

Lost to San Diego State 63-51 committing 25 turnovers, 12 more than SDS. Rogers scored 26 points and had 10 rebounds in 33 minutes. She also had 6 turnovers.

Next Games: Nov 30 at Idaho, Dec 4 Long Beach State, Dec 9 Portland


12. Oregon State 5-0 Beat Eastern Washington 74-60. Frosh Ali Gibson had 21 points and 6 rebounds. The Beavers made 7 of 13 threes and shot 51% overall.

Next Games: Dec 2 North Texas State in Houston, Dec 3 Rice or Texas A&M at CC, Dec 10 at Pepperdine

Results thru Sunday, Nov 20

All the rankings are mine and I will re-do them for the next issue.

1. Stanford 3-0. Defeated Old Dominican 97-48 hitting 12 of 22 threes, including 9 for 15 in the 1st half. Lindy La Rocque hit 5 of 7 threes for 15 points and Sara James 3 of 4 threes for 9 points.

Next Games: Nov 21 at UConn, Nov 25 at Xavier, Nov 30 UC Davis, Dec 4 at Fresno State


2. USC 1-2 Lost to Nebraska 68-50 in a huge surprise to those thinking USC is at worst the # 3 team in the Pac 12. USC shot 25% missing 53 shots which enabled Nebraska to have a 26 rebound edge. Briana Gilbreath had 18 points. Cassie Harberts had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Lost at Georgia 67-60. USC again shot poorly, 35% and only 3 of 13 threes. Jackie Gemelos had 16 points and 8 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 25 Norte Dame in the Bahamas, Nov 26 Duke or Gardner Webb, Nov 30 UTSA, Dec 4 at Gonzaga


3. Cal 2-1 Beat Sacramento State 85-61, before only 556 fans. Are you kidding me? New coach and great frosh picked 2 or 3 in the Pac 12 and few care? Occupy Haas.  Frosh Justine Hartman scored 16 points in 18 minutes. Talia Caldwell had 17 points and 11 rebounds. Frosh Reshanda Gray scored 15 with 8 rebounds. The three combined to go 23 of 30 from the floor to offset Cal’s 2 of 19 from three, and 9 of 25 from the Free Throw Line.

Beat Illinois 80-56. Hartman had 17 points, Brittany Boyd, 13. Cal shot 48% and outrebounded Illinois by 18.

Next Games: Nov 25 at Hawaii, Nov 26 Texas in Hawaii, Nov 27 Virginia in Hawaii, Dec 3 Cal State Bakersfield, Dec 4 UNLV or Prairie View


4. Utah 1-2 Lost to Michigan 55-50. Taryn Wicijowski scored 16 points with 12 rebounds and Janita Baden scored 18 points with 11 rebounds. However The Utes had only 5 assists vs 18 turnovers.

Lost at Arkansas 57-56. Michelle Plouffe had 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 25 Detroit in San Antonio, Nov 26 South Alabama, Dec 1 Weber State


5. UCLA 2-1 Lost to Baylor 83-50. Not much to say, UCLA shot 32% were outrebounded by 18 and had only 6 assists vs 24 turnovers. Rebekah Gardner had 15 points and 9 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 25 West Virginia, Nov 26 Cal State Northridge or Colgate, Nov 30 San Diego State, Dec 4 at Loyola Marymount


6. Oregon 3-0 Beat Illinois 77-74 with Amanda Johnson scored 31 points and adding 11 rebounds. Jasmin Holliday also had 11 rebounds and had 16 points. The Ducks had 10 threes, Johnson going 5 of 11 from three.

Beat Portland State 75-70. Amanda Johnson continued her fantastic play with 30 points and 19 rebounds. She should be the Pac 12 Player of the Week.

Next Games: Nov 24 Weber State, Nov 25, UC Irvine, Nov 27 Nicholls State, Dec 1 at Fresno State, Dec 4 Portland


7. Arizona State 3-0. beat Boston College (as did Stanford’s Women’s Soccer team) 79-54. Kimberly Brandon scored 18 points and ASU shot 55%.

Next Games: Nov 25 Illinois, Nov 26 Rutgers, Dec 2 Eastern Washington, Dec 3 Illinois State or Arkansas State


8. Arizona 3-0 Beat Wichita State 74-60. Davellyn Whyte had 34 points, 6 of 8 from three, and 5 assists. The Wildcats were 10 of 17 from three.

Next Games: Nov 21 at New Mexico State, Nov 28 North Texas, Dec 1 at BYU


9. Washington State 2-2 Beat Wisconsin 69-51 at Wisconsin before 4100 fans. Wisconsin and Bobbie Kelsey are now 1-3. Jazmine Perkins had 16 points as the Cougars shot 58% and had 11 steals.

Lost to South Dakota State 63-58. Jazmine Perkins had 9 points, 8 rebounds and 6 steals.

Next Games: Nov 24 Marquette in the Virgin Islands, Nov 25 Michigan, Nov 26 Prairie View, Nov 30 Gonzaga, Dec 2 San Diego State


10. Colorado 3-0 Beat Texas A&M at Corpus Christi 71-58 with Guard Chucky Jeffery scoring 19 points with 16 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 blocked shots. Jeffery is 5 foot -10. Colorado had only 11 turnovers.

Beat Colorado State 72-53. Jeffery with 14 points and 7 assists although also 7 turnovers.

Next Games: Nov 25 Valparaiso, Nov 26, Nov 26 Montana State or Wisconsin


11. Washington 2-1 Beat Seattle 72-53. Mercedes Wetmore scored 16 points, 3 of 5 from three and Jazmine Davis scored 14 points.

Beat Cal State Northridge 73-67. Wetmore and Regina Rogers both had 17 points. The Huskies shot only 38% but made 25 Free Throws.

Next Games: Nov 23 at Santa Barbara, Nov 26 at San Diego State, Nov 30 at Idaho, Dec 4 Long Beach State


12. Oregon State 4-0 Beat Cal State Northridge 83-63. 6-4 JC transfer Patricia Bright scored 23 points, 8 of 9 from the floor and had 8 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. Frosh Ali Gibson had 12 points 5 assists no turnovers and 4 steals.

Beat Southern Utah 90-40. 13 players played 10 or more minutes in the rout.

Next Games: Nov 22 at Eastern Washington, Dec 2 North Texas State in Houston, Dec 3 Rice or Texas A&M at CC.

Last week's games

All rankings are mine, and I’ll change them each week.

1. Stanford 2-0. Beat Texas at Texas 72-59. Playing without Nneka, sister Chiney scored 16 points and had 14 rebounds. Jos Tinkle had 14 points as did frosh Amber Orrange.

Beat Gonzaga 76-61 before 4500 fans. Nneka with 33 points and 18 rebounds, Chiney 13points and 6 rebounds, Kokenis 14 points and 6 rebounds. 10 turnovers in the first half for Stanford, 6 in the 2nd half.

Next Games: Nov 17 Old Dominion, Nov 21 at UConn


2. USC 1-0 Beat Fresno State 65-57. Jackie Gemelos had 18 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Brianna Gilbreath had 16 points, Cassie Harberts, 14.

Next Games: Nov 11 Fresno State, Nov 18 at Nebraska, Nov 20 at Georgia.


3. Cal 0-1 Lost at Rutgers 73-70. Gennifer Brandon had 12 points and 15 rebounds. Cal had 24 turnovers. Afure Jererigbe had 14 points and 2 other Bears scored in double figures.

Next Games: Nov 17 Sacramento State, Nov 20 Illinois, Nov 25 at Hawaii.


4. Utah 1-0 beat southern Utah 74-60. Taryn Wicijowski had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 17 at Michigan, Nov 20 at Arkansas


5. UCLA 2-0 Beat Vanguard 81-52 in an exhibition.

Beat McNesse State in the opening of the WNIT 67-59 with Atonye Nyingifa scored 16 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Rhema Gardner added 18 points.

Beat Tenn Tech 74-52 to advance to the Semis of the WNIT to take on Baylor. Rebekah Gardner scored 21 points and had had 10 rebounds. Nyingifa had 16 points and 14 rebounds. UCLA has only 8 healthy players. A total of 569 showed up at UCLA to watch.

Next Games: Nov 17 the WNIT and Baylor, Nov 20, the WNIT Finals


6. Oregon 1-0 Beat Concordia in an exhibition 119-54. Nia Jackson returned from her injury to score 12 points and gather 10 assists. Amanda Johnson had 19 points and 9 rebounds. Frosh Megan Carpenter, a 6-4 Frosh Center, had 16 points and 16 rebounds.

Beat Cal Poly SLO 102-93. Joane Ervin from Cal Poly scored 33 on 5 of 5 from three. And she was deemed too short for the Pac 10/12. Jasmin Holliday scored 22 points and had 9 rebounds. Amanda Johnson scored 19 with 12 rebounds. Frosh Jordan Loera, a one time possible Stanford recruit, had 12 points with 3 threes.

Next Games: Nov 18 Illinois, Nov 20 Portland State


7. Arizona State 2-0. Beat UC Riverside 66-46. Kimberly Brandon with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

Beat Colorado State in Overtime at Colorado State 56-52. Brandon with 11 points and Micaela Pickens with 12 points as both teams shot only 30%.

Next Games: Nov 20 Boston College, Nov 25 Illinois, Nov 26 Rutgers.


8. Arizona 2-0 Beat Georgia Southern there, 88-46. Arizona shot 53% and Davellyn Whyte had 17 points. Erica Barnes had 11 points and 10 rebounds as 5 Wildcats scored in double figures.

Beat Georgia State 79-66. 5-5 Soph Candice Warthen scored 36 points and had 7 rebounds. Warthen was 5 of 8 from three and 11 for 18 overall. Whyte added 19 points. Barnes had 12 point and 11 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 21 at New Mexico State, Nov 28 North Texas


9. Washington State 1-1 Lost at Penn State 72-60. Sage Romberg scored 12 points and Jazmine Perkins had 9 points and 13 rebounds. The Cougars shot only 30%.

Beat North Carolina-Wilmington 72-60. Carly Noyes scored 16 points as the Cougars shot 48%.

Next Games: Nov 18 at Wisconsin, Nov 20 at South Dakota State.


10. Colorado 1-0 beat Northern Arizona 84-60 before 4100 fans. Soph Brittany Wilson scored 22 points and Frosh Lexy Kresl added 15.

Next Games: Nov 16 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Nov 20 at Colorado State


11. Washington 0-1 Beat Concordia 99-40 in an exhibition. Shot only 3 of 18 from three but dominated inside. Regina Rodgers had 28 points and 13 rebounds in her 22 minutes while Mackenzie Argens had 17 points and 11 rebounds in the other 18 minutes.

Lost to UC Davis 69-68. Regina Rodgers had 21 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes. Frosh Jazmine Davis from San Jose had 11 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds. Nebraska transfer Kellie McCann-Smith had 10 points.

Next Games: Nov 16 Seattle, Nov 19 Cal State Northridge


12. Oregon State 2-0 Beat Pacific of Oregon in an exhibition game, 83-34 with Frosh Ali Gibson from St Mary’s of Stockton scored 18 points. Soph Alyssa Martin scored 12 and Sage Indenti hit all three of her three point shots.

Beat Western Oregon 96-32 the largest margin of victory ever for the Beavers. 5 players scored in double figures and 4 more scored 7, 8 or 9 points. JC transfer ShaKiana Edwards-Teasley scored 12 points and had 11 rebounds.

Beat Montana State 83-53 with Earlysia Marchbanks had 21 points and 8 rebounds. Frosh Ali Gibson also scored 21 points. The Beavers shot 51% and had only 9 Turnovers.

Next Games: Nov 17 Cal State Northridge, Nov 20 Southern Utah.

The Pac 12 This Past Week

All rankings are mine, and I’ll change them each week. Once the Conference play starts the order of teams will be their Conference won lost record. All of the following games are Exhibition games.

1. Stanford Beat UCSD 106-56. Chiney with 19 points and 14 rebounds in 18 minutes. Nneka with 17 points in 14 points, Bonnie Samuelson with 5 of 7 threes in 10 minutes and Jos Tinkle with 16 points and 11 rebounds in 20 minutes.

Beat Vanguard 100-54 as both Lindy La Rocque and Bonnie Samuelson scored 17 points and both were 5 of 10 from three. Jos Tinkle had 15 points and 8 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 11 at Texas, Nov 13 Gonzaga, Nov 17 Old Dominion.


2. USC: Beat Westmont 77-65. Jackie Gemelos hit all three of her threes and scored 23 points. She also played 37 minutes as 4 Trojans played 30 or more minutes. Ashley Corral scored 17. Two frosh did well, Ariya Crook scored 10 points and Alexyz Vaioletama had 9 rebounds. Stefanie Gilbreath only played 2 minutes, although I don’t know why.

Next Games: Nov 11 Fresno State, Nov 18 at Nebraska, Nov 20 at Georgia.


3. Cal: Beat Vanguard 99-58. Frosh Brittany Boyd made her debut with 18 points, 9rebounds, 5 steals and 5 assists. Gennifer Brandon returned after missing last season with an injury and had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Two other Frosh did very well, Justine Hartman, 10 points and 7 rebounds and Reshanda Gray 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Next Games: Nov 13 at Rutgers, Nov 17 Sacramento State, Nov 20 Illinois


4. Utah beat Dixie State 76-54. Taryn Wicijowski returned to action after missing last season with an ACL to score 18 points and grab 12 rebounds. Michelle Plouffe scored 20 points and also had 12 rebounds. Iwalani Rodroques scored 14 points hitting 4 of 7 from three.

Next Games: Nov 13 Southern Utah, Nov 17 at Michigan, Nov 20 at Arkansas


5. UCLA: Beat Vanguard 81-52. Atonye Ngingifa who is a player much like the injured Dixon scored 22 points and had 16 rebounds. Frosh Kacy Swain had 17 points and 9 rebounds and another frosh, Moriah Faulk hit 3 of 6 threes and scored 14 points. Three point shooting was a huge weakness last season. UCLA had only 8 healthy players.

Next Games: Nov 11 McNesse State, Nov 13 East Tenn State or Tenn Tech, Nov 17 the WNIT Semis if UCLA wins their first two, Nov 20, the WNIT Finals


6. Oregon did not play exhibitions yet

Next Games: Nov 10 exhibition Concordia, Nov 13 Cal Poly, Nov 18 Illinois, Nov 20 Portland State


7. Arizona State: Beat Azusa Pacific 66-35. Two Frosh made their debut and were the leading scorers. Promise Amukamara scored 14 points and Jada Blackwell scored 12 and added 8 rebounds. They were a combined 12 of 18 from the floor. Frosh Eliza Normen, a highly rated recruit, made her debut, after recovering from last season ACL in High School.

Next Games: Nov 11 UC Riverside, Nov 13 at Colorado State, Nov 20 Boston College


8. Arizona beat Western State 73-56. Arizona had 28 turnovers. Candice Warthen had 18 points and 6-5 Frosh Center Aley Rohde had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Beat Grand Canyon 81-54. Warthen had 15 points and 5 others had between 9 and 14. JC transfer Cheshi Poston had 9 points and 10 rebounds and Davellyn Whyte had 8 steals.

Next Games: Nov 11 at Georgia Southern, Nov 13 Wichita State, Nov 21 at New Mexico State


9. Washington State: Beat Seattle Pacific in an exhibition 72-62. Frosh Tia Pressley scored 14 points and Soph Sage Romberg added 13 points.


Beat Lewis-Clark 59-53. Jazmine Perkins had 12 points, the only Cougar in double figures. The Cougars shot only 33%.

Next Games Nov 11 at Penn State, Nov 13 either Middle Tenn or UNC Wilmington, Nov 18 at Wisconsin, Nov 20 at South Dakota State.


10. Colorado: Beat Regis 78-40. Chucky Jeffery led four players in double figures with 14 points.

Next Games: Nov 11 Northern Arizona, Nov 16 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Nov 20 at Colorado State


11. Washington: Has not played yet.

Next Games: Nov 8 Concordia, exhibition, Nov 11 UC Davis, Nov 16 Seattle, Nov 19 Cal State Northridge


12. Oregon State: Did not play

Next Games: Nov 8 exhibition Pacific of Oregon, Nov 11 Western Oregon, Nov 13 Montana State, Nov 17 Cal State Northridge, Nov 20 Southern Utah.

Cal has an old coach back as the New Coach

Last year Cal was 18-15 overall and just 7-11 in Pac 10 play for 6th place. With the stable of good players one would guess that the coaching change was dictated by the University but no. Former Head Coach Joanne Boyle took the Head Coaching job at Virginia opening the way for her former Assistant Lindsay Gottlieb. Gottlieb coached with Boyle as her Assistant 3 years at Richmond then moved West for 2 years at Cal. Gottlieb became the Head Coach at UCSB and had a 3 year record of 56-39 and two 1st place finishes.

Former Stanford player and Assistant Charmin Smith returns for her 5th season. Charmin is the lone holdover for the Coaching Staff.

Kai Felton moves from Oregon where she spent 2 years and this following 5 years as an Assistant at USC.

Daron Park comes from Louisiana Tech where he spent 2 years. Before that he was 2 years at Maryland and 3 years at Utah.

Losses:

DeNesha Stallworth suddenly left just before Boyle did. Strange timing and her choice of schools is also strange. But that’s life. Stallworth will be missed, she was the leading scorer, 13 and 2nd in rebounding, 6 per game.

Rachelle Frederico and Rama N’diaye both graduated. They each averaged 3 points in 13 minutes per game.

Returning Players:
Only six players return, but none are Srs and their growth as frosh or sophs should really help. The Bears also get back two players who sat out last season with injuries.

Layshia Clarendon is a 5-9 Jr Guard who played a lot at the Point last season but figures to play more at the 2 this season, her nature position. Last year she averaged 13 points and 5 rebounds per game. Layshia hit 30 threes at 34%. Layshia was a High School Parade All American.

Eliza Pierre is a 5-7 Jr and played Point also and may be the starting Point Guard. Not a good shooter, she averaged 6 points per game, but she also had 5 rebounds per game, barely 2nd in assists and first in steal, which was almost double the next highest. Eliza was a McDonald’s All American.

Gennifer Brandon returns after and year off with an injury. As of now I have read nothing that causes one to think so won’t be back at full strength, although she may ease back into full time play. Gennifer is a 6-2 Redshirt Soph. As a Frosh 2 years ago she averaged 7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. She was a big loss last season. Gennifer was a McDonald’s All American.

Lindsay Sherbert is a 6-0 Soph wing who averaged 8 points and 5 rebounds per game last season. Sherbert led the team in threes with 49 hitting at 35%. She was a very impressive three point shooter at Kezar this summer. Lindsay was a McDonald’s All American

Talia Caldwell is a 6-3 Jr center who averaged 9 points and 9 rebounds per game this past season. She was 2nd in the Pac 10 in rebounding.

Afure Jemerigbe is a 6-0 Soph guard who averaged 5 points in 15 minutes per game. She could play either the 1, Point Guard or 2, Off Guard. She was a McDonald’s All American.

Mikayla Lyles is a 5-8 guard who averaged 3 points in 12 minutes per game. She is a fine three point shooter, hitting 32% last year in limited playing time.

Avigiel Cohen is a 6-0 redshirt Frosh Point Guard, who sat out last year with a knee injury. Avigiel grew up in Israel, although born in Los Angeles. She was an outstanding High School and National 16U and 18/19U player in Israel.

New Players:

Brittany Boyd is a 5-9 Frosh Point Guard who may well start this year. In High School she was ranked # 38. Very, very quick, Brittany averaged 18 points and NINE steals in High School.

Reshanda Gray is a 6-3 Frosh Forward, a McDonald’s All American in High School and ranked # 22. Gray averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds per game in High School.

Justine Hartman is a 6-3 Frosh Center, also a McDonald’s All American. Justine was ranked as the # 7 player out of High School. Her team, the same High School as Jeanette Pohlen, was ranked # 1 in the nation at one time last season. She has had knee problems, so that’s something to watch for, but Cal with Caldwell doesn’t have to play her full time right away.

Erika Johnson is a 6-1 Frosh Wing, ranked # 21 out of High School. She will be making a transition from a post type player to a wing. Erika was a Parade All American.

The Schedule:

Rutgers on the road to open the season, Illinois and Virginia (with the former Coach Boyle) in Hawaii, and Ohio State at home, highlight the schedule. The other 7 games are pretty weak. Cal does not travel to Washington and the Arizona schools do not come to Cal.

The Season:

With a non conference schedule that should produce 8 or so wins Cal may enter the League play confident despite their youth. Talent wise they are certainly a top 3 team in the Conference. With a new Coach and 2/3s of new coaching staff to go with a young team she should gather momentum during the course of the season. With six McDonald’s All Americans Cal has talent.

Can USC challenge Stanford?

USC was 24-13 last season, going all the way to the Finals of the WNIT before losing. They were 10-8 in Pac 10 play, tying Arizona for 4th place.

Michael Cooper returns for his 3rd season as has had an overall record at USC of 43-25 with a 3rd place finish in the Pac 10 his first season. Expectations are high this year as most, including this writer, pick USC for 2nd behind Stanford.

Laura Beeman is in her 2nd year as an Assistant after being a local JC head Coach for 15 years.

Mary Wooley returns for her 3rd season as an Assistant and Michael Cooper Jr will be in his 2nd season as an Assistant.

Losses:

Post Kari LaPlante who scored 6 points and had 6 rebounds per game graduated. Guard Len’Nique Brown who scored 3 points per game, playing every game, did not return.


Returning Players:

USC returns an All Star line-up for the first Pac 12 season. Brianna Gilbreath is a 6-1 Sr Wing, who led the team in scoring, 14 per game, and rebounding 7 per game and steals, twice as many as the next player. She also takes care of the ball with a 1.25:1 assist to turnover ratio. Brianna was All Pac 10 for the second year in a row and named to the All Pac 10 defensive team for the 2nd year in a row, after being the Defensive Player of the Year as a Soph. She was also Honorable Mention All American, the first USC player named in 14 years. She was a McDonald’s All American in High School

Christina Marinacci is a 6-1 Jr Forward who averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds per game last season. Christina was also a McDonald’s All American in High School.

Stepanie Gilbreath is a 6-1 Wing and a Redshirt JR. Stepanie missed her first 3 seasons at USC with knee injuries, finally debuting as a true Sr. She could play another year after this season. She was only able to play 13 games last year, her first, but scored a point every other minute. A McDonald’s All American in High School, if healthy she will add a lot to the Trojans cause.

Cassie Harberts is a 6-2 Soph who is a natural power Forward but will probably play mostly in the Post. As a frosh Cassie averaged 10 points and 6 rebounds a game and was 2nd in total minutes. She was the # 11 recruit in the country out of High School.

Ashley Corral is a 5-9 Sr Point Guard. Ashley was the Trojans # 2 scorer last year at 13 points per game and sank 85 threes at a 37% rate. She also had a very good
1.3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. Ashley has made 223 threes in her career at USC, first in their record book. She was a McDonald’s All American in High School.

Jackie Gemelos is a 6-0 Guard and what a story. Jackie averaged 39 points per game as a High School Sr and was ranked the # 1 player in the country and a McDonald’s All American. Then she missed her first 3 years of college entirely to finally play Feb 4th of Sr year. She is now in her 6th year and pursuing her Masters in Gerontology. This is the study of the Social, Psychological and Biological aspects of aging. She has a 3.5 GPA in the Masters program. Last season her first full season and in the Masters program she averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds a game and hit 52 threes at 42%.

Desiree Bradley is a 6-1 Soph Forward who averaged 5 minutes per game. She was ranked # 35 out of High School.

Thaddesia Southall is a 6-4 Redshirt Frosh Post. She missed last season with a knee injury. Thaddesia was ranked # 99 out of High School.

Michelle Jenkins is a 6-3 Redshirt Jr post player who is expected to sit out this season with an injury. She missed most of last season and all of her Soph season with a knee injury. If she can come back later in the season it would really help the Trojans depth.

New Players:
Ariya Crook (formally Crook-Williams) is a 5-7 Frosh Point Guard who was a McDonald’s All American and ranked the # 2 Point Guard out of High School and # 16 overall.

Alexya Vaioletama is a 6-1 Frosh Forward. Still another McDonald’s All American, and ranked # 14 out of High School.

USC will have 3 new players sit out the season for various reasons. 6-4 Jr Kate Oliver is a transfer from Marist and must sit out this season then she will have 2 seasons to play. The Australian native started all but 9 games for Marist, ranked 21 last season, in her two years. Last season she averaged 8 points, 4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.

Deanna Calhoun is a 6-3 Frosh post player who will sit out the season recovering from a knee injury. She was the # 34 Forward out of High School.

Kiki Alofaituli is a 6-1 Frosh Wing who signed a Letter of Intent with ASU. She was released but must sit out this season. She was the # 26 player out of High School and a teammate of Vaioletema at famed Mater Dei High School.

The Schedule:

A very hard schedule. The Trojans host Fresno State, travel to Nebraska and Georgia, then to the Bahamas for a tournament facing Notre Dame and probably Duke. Then at Gonzaga and at Texas A&M. They could be a very good team and 5-5 when the league starts. They don’t travel to Oregon and Utah and Colorado doesn’t visit LA.

The Season:

USC has 7 McDonald’s All Americans and counting what we know already 5 players who have missed 10 seasons with knee injuries. If healthy and that’s a pretty big if, then could be very good with their best team in years.

The Bruins have new Leadership

Last year UCLA was 28-5 overall, with losses to Stanford 3 times, LSU by 2 and to Gonzaga in the NCAAs. They also beat Notre Dame in double Overtime at Notre Dame. UCLA was 2nd in Pac 10 play, at 16-2.

Nikki Caldwell moved on after 3 seasons at UCLA and is replaced by Cori Close. Close was a 4 year starter at UCSB after graduating from Milpitas High School. After UCSB she was an Assistant and UCLA for 2 years while getting her Masters. She then coached at UCSB for 9 years going to the NCAA the last 8, not sure why not Year 1 as they won their league. Then she moved on to Florida State as the Associate Head Coach for 7 years. She has been to the Elite 8 with Florida State and the Sweet 16 with UCSB.

Shannon Perry is a new Assistant after 5 years at Duke and 4 at USC. She is a Southern California native.

Tony Newman moves to UCLA from Westmont College in Santa Barbara where he coached for the past 8 seasons. He has coached at Oregon State and coached at UCSB for 7 seasons, mostly with Close.

Jenny Huth was a three time a Big 12 selection at Colorado. She has coached at Oakland College in Michigan and coached for several years with Close at Florida State, while getting her Masters degree.

Losses:

Jasmine Dixon is a 5-11 SR Forward but out for the year with an injury. She was the 2nd leading scorer by a tenth of a point, 12 per game and the leading rebounder, 7 per game. This is a huge loss.

Darxia Morris was the leading scorer at 12 per game and hit the most threes although only 29.

Dorenna Campbell averaged 9 points per game.

Nina Earl saw limited action, 10 minutes per game although she contributed more her first two years.

Christina Nzekwe was their only post player with experience, played 13 minutes per game and averaged 2 points and 3 rebounds.

There was also the loss of two excellent recruits when Caldwell left. Center Justine Hartman went to Cal. Hartman is a 6-3 Center who was ranked # 7, 8 and 38 by the three services.

Also signing with the Bruins then getting her release was Sheila Boykin a tough Forward who ended up with Caldwell at LSU. She was ranked # 27, 53 and 63 out of High School.


Returning Players:

Markel Walker is a 6-1 JR Guard/Forward who averaged 8 points and 5 rebounds and 3 assists per game. She was All Pac 10 Frosh and a McDonalds All American in High School.

Atonye Nyingifa is 5-11 JR Forward who averaged 9 points and 5 rebounds. She was All Pac 10 Frosh then missed a year with a knee injury.

Rebekah Gardner is a 6-1 Sr Guard who averaged 8 points per game and was 2nd on the team with 23 threes. 23 is a pretty low number but she converted at 35%.

Thea Lemberger is a 5-7 Soph Point Guard who played limited minutes as a Frosh last season. However she could well be the starting Point Guard this season for the Bruins.

Corinne Costa is a 6-4 Soph Center who averaged just 7 minutes per game.

Mariah Williams is a 5-4 or so JR Point Guard who has been a back up Point Guard her first 2 seasons.

Rhema Perry is a 6-1 Soph Forward and Rebekah’s sister.


New Players:

Moriah Faulk is a 5-10 Frosh Guard , ranked # 93 in High School. She should see playing time at both Guard spots.

Kacy Swain is a 6-3 Soph Wing who was ranked 12, 20 and 25. Swain is not a banger but at 6-3 will have to play some inside. She is an excellent shooter from 14-17 feet.

Alexis Perry is a 5-5 Frosh Guard, ranked # 97. Sadly she was recently injured and out for the season.


The Schedule:

UCLA is in the pre season WNIT and if they win their first two games they would play Baylor and if they win would probably play Notre Dame. They also play West Virginia, San Diego State, LSU with Caldwell and Tennessee. The Bruins do not travel to Oregon and Utah and Colorado do play travel to LA.


The Season:

Losing the top three scorers and then two of their top three recruits will really hurt.

The Washington State Cougars

June Daugherty returns for her 5th season as the Head Coach. It’s been a struggle as last season’s 6-12 conference record, tying for 7th place, was the Coughers best finish in 10 years. Overall WSU was 8-23 this past season.

Mike Daugherty returns for his 5th year as the Associate Head Coach. Mo Hines returns for his 5th year and is also finishing his undergrad degree at WSU. Brian Holsinger returns for his 5th season. Great continuity for the Cougars.

Losses:

The losses are not major. Katie Madison was a solid rebounder, 5 a game, and also scored 5 points per game.

Lexie Peterson played only 55 minutes on the season.


New Players:

Shalie Dheensaw is a 6-3 Frosh Post from Canada. Shalie played on the Canadian 16U and 17U teams.

Jordan Kelley is a 5-9 Frosh Guard from Wyoming. She was a top 40 Parade All American and the State Player of the Year. She was ranked # 266.

Tia Presley is a 5-9 Frosh Guard from Spokane who was not ranked out of High School.


Returning Players:

Washington State returns its top 7 scorers from last year and 9 of the top 10. So they will have a very veteran team. Sage Romberg is a 6-1 Soph Forward who was the leading scorer last season at almost 10 points per game. Sage was also 3rd in rebounding at 5 per game in a rotation where 10 players played between 8 and 26 minutes per game. Sage was 2nd on the team with 41 threes at 40%. She was named to the Frosh all Pac 10 team. Sage ranked as high as # 72 out of High School.

Jazmine Perkins is a 5-10 Sr Guard who scored 9 points per game and led the team in rebounding with 5 per game. Perkins also led the team in steals and has averaged 2 a game over her 3 years. The Cougars need Perkins to get back to scoring as she did as Frosh averaging 14 per game.

Carly Noyes is a 6-5 Jr Center and started every game last season. Carly averaged 8 points and 4 rebounds and easily lead the team in blocks with 43.

Three players will fight it out for the final 2 Guard spots. Ireti Amojo is a 5-10 Soph Guard who started 21 games last season averaging 9 points per game. She hit a team high 48 threes at 33%.

April Cook is a 5-8 Sr Point Guard who averaged 6 points, but less than 2 assists per game. Cook was the # 84 player out of High School. In her first two seasons at Washington State Cook averaged 14 points per game and hit 89 threes.

Hana Potter is a 6-2 Soph Post who averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds per game. Hana was rated the # 43 Post out of High School.

Rosetta Adzasu is a 5-5 Sr Point Guard who averaged 6 points per game and led the team in assist at 3.3 per game. She had 1: .85 assist to turnover ratio, tops on the team.

Brandi Thomas is a 6-1 Soph Wing who averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds appearing in every game and started several. Brandi was a very good Triple Jumper is High School and was All State of Washington in Basketball.

Rosie Tarnowski is a 6-1 Sr Wing who didn’t play much last year, only 8 minutes per game. As a Frosh Rosie stared most games and averaged 7 points per game.

Katie Grad is a 5-8 JR Guard who also played just 8 minutes per game. Katie was All State of Washington in High School.

The Schedule:

Tough, very tough. At Penn State, at Bobbie Kelsey’s Wisconsin, at Ohio State, home to Gonzaga, San Diego State and Louisville. Then at a Tournament against Marquette and Michigan. Stanford and Cal don’t travel to Pullman and the Cougars don’t travel to Utah or Colorado.


The Season:

The Cougars have to hope for a return of April Cook and Jazmine Perkins to their form during their first 2 years in Pullman. Or it’ll be another long season for June and the Cougars. Having said that, Cook and Perkins can be outstanding in their Sr year.

The Utah Utes join the Pac 12

Utah joins Colorado as the newest Pac 12 members; however Utah seems to be the much stronger team at this time, especially with their post players. The Utah Utes have made the NCAA tournament 5 times in the past 9 seasons. Without looking I believe in the former Pac 10 only Stanford can claim that many appearances over the same timeframe.

Anthony Levrets begins his 2nd season as the Head Coach after going 18-17 in his first season and then winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament and advancing to the NCAA tournament. He was an Assistant at Utah then became interim coach a year ago. He is now the permanent Head Coach. Velaida Harris returns for her 3rd year as an Assistant Coach. Matt Legerski returns for his 9th season as an Assistant. Willette White joins the staff having been an Assistant at Oregon the past 3 seasons. From 1993 to 2000 she was the Head Assistant at UCLA.

Losses:

Former Stanford player Michelle Harrison has moved on, I believe now with her Masters degree. Last season she averaged 5 points and 7 rebounds per game. Michelle is their only loss.

New Players:

Cheyenne Wilson is a 5-11 Frosh Guard from Seattle. Wilson was the State of Washington 3A Player of the Year, and averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists in her Jr season in High School.

Rachel Morris is a 6-4 Center from Eastern Nevada, and ranked # 212 in the nation. She holds the Nevada State record for career blocks and averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks as a Jr.

Returning Players:

11 returning players for Utah, although one, 6-3 Post Taryn Wicijowski played only three games last season due to a knee injury. First of all keep in mind that after Taryn went down Utah scored only 58 points per game. So points per game will be on the low side. Having said that, Taryn averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds in the 3 games. In the previous season, as a Frosh, she averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds and was Frosh of the year in the Mountain West. She also played for the Canadian Jr National team, 19U and in a game against the USA team had 16 rebounds. The 6-3 Redshirt Soph is a great addition to the Pac 12.

Iwalani Rodrigues is a 5-9 JR with 3 years left after redshirting as a Frosh. She averaged 3 points a game as a redshirt Frosh then last year, wow. She averaged 15 points per game this past season hitting 110 threes at an amazing 45%. Now a big time player and may be the best three point shooter in the Pac 12.

Michelle Plouffe is a 6-4 Soph who took over for Taryn W in the post last season and averaged 14 points and 7 rebounds per game as a true Frosh. I’m not sure who plays where, but Taryn W and Plouffe give the Utes two great post players. Plouffe also played on a Canadian National team last year.

The returning Point Guard is 5-7 Sr Janita Badon who averaged 13 points, 7 rebounds and nearly 6 assists per game this past season. Badon is the only Sr on the team. Many returning players and only one Sr for Utah.

Diana Rolniak is a 6-4 Jr Post player who started 24 games last season at the 4. Diana averaged 3 points and 5 rebounds per game and lead the team in blocked shots.

Rachel Messer is a 5-9 Jr guard who averaged 5 points per game and had a solid 1.5 assist to turnover ratio as a back up. Rachel did start 8 games. She was a decent three point shooter, 35 made at 31%.

Brittany Knighton is a 6-0 Soph guard who started 6 games, averaging 3 points per game.

Chelsea Bridgewater is a 6-0 Jr forward who averaged 10 minutes per game.

Three other players return, all of whom saw limited action last season.


The Schedule:

Utah plays Michigan, Arkansas, BYU and New Mexico State. In league play they don’t travel to LA, and skip the Washington schools at home. A pretty good schedule. One thing to watch is attendance and the affect of joining the Pac 12. Utah drew only 1,000 per game last season.

The Season:

I think Utah will have quite an effect in the Pac 12. Good Post players, good Guards and experience. It’ll be interesting to see who they bump down to the 2nd division.

Let’s talk Paul Ball

Paul Westhead begins his 3rd season as Head Coach of the Oregon Ducks. His coaching style is pure run and gun and outscore the other team. With great three point shooting in Westhead’s first year the Ducks were 18-16, but last season the Ducks were 13-17 overall and 4-14 and 9th place in the Pac 10.

Dan Muscatell returns for his 3rd year an Assistant after being Head Coach at Sacramento State for 6 years. Keila Whittington also returns for her 3rd year as an Assistant Coach. Shandrika Lee is new to the staff, coming from coming Army to replace Kai Felton who is now at Cal.

Losses:

It’s a bit amazing that a team can lose 7 players like Oregon did from last year’s team thru graduation and yet not have big losses. However Oregon while losing 7 returns 5 of their top 6 scorers. Players with few minutes who graduated, Ellyce Ironmonger who only played one game, Candyce Flynn who averaged 3 minutes per game and Tatianna Thomas, once HoopGurlz # 31 PG who averaged 3 points in 11 minutes per game.

The other 4 losses must be replaced by a good Frosh class. Nicole Canepa averaged 5 points in 15 minutes and 3 rebounds. Ashley Buis averaged 6 points in 15 minutes. Victoria Kenyon averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes. Kristi Fallin averaged 7 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes.

Returning Players:

Nia Jackson is a 5-7 Sr and returns as the starting Point Guard. She was injured and missed the last 9 games but hopefully is 100% for the start of the season. Jackson averaged 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds per game. She was also All Pac 10.

Ariel Thomas is a 5-6 Soph who started when Jackson couldn’t, although I would guess they both are starters this year especially after Thomas ended the season so well. Over the whole season, despite being mostly off the bench, Thomas averaged 8 points per game, 3rd on the team. When starting the last 5 games Thomas averaged 14 points and 4 assists.

Amanda Johnson is a 6-2 Sr and was the leading scorer, 16 points per game, and rebounder, 8 per game, for the Ducks. She also had the most 3’s, 49, although at only 28%. Johnson graduated last year after less than 3 years. She is getting her Masters now.

Jasmin Holliday is a 6-0 Sr, who started most games last season while averaging 7 points, 5th on the team, and 5 rebounds per game. Her brothers are and have been excellent college players.

Deanna Weaver is a 5-11 Soph from Wilcox High School in Santa Clara. Weaver was 6th on the team in scoring, 7 points per game, and 4th in rebounding, 4 per game.

These 5 players should be the starters, barring a Frosh taking over. 2 other returnees are 6-2 Soph Danielle Love who averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds per game, starting 9 games. Also 6-2 Soph Chynna Miley who played sparingly last season returns.


New Players:

Meagan Carpenter is a 6-4 Frosh Center from Colorado. Last season in High School she averaged 15 points, 13 rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game. She was the # 243 player in the country.

Amanda Delgado is a 5-7 Frosh Guard from Nevada where she was the State Gatorade Player of the Year. She averaged 16 points and 4 assists last year in High School and Westhead recruited her for her 3 point shooting. She was the # 248 player.

Jordan Loera is a 5-9 Frosh combo Guard from Washington. A personal note, I first saw her play as a 7th grader, holding her on an excellent Travel team with Redmon, Kingma and WSU’s Noyes. And she fit right in. Loera was a 4 year starter in High School scoring almost 2,000 points. She averaged 18 per game last season. She was the # 102 player in the nation last year. She is also a track performer, and is super athletic with a great 3 point shoot.

Janitah Iamaleava is a 6-2 Frosh Center from Long Beach, CA. As a Sr she averaged 13points and 9 rebounds per game. Was the # 13 Post player and # 163 overall. A good three point shooter.

Lexie Peterson is a 5-11 Frosh Wing from Washington. 2nd place 2 years ago at the State Track Meet in the Triple Jump. Like Loera, Peterson is very fast. She had a great offer list and chose the Ducks. A Point Guard on her Travel team, and she is an excellent three point shooter, she was the # 143 player.


Schedule:

A pretty weak schedule with Illinois and Fresno State being the highlights. Oregon doesn’t travel to the Arizona schools or host the LA schools.


The Season:

4 of 5 starters return and they add at least two fine frosh in the backcourt. They did a Frosh post to step up. With the weak non conference schedule, and their Pac 12 schedule, this could well be a winning team, even a team with 20 wins.

The Sun Devils will miss Charli Turner Thorne

Before we discuss ASU, Washington released their schedule with non conference games against San Diego State, Santa Barbara and Davis being the tougher games. As Coach McGuff says, “it’s all by design” “a very difficult schedule”. Well it’s all relative I guess. Sadly Washington lost their best player Kristi Kingma to a season ending ACL. She plans to return next season.

Last season ASU was 20-11 overall and finished 3rd in the Pac 10 with an 11-7 mark. This earned them a trip to the NCAAs where they lost their first round game. However in May the bombshell was dropped, that long time Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne was taking a leave of absence. She seems to be set on returning for next season.

Long time Assistant Coach Joe Anders takes over as the Interim Head Coach. Anders is in his 11th season at ASU and was the Head Coach for 6 years at Sacramento State. The big mystery, will Anders employ the hockey style substitutions of Charli?

Meg Sanders returns for her 8th season as an Assistant and now Associate Head Coach. She was Head Coach at Northern Arizona University for 7 years, having succeeded Charli there.

Chris Mennig is a new Assistant, coming from Bluestar Basketball, where he was coordinator of events. Bluestar hosts a number of big time travel basketball tournaments, and views and ranks High School players. Chris was also a college Assistant for 15 years before Bluestar.

Amy Wright is also a new Assistant, having spent the last 3 years at Cleveland State.

After 15 years as an Assistant at ASU, Laura Hughes is now the Head Coach at Cochise JC.

Losses:

ASU graduated 3 of their top 4 scorers so they have some big holes to fill. They also lost their top recruit as she elected to play close to home, Los Angeles, and enroll at USC.

Dymond Simon graduated and she led the team in scoring at 13 points per game. Simon also had the most threes, but only 36 and only at 27%. Becca Tobin also graduated. The 6-5 Center was 2nd on the team with 6 rebounds and 3nd in points at 8.5 per game. Tenya Watson was the 3rd big loss, averaging 7.5 points and leading the team in both assists and steals. These three averaged 27 minutes per game, easily more total minutes than the next four players. Markisha Patterson who was 8th in average minutes and 8th in average points also graduated.

Top recruit Karina Alofaituli decided to stay close to her Southern California home for family reasons and is now at USC. Karina was ranked # 26 in the nation by HoopGurlz.
Returning Players:

Kimberly Brandon is a Sr, 6-2 Forward who lead the team in rebounding, 6.5, and was 2nd in scoring, 9.5 per game. She has really improved since arriving in Tempe.

Deja Mann is a 5-7 Sr Guard who started 14 games, averaging 4 points per game.

Alex Earl is 5-10 Sr Guard who was 3rd on the team in threes and averaged 3 points per game.

Kali Bennett is a 6-5 Sr Center who averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game.

Janae Fulcher is a 6-3 Jr Forward who averaged 5 points and 3 rebounds per game,

These five have the inside track to be starters based on the playing time last season.

Adrienne Thomas played in all games, 10 minutes per game, and averaged 2 points. She’s a 5-9 Soph Guard.

Joy Burke is a 6-5 Jr Center who didn’t play much behind Tobin and Bennett and averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds per game.

Olivia Major is a 5-7 Sr Guard. Haley Parson is a 5-5 Jr Guard who has only played in a couple of games and redshirted one of her three years at ASU. She has a 4.0 GPA at ASU.

New Players:

Promise Amukamara is a 5-8 Guard from Apollo High School near Tempe. Promise exploded onto the scene last year averaging 22 points per game in High School. Great genes, her brother was an NFL first round draft choice this past draft.

Jada Blackwell is a 6-1 Forward from Etiwanda High School in Southern California. She was ranked # 118 last year.

Micaela Pickens is a 5-8 JR and a JC transfer. Pickens was a JC all American averaging 23 points per game this past season. In her career at Cypress JC in Southern California she averaged 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks. At 5-8 she holds the school record for blocks.

Eliza Normen is a player I loved in Oregon in 2010. High energy, very athletic and so skilled. The 6-0 Guard/Wing was ranked # 43 in the nation. Sadly Normen tore her ACL late this past season and will almost certainly have to redshirt.

The Schedule:

Games against Illinois, Rutgers, DePaul and Boston College highlight a good schedule. We won’t see the Sun Devils at Stanford as they don’t travel to the Bay Area this season and the Oregon schools don’t travel to the desert.

The Season:
While the Sun Devils have 7 players who played quite a bit this past season, only one is a returning starter or started more than ½ of their games. Plus losing Charli for even a year hurts. They have a couple of good new players and they have two 6-5 post players. However I think this will be a middle of the Pac 12 team at best.

Arizona tries to stay in the 1st division.

First a word about Oregon State’s schedule which wasn’t released until recently. Weak. Again, coaches have their eyes on 20 wins and job security, so they schedule accordingly. Rice and Pepperdine are the toughest non league games for Oregon State. Other than that very weak. Also the Beavers are helped by not playing the Arizona schools or LA schools twice this season.

Arizona finished 5th in the Pac 10 last season at 10-8 and 21-12 overall. They played and lost a close first game in the post season WNIT. Attendance was up, averaging 2,000 a game. Since Head Coach Niya Butts was hired, the Wildcats have improved from 12 wins in year one to 14 wins to 21 wins. In Pac 10 play the Wildcats have improved from 4 to 6 to 10 wins.

Sue Darling returns for her 4th year as an Assistant Coach, focusing on the Offense. Brandy Manning also returns for his 4th season, focusing on the Defense and post players.

EC Hill joins the staff replacing Chance Lindley who is now the Head Coach at Nebraska-Omaha. Hill coached the past 6 years at her alma mater, Northern Illinois. She will focus on perimeter players.

Losses:

Not only did Arizona lose 5 players, they lost 2 recruits. Huge loses as they include the Wildcats 3 of the top 5 scorers and 2 of the top 4 rebounders. Ify Ibekwe graduated and with her goes not only 16 points and 10 rebounds a game and she was one of the greatest players in Arizona history. Soana Lucent also graduated and she averaged 12 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Graduating and not returning despite having a potential 5th year is Brooke Jackson. Jackson averaged 7 points per game and was 2nd on the team with 46 threes and hit at 37%. Also graduating were Tasha Dickey and Amanda Pierson who were the 9th and 10th players in most stats and minutes played.

Two recruits are not on the roster for this season. Kama Griffitts is a 6-0 wing who scored 21.5 points per game for her National JC Championship team and she was MVP of the National Tournament. She had 72 threes two years ago as a JC frosh.

Jazmyn Dorsett, Tony’s daughter, who due to transfer from Oklahoma State and is not on the roster.

Returning Players:

Only 5 return and along with 6 recruits makes for a small roster of 11. Guard Davellyn Whyte leads the group of returning players and she’s very good.
All Pac 10, Whyte averaged 16 points and 5 rebounds per game. She led the team with 66 threes, although she needs to improve on her 31% from three. Whyte is a 5-11 Jr.

Point Guard Shanita Arnold is a 5-5 Sr who averaged 5 assists and 7 points per game. Her assist to turnover ration was a fine 1.5: 1.

Three players all averaged about 17 minutes per game and were the 6 to 8 players, or the first 3 off the bench. Erica Barnes is a 6-2 Soph Forward who averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds per game. Reiko Thomas is a 5-8 Sr Guard who averaged 4 points per game. Candice Wathen is a 5-5 So Point Guard who averaged 4 points per game and had a plus assist to turnover ratio.

New Players:

There is a great need for a post player and a big wing to step in and start. Aley Rohde is a 6-5 Frosh Center, ranked # 123 last season in High School, by one group, # 77 by another and the # 9 Center by a third. She had games of 37 points, 23 rebounds, and 12 blocked shots.

Lindsey Fearing is a 5-8 Jr, a JC transfer. Fearing made 199 threes in her 2 JC years, including 113 last season. Having only one returning post player, hitting threes will be important for the Wildcats.

Erin Butler is a 5-11 frosh guard, ranked # 210 last season.

Cheshi Poston is a 6-2 Jr and a JC transfer. She was a JC All American averaging 13 points and 11.5 rebounds per game last season.

Layana White is a 5-8 frosh guard who averaged 14 points per game last season in High School.

Cheylene Harper is a 6-2 Jr and a JC transfer who averaged 4 points and 5 rebounds per game last season at the JC.

The Schedule:

New Mexico, New Mexico State, Syracuse and BYU highlight their non conference schedule. The Wildcats play Stanford and Cal once.

The Season:

The Wildcats lost some quality players and with 3 of their newcomers JC transfers they are not really rebuilding. Davellyn Whyte is a wonderful player but she and maybe Erica Barnes are the only players who might be expected to regularly score in double figures. The JC transfers must contribute right away. It’s going to be very hard to remain in the upper half of the Pac 12.

Colorado comes to the Pac 12

Linda Lappe returns for her 2nd season as Head Coach after going 18-16 in her first season. The Buffaloes advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT and finished 6-10 in the final Big 12 season. She was a two year Captain of the Buffaloes in her playing days. This is her 5th year of Head Coaching, the first three at Denver’s Metro State. At 31 she is one of the younger Head Coaches in the nation.

Jennie Baranczyk is in her 2nd year as an Assistant. She is 29, and coaches the post players and is the recruiting coordinator.

Jonas Chatterton is in his 2nd year. He spent the previous 8 seasons as an Assistant at BYU.

Latonya Watson is new to the staff, coming from American University. However she was an Assistant under former Colorado coach Ceal Barry from 1996-2006.

Losses:

Brittany Spears is a huge loss, as those of us who saw her play in the Kezar ProAm can attest. Spears averaged 19 points and 8 rebounds per game and was the 19th overall selection in the WNBA draft.

Britany Blythe scored 4 points per game but also played 27 minutes per game.

Chelsea Dale averaged 4 points per game and 20 minutes.

Colorado made 219 threes, that’s a lot, at 33%. Spears, Blythe and Dale made 129 of those.

Returning Players:

Chucky Jeffery is a 5-10 Jr who averaged 13.5 points, 8 rebounds 4.3 assists and 2 steals per game.

Brittany Wilson is one of two sets of sister on the team. The 5-8 Sr Guard averaged 8 points per game.

Meagan Malcolm-Peck is a 6-2 Jr, whose sister also plays. Meagan averaged 7 points and almost 5 rebounds and also made 38 threes at 36%. Meagan was the # 95 playerin the country out of High School.

Julie Seabrook is a 6-3 Sr Center who played in the just completed University Games for Canada. Seabrook averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds per game last season.

The four above were 2-3-4-5 in minutes per game for the Buffaloes.

Rachel Hargis is a 6-4 Soph Center who played in all the games averaging 16 minutes with 3 points and 3 rebounds per game. She was 2nd on the team in blocked shots.

Ashley Wilson is a 5-8 Soph Guard who averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds per game, playing an average of 12 minutes.


Newcomers:

Brenna Malcolm-Peck is a 6-2 So Forward who redshirted last year with an injury. She didn’t play much 2 years ago as a Frosh, but was Ranked # 97 in the country coming out of High School.

Lexy Kresl is a 5-11 Frosh Guard from Arizona. She was the # 74 Guard in the country last year in High School.

Jen Reese is a 6-2 Frosh Center from the State of Oregon. Reese was the Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year last season. I don’t why she is unranked by HoopGurlz, but I loved watching Reese play at the End of Trail last year. She’s very strong, very aggressive with some good post moves.

Arielle Roberson is a 6-1 Frosh Forward from Texas. She was the # 63 Forward last year in High School.

Jasmine Sborov is a 6-1 Frosh Guard from Texas.


The Schedule:

Weak, very weak. 9 of their non conference games are at home.


The Season:

It’ll be a tough go for the Buffalos in their first Pac 12 season. They appear to be in the 10th -12 place area. However their non conference schedule and the wins they should get, will give them hope.

The Washington Huskies have a new look

The Huskies have a whole new face to their team, a new Coaching Staff. New Head Coach Kevin McGuff came from Xavier where he was the Head Coach for the past 9 seasons. Before that he was an Assistant at Notre Dame when they won the NCAA Title. McGuff had a record of 213-73 including last season’s 28-3 at Xavier. He is a huge upgrade and probably the biggest name among the 4 new Head Coaches into the now old Pac 10.

The new Top Assistant is Mike Neighbors who coached with McGuff at Xavier for the past 4 seasons. He will probably have a lot to do with the defensive scheme and coach the post players as he did at Xavier.

Kevin Morrison was the 2nd Coach hired, not long after Cal and Kevin parted ways. Kevin was at Cal for 4 years and will be the Recruiting Co-ordinator at Washington. He was the President and Head Coach of the West Coast Elite, a well known Southern California Travel team, producing 74 Division 1 players and 17 McDonalds All Americans. He also worked as a social worker. He is known as an excellent recruiter.

Adia Barnes is also a new Assistant. Adia is the all time leading scorer at Arizona, and played Pro Basketball for 12 seasons, including 7 in the WNBA. This is her first year as a college coach, but has been prominent as a coach and mentor in the Seattle area.

Last season Washington was 11-17 overall and 6-12 in Pac 10 play.

Losses:

The Huskies lost only one player, starting Guard Sarah Morton. Morton averaged 9 points and a team leading 5 assists per game. She was also the only Husky with a positive assist to turnover ratio.

Returning Players:

Kristi Kingma is an outstanding 5-10 Sr Guard. She was the leading scorer at 15.6 point per game and close to their leading rebounder with 5 per game. She made 79 threes at 41%, while no other returning player made more than 7.

Regina Rogers is a 6-3 Sr who was 2nd on the team in scoring and rebounding at 10 and 5 per game. She made 52% of her shots. The problem she must overcome is playing only 18 minutes per game.

Mackenzie Argens is a 6-3 Sr who plays both Center and Forward. She averaged 6 rebounds per game to lead the team and scored 7 points per game. Argens started every game last season.

Charmine Barlow started all but one game and averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game. She is a 5-10 Sr Forward.

Marjorie Heard is a 6-1 Soph Forward who was the 4th leading scorer, 7 per game and the 4th leading rebounder, 5 per game.

Mollie Williams is a 6-2 Sr Forward who averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game.

Mercedes Wetmore is a 5-7 Soph Guard who looks to be the starting Point Guard. She averaged 3.5 points per game but shot just 29%.

Four players played briefly last year. Kassia Fortier a 5-8 Soph Guard, Amanda Johnson a 5-5 Soph Guard, Jeneva Anderson a 6-0 Jr Forward and Ashley Moore a 5-10 Soph Wing. Of these four look for Moore to step up.

Newcomers:

This is a pretty good class, especially considering it was no secret that former Head Coach Tia Jackson was on the very hot seat.

Jazmine Davis, from San Jose’s Valley Christian High School should step in as the back up Point Guard. She a 5-7 Frosh. Davis was the # 25 Point Guard in the country and shot 55% from three in High School. She was the # 10 player in Northern California and played travel ball with Stanford’s Erica Payne.

Talia Walton is a 6-2 Forward, the # 32 Forward in the country out of High School. She’s a top rebounder and should be a solid player in the paint.

Aminah Williams is a 6-0 Forward, the # 27 Forward in the country out of High School.

Kellie McCann-Smith is McGuff’s first recruit, a transfer from Nebraska. Kellie is from Eastern Washington and was All State as a Sr averaging 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game. At Nebraska she was bothered by a bad back but did hit 4 threes in one game. She averaged 3 points per game but had a high of 13 and a high of 5 steals. She will sit out this season after the transfer.

The Schedule:

To Be Announced


The Season:

Going to be a tough one until they have a couple of recruiting years under the new Staff. Kingma will be outstanding and a fan favorite wherever she plays.

The Pac 12 season begins before you know it

OK not really, the inaugural season begins in 3 months but it’s time to get started if I review a team a week and throw in some other newsworthy, to me at least, editorials.

Oregon State went through the worst of all possible scenarios last year before Scott Rueck arrived to bring at least some happiness and respectability back to the Beavers. Thanks to a very easy but very appropriate weak preseason schedule the Beavers went 7-5 in their non conference schedule and 9-21 overall. Of course with their depleted team they paid the price in Pac 10 conference play going 2-16. However that was also their record the previous year before losing so many players who transferred away. A very good stat, home attendance increased 30% to 1500 per game.

Losses:

El Sara Greer graduated and was probably their best player last season averaging 9 points and 8 rebounds in 34 minutes per game. She shot 56%.

Angela Misa was a Soph this past season, averaging 4 points and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes per game. Ironically she was the first player rumored to be leaving under former Coach Wagner, and did leave the team but returned for this past season. However she is not on the roster for this coming season.

Classye James was a frosh from Mitty High School who averaged 2 points in 13 minutes of play and she is not on the roster.

Returning Players:

Alyssa Martin is a 6-0 Soph Guard who was the leading scorer last season as a Frosh with 12 points per game and a Pac 10 best 38 minutes per game. Martin shot 34% from three, making 60.

Sage Indendi is a great story. The 5-9 Jr played for Coach Rueck at George Fox and had a great season but transferred to Oregon State and did not play basketball 2 years ago. Then she returns to the game and hits 75 threes at 41% scoring nearly 11 points per game while playing 34 minutes per game. She’s a very good Pac 12 level Point Guard.

Earlysia Marchbanks is a 5-11 Sr Guard who was a starter last season while averaging 9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.

Alexis Bostick is a 5-8 Soph Guard who like the other 3 returnees above, started every game for the Beavers. Bostick averaged 5 points per game and was the only Beaver with a plus assist to turnover ratio.

Jenna Dixon is a 5-8 Soph Guard who walked on to average 3 points in 10 minutes per game.

Katie Schrock is the 3rd former walk on to return. She is a 5-11 Soph who saw limited action this past season.

Newcomers:

Last season the Beavers were short an Assistant Coach, understandable given the late hiring of their Head Coach. Megan Dickerson joined the program as an Assistant at the end of March. She coached the previous 5 years at George Fox, the first 4 with Coach Rueck.

Ali Gibson is the only High School recruit in the class of 6. The other 5 are JC transfers. Gibson played for State Champ St Mary’s of Stockton, CA. Gibson is a very active 5-11 Guard who should see playing time right away. Her High School team last year started 5 Division I prospects.

Patricia Bright is a 6-4 Forward/Center JC transfer from the state of Florida but went there from an Arizona High School. She’s pretty much of an unknown, didn’t score much either last year at JC or as a High School Sr.

Thais Pinto is a 6-7 JC transfer from the state of Nebraska by way of Brazil. She averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds last season at the JC.

Quortni Fambro is a 5-8 Guard from a Florida JC who played High School in Georgia and as a Frosh at Alabama State. She averaged 4 points a game at Alabama State and last year 10 points per game.

Mollee Schwegler is a 5-6 Guard who played High School in Oregon and JC in the state of Washington. She is the all time leading scorer at lower Columbia College with 910points in 2 years. She averaged 17 points, 6 assists and 5 ½ rebounds per game as a Point Guard.

ShaKiana Edwards-Teasley is a 6-2 Forward from Idaho. She averaged 9 points and 5 rebounds per game last year at JC.

The Schedule:

The non conference schedule isn’t out yet. In the Pac 12 schedule where each team plays 7 teams home and away, and 4 either home or away, Oregon State doesn’t play at Arizona and USC and UCLA don’t come to Corvallis.

The Season:

It will be very hard to escape the Cellar once again. The Beavers have added height and depth but this is only Year 2 of Starting Over. On the plus side they return 4 starters and only one of them is a Sr.

Summer in The City

The great Saturdays at Kezar Pavilion, or the San Francisco ProAm its proper name, starts Saturday at Noon. There are 6 teams and all the Stanford players are on the South Bay team. The teams play every Saturday from Noon to 6PM, 3 games each day. The play starts this Saturday, June 18 and then Playoffs start Saturday, July 23rd.

Signing up to play from Stanford and playing for South Bay:
Chiney Ogwumike
Jos Tinkle
Amber Orrange
Jasmine Camp
Bonnie Samuelson
Taylor Greenfield
Erica Payne

Others on this team include Gabby Green a to be Soph at St Mary’s of Berkeley High School (who will be with her Travel Team for July) and just graduated Brittany Spears from Colorado who was their leading scorer this past season.

Incoming Frosh Alex Green was injured back in November and is not on a roster for the summer. The league has any number of people who play only a game or two, and I don’t know at this point how often Chiney and Jos will be available. We shall see.

Interesting players from other teams:

East Bay:
Nicolia Simmons a rugged 6-1 post who graduated from USF and has been playing in the ProAm for years. This team only has 7 players at the moment so more could be added.

Golden State:
Justine Hartman-Cal
Afure Jemerigbe-Cal
Erika Johnson -Cal
Eliza Pierre-Cal
Joesetta Fatuesi- from San Jose’s Presentation High School where she will be a Soph next year. She will be on her Travel Team in July

Golden State and East Bay play the Noon game on Saturday.

San Francisco:
Lindsey Sherbert-Cal
Talia Caldwell-Cal
Brittany Boyd-cal
Natasha Vital-Grad of Cal
Shanney Snead- Grad of Cal

Bay City:

Layshia Clarendon-Cal
Mikayla Lyles-Cal
Reshanda Gray-Cal
Jasmine Smith-St Mary’s
Jackie Nared-St Mary’s
Rama N’diaya-Grad of Cal
Saidah Allen – Fresno State (last year the top High School rebounder in the area last year)

San Francisco and Bay City play the 2PM Game on Saturday

Mission Rec Center:
Toni Russell –Grad of USF and a Kezar legend.
Lauren Bell-Pepperdine, former Sacred Heart Cathedral High School player
Jazmine Jackson-Pepperdine and SHC High School
Kamilah Jackson- Hawaii and SHC.
KiKi Moore -Fresno State and former SHC
Terrilyn Moe a Sr at Terra Nova High School

Mission Rec plays South Bay in the 4PM game. Now a caution, the Stanford players move in for summer school this weekend and historically don’t play the first weekend. This appears to be true again this year.

Come on out. It’s a great social affair and lunch or brunch or dinner in The City? You just can’t be that.

The League Web Site: http://www.sanfranciscoproam.com. Just paste that into your Browser.