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| 2020 vision: Seniors, left, Anna Wilson, Nadia Fingall, Mikaela Brewer, DiJonai Carrington. (Stanford Athletics) |
When it comes to talking about the 2019-20 Stanford
women’s basketball team’s prospects and players, associate head coach Kate
Paye’s go-to word is “awesome.”
She then tempers her enthusiasm with “we have a lot
of work to do.”
The team arrived the weekend of Sept. 14-15, a week
before classes started, and had its first fall practice.
The players also took part in team-building
exercises led by two former Marines from The Program, a Connecticut-based
company that tries to help college teams build teamwork and develop leadership
through shared adversity, according to its website.
The two-day program at Stanford took place on
athletic fields and in the pool, Kate said in a recent phone interview.
International
experience
Before this, the players were on campus for summer school,
some practices and conditioning. Some also got international playing
experience.
Freshman forward Fran Belibi was on the gold-winning
USA Women’s U19 World Cup Team that played in Bangkok, Thailand.
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| Kiana (left) and Alyssa in Lima. (Pan Am Games) |
Two juniors -- guard Kiana Williams and forward Alyssa
Jerome -- competed in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. Kiana earned a
silver medal with Team USA, while Alyssa played for her home country, Canada.
This fall the team was allowed to start practice 42
days before the first game and to practice a total of 30 days. Stanford is
practicing up to four hours a day, including about three hours on the court and
one hour for conditioning, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and
Saturdays.
Competitive
practices
“Practice is going very well,” Kate said. “It’s very
competitive. … Everybody’s trying to add more to their game.”
Two seniors – guard DiJonai Carrington and forward
Nadia Fingall – are still recovering from surgery, but both are progressing and
practicing, Kate said.
Competitive play will begin with an exhibition game
at 7 p.m. Oct. 29 against Beijing Normal University. This school is known for
teacher education, education science and basic learning in the arts and
sciences, according to its website.
The game came about through Taiwanese-Canadian
businessman Joseph Tsai, whose wife, Clara, attended Stanford and was
acquainted with head coach Tara VanDerveer. Tsai is co-founder and executive
vice chairman of Alibaba Group.
His interest in basketball extends to his ownership
of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
US
National Team to visit
Next on the exhibition schedule in Maples is the 4
p.m. Nov. 2 game against the US National Team, which is on tour as it tunes up
for next year’s Olympics.
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| Nneka (left) drives against Layshia in a WNBA game. (LA Sparks) |
“It’s a great opportunity to play against the
best players in the world,” Kate said. They include Stanford favorite Nneka
Ogwumike, ’12, now with the LA Sparks, as well as Cal grad Layshia Clarendon,
now with the Connecticut Sun. Kate is
hoping for a full house for that one.
The games begin to count at 7 p.m. Nov. 5 when the
Cardinal host Eastern Washington.
Team
to play in Chase Center
Next the team takes a short bus ride north to San
Francisco to play the University of San Francisco at the Golden State Warriors’
Chase Center at 3 p.m. Nov. 9.
This will be the first women’s game at the new
arena. “We’re excited to test it out,” Kate said.
They’re also excited about the rest of the season.
The 11 returning players have all improved, Kate said.
She gave special mention to senior guard Anna
Wilson, who’s having “an awesome pre-season. She’s everywhere.” She’s also more
comfortable playing the point, thus taking some of the load off Kiana.
Freshmen
impress Kate
As for the highly-touted freshmen, they’re “better
than advertised,” Kate said. While adjusting to the pace of college play,
they’re “producing on the court,” she said.
She said that forward Ashten Prechtel, at 6’5”, is
the team’s leading rebounder and scorer, and guard Hannah Jump “is shooting the
lights out.”
Fran (who has been touted for dunking) has great
post moves. Guard Haley Jones “is versatile and like Magic Johnson leading the
break,” she said.
Once the season gets under way, lineups will be “a
real puzzle.” What the coaches are hoping for is a faster pace with more
aggressive defense. With so much talent available, it “just makes us greedier,”
Kate concluded.
