Fast Break Feud

In his first year as videographer for the women’s basketball team, Bud Anderson has become known for clever, creative videos. FBC saw another side of him Feb. 19 when he played game show host after the team’s 72-43 win over Oregon State.

After associate head coach Amy Tucker divided the room into cardinal and white halves, Bud explained the rules to the first two contestants.

One rule was that each contestant had to kiss Bud's cheek. The contestants responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

The contestants answered trivia questions about the Cardinal. The questions ranged from the easy – what’s the name of the group that dances at games (the Dollies) – to the more difficult – what two players are tied for most points in a game and how many points (Candice Wiggins and Kate Starbird, 44 points).

“Our team plays ‘Family Feud.’ too,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. It gets very competitive before each game. Amy expanded on that in an e-mail: “The questions are based on the information in the scouting report, statistics and video from our opponent,” she wrote.

Besides showing his emcee skills, Bud talked about his work and praised his associate, intern Sarah Boruta, who films all practices and coordinates game films. “She works 60-70 hours a week,” he said.

Although Bud sometimes hires other people to help with filming, he challenged FBC members to count how many cameras were used in a video with five angles of Tara playing her grand piano at home while her two golden retrievers lounged on the hardwood floor next to her. The correct answer was one, thanks to his ingenuity and his editing program, Final Cut Pro, which he demonstrated.

Bud has musical talents, too. He’s a member of Hookslide, a men’s quartet that sings professionally and that has sung at Stanford events. (One of his videos on the Stanford You Tube site shows forward Michelle Harrison singing the National Anthem with the group at a men’s basketball game.)

He composes the music for the women’s videos and sings all six parts himself, mixing them at home in the morning. As for his ideas, “A lot of it comes off what the girls do,” he said. For example, guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude volunteered that she can say the “Peter Piper” tongue-twister at supersonic speeds, contributing to one of the popular “Totally Useless Talents” videos shown at games. He previewed two more, one showing guard Jeanette Pohlen juggling three balls and the other showing guard JJ Hones pretending to spray her hair.

Switching to somewhat more serious, but still fun, topic, Tara assessed the Cardinal’s 26th consecutive home victory: “This was a really important game for us,” she said, adding that Oregon State is “a very physical team,” but “we ran really well.”

“How about Jayne (Appel, center) running the floor, and Nneka (Ogwumike, forward)? Our kids love to play that way,” she said. She also credited Jeanette, who has taken over at the point after JJ suffered an ACL injury early in the season, for pushing the ball well. She added, “JJ’s doing very well.” She can start riding the exercise bike, and she made some good observations to the team during halftime.

Even though the team was coming off an impressive win over rival Cal last week, “We never try to get too high or too low,” the coach said. Instead, the team focused on its next game in this week’s practices. The one big downside was that sophomore guard Hannah Donaghe tore her left ACL in the Jan. 18 practice. She used crutches at the game or sat on the bench with her leg elevated, still cheering the team. She’ll have surgery in four to six weeks, Tara said.

Also on the health front, Tara was pleased that Jeanette could play so well despite sustaining a Mercedes logo-shaped cut on her forehead that required nine stitches near the end of the Cal game. Wearing a wide sweat band over her forehead, she started the Oregon State game and played a team-high 26 minutes. Tara also said that Nneka hopes to stop wearing her mask next week. It protects her broken nose, an injury sustained in practice.

As the Cardinal pulled ahead of Oregon State, Tara rested the starters and called on all of the bench players. They responded by increasing the lead, a good sign for the team. They have a good feel for where they’re supposed to be and where everyone else is, Tara said. Solid bench play means that the starters can play even harder knowing there are capable subs, she said.