Going Home

No. 11 Stanford (6-1)
at CSU Bakersfield (1-4)
Thursday, Dec. 1 • 7 p.m.
Icardo Center • Bakersfield, Calif.
Complete Release (PDF)
Live Stream •Available via WAC Digital Network
Live Statistics •Available via GoRunners.com

THE GAMENo. 11 Stanford has its first true road game of the season when it plays at CSU Bakersfield on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in a game carried on the WAC Digital Network.

THE RUNDOWNStanford is coming off a tournament championship at the Cancun Challenge ... Stanford's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,010-313 (.763) ... The Cardinal is the nation's seventh-winningest program by victories and fourth by percentage ... Entering her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 986-226 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and is 14 victories away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins ... Stanford is No. 11 in the Associated Press women's basketball poll and has appeared in 290 straight ... Stanford is 103-21 (.831) on the road the last 10 years and 10-0 against the WAC since 1999-00 ... Brittany McPhee is the seventh-best shooting guard among Power 5 conference players in the country with a field goal percentage of .544 ... Since the start of 2015-16, Erica McCall is one of two players in the country averaging 15+ points, 9+ rebounds and 2+ blocks while shooting better than 50.0 percent ... Karlie Samuelson is the active NCAA leader in career 3-point field goal percentage (.429) ... Stanford signed the nation's fifth-ranked recruiting class on Nov. 9, including three top-50 recruits ... Marta Sniezek is averaging 5.0 assists with a 2.79 assist-to-turnover ratio in her last 22 games ... The Cardinal is sixth in the nation in field goal percentage (.493), 13th in assists (127) and seventh in blocked shots (42).

VS. CSU BAKERSFIELDThursday will be the third-ever meeting between Stanford and CSU Bakersfield with the Cardinal taking both previous matchups at home. Last Dec. 22, Erica McCall had a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double to pace Stanford to an 83-41 win. The Cardinal held CSUB to just 19.1 percent shooting, the eighth time it has limited an opponent to under 20 percent this millennium. Stanford blocked 12 shots, tied for third in school single-game history. Bragging rights are on the line, as the Runners are led by sixth-year head coach Greg McCall, Erica's father.

CATCHING YOU UP• No. 11 Stanford won the Cancun Challenge at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya in Mexico with wins over Northeastern (74-45), Wichita State (87-39) and Purdue (78-69).
• Erica McCall, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds in the championship against Purdue, averaged 18.5 points and 9.0 rebounds in the three games and was named the tournament's most valuable player.
• Karlie Samuelson also earned a spot on the all-tournament team after averaging 15.2 points and going 13-of-22 (.591) on 3-pointers. She tied a career high by drilling six in two of the three games against Northeastern and Purdue. Samuelson scored 20 against the Boilermakers, her third career 20-point performance.
• Stanford made 33-of-53 (.623) on day two against Wichita State, its best shooting performance since it opened up the 2014-15 season by converting 64.9 percent in a win over Boston College.
• The wins increased Tara VanDerveer's career total to 986. She is 14 away from joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.
• Stanford moved to 8-1 all-time in games outside the 50 U.S. states.AMONG THE BEST EVER• Stanford's victory over Oregon State on Feb. 26, 2016 was the 1,000th in program history. With 1,010 wins, the Cardinal is the seventh-winningest program in women's college basketball history. The country's other 1,000-victory programs are Tennessee (1,302), Louisiana Tech (1,076), Connecticut (1,051), James Madison (1,048), Old Dominion (1,017), Texas (1,014) and Stephen F. Austin (1,008).
• The Cardinal's overall record since its first varsity season in 1975 is 1,010-313 (.763) and 834-175 (.827) with Tara VanDerveer at the helm.
• Stanford's .763 winning percentage is fourth all-time in Division I, trailing Tennessee (.812) and Louisiana Tech (.784) and Connecticut (.780).SETTING THE STAGE• Stanford is 103-21 (.831) on the road the last 10 years and one of only three schools to have more than 100 road wins during that span along with Green Bay (105) and Connecticut (104).
• The Cardinal is 10-0 against teams from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) since 1999-00. It has beaten CSU Bakersfield (2015), Fresno State (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2005), Hawaii (2008, 2001) and Rice (2003).
• Stanford is sixth in the nation in field goal percentage (.493), 13th in assists (127) and seventh in blocked shots (42) this season.
• The Cardinal is averaging 18.1 assists per game, better than all but two years this millennium. Stanford averaged 19.2 in 2001-02 and 18.8 in 2008-09.
• Stanford has shot 50 percent or better in two straight games for the second time this season. It hit 62.3 percent against Wichita State and 50.0 percent against Purdue.
• The Cardinal hasn't made more than half its attempts in three straight since doing it in four consecutive games in Jan. 2014.MORE MILESTONES ON THE HORIZON FOR TARA• Entering her 31st season on the bench at Stanford, Hall of Famer Tara VanDerveer has accumulated a 986-226 record in her 37+ years as a collegiate head coach and an 834-175 mark on The Farm. Her teams have won 20 or more games 31 times, including each of the last 15 seasons.
• In November 2013, VanDerveer became just the fifth college women's basketball coach to win 900 career games and is 14 victories shy of joining Pat Summitt as the only NCAA women's basketball coaches with 1,000 career wins.
• Summitt (1,098) along with Mike Krzyzewski at Duke (1,050) and Herb Magee at Philadelphia University (1,036) on the men's side are the only college basketball coaches with 1,000 wins.

Winningest Coaches (By Victories)

• In March 2015 she won her 800th game at Stanford, becoming the 10th college basketball coach – men's or women's – with that many victories at a single Division I school.McPHIRE• Brittany McPhee is 10th in the Pac-12 averaging 15.9 points per game and has scored 20+ three times.
• The junior torched then-No. 8 Texas for a career-high 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting (.733) and followed that up with 22 points against Gonzaga for the first back-to-back 20-point games of her career.
• Her performance from the floor against the Longhorns was the most efficient for a Stanford guard against a ranked opponent with records dating back to 1999-00 (minimum 10 field goals made).
• Four-time All-American Candice Wiggins is second on that list, converting 55.6 percent in games against No. 16 Minnesota on Nov. 20, 2005 (10-of-18) and No. 23 UTEP on March 24, 2008 (15-of-27).
• Including McPhee, Stanford guards have made 10 field goals in a game against top-25 teams nine times since 1999-00. Wiggins has seven of them.
• McPhee is the seventh-best shooting guard among Power 5 conference players in the country with a field goal percentage of .544.BIRD SOARING• Since the start of her junior year, Erica McCall is averaging 15.3 points on 51.6 percent shooting, 9.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.
• McCall and Utah's Emily Potter are the only players in the country averaging 15+ points, 9+ rebounds and 2+ blocks while converting more than half of their shots since the beginning of last season. • Her 66 blocks last season tied for third in Stanford single-season history and her 153 career blocks rank fifth at Stanford behind Jayne Appel (278), Chiney Ogwumike (202), Val Whiting (201) and Kristen Newlin (163).
• She is 41st in the nation averaging 2.29 blocks per game thus far in 2016-17.
• McCall's 22 career double-doubles are tied for 18th among active NCAA players and she's had 20 in her last 41 games. Among those active players, only Alaina Coates of South Carolina (24), Lexi Martins of George Washington (24), Nia Coffey (21) of Northwestern and Brionna Jones (21) of Maryland have had more since the start of the 2015-16 season.
• On Wednesday, McCall was named to the watch list for the 2017 Naismith Women's College Player of the Year.TAKE AIM• Karlie Samuelson was 80-of-169 from behind the arc in 2015-16 and checked in at third in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.473). She is second in Stanford single-season history in 3-point field goal percentage behind Jennifer Azzi (.495; 1988-89) and ninth in 3-point makes (80).
• The senior is the active NCAA leader in career 3-point field goal percentage (.429), more than two percentage points clear of second (Jessy Ward, UT Martin - .408).
• In her last 28 games, Samuelson is 70-of-135 on 3-pointers (.519).
• The junior is currently 20th in the country in percentage from behind the arc this season (.514).

Active 3-Point FG% Leaders

• More than 72 percent of her career field goal attempts are from 3-point range and more than 80 percent of her career points have come on 3-pointers and free throws. Samuelson is 74-of-154 (.481) on two-point shots.
• She returned to practice on Nov. 8 for the first time in roughly six weeks after she recovered from a hairline fracture in her wrist.SNIEZEK STEPS UP• In her last 22 games, Marta Sniezek is averaging 5.0 assists with a 2.79 assist-to-turnover ratio.
• The sophomore averaged 1.8 assists with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.9 in her first 20 career games.
• She's had at least five assists in all but one game this season and totaled 15 against just one turnover at the Cancun Challenge.
• Last year, Sniezek became the eighth Stanford freshman to reach 100 assists (109) and fourth to tally that many in the past 20 seasons (Amber Orrange, Ros Gold-Onwude, Nicole Powell).
• Against Washington in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 4, she had 13 assists against zero turnovers. Her assist total was a Pac-12 Tournament record and also the most for a Stanford player in a single game since 1991.APPLYING PRESSURE• The Cardinal finished sixth nationally in field goal percentage defense (.338) and ninth in blocks per game (6.0) last year. Its field goal percentage defense was third in Stanford history and its 211 total blocks set a school record.
• The Cardinal is third in the nation in field goal percentage defense the past 10 years, holding its 334 opponents to 34.5 percent shooting (7,048-of-20,431).

FG% Defense Leaders (Since 2007-08)

PROGNOSTICATIONS• Stanford is No. 11 in the AP top 25 and No. 11 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
• It has been ranked 499 times out of 714 total AP polls since 1977 (69.8 percent), with an average positioning of 7.1. It's been in the past 290, the second-longest active streak behind Connecticut (435). Stanford has been in 298 consecutive coaches polls.
• The Cardinal's 499 all-time appearances in the AP top 25 are fourth behind Tennessee (696), Georgia (522) and Texas (505).
• Stanford was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 when the conference announced the results of the preseason coaches' poll. It's the second consecutive season Stanford has come in second in the preseason poll. The Cardinal had topped the rankings for 15 consecutive years beginning in 2000-01.CARDINAL FOURTUNE• On Nov. 9, the Cardinal announced the signings of Maya Dodson (Alpharetta, Ga./St. Francis), Alyssa Jerome (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Harbord Collegiate), Estella Moschkau (Mount Horeb, Wisc./Edgewood) and Kiana Williams (San Antonio, Texas/Karen Wagner), a group collectively rated No. 5 by espnW HoopGurlz.

• Dodson is a five-star talent and the No. 11 prospect in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100, Moschkau is a five-star prospect rated No. 44 and Williams is a five-star point guard and the No. 8 prospect overall.
• Williams is Stanford's first top-10 recruit since Chiney Ogwumike signed as the top player in the country in Nov. 2009.
• Jerome is a veteran of Canada Basketball and represented her country this summer at the both the aforementioned FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain and the FIBA Americas U18 Championships in Valdivia, Chile.
• Dodson and Williams were named to the 50-person Naismith Trophy High School Girl's Preseason watch list on Nov. 16.FOREVER STANFORD• It was a big summer for Stanford alumnae, headlined by Nneka Ogwumike '12 winning the 2016 WNBA MVP award and hitting the game winner in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals with 3.1 seconds left to lift the Los Angeles Sparks to the championship.
• Ogwumike is Stanford women's basketball's seventh WNBA champion and the third Cardinal to win a league most valuable player award in any sport, joining NFL quarterbacks John Brodie (San Francisco 49ers; 1970) and John Elway (Denver Broncos; 1987).
• On Oct. 17, the 2012 Stanford graduate was voted president of the WNBA players' union executive council, a post she will hold for three years. She will serve alongside her sister Chiney '14, who will serve as the organization's vice president. Jayne Appel Marinelli, who retired this September after a seven-year WNBA career with the San Antonio Stars, will begin her post-playing days as the union's Associate Director of Player Relations.

• Sebnem Kimyacioglu '05, the fifth Stanford alumna to compete in the Olympics, helped Turkey advance to the quarterfinals in the country's second appearance in women's basketball at the Games.
• Kimyacioglu was Turkey's fifth-leading scorer, averaging 4.3 points in 22.2 minutes over the six games and shot 40 percent from behind the 3-point line (8-of-20).
• Kimyacioglu was one of 39 Stanford athletes to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Cardinal contingent in Rio hailed from 10 countries and spanned 17 varsity sports. The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games resulted in a school-record 27 medals, the most of any NCAA institution.THAT'S HIM• Those who come to a Stanford practice might recognize a familiar face in two-time All-American Casey Jacobsen, who is a practice player for both the Cardinal women and men. Jacobsen left Stanford after three seasons and was the 22nd overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns. He enjoyed a five-year NBA career and also played professionally in Spain and Germany.
• Jacobsen is back on campus finishing his degree in communication, which he will complete in December, and will walk with his class next June.

• He is fourth in Stanford history in points (1,723), sixth in scoring average (18.1) and fourth in 3-pointers made (222).CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM• Sophomore guard Alexa Romano was among 40 student-athletes from Stanford and Duke who traveled to one of five countries during the summer for three weeks as part of the Rubenstein-Bing Student-Athlete Civic Engagement Program.
• Romano served as a coaching assistant for sports activities, taught English as a second language courses and promoted computer literacy initiatives for youth at a community center in New Delhi.

• She is in the process of copying her journal from the trip - 50 typed pages on the computer - to a leather-bound version she purchased the Dili Haat open-air craft bazaar in New Delhi.COMMUNICATION IS KEY• VanDerveer is constantly evolving and finding new ways to push herself and do her job well depending on the makeup of her team and communication was the focus this offseason.
• In mid-September, the Cardinal spent just more than an hour in a "Championship Communication" workshop with Betsy Butterick to develop communication techniques.
• Late last spring, Stanford played water polo at the Avery Aquatic Center. The team later had conversations with football coach David Shaw and former Stanford dean Julie Lythcott-Haims, who wrote "How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success." Stanford also did a Skype session with author Jon Gordon, who wrote "The Energy Bus."
• On Nov. 10, three-time Olympic volleyball champion and current U.S. women's coach Karch Kiraly — who has done his own communication exercises with the Americans through peer evaluations — spoke to the team before he worked TV for the USC-Stanford volleyball match at Maples Pavilion.