THE GAME: No. 24 Stanford has its first road test of the season when it travels to Bloomington to face Indiana on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. ET. Sloane Martin and Meghan McKeown have the call on FS1, while Kevin Danna will handle the radio broadcast on GoStanford.com, the Stanford Athletics app and Learfield’s Varsity Network.
THE RUNDOWN: The Cardinal is coming off a 69-56 win over UC Davis to move to 4-0 for the third consecutive season ... Stanford leads the nation in 3-point percentage (50-of-98; .510) and is third in 3-pointers per game (12.5) ... One game after hitting a school-record 18 3-pointers against Le Moyne, the Cardinal went 14-of-20 (.700) in a win over Washington State and knocked down another 13 against Gonzaga last Sunday ... Ten different players have hit a 3-pointer and there are six who had made at least four ... Stanford also has 69 assists against just 39 turnovers this season ... The Cardinal is sixth in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.92) and is second nationally in fewest turnovers per game, averaging just 9.0 ... Nunu Agara is one of six Power 4 conference players in the country averaging 19.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists ... The Cardinal’s time out of the Associated Press Top 25 was short lived and after one week the Cardinal moved back into the rankings at No. 24 ... Heading into 2024-25, Stanford was looking to replace 59.8 percent of its scoring, 54.4 percent of its rebounding and 42.8 percent of its minutes played from a season ago ... The Cardinal was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll and was outside the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time since 1999-2000.
VS. INDIANA: Stanford is 3-1 all-time against Indiana, but will be making its first trip to Bloomington. Last season in Maples Pavilion, the Cardinal made a statement by routing then-No. 9 IU on Nov. 12, 96-64. It was Stanford’s highest-scoring game against an AP Top 10 opponent since the Cardinal beat then-No. 6 Tennessee on Dec. 20, 2011, 97-80. The 32-point margin of victory was Stanford’s largest against a top 10 team since beating then-No. 4 Xavier by 37 (89-52) on Dec. 28, 2010. Indiana won the teams’ first meeting, 73-63, at the North Carolina Christmas Classic in Chapel Hill on Dec. 21, 1979.
TREE-POINT BARRAGE »
- Stanford has been incredible from 3-point range to start the season. One game after hitting a school-record 18 3-pointers against Le Moyne, the Cardinal went 14-of-20 (.700) in a win over Washington State and knocked down another 13 against Gonzaga last Sunday.
- Stanford has combined to shoot 51.0 percent from deep (50-of-98) in its first four games. Ten different players have hit a 3-pointer, tied for second nationally to Western Carolina’s 11, and there are six who have made at least four, tied for second nationally to Lipscomb’s seven.
- The Cardinal leads the nation in 3-point percentage and is third in 3-pointers per game (12.5) behind Arkansas State (14.0) and Lipscomb (13.0). That is all despite going only 5-of-20 (.250) on Wednesday night against UC Davis.
- Stanford’s 50 3-pointers in its first four games are the program’s most in readily available records dating back to 2002-03, surpassing the 48 it hit through four games in 2018-19.
- Individually, Jzaniya Harriel is 22nd in the country in 3-point percentage (.632; 12-of-19), averaging 3.0 makes per game. Last season, she was 32-of-81 from deep (.395) in 34 games.
- Chloe Clardy is one 3-pointer away from qualifying in the national rankings (min. two made per game). She’s 7-of-12 (.583) already this season, just one year after going 2-of-20 (.100) during her debut season.
- Against Washington State and in available records dating to 2002-03, Stanford’s 3-point percentage (.700) was its best when attempting at least 20, eclipsing a 13-of-20 (.650) effort at Washington State on Jan. 2, 2004. The Cardinal became the 15th DI team to hit at least 70.0 percent on 20+ attempts over the last 23 seasons, and first since South Dakota went 19-of-27 (.704) in a win over Midland Lutheran on Nov. 7, 2022. A team hadn’t done it against a DI opponent since Valparaiso at Southern Illinois on Feb. 27, 2021. Valpo was 15-of-20 (.750).
SHARE IT, TAKE CARE OF IT »
- The Cardinal also has 69 assists against just 36 turnovers this season. It is sixth in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.92) and is second nationally to Colorado State (7.0) in fewest turnovers per game, averaging just 9.0. That is despite a nine-assist, 16-turnover performance in Wednesday’s win against UC Davis.
- Stanford has seven players averaging at least 7.0 points per game, and five averaging 7.0 points and shooting at least 50.0 percent on 3-pointers (Bosgana, Clardy, Demetre, Harriel, Heal), which is tied for the national lead with IU Indianapolis.
AND WE’RE BACK »
- Stanford’s time out of the Associated Press Top 25 was short lived and after one week the Cardinal moved back into the rankings at No. 24.
- When Stanford was ranked on Monday, Kate Paye became the 16th person to both play on and be a head coach for an AP-ranked team at the same school (H/T Mel Greenberg).
- The other 15, in alphabetical order: Adia Barnes (Arizona), Amanda Butler (Florida), Pokey Chatman (LSU), Cynthia Cooper-Dyke (USC), Kellie Harper (Tennessee), Michelle Clark-Heard (Western Kentucky), Niele Ivey (Notre Dame), Carolyn Kieger (Marquette), Linda Lappe (Colorado), Wendy Larry (Old Dominion), Cheryl Miller (USC), Carol Ross (Ole Miss), Bev Smith (Oregon), Holly Warlick (Tennessee) and Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota).
- The Cardinal was picked seventh in the ACC preseason poll and was outside the preseason AP Top 25 for the first time since 1999-2000. Since appearing in its first rankings on Nov. 23, 1987, Stanford had appeared in the preseason Top 25 each season except one (1999-00).
- Prior to this year’s preseason poll released on Oct. 15, Stanford had been ranked in 123 consecutive AP polls since Jan. 29, 2018, which was the third-longest active streak in the country.
- The Cardinal is the second-most ranked team of all-time and has appeared in 646 of 866 all-time AP polls over 49 seasons (Tennessee - 778).
FIRST CLASS »
- On Wednesday, Kate Paye announced her first signing class as head coach and it’s a good one.
- The Cardinal’s five-person class includes three five-star talents and two four-stars according to espnW HoopGurlz, and four ranked in that publication’s top 100.
| Player | HoopGurlz Rank | Stars | Ht./Pos. |
| Hailee Swain | 9 | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 5-11 • G |
| Lara Somfai | 16 | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 6-4 • F |
| Alex Eschmeyer | 31 | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 6-5 • F |
| Nora Ezike | 84 | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 6-2 • F |
| Carly Amborn | -- | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 6-2 • G/F |
- The class began with Swain’s commitment in July 2022 and culminated with Somfai’s announcement Wednesday morning. The group was rated No. 3 by espnW HoopGurlz prior to Somfai’s commitment and the start of the early signing period. Class rankings have yet to be updated as of Friday.
- Stanford’s three five-star signees are second to LSU (4) and the program’s most since it had four in the Class of 2019 (Haley Jones, Ashten Prechtel, Fran Belibi, Hannah Jump). That group won a national championship as sophomores.