This Weekend we travel to take on the Cougars and the Huskies.

The Washington State Cougars will host Stanford Friday evening at 7 PM. The Cougs have struggled in their PAC12 season, but recently beat the Huskies by 33 points, so you know they can shoot. A couple of weeks ago they took down the Arizona Wildcats by 2 points, which equaled the Cardinal's winning margin in their narrow escape from the Cats last weekend.

Kamie Ethridge, the first-year WSU coach has quite a resume. She was the captain of a Texas Longhorn team that was the first undefeated National Championship team, and followed that up with a gold medal in the Seoul Olympics. In her first job as a Head Coach she took Northern Colorado to its first ever NCAA tournament appearance in her final year, after winning 83 games in four years. So she sounds like the latest in the series of terrific coaches that have been hired in the PAC12. She'll have the Cougars ready to give the Cardinal a stiff test Friday evening. You probably remember what I wrote about Bobby Buckets before we played them in January. Borislava Hristova can get hot, like only a six-foot Bulgarian gunner can - and she'll give you about as much trouble as you can handle when she starts firing - just ask the Huskies.                                                     
Bobby Hristova goes off in December for almost 40 against the Huskies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGd7m6akpMs

Then on Sunday at 2 PM Stanford visits the Huskies for our final game of the regular season. Hard to believe isn't it? These seasons go so fast. It's also hard to believe that Washington is in last place in the conference. Three seasons ago Mike Neighbors took the Huskies to the Final Four and two seasons ago Kelsey Plum broke the all-time national scoring record. (So maybe it was her that took him to the Final Four.) Neighbors and Plum are long gone - Mike went back to coach at Arkansas, his alma mater, and Kelsey graduated and went number one in the WNBA draft.

Compared to Kamie, Jody Wynn is a veteran campaigner at UW - this is her second season as head coach. She's been playing and coaching since her high school state championship teams at Brea Olinda. She played for USC and then became one of the assistants for the Trojans. That was followed by great years at Pepperdine and Long Beach State before moving to Seattle. Jody is another great coaching addition to the PAC12 and will get this program back on track. When she arrived, the Huskies had one player who had ever played in a D1 game - and that first year her team led the conference in forced turnovers. ("We may not score much, but we'll give'em the fight of their life!")

Watch Amber Melgoza play on Sunday and you'll get a glimpse of where Jody and this Husky program are headed - tough, solid, competitive, and she can score.                                 

The Arizona Schools are Coming to Maples This Weekend

The Arizona Wildcats are coming to town for a Friday evening game at 7PM. They're fresh off a sweep of the mountain schools and, after watching the game film from USC, they're likely feeling ready to

upset the 7th ranked Cardinal. In their last two games they beat the Utes by 11 and the Buffs by 12. Aari MacDonald is the 2nd leading scorer in the country at just over 25 points per game. Against the Buffalos, Cate Reese was their leading scorer and rebounder.

Stanford hopefully can use this game and the next three to get themselves ready to soar in the PAC12 tournament.


Then on Sunday at 1PM we tip off against the Arizona State Sun Devils. You know the 17th ranked Devils. Charlie is a hellofa coach. Ibis has the heart of a lion and finishes as well as any 6'-1" player in the west. Her unwavering spirit has infected the whole team as they fight their way through the PAC12. Last Sunday they pulled off the greatest comeback of the year, playing Utah down in Tempe. With 7:45 remaining, the Devils trailed the Utes by 18 and scored the last 20 points of the game and won by 2. That's showing the heart of your team. Enmark, Ryan, and Ibis were all in double figures and the Devils are on a 5 game winning streak.

Here are highlights from ASU's amazing comeback win over Utah - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqzakWv1Eys

They have no intention of losing on Sunday. They're a better, stronger, and tougher team than the one we beat down at their place in early January. This will be a battle - and Stanford needs to show the women's basketball world what they're made of. 

Come and support your 7th ranked Cardinal team!!

This Weekend Stanford Heads South to Take on the LA Schools

Pauley Pavilion at 6PM on Friday. This week the Cardinal will need to shake off the thrashing they

went through on Sunday. UCLA has improved considerably since we played them on January 6th. In the Huntsman Center last weekend they beat the Utes 100 to 90 and looked good doing it. Their three key players were over 20 - Michaela Onyenwere 25, Japreece Dean 24, Kennedy Burke 26.

Stanford will need to take their A game against UCLA and hit their shots.

Included below are current player stats --- click on the images to enlarge.

UCLA player stats - click on image to enlarge

Then we head across town to the Galen Center on Sunday at Noon. USC is still having an up and down season. They beat UCLA in late January and Utah last Friday in Salt Lake - then lost to Colorado on Sunday. Desiree Caldwell is scoring in bunches.

Friday and Sunday will be a great opportunity for our team to get their mojo back and
to get over their tendency to go cold in away games. In their six remaining regular season games the Cardinal need to fully prepare themselves to succeed in the PAC12 tournament and the NCAA tournament. These are crucial games!!!

Current USC player stats are shown below - click on the image to enlarge.

USC player stats - click on image to enlarge