On Saturday March 30 at 3:30 PM Pacific Time the Cardinal will face #11 seed Missouri State Lady Bears in the Wintrust Arena in Chicago and on ESPN 2. It's not easy to take on a Cinderella team of Midwestern sweethearts in the heart of the Midwest. The arena in Chicago will be packed with folks who have driven there from Springfield to scream their loudest. This is one of the biggest moments in the history of Lady Bear basketball.Their assistant coach, Jackie Stiles, was the NCAA all-time leading scorer, before Kelsey Plum broke her record in 2017. In 2001, Jackie led the Lady Bears to the Final Four, averaging 30 points a game. Ironically, the team they defeated that year in the Elite Eight 104 to 87 was Washington (Kelsey Plum's school.) Their head coach, Kellie Harper, played point guard for Pat Summit and led Tennessee to two national championships. So, we're talking about a team that believes - and they're playing great. Elle Ruffridge is a 5'-3" packet of long-ball dynamite, who was named Miss Iowa Basketball two years ago when she graduated from Pocahontas High School, in Pocahontas, Iowa. So, you get what we're up against here. These kids can play and they are passionate.
The Bears knocked off #6 DePaul 89 - 78 in Round One and #3 Iowa State in Round Two to reach the Sweet Sixteen so they're no fluke. In those two games the Bears shot 18 for 38 in 3's or 47%. They play tough defense and pretty much shut down the DePaul Blue Demons who normally make a living beyond the arc.
Against DePaul, Missouri State had four players in double figures Danielle Gitzen (5'-10" Sr. Guard) and Alexa Willard (6'-2" Jr. Guard) both had 20 points, Elle Ruffridge (5'-3" So. Guard) had 15 and Brice Calip (5'-8" So. Guard) had 12. In order to beat the Bears we need to come out firing from the opening tip, play gangbusters defense, and outrebound them. Someone should remind Shannon that they're Bears - Kim Mulkey (Baylor Coach) says she always plays great against Bears.
This link pulls up the more than one hour streaming video of the Bear's win in Round Two over the Iowa State Cyclones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNaJVU8H1Cw
Below is a bracket of our side of the bracket going through Chicago. Click on the image to enlarge
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| The Chicago bracket - click on image to enlarge |
This rematch is potentially dangerous. I recall the beating we gave Arizona, early in Conference play, and Arizona comes up to Maples and we escape with a win.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure UC Davis learned a lot about Stanford after losing (big) to us in the non-conference opener. Hopefully Tara will ensure the team does not take them for granted.
The other concern has been the long layoff between winning the PAC-12 and this coming Saturday. We have been playing our best basketball of the season in the last 9 games. Will the layoff hurt our shooting?
If we keep their skilled post in check and pressure their 3-point shooters, very confident we will move on.