#8 Utah at #4 Stanford, 7 p.m . Pacific

A favorite cliche in sports media is “two teams going in different directions”. You can’t say that about #4 Stanford and #8 Utah, who play tonight in Maples, but they are two teams in different places. The Cardinal counted on a 1-2-3 in Brink, Jones, and Jump, I think we can agree. Look at how […]

Perish the thought

I’ve never seen some things, like: I hate to think it*. You hate to think it. It’s not unthinkable. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Coach VanDerveer retired after winning the NCAA championship in 2021. That would’ve been a storybook moment, when she’s done everything a coach can do, and then some. Neither was I […]

Brynna Maxwell is the West Coast Conference player of the week

West Coast Conference player of the week Brynna Maxwell leads the nation in 3FG% by a mile. The perimeter defense in the West Coast Conference suits her. Whether you sense me smirking with that observation is up to you. Love that kid, one of the purest shooters I’ve seen, but I’m somewhat disappointed in her […]

Stanford loses, Utah wins, and Colorado is idle, making a three-way tie atop the Pac-12 standings

I said around Halloween that the AP poll was off for ranking Stanford as the preseason #2, because losing the Hull sisters and Anna Wilson to graduation was going to affect Stanford more than the voters thought. My friend the Stanford season ticketholder agreed that the voters weren’t accounting for Lexie Hull’s intangibles. (Whereas the […]

#14 Arizona at #10 Utah, 11 a.m. Pacific

Stanford hasn’t lost a conference game in a while, so let’s imagine they’ll earn one of the double byes in the tournament. Who gets the other? Colorado (probably joining the top 25 Monday), #10 Utah, #14 Arizona, and #21 Oregon are within one game of each other in places 2-5. Arizona and Utah tip off […]

Three lackluster games

I said Arizona 72 Oregon St. 69 on Jan. 6 figured to be one of the best games I’d see all year, but that had to be crazy. It was the first game of the season for me, and this is the mighty Pacific-12, where an instant classic is born every two hours. The games […]

UC Santa Barbara 63 Cal State Bakersfield 62

News: Junior guard Alyssa Marin made four free throws in the last eight seconds to pull UC Santa Barbara ahead of Cal State Bakersfield 63-62 Wed. at the Thunderdome. Marin also completed the Gauchos’ last defensive stop with the rebound. Opinion: The UC Santa Barbara Thunderdome isn’t my favorite venue. I’ve received four parking tickets […]

Sheryl Swoopes was a contestant on Name That Tune

Bloody hell. Arizona St. called in sick, and their visit to the Huntsman Center Friday is canceled. I wanted that game to happen. One, I had a quip about Utah’s pregame preparation for the Sun Devils (I might still think it’s funny before the Utes visit the Desert Financial Arena in Tempe Feb. 19). Two, […]

All aboard the bandwagon

It takes a kind of someone to launch a blog when the team it purports to cover is 14-0 and ranked #8 in the nation. The same people in the SF Bay Area didn’t own any Giants baseball or Warriors basketball gear until those teams collected championships. Some folks can’t help it — when they’re […]