Tag: Stanford Basketball

Surprising Stanford loss puts USC women’s basketball in contention for Pac-12 championship

USC got some unexpected help from Arizona. Now we have a true scramble to the finish line in the Pac-12.

We haven’t discussed the possibility that USC women’s basketball could win the Pac-12 title for one simple reason: It didn’t look remotely possible. USC entered this weekend two games behind Stanford in the Pac-12 race. While USC keeps winning, Stanford faced undermanned Arizona on Friday before facing bottom-rung Arizona State on Sunday and then a weak Oregon team next weekend. Yes, Stanford has the very tough assignment of facing Oregon State on February 29, but the Cardinal needed to lose two games, not just one, to give USC any chance of winning the Pac-12 title. That didn’t seem likely.

Guess what? Stanford, up by nine late in the fourth quarter, unraveled in the final minutes and lost 68-61 at home to Arizona. USC just got the result it needed to make a run at the Pac-12 title. Let’s take you through the details of a suddenly more cluttered and dramatic Pac-12 race:

Pac-12 women’s basketball report: Stanford rebounds from USC loss, hammers UCLA

UCLA’s effort was sorely lacking against Stanford, even with Lauren Betts’ absence factored into the equation.

The Stanford Cardinal were angry after losing to USC at home on Friday night. The Cardinal took out their frustrations on UCLA two days later. Stanford crushed UCLA, 80-60, to tie Colorado atop the Pac-12 standings with a 9-2 record through 11 games.

UCLA Wire editor Matt Wadleigh wrote:

“”Just two days after a 20-point blowout against Cal, Cori Close’s team was now on the wrong side of the scoreboard against the Cardinal. Stanford responded after losing to USC and giving up 51 points to JuJu Watkins. And, it was all Stanford from start to finish in this game.

Afterward, Charisma Osborne didn’t hide her feelings one bit (h/t Gavin Carlson of The Daily Bruin).

“’Tonight was really embarrassing playing out there,’ Osborne said. ‘We have to figure it out and step up.’”

UCLA really did look lost and confused against Cameron Brink and the rest of a Stanford team which was always in control of this game. Stanford busted out to a quick 13-4 lead and was never seriously challenged.

As UCLA Wire noted, Bruin head coach Cori Close was very displeased with the performance she got from her team against Stanford. It will be fascinating to see UCLA, without center Lauren Betts, handles the next few weeks on its schedule.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Colorado dominated Washington on the road in Seattle to tie Stanford atop the standings. The other especially big (non-USC) result on Sunday was Oregon State’s 64-60 win over Oregon. The Beavers are now all alone in third place in the Pac-12, ahead of UCLA, Utah, and USC.

Utah won at Washington State with a late run. Arizona beat Arizona State in Tucson.

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Pac-12 women’s basketball report: Colorado stands alone atop the league after beating Stanford

The Buffs beat the Cardinal in a matchup of top-10 teams. Colorado is the only unbeaten team left in Pac-12 play.

The Pac-12 has four of the best teams in the country and one of the toughest top-to-bottom conferences in women’s college basketball. Utah — a Sweet 16 team last season — might be the fifth-best team in the league right now. Oregon State just swept Arizona and Arizona State and looks like a very tough out. Washington State won at Washington and is improving after a tough start. There are simply no freebies in this league, with the possible occasional exception of Arizona State. Winning in the Pac-12 is extremely difficult, and that’s why this conference race is so compelling.

On Sunday, there were two giant matchups in the league. We’ve covered USC’s win over UCLA with lots of different articles. Here’s just one example. If you missed anything, just visit our homepage, where you’ll see all of our content on the Trojans’ 73-65 win over the Bruins.

Before USC did its thing on Sunday, Colorado — down 12-2 in the first few minutes — rallied to beat Stanford, 71-59. Buffaloes Wire staff writer Tony Cosolo has more on the story:

“Colorado’s defense came to life against Stanford, holding the Cardinal to only 20 makes on 59 field goal attempts (33.9%), well below its season average of 46.9%. Stanford got a majority of its scoring from three players as Kiki Ifriafen, Cameron Brink and Brooke Demetre combined for 43 points.”

Colorado moved to 5-0 in the Pac-12 with the win. Stanford absorbed its first loss in conference play. The Cardinal are 4-1, with USC and UCLA at 3-1. Those are the four primary contenders in the Pac-12. The other eight teams have at least two conference losses if not more.

Notably, USC and UCLA are done playing each other in the regular season. They might meet a third time at the Pac-12 Tournament, but they won’t play a scheduled game over the next six weeks. Their only conference losses came against each other in the two-game series between the teams. If they can handle everyone else in the Pac-12, their chances of winning the title will increase.

This next week is huge in the Pac-12: USC and UCLA visit the Mountain schools, Utah and Colorado. This conference race is just getting started. Shakeups are likely to occur every week. Buckle up!

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Pac-12 women’s basketball report: Stanford beats Utah in Salt Lake City showdown

Stanford remains unbeaten in Pac-12 play, while Utah falls to 1-3 in the conference.

The USC Trojans are preparing to host No. 2 and unbeaten UCLA on Sunday in the Galen Center. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 provided a compelling slate of Friday night games in women’s college basketball’s toughest conference.

The highlight came in Salt Lake City, where Stanford — not predicted to win the Pac-12 before the season began — remained unbeaten in the conference with a 66-64 win at Utah. Stanford joins Colorado and UCLA as one of the three unbeaten teams in the Pac-12, heading into a Sunday clash with Colorado in Boulder.

Stanford’s Kiki Iriafen had a career game against Utah, scoring 25 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in a dynamic display. Stanford needed every last point and board on a night when star Cameron Brink scored only nine points.

Stanford’s defense against Utah superstar Alissa Pili was the difference. The Cardinal limited Pili to 5-of-18 shooting from the field. Utah hit just 39 percent of its shots and committed 13 turnovers. The Utes are buried in the Pac-12 standings and are facing a massive uphill climb in the battle for the Pac-12 title. They can’t afford to lose any more ground the rest of the way, given how strong UCLA, Colorado and Stanford look right now.

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Arizona loses at Stanford for second straight season; Utah, ASU mount comebacks

Arizona’s struggles in Maples Pavilion continue. It’s weird. It makes no sense. However, it happened.

It was a wild final day of 2023 in Pac-12 basketball. Utah and Arizona State both faced double-digit deficits and played poorly for a majority of their respective games, but they both stormed down the stretch to defeat their opponents. Utah rallied to top Washington, 95-90, while ASU scrambled to beat Cal, 71-69. Utah solidified its place as an NCAA Tournament at-large team. The Utes are in increasingly good shape for a March Madness ticket. Arizona State moved to 2-0 in the league and is trying to get into the at-large picture. On most days, those comebacks would have been the main headlines in the Pac-12. Not on this final Sunday of 2023.

The big story did not belong to Utah or ASU erasing big deficits to win. The headliner came from Maples Pavilion on the campus of Stanford University. The Cardinal, for the second straight year, defeated Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona Wildcats in the Bay Area. They did so last season. They replicated the feat on Sunday. They won in a shockingly lopsided 100-82 game.

Stanford lost at home to Arizona State on Friday. The Cardinal had not yet beaten a team — any team — from a Power Five conference heading into this game against an Arizona team which is chasing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. No one saw this coming, but Stanford — which has been one of the worst teams in the Pac-12 over the past several years under beleaguered coach Jerod Haase — somehow finds its best form against the U of A. It’s a big shakeup in the Pac-12 season. We will see how Arizona responds.

Colorado also beat Washington State to round out the Pac-12 slate on Sunday.

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Stanford’s Harrison Ingram enters transfer portal

USC will want to wait to see if Harrison Ingram transfers out of the Pac-12.

The Stanford Cardinal haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2014. They decided to keep coach Jerod Haase, for some weird reason, despite doing nothing of substance during a tenure which has now lasted more than half a decade.

Harrison Ingram, one of the core performers on the Cardinal this past season, looked at his situation and absorbed Stanford’s stagnation under a coach who — like the program itself — is going nowhere. He made the obvious, rational decision anyone else in his position would make. He wants out of Palo Alto. He wants to make the NCAA Tournament.

He wants to transfer.

Ingram entering the portal is a significant hit to Stanford. Whether it helps Pac-12 teams depends on whether Ingram will transfer to another Pac-12 program. Remember that Colorado’s Lawson Lovering transferred to Utah, staying within the conference. USC fans need to wait to see if Ingram will leave the Pac-12 or move to another team (maybe UCLA).

Should USC be in the market for Ingram? Maybe, but not as a first priority. USC needs a wing shooter more than anything else, and that’s not Ingram’s top strength. If USC does land a shooter, having a guy like Ingram on the roster would then make more sense. We will see where this story goes … and where Ingram himself is headed.

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Cal hires former Stanford basketball star Mark Madsen as new head coach

Experts thought #Stanford would fire Jerod Haase and hire Madsen, a star on Stanford’s 1998 #FinalFour team. Instead, the Trees punted. #Cal pounced.

What an amazing plot twist this was, and is, and will continue to be.

Imagine a situation in which School A had a chance to hire a former star, bringing him back to a program with the opportunity to revive its fortunes. A school which has struggled for the past 15 years in men’s basketball had a chance to hire a rising coach who played on the same school’s last Final Four team. This coach is popular within School A, beloved within School A. The coach was doing a good job at a smaller program. He was on the market. He was available.

School A was drifting into irrelevance under its current head coach, who has done nothing of note in seven years on the job.

School A chose to retain the coach who had done nothing in seven years instead of hiring the rising coach who had starred on the court for the program and led it to the Final Four 25 years earlier.

Then that school’s archrival, School B, which was willing and able to fire its underperforming head coach, hired the very same coach School A could have hired all along.

It’s ridiculous. It makes absolutely zero sense. It’s a situation in which School B can now humiliate School A by succeeding. Every School B achievement will reflect negatively on School A — not because the two schools are rivals, but because School A had a chance to hire a popular and successful alumnus as its coach, but passed on the opportunity and allowed School B to swoop in and seize the moment.

This is what has just happened in Pac-12 basketball. Stanford is School A. Cal-Berkeley is School B.

We told you that Cal was closing in on Mark Madsen — the Utah Valley coach and Stanford alumnus who led Stanford to the 1998 Final Four — as its next head coach.

On Wednesday, Cal made it official. The Golden Bears announced that Madsen has agreed to become the team’s new head coach.

We have been wondering for more than a year if Stanford would finally fire Jerod Haase. It seemed almost certain that the Trees and athletic director Bernard Muir would finally terminate their underperforming head coach, who has certainly been given a long amount of time to make things work in Palo Alto.

Yet, for reasons which remain inexplicable, Stanford stood pat and retained Haase for another season, even though Madsen was right there, waiting to come back to his alma mater and revive the program after a star turn at Utah Valley, which reached the NIT semifinals and very nearly made the NCAA Tournament this past season.

It’s bad enough if one school watches its bitter rival succeed. Now, though, every Cal achievement in men’s basketball will directly reflect negatively on Stanford and its athletic department, particularly Bernard Muir. Cal has a chance to humiliate Stanford, with Madsen — a Stanford alum — being the engine of that effort.

Bay Area basketball revolves around the Golden State Warriors and Stanford women’s basketball, but men’s college hoops just became a lot more interesting in Berkeley and Palo Alto.

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Haley Jones on her ‘sketchy’ experiences playing the Pac-12 tourney in Vegas and how she limits sports betting noise

Being shouted at in a casino doesn’t sound fun.

With sports betting legal in over 30 U.S. states, there aren’t many athletes who don’t periodically hear from a fan or two about how their performances impacted a bet.

Those usually one-sided interactions are typically limited to social media or during games. Especially for an athlete based in a state where betting isn’t legal, like Stanford basketball star Haley Jones. So, as you can imagine, playing a game in Las Vegas is a different experience than what she’s used to.

Vegas has hosted the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament since 2019. Up until this year, Stanford had reached the final each time, winning the last two. This year’s team had its time shortened with a semifinal loss to UCLA, but that didn’t make the betting chatter any less noticeable.

“We’re walking through the casino to get to our games, and there’s the betting stations and this and that, and I can feel people’s eyes on me and I’m like, ‘Oh gosh, your money is in my hands. That’s sketchy,'” Jones said in a conversation with FTW about her new podcast, Sometimes I Hoop. “I feel like people just take it more intense since they have something personal on the line. After games, if I’m walking through the casino after we lose or after we win, they’re like, ‘Oh, you won me this. Oh, you lost me that.’ And I’m just like, what the heck. I was just over here trying to get back and get to post-game meal and shower. I don’t need you shouting at me right now. So I think it’s definitely created a different environment.”

That environment is likely more intense for a team like Stanford that has achieved so much in Jones’ four years on campus. The Cardinal have been to each of the last two Final Fours, winning it all Jones’ sophomore year. As this year’s tournament approaches, their +700 title odds at DraftKings are second only to undefeated South Carolina.

As legal betting has exploded during that time, conversations about lines have even penetrated Jones’ own circle. But if you plan on chatting her up about point spreads and parlays, just know she hasn’t caught up on all the lingo.

“My brother, he’ll be on ESPN like ‘Oh my gosh, you guys are up this, down that.’ And I’m like, I don’t know what any of that means, so awesome,” the 2021 Final Four Most Outstanding Player said. “But I think fans are in some cases more into it because they have money on the line. So it’s a lot more intense of a crowd.”

That noise spills over on to social media, but Jones has found a way to filter it out.

“You definitely get tagged and whatnot, but there’s different security and privacy things that I’ve been able to put on my account so I’m not just getting tagged in a million hate messages of ‘Haley, you lost me $1,000!'”

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Q&A: Stanford’s Haley Jones is on the precipice of an exciting new chapter, but first she wants to go out on top

Haley Jones has a lot to look forward to, but she’s trying to stay grounded.

Haley Jones is doing her best to stay in the moment.

The 2021 Final Four Most Outstanding Player and national champion has a chance to do something special one last time. Stanford is projected as a No. 1 seed for a third straight Women’s NCAA Tournament. The senior would love nothing more than to reach a third Final Four and go out on top.

But no matter when Jones’ illustrious college career comes to an end, she’ll be ready for what’s next.

Jones will be one of the first names off the board in April’s WNBA draft. She’s also dipping her toes into another future career, launching a podcast with The Players’ Tribune called Sometimes I Hoop. The podcast allows Jones to shine a light on her fellow basketball stars through conversations about their experiences on the court and interests away from the game. She’s already interviewed players like Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark.

FTW had a chance to chat with Jones about the podcast, her own hobbies, March Madness and more.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Utah beats Stanford, shares Pac-12 championship with Cardinal

Utah and Stanford went 15-3 in 18 #Pac12 games. Both teams are in contention for a No. 1 seed at the NCAA Tournament.

The 2023 Pac-12 basketball regular season is over. It was a tremendous race made more complicated by the USC Trojans, whose upset of Stanford loomed large in the full course of events. Stanford led Utah by one game, then Utah tied the Cardinal. Stanford regained a one-game lead, but Utah had a chance to gain a share of the Pac-12 championship with a win over the Trees on Saturday in Salt Lake City.

The Utes fought through foul trouble to score an 84-78 win over the Cardinal, registering the crowning achievement in program history.

Both Utah and Stanford finished 15-3 in the Pac-12. They are both in contention for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of the Pac-12 Tournament — if it is Utah or Stanford — probably will be a No. 1 seed. The non-winner will likely be a 2 seed. Most experts will probably predict a Stanford-Utah Pac-12 final on March 5 in Las Vegas. That’s what the tournament bracket makes possible.

Former USC Trojan Alissa Pili, by helping Utah to the Pac-12 title, nailed down 2023 Pac-12 Player of the Year in women’s basketball. So many different Pac-12 schools have made the Women’s Final Four in the past 10 years: Cal made the Final Four under current USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Washington made the Final Four. Oregon State did. Oregon did. Arizona did. Stanford, of course, has been a regular at the Final Four. Utah will try to become the newest Pac-12 women’s basketball program to reach the sport’s ultimate showcase.

The Pac-12 Tournament begins Wednesday, March 1, in Las Vegas. Stanford and Utah will both begin their tournament on Thursday, March 2, in the quarterfinals.

USC faces Oregon State in the first round on Wednesday at approximately 8:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

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