Tag: Stanford

Wisconsin basketball top transfer target commits to Big Ten newcomer

Stanford transfer forward chooses Big Ten school

After entering the transfer portal in late March, former Stanford forward Brandon Angel announced Monday that he had committed to Oregon. The forward will join the Ducks after four seasons with the Cardinal.

Angel was recruited by the Badgers as a four-star athlete in the class of 2020, ultimately ending up in the Pacific Northwest. He averaged 13 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest while shooting 56% from the field in his fourth and final year with Stanford.

Wisconsin heavily pursued him during this transfer cycle as the program searched for a replacement for Tyler Wahl.

Considering his 6-foot-7, 200-pound frame, Angel would’ve been a strong addition for the Badgers in the portal, but in the end, he’ll end up joining one of the Big Ten newcomers in 2024.

Wisconsin has seen most of its top portal targets commit elsewhere in the last week. Greg Gard and his staff will need a splash before the cycle ends to change expectations entering 2024-25.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo named Wooden Award finalist

She had an incredible season, no?

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] racked up one record and honor after another during her freshman season at Notre Dame. Now, she’s going about as far as she can go as far as awards in women’s basketball. She has been announced as one of five finalists for the Wooden Award, which is given to the best player in the country.

Even though the winner will be announced Monday, merely being a finalist means Hidalgo will be invited to the ceremony April 12 in Los Angeles regardless if she wins the award or not. She also is one of 10 Wooden Award All-Americans.

In 35 games this season, Hidalgo became one of the country’s top scorers with 33.9 points a game. She also led the country in steals at 4.6 a game, and she averaged 5.5 assists a game. All that and more made her a First Team All-American and First Team All-ACC selection as well as the top rookie and defensive player in the ACC.

Hidalgo faces some incredibly stiff competition for this award. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is the clear favorite to win it for the second straight year, but Hidalgo also is up against 2021 winner Paige Bueckers of UConn, fellow freshman phenom JuJu Watkins of USC and Stanford’s Cameron Brink. Still, the fact that she can be in the conversation with these players is a good indicator that she’ll keep the South Bend faithful coming to Purcell Pavilion for the next few years.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Former Wisconsin basketball top class of 2020 target enters transfer portal

Former Wisconsin basketball top recruiting target enters transfer portal

Stanford forward Brandon Angel entered the transfer portal Friday afternoon.

The four-year veteran enters after the most productive season of his career. He closed the 2023-24 season averaging 13 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.3 blocks on 56% shooting and 44% from 3.

Related: An early look at the Wisconsin basketball roster entering 2024-25

Wisconsin needs a productive forward from the portal this offseason, and he has a connection to the Badgers.

Angel was one of Greg Gard’s top recruiting targets during the 2020 cycle. He was close to becoming a Badger before Ben Carlson signed late, taking the program’s final scholarship.

Carlson played two seasons for the Badgers and transferred to Utah after the 2021-22 season. Angel, on the other hand, has turned into a productive collegiate player and could be one of the more heavily pursued forwards in the portal.

BadgerExtra’s Jim Polzin added color to the situation with Wisconsin’s recruitment of Angel during the 2020 recruiting cycle:

Gard and his staff are active in the transfer portal as both A.J. Storr and Tyler Wahl’s production must be accounted for entering a pivotal 2024-25. Angel could be a name that pops up on Wisconsin’s radar as the days go by.

For more on Wisconsin’s roster and transfer portal activity, check out Badgers Wire’s ongoing 2024 transfer portal tracker.

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Cameron Brink struggles and fouls out as Stanford exits NCAA Tournament with bitter loss

The Pac-12 has one team in the Elite Eight, but it’s not Stanford. The Cardinal suffered a crushing Sweet 16 defeat.

The Stanford Cardinal won the regular-season Pac-12 championship. They faced USC in the Pac-12 Tournament final. In a season when the Cardinal were not picked to win the Pac-12 in preseason polls, the Trees did better than expected. Cameron Brink was at the center of the conversation for the Cardinal, right there with JuJu Watkins as one of the Pac-12’s very best players all season long. Brink, though, couldn’t put the pieces together in the postseason, and now the Cardinal are once again reeling from a bitter defeat before the Final Four. It’s not how they or most experts thought their season would end.

Cameron Brink fouled out of Stanford’s win over Iowa State this past Sunday. She is an elite defensive player, so fouling out was a shock to the system for this all-time Stanford great. It seemed likely that Brink would have a better game and stay out of foul trouble against N.C. State. After all, how many times does a player of Brink’s caliber foul out of consecutive games. Surely she wasn’t going to struggle two straight games, right? Surely she wasn’t going to foul out of two straight March Madness games, right?

Surely, the sure thing did not happen. The logical thing did not happen.

Brink fouled out again, and this time, it came early in the fourth quarter. Struggling to adjust to non-Pac-12 NCAA Tournament whistles, Brink exited long before the final buzzer. She played just seven minutes in the second half. Stanford’s guards — who have often underperformed in the team’s NCAA Tournament losses — could not step up and compensate for Brink’s absence. North Carolina State, down 10 at halftime, stormed back to beat Stanford 77-67 and advance to the Elite Eight on Sunday versus Texas.

The Pac-12 has four teams left in the NCAA Tournament. Three play on Saturday. They better be on guard if they want to avoid Stanford’s cruel fate.

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Stanford’s Rachel Heck pens first-person essay to explain why she won’t go pro

“After a couple of years of painful deliberation, I have come to realize that I do not want to play professional golf.”

This spring, after Rachel Heck completes her senior year at Stanford, she’ll put her golf clubs away and take on an internship in private equity. She’ll also be pinned as a Lieutenant of the United States Air Force. Heck explained her reasons for not turning professional in a first-person essay on nolayingup.com.

“I was strongly considering attributing my decision to my injuries,” wrote Heck, who has grappled with several in recent years. “It is true that even if I wanted to, I do not know if my body would hold up on tour. But frankly, after a couple of years of painful deliberation, I have come to realize that I do not want to play professional golf.

“I do not want a life on the road and in the public eye. I no longer dream of the U.S. Open trophies and the Hall of Fame. And I realize now that these dreams were never what my dad intended when he first put a club in my hand.”

Heck qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at age 15 and, as a hotshot junior, suffered a back injury that left her sidelined from the game. Without golf, she felt lost, and during a period of darkness, decided that she wanted to pursue the Air Force ROTC to find something more. Heck’s parents told her she was crazy, but she persisted.

As a freshman at Stanford, with dreams of playing on the LPGA and serving in the Air Force in full throttle, Heck set an NCAA scoring record (69.72) en route to sweeping the postseason.

Heck won six times in nine starts in 2021, including her last five events. She became the third player in NCAA history to sweep the postseason, winning the Pac-12 Championship, NCAA regionals and nationals. She posted 15 of 25 rounds in the 60s, including 12 consecutive.

But, as her college career progressed, more injuries followed. While Heck intends to pass on the professional life, she does plan to continue to play amateur golf, following a similar path set by Wake Forest grad Emilia Migliaccio.

“I have grappled with anger, hope, depression, joy, and everything in between,” Heck wrote, “but amid each trial in which I so desperately sought the clarity of a deeper meaning, God always showed me the next step. Right now, the next step is not professional golf.”

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Former UNC assistant coach Jerod Haase out at Stanford

Jerod Haase was a longtime Roy Williams assistant (2003-2012) at UNC. His 8-year head coaching stint at Stanford came to an end last week.

From coaching with legendary head coaches in UNC’s storied basketball history, plenty of Tar Heel assistants have since received head coaching opportunities – both in-house and elsewhere.

North Carolina’s current head coach, Hubert Davis, was a longtime Roy Williams understudy. He has UNC, which will play in Saturday’s ACC Championship game against longtime rival NC State, playing like a National Championship contender.

Jerod Haase, another Williams understudy, was an assistant coach in Chapel Hill from 2003-2012. He primarily coached the JV squad, but was part of the coaching staff that led UNC’s 2005 and 2009 National Title-winning teams.

Haase turned his successful stint as a Williams assistant into two head coaching jobs: first at UAB, then at Stanford. Haase led UAB to two wins in the 2015 Big Dance, which Stanford liked and decide to hire him.

As much promise that Haase’s past coaching career delivered, he did not deliver in California.

On Thursday, March 14, after eight seasons leading the Cardinal, Haase was fired.

It’s always tough to see coaches fired, especially when Tar Heel lore is a big part of their past. Haase always seemed like a players’ coach, which makes this news tougher.

If you’ve learned anything from watching sports today, however, it’s that they’re a results-based business. Haase did not produce at Stanford, with the Cardinal’s lone postseason berth being a trip to the NIT in 2017-2018.

Who will be the next man in charge of leading Stanford, the 1942 NCAA Tournament Champions, back to the level of prominence it enjoyed in the late 90’s and early 2000s?

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Stanford transfer Benjamin Yurosek named No. 4 returning TE in CFB

PFF thinks highly of Georgia’s new tight end.

Georgia’s upcoming spring practice will feature an interesting storyline at the tight end position with the departure of standout Brock Bowers. The three-time All-American and two-time Mackey Award winner is headed to the 2024 NFL draft with a first-round grade.

While replacing a talent like Bowers is a tall order, the Bulldogs have some promising options at tight end. Junior Oscar Delp, who served as Bowers’ backup last season, is coming off his best season yet with 24 catches for 284 yards and three touchdowns. Delp is expected to step into Bowers’ shoes, but the addition of Stanford transfer Benjamin Yurosek adds a unique change of pace.

Yurosek (6-foot-4, 242 pounds) signed with the Bulldogs as a graduate transfer this offseason. Pro Football Focus ranks Yurosek as the fourth-best tight end in the nation for the upcoming season. Michigan‘s Colston Loveland comes in at No. 1, Notre Dame‘s Mitchell Evans at No. 2, and Utah’s Brant Kuithe at No. 3, per PFF.

“Yurosek is the first of four tight ends mentioned in this article who’ll be playing for a new school in 2024, transferring to Georgia from Stanford in February. The senior had a disappointing last couple seasons for the Cardinal. In 2022, his PFF receiving grade dropped by nearly 15 points compared to what it was the year prior (65.5 compared to 79.9). In 2023, he missed the final six games of the season with a shoulder injury.

He deserves a high placement on this list for what he accomplished as a sophomore. In 2021, he was named first-team All-Pac-12 by PFF and was fourth among Power Five tight ends that year with 335 yards after the catch. Despite a lackluster last couple of seasons, Yurosek’s 1,338 receiving yards since 2021 lead all returning tight ends in college football. The only three who had more in that stretch were Bowers, Michael Mayer and Dalton Kincaid. After dealing with one of the worst quarterback situations at Stanford, Yurosek will be catching passes from the top returning signal-caller in the nation next year in Carson Beck.” — PFF

In addition to Delp and Yurosek, Georgia’s tight end room boasts sophomores Lawson Luckie and Pearce Spurlin, along with four-star recruit Jaden Reddell from the top-ranked 2024 class. We should get a better idea of how the Bulldogs will use the rotation by the end of spring practice.

Spring practice kicks off on Tuesday, March 12 and will culminate with the annual G-Day spring game on Saturday, April 13 in Sanford Stadium.

College golf facilities: Stanford Cardinal and Siebel Varsity Golf Training Complex

Take a look at the Siebel Varsity Golf Training Complex.

The Stanford men’s and women’s golf teams have long been dominant, and looking at the Cardinal facilities, it’s easy to see why.

The Siebel Varsity Training Complex debuted in April of 2008. The 20-acre site is adjacent to the second hole at Stanford Golf Course and was a collaboration between Stanford and Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects.

The complex features bent grass hitting areas for golfers and donors, five custom green complexes that include bunkers, chipping and pitching areas able to accommodate full to half wedges and a 20,000-square foot putting green situated in front of the Varsity Golf Clubhouse.

Each putting complex is fashioned with characteristics of prominent golf course architects that team members will face in competition. Design features by Alistair MacKenzie, A.W. Tillinghast, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye and Tom Fazio are presented. All five practice greens can be played to from a variety of locations on the property.

All greens are bent grass, although four strains were used on the large putting green and three smaller greens. Three types of sand were used in the bunkers, ranging from fine, medium and coarse. As a result, players can adapt to many specific conditions while preparing for tournaments.

Here’s a look at more college golf practice facilities.

Photos: Siebel Varsity Golf Training Complex

Stanford, Texas defeat Lady Vols in Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational

Stanford and Texas defeat Lady Vols in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational.

No. 2 Tennessee (4-2) opened play in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational on Friday at Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Florida.

The Lady Vols lost to No.7 Stanford, 1-0, despite outhitting the Cardinal, 5-2, in the contest.

Tennessee’s Payton Gotshall (2-1) pitched a complete game, allowing one run, two hits and three walks. She recorded four strikeouts in six innings.

McKenna Gibson went 2-for-3, recording one double for Tennessee.

The Lady Vols also lost to No. 3 Texas, 2-1.

Sophia Newgent went 2-for-3, recording one RBI for the Lady Vols. Nugent’s RBI single scored Rylie West.

Karlyn Pickens (2-1) pitched a complete game. She allowed two runs (one earned), six hits and three walks, while recording six strikeouts and four wild pitches.

How to watch Lady Vols softball versus Stanford, Texas

How to watch Lady Vols softball versus Stanford and Texas on Friday.

No. 2 Tennessee (4-0) will play in the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational, Friday-Sunday, at Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, Florida.

The Lady Vols will first play Stanford on Friday. First pitch between the Lady Vols and Cardinal is slated for 3 p.m. EST and will be televised by ESPN2.

Tennessee will also play Texas at 6 p.m. EST on Friday. The contest can be watched on Longhorn Network.

Both contests will be contested on field No. 8 at Eddie C. Moore Complex.

The Lady Vols enter Friday’s games after defeating Kennesaw State, 14-0, on Wednesday in Kennesaw, Georgia.

PHOTOS: A look at former Lady Vol Monica Abbott through the years