A major reason why Stanford women’s basketball is the number two team in the nation is the fact that they are led by senior guard/forward Haley Jones (13.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, & 1.0 steals) and junior forward Cameron Brink (13.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, & 3.1 blocks). Both players are having excellent seasons, doing a great job of leading the team and doing whatever head coach Tara VanDerveer needs from them.
For Jones, it feels like just yesterday that she came to The Farm as a freshman with Francesca Belibi, Ashten Prechtel, and Hannah Jump. Four years later, they’re now the veterans on the team. Jones is trying to embrace this role and make sure she enjoys her final season at Stanford.
“It’s weird. I mean, time is flying,” Jones said. “Funky Four, we’re seniors now, we’re the old girls on the team. So, you know, it’s weird being the grandma now. I feel like I had Anna Wilson with me for three years. She was always grandma, but now here I am kinda leading stuff. So, it’s been different but it’s fun and I’m just trying to enjoy my last year.”
Jones has done a great job of expanding her game every season. Going into this season, she knew she was going to play more point guard and made that a real focus of hers in the offseason.
“Yeah, I think I’m playing more of a point guard role this year,” Jones said at the beginning of the season. “So most of my work in the offseason was ball handling and some more ball handling and a lot of perimeter shooting just to be more prepared to play mainly at point guard.”
Jones really likes to study a wide variety players, which has been a real key to her well-rounded game. She does wonderful job of figuring out who is the best at a certain aspect of the game and watching what they do to be successful.
“I think growing up, my favorite player was Tamika Catchings,” Jones said. “I loved watching the passion and fire she had for the game, but also I like to take bits and pieces from different players. So you know I like to play point guard, so that’s Sue Bird and her vision, but then back-to-the-basket, I’m looking at Sylvia Fowles, A’ja Wilson, and then I’m playing on the wing, so it’s Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum. I like to take bits and pieces from a lot of different player’s games.”
As for Brink, she’s really had to step into the spotlight, taking on more and more of a role with each season. Last year was sort of a breakout season for her, but she’s followed that up with another strong season, firmly establishing herself as one of the top players in the nation. Like Jones, she’s really focused on becoming the most well-rounded player that she can become.
“I would say I’ve been most focused on just getting up consistent reps from the perimeter, shooting a lot, focusing on ball handling, and then also just continue to develop my post moves, footwork, stuff like that,” Brink said of what she’s been focusing on. “All around the board.”
In addition to putting in the work, Brink also really credits her teammates and coaches for helping her excel to the level that she has. She feels like they’ve done a great job of just letting her focus on her game.
“Yeah, I think honestly Tara and the coaching staff and even like our seniors now, have made it super easy for me,” Brink said. “I never put too much pressure on myself, at the end of the day it’s all about having fun, having fun with my teammates, and it’s all about winning. So I try to not put too much pressure on myself, but I know I have a lot of experience and I can share that with the underclassmen. So, I’m excited to step into a leadership role or more of a leadership role this year and I’m excited to see how it goes.”
Like Jones, Brink really looks up to Breanna Stewart. Brink likes the versatility that Stewart plays with on the court and tries to do her best to bring that same dimension when she’s on the court.
“Yeah, I definitely look to Breanna Stewart a lot because I think she’s super versatile,” Brink said. “She can do it all, she can shoot, work down low, play defense. So, she’s just a really great all-encompassing basketball player and I try to play like her.”
Given that she’s 6’4”, Brink could have played volleyball instead of basketball. She loved the sport growing up and enjoys cheering on her friends on the Stanford volleyball team. However, it became clear to her that basketball was where she belonged and so she ended up putting all her efforts into hoops.
“Yeah, I love volleyball, I played in high school and I was never really good, but you can’t teach height, right?” Brink said with a smile. “So, I ended up having to choose one day basketball or volleyball and I was just so much better at basketball and obviously, I love basketball. So, it wasn’t an easy decision, but I think it was the right one. But I do, I love cheering on our volleyball girls. They’re great and it’s a great sport. So, I always loved volleyball.”
As a duo, Jones and Brink have experienced the ultimate high with a national championship while also experiencing the bitter pill of defeat in the Final Four, falling just short. It can be tough to manage your emotions going through all that, but they see it as a positive. They feel like their experiences have made them more mature and better prepared them to make a national championship run this season.
“Yeah, losing in the Final Four was definitely heartbreaking for all of us, but I think it’s just good motivation at the end of the day,” Brink said. “You have to re-frame stuff in a positive way. So, we’re taking it as motivation and it’s honestly, we also pat ourselves on the back because it was great that we even got to the Final Four in the first place. So, we’re just taking it as experience going into this year and we’re excited to make a run again.”
“I think that winning a national championship and then losing, it leaves big old sore taste in your mouth that you never want to have again,” Jones added. “So it leads to a strong motivation for the upcoming season. So, I mean, last year losing in the Final Four, you’re so close, but you’re also so far away. You get sent home early, you gotta watch it from home. So, it’s definitely difficult, but I think it just led to motivation this offseason.”
One major difference between this season and last season is the fact that the Hull twins have graduated. In many ways, they were really the heartbeat of the program. Jones and Brink have done their best to step up and keep the spirt of the Hulls alive on the floor.
“Yeah, I mean that the Hull twins brought so much more than just what showed on the box score,” Jones said. “They brought a competitive energy to every single practice day in and day out: They’re diving on the ground, they’re boxing out, they’re doing everything for a loose ball. So, I think a lot of different people are stepping up in those little roles, which is really fun to see.”
Something that’s really helped Jones and Brink take the mantle as the top players on the team has been the fact that they both really believe in one another. They are each other’s biggest cheerleader, having full faith in their teammate.
“Yeah I mean, Cam’s a beast,” Jones said of Brink. “She’s been a beast and I think that she’s only taken more strides to become the player that she’s meant to be. So I think that Cam added more to her three-point range, more ball handling, playing on the perimeter more. But, she never lost any of that back-to-the-basket mentality and skillset that she has. So, it’s really amazing to witness her growth and I mean, she’s still that defensive stopper. She’s gonna send your shot into the fourth row and yell in your face and bring that passion and fire every time.”
“We all know, I do not have to tell you how amazing Haley is,” Brink said of Jones. “On the court she’s just a phenomenal athlete, has amazing court vision, she can do it all and I’m just really excited to get one more year with her. I think I want to take advantage of it, I want to make it the best year possible and I’m really excited. She’s been such a great leader so far this year, so I’m really excited to see her continue to grow as a person and a player. I can’t say enough good things!”
In addition to being good friends on the court, they’re also close off the court. They both are majoring in communications and enjoy having that connection as well.
“Yeah, so I’m majoring in communications,” Jones said. “I did that so that I could have a wide variety of taking journalism courses, film courses, public speaking, whatever it may be.”
“I’m a communications major, which is really fun. I think Haley is as well. So, it’s nice to have a comm buddy,” Brink added. “I really enjoy taking a lot of journalism classes. I think it’s just super interesting and I’m taking comm classes about social media and how algorithms work, I’ve taken virtual reality classes with oculus headsets, and just such a wide variety of classes, but at the end, they’ve all been super interesting and I’m excited to learn every day. So it’s been really cool.”
As student-athletes at Stanford, both Jones and Brink have really embraced all that comes with it. They love the uniqueness that comes with being on The Farm and the life-changing affects that it has.
“I think the coolest part about just being at Stanford, being a student athlete is, I feel like a very layered person,” Brink said. “Like I’m not just a basketball player, I’m not just a student, but it’s very good to feel like I’m growing my mind as well as growing my basketball skills. So, it’s been a blast.”
“My favorite part about being a Stanford athlete is the connections that I make with, like the Stanford community is a very tight-knit community between athletes,” Jones added. “So, making friends on other teams, creating relationships that are gonna last a lifetime, it’s my favorite part.”
One other thing Jones and Brink have in common is the fact that they've both been coached by a legend in Tara VanDerveer. Both players have become among the very best in the nation because of the work that VanDerveer has invested in them as well as the fact that they've been incredibly coachable.
“Yeah, I think Tara taught me a lot how to be patient,” Jones said of what she’s learned from VanDerveer. “Not to play outside of myself. I think that early in my career I was pretty turnover prone and things, but I think this offseason I had taken great strides to be more patient with myself, wait for things to come on the offense, not try to make the crazy highlight play every single time. Just make the smart play, have more of a sense of the game, the flow of the game, and just you know, I think she’s instilled a lot of confidence in me over my four years here.”
“Gosh, there’s so many,” Brink added about what she’s learned from her Hall of Fame coach. “But I just think one that’s been really key for me is the importance of being prepared. We watch a lot of film, we study other teams, we study ourselves, and that carries over to basketball, but that carries over to so many other of my life. Like, being prepared for a job interview or anything. So just really taking the time to study and prepare yourself for whatever’s coming.”
When looking at Haley Jones and Cameron Brink, it’s clear that not only are they great players, they’re also great people. They both do their part to make others around them better and approach the game with humility, knowing they are blessed to be in the position they are in, not taking any of it for granted. With leaders like them, it’s no wonder Stanford continues to be a national powerhouse.
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