On Sunday, Stanford women’s basketball, who has been ranked #2 in the nation the past several weeks, found out their NCAA tournament position, getting the #1 seed in the Spokane region. They will open things up on Friday against #16 seed Montana State (time TBD). By being a top four seed in their region, Stanford will get to be home for their first two games before the regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen).
“It feels a little surreal,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after Sunday’s bracket got revealed. “I mean, it’s just awesome to be thinking that we’re playing in the tournament. It’s hard to believe it’s already this time of the season. But we’re really excited. We know that it’s going to be really a tough one game at a time. We’ve got our work cut out for us. Like Haley’s never even had this tournament at here like this. You [Lexie] did one year, right? So in some ways it’s all new again. So, we’ve just gotta play well. That’s all we gotta do.”
Stanford is looking to repeat as national champions, so they have a bigger target on their back than a year ago. But they seem to be up to the challenge. They know there’s a lot of pressure on them and they’re fine with that. This is what they’ve played for all season and now it’s time to rock and roll.
“I don’t think it’s really that much of a big thing anymore,” Haley Jones said of having a target on their backs. “It’s been there the whole season. So it’s not really like this pressing factor on us. Tara says before every game, it’s not about the other team, it’s about what we do and I think we know how good we are and who we can be. So yeah, I think the target [on our] back isn’t much of a pressing factor. We’re just trying to go game by game and focus on ourselves.”
Stanford had a wonderful regular season. They went 28-3 overall and a perfect 16-0 in the Pac-12 before winning the Pac-12 tournament to back up their regular season title. They’ve been arguably the best team all year, narrowly losing to #1 South Carolina 65-61 on the road back in December. Even though they don’t have their senior point guard from a year ago Kiana Williams, Stanford still has found a way to get a #1 seed. This is truly a testament to their resiliency and ability to adapt and change.
When looking at their bracket as a whole, what obviously jumps out is the chance to go to Spokane, Washington. For Lexie and Lacie Hull, the chance to play in front of their friends and family at home would mean a lot to them.
“It’s a great place,” VanDerveer said of Spokane. “It’s a basketball town. They love basketball. We’ve gotta get there. Montana State, I’ve watched them a little bit. Georgia Tech is where Nell Fortner, I coached with in the Olympics. She’s at Georgia Tech. Kansas, I can’t tell ya I know much about Kanas. We’ve just gotta take care of business to get to Spokane.”
“Like Tara said, we’ve gotta focus on these next two games,” Lexie Hull said. “One game at a time, but the opportunity to play in Spokane in front of friends, in front of family. Super special. It’s definitely, getting to play in San Antonio last year in front of Ki’s [Kiana Williams] family, it does feel really really fun to play in front of people who love you so much. So, hopefully we’ll just work hard and get to play there.”
But, before they get to that point, they know they have to take care of business at home first. If you ask Tara VanDerveer. That’s all she has on her mind right now. Nothing more.
“Every bracket is going to be loaded,” VanDerveer said. “There’s just so many great teams. There’s so many great teams that whatever bracket you’re in, you’re going to be playing with other great teams. So, that’s just the nature of it. We love Kim [Mulkey], but who knows, we’ve gotta just take care of Montana State. That’s our focus. We’ve just gotta play well. We know how important it is to play well in every game.
“I know they’re the Montana State Bobcats. And we have our work to do. My hard drive is getting loaded right now. I will know as much as I can in the next three days. We play on Friday, right? So, we will be ready. Thank you for asking that question.”
One other thing that jumps out from looking at the bracket is Texas being the #2 seed in their region. Texas won at Maples Pavilion earlier this season and getting some revenge against Texas in the tournament would feel really good for Stanford. It’s all about showing that they are indeed a different team than they were at the beginning of the season.
“In the beginning of the season, we were replacing an All-American point guard,” VanDerveer said. “And with people that really hadn’t gotten many reps as a point guard. And I think the improvement of Lacie Hull, Anna Wilson, Haley, I just watched our, nothing else to get ready for, I just watched our Texas game and watching our early games. And I’m like, we’ve improved tremendously and we need to show that each game we’re playing. The confidence that people are playing with. Haley’s playing her best basketball right now, so is Lexie, Lacie, Anna. I think people, they know what it takes and we’re going to get it every night.
“I like if we played a team myself. We have some teams in our bracket that we played. We played Maryland and we played Texas. But, you know you gotta play. You know you’ve gotta play well, but I think it sometimes it does help because you’ve seen your matchups, you’ve seen your mistakes, too.”
“We know we’ve improved a lot,” Hull added. “And every team changes from the start of the season ‘til now ‘til the end. So I think we’re just excited to have the opportunity to play anyone and continue playing with each other regardless of who that is.”
Looking at the Pac-12, VanDerveer is happy to see the Pac-12 get six teams in the tournament field. She was cheering on every Pac-12 team that got announced during the selection show. This shows her commitment to the conference and desire to see everyone in the league do well.
“It’s great to have six teams in,” VanDerveer said. “We need each team to play well. I don’t know, it’s just hard. But here’s Oregon beat UConn and Oregon is what, a five? I think that the teams are really good and I think all of them have great potential to beat their seed.”
As a whole, Stanford is feeling confident. They won the national title last year and after all that they went through to win it, they feel like they’ve come out the other end stronger and better for it. That should serve them well as they begin their quest for a second straight national title.
“I think the experience and how well we did will definitely help us,” VanDerveer said. “We can look back and when we have to dig in deeper, we know we’ve got extra gas in the tank.”
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