Nicole checks in from Turkey

Nicole will join the New York Liberty when she has finished her season in Turkey. (Fenerbahce begins the semifinal round of the Turkish League playoffs today.)

The Libs checked in with Nicole to ask about her overseas experience. Read more...

Jennifer Azzi announced as head coach at USF

The unnamed sources cited in the many news reports yesterday had it right — the University of San Francisco today announced Jennifer Azzi as the head coach of the women's basketball program.

After a lifetime associated as both a player and an ambassador for women's basketball, the assignment at USF will be Azzi's first as a Division I head coach. The Bay Area Sports Hall-of-Famer (BASHOF) brings an impressive playing resume featuring successful tenures with the USA National Team, five seasons in the WNBA, a founding member of the American Basketball League (ABL), professional experience overseas and an All-American collegiate career at Stanford. Read more from USF ...

Here's a report of the Azzi hire from Michelle Smith and what Tara and others are saying about it.

Jayne perseveres

In an article in the San Antonia Silver Stars website, Ken Rodriguez writes about Jayne's inner strength that carried her through one shoulder surgery, two knee operations, a fractured foot and years of living with a family member who suffers from mental illness. Read more...

European Awards for Candice, Brooke, Cissy, Nicole

Four Stanford alumnae hoopsters earned lots of awards in Europe this season:

Candice is All-EuroCup Player of the Year, Guard of the Year and Import of the Year; on the First Team and All-Imports Team and All-Greek League Import Player of the Year; on the First Team and All-Imports Team

Brooke is All-Italian A1 League Center of the Year; on the First Team and all-Imports Team

Cissy is on the All-German DBBL League First Team and All-Imports Team

Nicole is on the All-EuroLeague Second Team

Note: The All-Turkish TBBL League has not yet announced its awards. Fenerbahce (Nicole & Kristen) and Mersin (Olympia and Cori) will be participating in post-season play — league playoffs and the Turkish Cup — for about three more weeks.

Geno on Jayne's future with Team USA

Michelle Smith, Left Coast Hoops, has collected quotes from USA Basketball of coach Geno Auriemma talking about Jayne’s presence at last week’s national team camp despite her ankle and foot injuries ... here.

Brooke's big season in Italy

Dave Allen, Marin Independent Journal, reports on Brooke's season in Italy and her prospects with the WNBA this summer in this article.

Comense's season ended today with a 54-80 loss in the third game of the quarter-final round of the Italian A1 League playoffs.

Earlier this week, Brooke was named the All-Italian A1 Center of the year. She was also named to the All-Italian A1 1st Team and All-Imports team.

Injured but not forgotten

From US Basketball:

Jayne Appel may be watching the 2010 USA Women's National Team Spring training camp from the sideline this week in Hartford and Storrs, Conn., but the 6-4 center is speaking volumes about her commitment to USA Basketball. Already a member of three past USA teams, Appel has had to sit out of just as many training camps and competitions due to injury. Read more....

Jayne sits out USA Basketball training camp

Jayne is attending the USA Basketball training camp this week, although she can't play yet.

Shawn Courchesne, The Hartford Courant, reports on Jayne at the training camp:

Last week, UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma was trying to prevent Stanford's Jayne Appel from having an impact on the court in San Antonio.

Tuesday, as coach of the U.S. national team, he was wishing he could at least see her on the court at Gampel Pavilion. Read more...

In a report of the first few days of training camp from USA Basketball, Geno says of Jayne:

"We haven’t had the chance to see her on the floor with these other players. Obviously I’m anxious to see it and I know Jayne is anxious to see it. Right now all we can say is that she is part of the program. I know at some point she’s going to want to be out there and we’re going to want to evaluate her. I know that time is coming, I don’t know when." Read more...

The USA Basketball Select Team, which includes Kayla and Nneka, begins its training camp today. The two teams will participate in a Red-White exhibition scrimmage on Sunday, April 18 in Hartford, Conn. Read more...

Alumnae abroad, 2009-10 season-end report

This is how our Stanford alumnae did in the 2009-2010 European professional basketball season.

Comense, Brooke Smith & Jillian Harmon

Comense finished the regular season as #6 of 12 in the Italian A1 League.

The league is now playing its postseason tourney. Comense lost 77-83 in the first leg of the quarter-final round to the #3 team, Familia Schio. Comense's leading scorer had 28 points, Brooke was second-best with 19, and Jillian was third with 12. Might have been enough to win, if not for the Familia Schio player who scored 20 points on 8-of-8 field goals and 4-of-4 free throws in just 16 minutes. The two teams play the second leg of the round tomorrow.

Brooke leads her team in points (17.4), rebounds (7.3) and blocks (0.9). She is #1, #7 and #3 respectively in the league in those stats. She also has 3.6 steals per game.

Jillian is the team's third-best scorer (12.0) and second-best rebounder (6.3).

Jillian has signed with Comense for next season.

Brooke has signed a training camp contract with the Phoenix Mercury, for whom she played in the past two WNBA seasons.

Fenerbahce, Nicole Powell and Kristen Newlin

Fenerbahce lost in the EuroLeague quarter-final game, as reported earlier in this post.

Fenerbahce is in first place in the Turkish TBBL League with an 21-0 record and one game left to play (against the #6 team).

Kristen has played only a few minutes since early January, when she injured the plantar fascia of her left foot. Since then, as she reported recently in her blog, "The pain in that foot took a while to subside and after 2 injections I started practicing 6 weeks later. I played a couple minutes in 2 games before I was ready to play full speed in our next game. Not 8 minutes in I felt the same pop in my foot. This time the diagnosis was worse. I suffered a tear to the tendon. It isn't really clear when I will be playing again ... but I'm hopeful that I will make a full recovery from this injury."

In the EuroLeague games, Nicole had 15.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game. She made 42.4% fields goals, 47.6% three-pointers and 90% free throws. She scored in double-digits in 12 of 14 EuroLeague games.

In the Turkish League games, Nicole had 11.7 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game. She made 48.3% fields goals, 58.1% three-pointers and 80% free throws. She scored in double-digits in 11 of 18 league games.

Nicole will soon join the New York Liberty for her seventh season in the WNBA. She was selected by them last year with the first pick of the Sacramento Monarchs dispersal draft.

Mersin, Olympia Scott and Cori Enghusen

Mersin is in second place in the Turkish TBBL League with an 18-3 record and one game left to play (against the #8 team).

Olympia, in her 11th year of professional basketball, played an average of 20 minutes per game. She scored 10.4 points and had 6.5 rebounds, 0.4 blocks and 0.7 steals per game.

Cori scored 5.9 points and had 4.6 rebounds, 0.7 blocks and 0.4 steals per game.

Sony Athinaikos, Candice Wiggins

Sony Athinaikos won the EuroCup championship, as reported earlier in this post.

They finished in first place in the Greek A1 League with a 22-0 record.

In the EuroCup games, Candice had 15.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game. She made 50.0% fields goals, 37.5% three-pointers and 85% free throws. She scored in double-digits in 12 of the 16 EuroCup games.

In the Greek League games, Candice had 14.6 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game. She made 40.0% fields goals, 45.0% three-pointers and 86% free throws.

Candice is now back with the Minnesota Lynx for her third season in the WNBA. Unfortunately, her knee continues to bother her and may require arthroscopic surgery.

Rhein-Main Baskets, Cissy Pierce

Rhein-Main Baskets finished the season 10th of 12 in the German DBBL League, so did not qualify for the league playoffs.

Cissy was the top scorer for her team and second-best in the league with 19.5 points per game. She scored in double-digits in 20 of 22 games. She made 45.5% field goals, 27.8% three-pointers and 78.9% free throws. She also had 5.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

Candice's team wins EuroCup championship

Sony Athinaikos, the team for which Candice plays, captured the EuroCup Women title on Thursday night by completing a narrow two-legged triumph over Russian team Nadezhda.

Athinaikos had won the first leg a week ago by eight points. Nadezhda won the second leg, but couldn't quite close the gap. Athinaikos won the title 118-114.

This is the first major European championship ever for Greece. Coach George Dikeoulakos said, "The future belongs to those who feel the charm of their dreams. And these girls have made their dream a reality out of nowhere, so we have a future."

Candice contributed ten points, including two key three-pointers, and three steals in the second leg. Coach Dikeoulakos said (translated from Greek), "Our American, stunning Candice Gouigkins that actually played with one knee and without training, has achieved the most important points in this year's presence in Athens. A three-pointer and scored once played superb defense forced the opponent into a mistake and there changed the image of the game."

Here is the game card (game report, box score and play-by-play).

Another opportunity in San Antonio for Jayne

Here is more from the WNBA about Jayne's selection by the San Antonio Silver Stars yesterday:

This week, Jayne Appel made the trip from San Antonio to Secaucus, N.J., site of Thursday’s 2010 WNBA Draft, to find out that she’s headed to… San Antonio.

“The more I think about it the more excited I get, having experienced a little bit of San Antonio and what it’s like,” said Appel, whose Stanford team took part in the Final Four in the Alamo City earlier this week. “The community and the people down there were just awesome. The fan base for the San Antonio Silver Stars is also tremendous, so I’m excited about it.”

Read more...

Jayne is No. 5 pick in WNBA draft

Jayne was selected by the San Antonio Stars with the fifth pick.

She twittered, "so excited to be going back to san antonio and really break in my cowboy boots- lets go san antonio silver stars"

Here is a report of the draft from the San Antonio Silver Stars.

Here is a report of the Left Coast selectees by Michelle Smith.

Here is an analysis of how Jayne will fit in her new team by Jake Curtis.

There were three other prospects from the Pac-10:

• Alexis Gray-Lawson (California) was selected in the third round by the Washington Mystics.
• Danielle Orsillo (Arizona State) was not selected.
• Taylor Lilley (Oregon) was not selected.

This is the complete draft board.

The current status of other Cardinal alumnae in the WNBA:

• Candice Wiggins returns to the Minnesota Lynx for her third season.
• Brooke Smith has a training-camp contract with the Phoenix Mercury, where she played for the past two seasons.
• Nicole Powell is with the New York Liberty for her seventh season in the WNBA. She was selected by the New York Liberty last year with the first pick of the Sacramento Monarchs dispersal draft.

Candice's team ahead in EuroCup final round

Athinaikos, the Greek team for which Candice plays, are in command of the EuroCup Women Finals after winning the opening leg at Nadezhda today 65-57.

Although Candice's knee has been bothering her, she played for 31 minutes and contributed nine points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals to the victory.

Here is the game card, which gives all the information about the game.

The team goes back to Greece with the good feeling of a road win and an eight point cushion before game two on April 8.