Six alumnae open up 2013 WNBA season

Stanford Athletics reports on the six alumnae who will represent Stanford women's basketball as the WNBA tips off its 17th season tonight. Click here for more.

Bobbie and Vanessa are court coaches for USA Basketball

Bobbie Kelsey (Stanford '97) and Vanessa Nygaard (Stanford '98) have been chosen as court coaches by USA Basketball. As such, they will will assist the coaching staff during trials.

Bobbie will serve as court coach for 2013 USA Basketball Women’s U19 World Championship And World University Games Team Trials, which will take place May 16-19.

She said, "These are committee-selected positions, so for the committee to see my value in adding me to the trials and participating in that way as a coach is quite an honor. I feel privileged to be looked at in that light."

Click here for more information.

Vanessa will serve as court coach for 2013 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team Trials, which will be held May 23-27.

She said, "I am honored and excited to be chosen as a court coach ... I look forward to helping develop the next generation of great USA Basketball players.”

Click here for more information.

Jeanette's rehab is on track

Here is a very brief report from Jeanette about the progress of her rehabilitation from surgery to repair the ACL she tore last October.

Fresh start for Candice and Nicole

Michelle Smith (espnW) reports on one of the WNBA's biggest offseason trade deals — a fresh start for Candice and Nicole in Tulsa, a team that needs veteran leadership and championship experience.

They join Kayla in "Stanford South".

Candice comments, "When I was a freshman in high school, Nicole was a huge part of the reason I wanted to go to Stanford. I never thought I'd be playing with her. And I get to play with Kayla again, the most reliable post I ever played with."

Read more...

Alumnae Abroad, 2012-13 season-end report

The 2012-13 season is over for the ten Stanford alumnae playing abroad. Here is how they did — youngest to oldest:

Nneka Ogwumike ('12), CCC Polkowice

Nneka finished her rookie professional year with a flourish as CCC Polkowice swept the best-of-seven Polish PLKK finals against archrival Wisla Can-Pak and won the Gold for the first time. Nneka tallied a double-double in each of the last three games of the finals.

Polkowice was also the PLKK regular season champion with a 17-1 win-loss record. Nneka ranked #1 in the PLKK in scoring (18.3 ppg), #2 in rebounds (9.3 rpg) and #8 in steals (2.0 spg)

Polkowice, in just its second appearance in EuroLeague Women, made it to the Final Eight.

A profile of the team in EuroLeague Women news mentions Nneka as "one of the revelations of the season" and credits her shooting range as one of the most important elements of the Polkowice's success, "since she has stepped beyond the three-point line on a regular basis and with great success."

In the EuroLeague games, Nneka led Polkowice in scoring (17.5 ppg), rebounds (7.8 rpg) and steals (2.1 spg). She took only 12% of her shots from beyond the arc, but made 48% of them. She also made 90.3% of her free throws — the best in the competition. She ranked in the top 20 in 15 statistical categories.

Nneka was named the Euroleague.com All-Polish PLKK Player of the Year, Center of the Year and Import Player of the Year.

Kayla Pedersen ('11), Ceyhan Belediyespor

Ceyhan finished 8th (of 14) in the Turkey TKBL league with a 12-14 win-loss record and ended its season with a loss to Fenerbahce in the quarterfinals of the TKBL league playoffs.

Kayla ranked #6 in the TKBL in rebounds (9.3 rpg), #7 in steals (1.8 spg) and #9 in blocks (0.7 bpg). She was the third-best scorer on her team (11.3 ppg) and tallied eight double-doubles.

Kayla posted to her blog four times while in Ceyhan, recounting how much she enjoyed being a basketball player in Turkey.

Jayne Appel ('10), Henan Elephants

Henan finished 11th (of 12) in the China WCBA League with a 6-16 win-loss record — a step up from last season when it finished last.

Jayne was a standout member of the team. She was Henan's leading scorer (26.9 ppg, third in the league), rebounder (15.4 rpg, first in the league), shot blocker (2.0 bpg, second in the league), and thief (1.9 spg, seventh in the league).

Jayne was named to the Eurobasket.com All-Chinese WCBA 2nd team and to the All-Imports team.

Michelle Harrison ('10), Terpsithea Glyfadas

Michelle began her professional basketball career this season in Switzerland with Uni Basel. Although she was leading the team statistically after 12 games (20.9 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.4 apg, 2.4 spg), Basel released her for reasons that have not been clearly stated publicly. One report hinted of interpersonal discord; another that the manager was under duress to improve performance and the easiest thing to do was release the non-national.

Whatever ... Michelle signed with Terpsithea a month later and finished the season in Greece. Terpsithea placed ninth (of 12) in the Greece-A1 league with a 7-15 win-loss record.

Michelle played in the starting five for seven games with Terpsithea, led the team in rebounds (9.6 rpg), and was their second-best scorer (13.7 ppg).

Jillian Harmon ('09), Lavezzini Parma

Parma finished third in the Italy A1 league with a 13-5 win-loss record — its best in many years — and ended its season with a loss to Lucca in the semifinals of the A1 playoffs.

Jillian was a major factor in her team's success. She was Parma's second-best scorer (14.4 ppg, #7 in the league) and rebounder (7.9 rpg, #6 in the league). She had six double-doubles.

Jillian was named to the Euroleague.com All-Italian A1 Second Team and to the All-Imports Team.

Cissy Pierce ('08), Gruner Stern Keltern

After playing three years of professional basketball in Germany, Cissy began the 2012-13 season in Luxembourg. She left that team after a month and returned to Germany, where she signed with Keltern, a team in the second German national league, Bundesliga.

Keltern finished third (of 11) in the South Group of Bundesliga with a 13-7 win-loss record and ended its season with a loss in the semifinals of the Bundesliga playoffs.

Cissy played as a reserve for Bundesliga. She averaged 8.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game. She didn't attempt many 3-point shots and made just four in the 20 games she played for Keltern. She may not have fully recovered yet from the shoulder dislocation she suffered last season.

Kristen Newlin/Nevin Nevlin ('07), Fenerbahce

Fenerbahce had an outstanding, but not quite perfect, season.

It finished first in the Turkey TKBL league with a 24-2 win-loss record and won the TKBL championship for the eighth consecutive season. Fenerbahce and archrival Galatasary have now each won the title eleven times.

Fenerbahce made it to the Final Four of EuroLeague Women for the second consecutive year and, for the first time, advanced to the championship game where it lost to highly-favored UMMC Ekaterinburg 82-56.

Kristen, in her fifth season with Fenerbahce, is described in her EuroLeague bio as "a seasoned performer who is powerful under the hoop, has a decent mid-range game, is strong on the glass and can match up well defensively with opponents".

She averaged 4.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.4 blocks in the Turkish league games and 2.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 0.1 assists and 0.1 blocks in the EuroLeague games.

Sebnem Kimyacioglu ('05), Galatasaray

Galatasaray, Turkey's other powerhouse team, suffered a major setback in February when its leading scorer Lindsey Whalen left the team over an alleged salary dispute. It finished second in the Turkish league with a 21-5 win-loss record and lost the TKBL championship to Fenerbahce.

In spite of Whalen's departure, Galatasaray placed fourth in its group in EuroLeague Women and advanced to the second round, but lost all three of its games there.

Seb averaged 3.2 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists in the Turkish league games and 2.7 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.2 assists in the EuroLeague games. She was one of Galatasaray's most dependable three-point shooters, making almost 40% of her attempts in the Turkish league games and 30% in EuroLeague Women.

Nicole Powell ('04), Perfumerias Avenida

The season began badly for Avenida. Midway through the first round of EuroLeague Women, it was next-to-last in its group with a 2-6 win-loss record. This was a bitterly disappointing position for the team that had been the EuroLeague Women champion in 2011.

In an attempt to reach the top again, Avenida replaced its head coach. A few days later, it terminated Nicole's contract, citing off-court disciplinary reasons as being the main foundation for the decision. (Click here for more.)

Nicole contested the charge, and Avenida subsequently withdrew its allegations of unprofessional behavior. (Click here for more.)

Cori Enghusen/Korel Engin ('02), Botasspor Adana

Botas finished 10th (of 14) in the Turkey TKBL league with a 10-16 win-loss record.

Cori, in her 11th season of professional basketball, came off the bench for about eight minutes per game. She averaged 1.7 points, 1.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.1 blocks per game.