Karen Middleton, Head Coach

Although Karen is not a Stanford alumna, she is a Stanford women's basketball alumna. She was an assistant coach at Stanford for ten seasons before leaving in 2007 to take a job as assistant coach at Illinois. She was announced today as the new Head Coach of Western Carolina University women's basketball. Congratulations, Karen!

Jennifer Azzi awaits Hall of Fame induction

Jennifer Azzi, who was in Tara's first Stanford recruiting class in 1986, will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame next month. 

ABC7  reported the honor on their news show. Click here for a story, a video of the  TV news spot and a long video interview by ABC7 sports anchor Mike Shumann.

Happy Birthday, Kristen!

Kristen got the birthday present she was hoping for -- a gold medal!  Her team, Fenerbahce, defeated Mersin 68-54 and won the Turkish Women's Basketball League championship today.

Kristen contributed no points and two rebounds and teammate Nicole contributed  three points and four rebounds to the victory.

On the losing side, Olympia Scott scored two points and eight rebounds.

Here are the game report and the box score.

Kristen writes about visits from her parents, JJ and Cissy and the first two games of the championship series in her blog.

Fenerbahce one game away from title.

Fenerbache won the second game of the best-of-five finals of the Turkish Basketball League playoffs today. They defeated Mersin 102- 63, which, as the game report says, took a big bite out of Mersin's title hopes.

Mersin's last chance to recover is the third game on Friday at Mersin (the first two games were in Istanbul).

Fenerbahce distributed the offense. Six players scored in double figures. Nicole had 10 points and  two rebounds. Kristen had 11 points and one rebound.

Only ex Blue Devils Mistie Williams and Lindsey Harding were effective for Mersin.  Olympia was held to two points and four rebounds. She is being very well-defended in the photo above by 6'-5" Yilmaz Nevriye.

Here are the game report and the box score.

Kristen, Nicole & Olympia compete for Turkish league championship

Kristen Newlin and Nicole Powell played together at Stanford in 2003-4, Kristen's freshman year and Nicole's senior year.  Olympia  Scott ('98) preceded both of them. Today the three played together in Turkey, in the first game of the best-of-five finals of the Turkish Basketball League playoffs.  

Kristen and Nicole play for Fenerbahce, a  Turkish team located in Istanbul.  Going into the playoffs, Fenerbahce leads the Turkish League with a 17-3 record. In today's game, Kristen  (her Turkish name is Nevin Nevlin) had 13 points, eight rebounds, an assist and a block. Nicole had one point, three rebounds , two assists and three steals.

Olympia  plays for Mersin, a town on the southern coast of Turkey. Mersin is third in the league with a 15-5 record. Olympia is a starter for Mersin. In today's game, she had 10 points, the team-high seven rebounds, an assist and two steals.

Fenerbahce defeated Mersin 87 - 61.    Here is the box score.  The second finals game will be played on Tuesday, the third on Friday and the fourth and fifth, if required, next weekend.  

I couldn't find any photos of today's game or any of Kristen and Nicole playing together, but here is one from Kristen's blog of them out to dinner with their teammates.

Candice's team wins league championship

Candice Wiggins played just six minutes and scored only four points, but her team, Ros Casares of Valencia, won its third straight Spanish League title by beating Perfumerias Avenida 70-66 in Salamanca on Friday to sweep the best-of-three championship series 2-0.

It was a hard-fought game  -- very nervous in last minutes -- according to this  game report  from Eurobasket News.

Candice nears league championship in Spain

Candice joined Ros Casares-Valencia of the Liga Feminina (Spanish women's basketball league) in January after recovering from knee surgery. She has averaged 19 minutes and 8.6 points per game as Ros Casares led the league with a 25-1 record. Now Ros Carares is within one victory of its third straight league championship. In best-of-three series, they won the semifinals in two games and today defeated Perfumeria Avenida 96-56 in the first game of the finals. Candice averaged 11.7 points in those three playoff games. The second game is on Friday in Salamanca and the third game, if required, on Sunday in Valencia. Candice is scheduled to rejoin the Minnesota Lynx after her season in Spain is complete. The Lynx's first (and only) exhibition game is May 23.

Cissy celebrates league championship

Cissy and her  teammates  celebrate the victory that earned them the Southern Germany League championship. Rhein-Main Baskets won the best-of-three league championship series against KuSG Leimen, who had led the league all season. 

That's Cissy (#15) on the left. Google translates the headline to "Radiant Joy Winners".

Cissy has played a leading role in the team's success.  She had 20 points (including two 3-pointers), eight rebounds, two assists, a steal and two blocks in the final game. She scored her fifth consecutive double-double in the first game of the series.

Krista Rappahahn honored for high school accomplishments

Cardinal fans have known Krista Rappahahn as an outstanding student athlete during her four years at Stanford and in the three years since then. It's no surprise to discover that she was also an outstanding student athlete before that at the Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut, where she:

• Averaged 23.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 3.0 assists as a senior and finished as NFA's leading scorer (male or female) with 2,048 points.
• Led the team to a 106-2 record,  three state championships and four Eastern  Connecticut Conference titles.
• Was second in her class, took all advanced placement courses and earned a 4.317 grade point average

In 2002 the Hartford Courant selected her as the "Best of the Best" in girls basketball and reported some of the accomplishments that made the label a perfect fit. Read more... It was announced recently that "Krista Rappahahn - High School Player" is to be inducted into the Connecticut Basketball Hall of Fame for her contributions to the enhancement of women's basketball in Connecticut. Read more...

Jamie Carey retires

Jamie Carey, one of the all-time "if only ..." players in the heart of Cardinal fans, has retired from professional basketball. Read more...