Starbird's research helping in Haiti

By Michelle Smith, FanHouse

Kate Starbird and her research partners at the University of Colorado in Boulder have developed social media technology that is aiding workers and volunteers in Haiti in getting help where it's needed most. Read more...

Catching up with Nicole

Ben York, SLAM online, interviewed Nicole recently to get her thoughts on her roller-coaster 2009 season, her excitement to be a member of the Liberty, and updates on her off-season in Turkey. Read more...

Alumnae Abroad - Midseason Update

This is how our Stanford alumnae are doing midway through the European professional basketball season.

Comense, Brooke Smith & Jillian Harmon

Comense's win-loss record is 6-5. They rank sixth of 12 in the Italy A-1 League.

Brooke and Jillian are both in Comense's starting five.

Brooke leads the team in points (16.1), rebounds (9.0),blocks (0.9) and assists (0.8) per game. She ranks 6th in the league in scoring, 2nd in rebounds and 5th in blocks.

Jillian is second in points (11.9) and rebounds (6.0) per game.

Fenerbahce, Nicole Powell and Kristen Newlin

Fenerbahce is playing both in the Turkish TBBL league and in Euroleague this season. The team is #1 of 12 in TBBL with a 9-0 record. They placed third in their group of six in the Euroleague qualifying round with a 5-3 record, and so advance to the eighth-final playoff round (16 teams) which begins the first week of February.

Nicole and Kristen are both in Fenerbache's starting five.

Kristen averages 12.0 points and 3.2 rebounds – both second-best of the team – in the TBBL games. She has made six of seven three-pointers, which gives her the best percentage of the team (85.7%)! She averages 9.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in the Euroleague games, and has made just two of 11 three-pointers there.

Nicole averages 11.8 points and 4.7 rebounds and has made 21 of 35 three-pointers (60%) in the TBBL games. She averages 15.0 points (best of the team) and 4.6 rebounds and has made 19 of 39 three-pointers (48.7%) in the Euroleague games.

Mersin, Olympia Scott and Cori Enghusen

Mersin is in the Turkish TBBL league too. They rank second of 12 in the league with an 8-1 record. They've played Fenerbache once – Fenerbache won 71-61.

Olympia averages 10.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

Cori averages 5.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and one block per game.

Sony Athinaikos, Candice Wiggins

Sony Athinaikos is playing both in the Greece A-1 league and in Eurocup. They are #1 in the Greece league with a 10-0 record. They placed first in their group of four in the Eurocup qualifying round with a 5-1 record and advanced to the sixteenth-finals round (32 teams) where they won the first game against ZKK Medvescak in Croatia. The two teams will play again on Jan 14th in Greece.

Candice is in the starting five. In the Eurocup games, Candice was the top scorer (17.3 points per game). She made 23 of 51 two-point field goal attempts (45.1%), 15 of 41 three-pointers (36.6%) and 88.2% of her free throws. She averaged 4.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.3 steals per game. She is also Athinaikos' top scorer (15.6 ppg) in their Greece League games, where she makes 39% of two-point field goal attempts, 45% of three-pointers and 87% of free throws.

Rhein-Main Baskets, Cissy Pierce

Rhein-Main Baskets' win-loss record is 3-9. They rank 10th of 12 in the German DBBL League.

Cissy is in the starting five. She leads the team and the league in points per game (22.9). She is ninth in the league in assists per game (2.4). She has 5.8 rebounds per game. She has made 93 of 190 two-point field goal attempts (48.9%), 15 of 45 three-pointers (33.3%) and 83% of her free throws.

Cissy rediscovers her inner hoopster

Cissy picked up a basketball at age 5 and hasn't put it down very often.

In an interview by Jim Armstrong (Denver Post), Cissy explains why she feels fulfilled now that she's playing basketball overseas.

Her mother says, "She's got her confidence and her swagger back. It's great to see the smile back on her face."

Read more...

Nicole is Sac Bee Female Athlete of the Year

Nicole earned the Sacramento Bee's Female Athlete of the Year award because, "She always finds ways to improve."

John Whisenant, who was the Monarchs' coach and general manager, said, ""She tried to get better. Every year she tried to add something to her game."

"She wants to be as good as she can be," Whisenant said. "She's worked hard at developing a complete game. I think she's a more complete player than she ever has been."

New York Liberty coach Anne Donovan chose Nicole with the first pick of the dispersal draft last week because, "She really has increased her skill level every season."

Nicole said, "Even throughout high school and college I knew if I wanted to be a decent player and wanted to play at this level, I had to get better each year.

"Every year the league gets better … you can't come back the next year with the same stuff."

Read more...

Nicole selected by New York Liberty in Dispersal Draft

Nicole will play for her third WNBA team next year.

She began her professional career with the Charlotte Sting in 2004. She was traded to the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005, and played there for five seasons.

The Monarchs folded a couple of weeks ago. Today the New York Liberty selected Nicole with the first pick in the dispersal draft. Read more...

Starbird earns 2nd place in national competition

Kate Starbird ('97), who is pursuing her doctorate in technology, media and society at the University of Colorado, has placed second in "Random Hacks of Kindness", a national technology competition held last month in Mountain View.

Her winning idea is based on Twitter, and Kate twitters that she is, "Reveling in [her] near victory ... without writing a single line of code!"

Read more in this report from the University of Colorado News Center.

Alumnae Abroad 2009-2010

The 2009-2010 season is well underway for women's professional basketball teams in Europe. Here is a report of the eight Stanford alumnae that are playing abroad this season.

Cissy Pierce ('08) is in Germany playing for Rhein-Main Baskets for the second season. She led her team to the Southern Germany League Championship last season.

This season they're currently 11th (of 12) in the league with a 2-7 record, but Cissy is having another excellent season. She is the second-best scorer in the league and the top scorer on her team. She averages 20.3 points per game, close to twice as many as anyone else. She also contributes 6.0 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 0.7 blocks per game.

Her name appears in almost every Rhein-Main Baskets game report, " ... led her team ... has long set the tone ... kept her team in the game ... makes every game well worth seeing ..."

Reports of their last five games are posted on the Rhein-Main Baskets website.

Candice Wiggins ('08) is in Greece, playing for Sony Athinaikos, which is #1 in their league with a 7-0 record. The team has also played three games in the EuroCup qualifying round and won two of them. They will play three more EuroCup games in December, after which the top two (of four) teams in each group will advance to the sixteenth-finals round.

Athinaikos does not post player statistics for the Greece League games. In the EuroCup games, Candice is in the starting five and plays almost 30 minutes a game. She is the team's leading scorer with 17.7 points per game. She is making 48.1% of her shots, 33.3% beyond the arc and 92.3% of her free throws.

(The photo of Candice is from last year when she was playing for Ros Casares. I could find no current photo of her.)

Jillian Harmon ('09) is playing in Italy for Comense in her first season of professional basketball. The team isn't doing very well. They're 11th of 12 in their league with two wins and six losses.

Jillian is doing well as a rookie. She has started a couple of games, but usually comes off the bench. She averages 10.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game.

Brooke Smith ('07) is playing for Comense for the second season. She is in the starting five and one of their top players. At 6'3", she's the tallest player on the team. She averages 15.4 points, 9.3 rebounds, one block and 3.3 steals per game. She has had two double-doubles.

She has the second most rebounds, fourth most blocks and ninth most points per game in the Italy A1 League

There are more photos of Brooke and Jillian in action on the Comense website.

Kristen Newlin ('07) is playing for Fenerbahce again this season. Fenerbahce was the champion of their Turkish league (TBBL) last season and also played in EuroLeague, where they made it to the quarterfinals.

They're playing in both leagues again this season and have made a strong start — #1 with a 5-0 record in the Turkish league and #3 in their EuroLeague group with a 3-2 record.

Kristen, who is known as Nevin Kristen Nevlin in Turkey, is a leading member of her team and one of the starting five. Her EuroLeague bio describes her as a very good mid-range shooter and a good rebounder in the low post. She averages 10.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 60.0 FG% in the EuroLeague games and 12.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 66.7 FG% in the Turkish League games. She scores from beyond the arc occasionally— one of seven in EuroLeague and two of two in TBBL.

Nicole Powell ('04) is also playing for Fenerbahce again this season. She played for them last season and in 2005-06.

She is in the starting five and described in her EuroLeague bio as one of the top outside shooters. In this season's EuroLeague games, she averages 16.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.6 steals. She is making 45.7% of her field goals and 54.2% of her 3-pointers.

In the TBBL games, she averages 11.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.0 steals. She is making 52.2% of her field goals and 50.0% of her 3-pointers.

Olympia Scott ('98) is playing for Mersin for the second season, her 11th of professional basketball.

Mersin is a member of the TBBL, the same Turkish League as Fenerbahce. They are #2 in the league with a 5-1 record. Their one loss was to Fenerbahce. In that game, Olympia was Mersin's top scorer with 17 points and five rebounds.

Olympia is now in her mid-thirties, and you might think that she'd be slowing down a bit on the basketball court — not so! She plays about 20 minutes a game. She is tied with Ivory Latta as Mersin's second-best scorer, shooting 53.3% for 12.6 points per game. She is also their #2 rebounder with 7.2 per game.

Cori Enghusen ('02) is also playing for Mersin this season. It's her sixth season of professional basketball, her fifth in Turkey, but her first with Mersin.

Cori, whose Turkish name is Korel Engin, comes off the bench for Mersin. She averages 3.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per game.

T'nae to be inducted into hall of fame

T’Nae Thiel has been selected for induction to the 2009 class of the Weatherford High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Read more in this report from the Weatherford Democrat.

Candice will play in Russian tournament with USA Basketball

Candice is one of 13 players selected to play in the 2009 Ekaterinburg International Invitational tournament as a member of the USA squad led by three members of the 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team.

The tournament will take place Oct 9-11. Also competing in the tournament will be professional teams from Russia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Read here for more information about the tournament and about other upcoming USA Basketball events.