Jayne's revolutionary NASA workout

Jayne has embarked on a radical new training program, designed by NASA for astronauts, as a way to get fitter and healthier than ever. The space-agey regimen involves cooling her core body temperature and then exercising for 20 brutal minutes of lactic-acid-laden hell, but the benefits are dramatic. Read more...

Michelle tops career with solid tournament outing

Michelle's basketball career ended Saturday night with the best game of her life. Utah lost to Notre Dame 67-54 in the NCAA first round, but the Utes seriously challenged the Irish pretenders to the throne. Michelle scored ten points, and pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds, nine of them O-boards.

Dirk Facer (Deseret News) writes:

After making four trips to the NCAA Tournament with perennial powerhouse Stanford, the former Mountain View High School star capped her collegiate career with a trip to the Big Dance on an underdog Utah squad. Read more...

And from Bill Oram Salt Lake Tribune):

Michelle Harrison’s career ended Saturday night, but before it did, the Orem native turned in her best performance as a Ute. Read more...

Michelle gets to dance again

The #5 Utah Utes earned an automatic NCAA berth by upsetting #2 TCU in the Mountain West Conference championship game. So Michelle will go to the Big Dance again as a redshirt senior.

Michelle contributed six points, seven rebounds and some great defense to the victory. Her teammate Michelle Plouffe said,"Michelle Harrison did a great job on [Helena Sverrisdottir]. Locked her down." (Sverrisdottir, TCU's top scorer, averages about 16 points and almost two 3-pointers a game. She was held to just three field goals – none of them from beyond the arc.) Read more...

Embarking on recovery road

Last spring, a hobbled Jayne Appel led Stanford to the NCAA title game, but she was held scoreless for the first time in her career in the Cardinal's loss to Connecticut. She was then picked fifth in the 2010 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars, and averaged 10.9 minutes and 3.4 points a game in her injury-ridden rookie season. Here is Appel's account of her trying 2010. Read more...

Michelle draws more than fouls

By Tony Jones, Salt Lake Tribune

On the basketball court, Michelle Harrison defines versatility.

Utah’s senior small forward is the second-leading rebounder on the team. She hands out assists, she scores and her defense is a major reason that the Utes were able to start playing small ball midway through the season.

But for as many things that Harrison brings to her team, her accomplishments off the court make her truly unique. Read more...

No EuroLeague Final Four for Nicole or Kristen

Wisla Can-Pack (Nicole Powell's team) and Fenerbahce (Kristen Newlin's team) both were swept 0-2 in the best-of-three quarterfinals round of EuroLeague Women 2011.

Wisla lost to Spanish team Halcon Avenida 70-87, 60-72. Over the two games, Nicole scored 20 points, hit three 3-pointers, and made 50% of her field goal attempts.

Fenerbahce lost their two best players, Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor in January (Taylor left Fenerbahce in a show of solidarity with Taurasi). In spite of that, they were undefeated in EuroLeague play up to this point, but they couldn't hold off the strong Russian team Sparta in the quarterfinals. They lost 78-86, 56-74.

Sparta advances to the EuroLeague Final Four for the fifth consecutive year. They have many members familiar to American basketball fans. The head coach is Pokey Chatman. The team includes Epiphanny Prince, Sue Bird and Taj McWilliams. Prince led her team in scoring with 19 points in the first game and 22 in the second. McWilliams had game-high 12 rebounds in the first game and 10 in the second.

Kristen, who twittered a couple of weeks ago that she was suffering from neck spasms, did not play in the first game and played just three minutes in the second game.

There is more information about the quarterfinals games here:
Wisla/Avenida, game 1
Wisla/Avenida, game 2
Fenerbahce/Sparta, game 1
Fenerbahce/ Sparta, game 2

Candice is feeling her best ever

By Tim Leighton, Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

Minnesota Lynx guard Candice Wiggins always has been upbeat, but her enthusiasm is in overdrive this offseason in the wake of rehabilitation for a torn Achilles' tendon in her left leg that forced her to miss the last 20 games of last season.

Wiggins, who turned 24 on Valentine's Day, reflects on her rehabilitation and her excitement for the 2011 season. Read more...

Alumni abroad – midseason report

This is how our Stanford alumnae are doing about three-quarters of the way through the European professional basketball season.

Nicole Powell, Wisla Can-Pack

Wisla is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the Polish PLKK league.

Wisla has advanced to the Euroleague quarter-finals, which will be played late in February. It placed second in its group with a 7-3 win-loss record in the qualifying rounds, then swept the eighth-finals (16 teams) 2-0. Nicole, who did not join the team until early January, played only in the last four games. She's averaging 15.8 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists.

Wisla leads the PLKK league with an 18-1 win-loss record. Nicole is one of the starting five and is averaging 11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 3.0 steals.

Brooke Smith, Tarbes

Brooke began the season with Italian team Taranto, but transferred to Tarbes (which is in southern France near the Pyrenees) in December when the head coach from Tarbes decided that he needed more presence in the paint.

Tarbes is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the French LFB league.

Tarbes went 3-7 in the Euroleague qualifying rounds and is out of the competition. Brooke averaged 10.8 points and 6.7 rebounds. She had two double-doubles and ranked #8 in 2-pt field goal percentage (55.7%).

Tarbes is #2 of 14 in the LFB with an 11-3 win-loss record. Brooke comes off the bench and plays almost 20 minutes per game. She is averaging 6.5 points and 1.8 rebounds

Kristen Newlin, Fenerbahce

Fenerbahce is playing in Euroleague this season as well as in the Turkish TKBL league.

In spite of losing Diana Taurasi early in January, Fenerbahce has advanced to the Euroleague quarter-finals with a perfect record. It won all ten qualifying round games and swept its Turkish rival Galatasaray in the eighth-finals. Kristen has played about nine minutes per game and is averaging 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists.

Fenerbahce is tied with Galatasary for #1 of 12 in the TBBL league, with 15-1 win-loss records. Kristen is playing about 15 minutes in the TKBL games and averaging 6.8 points and 3.6 rebounds

Cori Enghusen, Mersin

Mersin is in the Turkish TKBL league too. It ranks seventh of 12 in the league with a 7-9 record.

Cori plays about 15 minutes per game and averages 3.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.5 blocks.

Jillian Harmon, Comense

Comense's win-loss record is 7-9. It ranks seventh of 12 in the Italy A-1 League.

Jillian comes off the bench for about 25 minutes per game. She is second on the team in points (10.0) and rebounds (5.3) per game.

Cissy Pierce, Rhein-Main Baskets

Rhein-Main Baskets' win-loss record is 5-12. It ranks 10th of 12 in the German DBBL League.

Cissy is in the starting five. She leads the team in points per game (13.7) and is second in rebounds (6.5).

Cissy sinks a buzzer-beater

Cissy Pierce, in her third season with Rhein-Main Baskets in Germany, is her team''s top scorer with 13.7 points per game.

She sank a long-g-g-g winning three at the buzzer last week. This is the second time this season that she's done that.

Cissy is number 8 in black. Notice the player on the opposing team who just falls to the floor in disbelief!

Goodenbour flogs Anteaters

Molly Goodenbour, in her third season as head coach at UC Irvine, has brought the Anteaters from a 7-23 win-loss record to 13-9, their first time in double-digit victories in eight seasons.

But the Anteaters have been painfully inconsistent, and Goodenbour is using stern measures to get her team to play with urgency for the remaining half of their conference season. Read more...