Do you believe in love at first sight?  Or that nice guys finish last?  How about Unicorns?  The answers to these questions are all arbitrary; it really depends on who you ask.   Here's a question to which I think we'd all come up with a similar answer: Do you believe in home court advantage? I'd be inclined to say yes. How else do you explain beating a team by 20 on your home court and then going over to their gym and playing a tight two-point game? Some people point to refs (we never do that), others point to the crowd, and many believe familiarity with the court and rims help the home team. Regardless of the actual reasons, road trips have tripped up many teams...including ours.  So far your Stanford Cardinal is 5-0 at home, 2-0 at neutral sites, and 4-3 on the road. Post-Duke loss and pre-South Carolina win, Jayne Appel delivered our pre-game "lets go- come out swinging- here we go Card" rally speech. She looked each one of us in the eye and said, "we have something to prove... we MUST be Road Warriors."

Despite the inspiration, we didn't prove much of anything and proceeded to finish up our long road trip against 3 good teams with a 1-2 record. We did end up beating South Carolina that day, but we lost to Duke and then to Tennessee in OT.

Free throws, rebounding and press breaking are all things we work on every single day in practice against each other and against the male practice players. I'm not so worried about those things. We are more than capable of knocking down a free throw, boxing out, and bringing the ball up the court. 

Last season, we had one maxim: "Tough and together".  We said it everyday together in the team huddle before and after practice.  But leaving Tennessee for our four-day holiday break, the unsaid question was: are we tough and together this season?  

Tough teams win on the road.

On December 26, we returned from our respective states, from our family and friends, from people who don't care if we turn over the ball or take low-percentage shots. Many of us returned from the break with gifts, some came back with new hairstyles: new braids, new weaves and fresh highlights. Fresh off the plane, we returned from the warmth of our homes to a freezing Maples Pavilion. Any previously sore knees, shoulders, hamstrings and ankles ached as we fought to warm up. We were about to start the Pac-10 season and fittingly we started the season off with a tough challenge. We were going on the road again to play a very tough team, Arizona State.

We were down at halftime. We jogged into the locker room and awaited our halftime speech from the coaches. What we received instead was a very emotional inquiry form assistant coach Bobbie Kelsey, "Who wants it"? Silence. "I am up to here with y'all not playing the way I know you can. You are better than this! Go out there play hard, COME ON!" Silence. And then Jillian Harmon, the only true senior on our team said, "Lets go!"  And then we all rallied; everyone said something. Even the people who don't talk much on our team said something. And then Tara brought us into a huddle. And then we warmed up for the second half slapping each other's backs, looking each other in the eye and just saying things to make sure we were talking and being vocal. The second half started. Jillian stepped up and put the team on her back and everyone else played with passion and did what they had to do. And we came back and won.

You know, I've been around long enough to know the team you see in December is usually not the team you see in March. There are so many unforeseen moments that define a team. I've learned rankings don't mean as much as getting on a roll at the right time does. I've learned that getting to where we went last year took everyone.  We will need everyone. I'm proud of what our team did in Arizona.  So far we are 2-0 in the Pac 10. Two-and-oh on the road. New Season, new mentality. We are tough and together, we are road warriors.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know more about our team in this week's edition of the "Rhetoric of RosGO."  Come back soon to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes! 

Due to final exams and applications for master degree programs it's been a while since my last post.  To catch you up I'll go all the way back to our games in Hawaii over thanksgiving break.  First let me start by saying Waikiki was beautiful, refreshing, and productive. We saw more of the beach than we did during last year's trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands. In Hawaii, I went to the beach twice. =) 

Beach time or not, these trips are good for team bonding. We posed with tourists on the beach (see picture 1). We posed in front of the beautiful view from Nneka Ogwumike's room (Nneka always seems to be in a room with a view...) (see picture 2). We dolled ourselves up a bit for a lovely thanksgiving banquet (see picture 3), and we embraced color together! (see picture 4) It was a grand old time!

We also had some very good games. The trip to Hawaii held our first games without point guard JJ Hones (out for the season with an ACL tear) and our team was obviously in transition due to our unfortunate loss. I felt really good about our win over Purdue because it was a close game and at times we were behind. By pulling out that win we proved to ourselves and each other that we have heart and grit. I think a game like that was something we needed: a success in the face of adversity and a come from behind win against a good team. I may sound like I'm over exaggerating the importance of this win, but in the past tough wins like that usually came behind an offensive explosion also known as former Stanford star Candice Wiggins. With that comeback victory we learned that we were capable of winning the tough ones on our own.

Over this year's Thanksgiving tournament we learned not only about our team as a whole but we also learned quite a lot about each other as individuals. Allow me to share a bit about my teammates!

#0 Melanie Murphy... is from New York.  I think that speaks for itself.

#1 Grace Mashore ... looks like she is 14 years old.  Grace takes hair gel very seriously.  She doesn't just use any kind of hair gel either.  She has her parents air-ship boxes on top of boxes of hair gel across country to her.  Seriously... she does.

#2 Jayne Appel ... is a 6-4 Paris Hilton.  A social butterfly by nature, and Pi Phi by pledge, she can be counted on to know what's happening on and off campus on any given night. One thing to watch out for: Be careful if you happen to be around her before games. When excited, she sometimes hits.

#5 Michelle Harrison ... is from Utah. That CERTAINLY speaks for itself.

#10 JJ Hones ... went out like a G. She balled out in our game against Rutgers before she sadly tore her ACL.  After hanging out with her this summer in Oregon I also discovered her hidden talent:  JJ is really good at doing the Moonwalk!

#14 Kayla Pederson ... puts the "Responsible" in Responsible.  This girl has been here before. Kayla was a fifth year senior in a past life. She came to Stanford as a freshman knowing all the plays and what time the bus leaves.

#15 Lindy La Rocque   ... likes to shoot threes. That's all I really know about her.

#20 Hannah Donaghe ... is the team's resident hippy.  Hannah still has a flip-top cell phone. I think that speaks for itself.

#21 Rosalyn Gold-Onwude ... is the person who writes this blog!  To find our more about me check out this you tube video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6JMnwFzwWg

#23 Jeanette Pohlen ... is the type of person who knows all the words to every song ever made and practices dance moves in the mirror. She especially loves any song that was made by a group of three or more people.

#24 Ashley Cimino ... enjoys awkward conversation about Maine. In her free time she works on her deadly three-point shot, otherwise known as "The Ashley Special".

#30 Nnemkadi "Nneka" Ogwumike ... was last year's Gatorade National H.S. Player of the Year.  It's probably just a coincidence that she always has a hotel room with a view. 

#31 Morgan Clyburn ... enjoys movies that make her cry.  Also, Morgan is studying to become a biomechanical engineer.  That is so Stanford of her.

#33 Jillian Harmon ... is a smooth operator. Things just have a way of working out for Jillian. She'll charm you out of a house and home if you're not careful.

#42 Sarah Boothe ... is the most adorable 6-5 person you might ever meet.  She also looks like Liv Tyler. 

Kerry Blake ... is hands down the best manager ever.  Nothing funny about that.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know more about our team in this week's edition of the Rhetoric of RosGO.  Come back soon to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes! 

Correction:

In a blog posted on Nov. 18 about Littles, Middles, and Bigs, I reported, "I have been asking for a new pair of white mid-calf length socks since preseason".  Some time after the posting of that blog three pairs of brand new socks mysteriously appeared in my locker.  Associate Head Coach Amy Tucker claims the socks have been there for weeks and that I must have missed them because my locker was too messy.  Is this a truthful claim or a convenient cover up?  The investigation continues...

Upcoming games: vs. UC Davis 2pm on Dec. 28! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Stanford Littles Pledge:

"I shall love my BIGS by giving them the ball" 

Get The Ball INSIDE!"

This is the sign you would see upon entering the locker room of the Stanford Women's Basketball team.  Actually there are many signs.  They're posted on the doors of lockers that belong to "Littles."  They're posted on the mirrors in the bathroom.  There is no escaping the signs and there is no escaping the fact that at Stanford, the "Bigs" have their cake and eat it too.  They do easy fun drills at practice, they get gear quicker and without hassle, and the plays are made for them.  In Maples Pavilion, it's a Big's World and Littles and Middles are just squirrels trying to get a nut.

I was initially nervous to write this post, for fear that I might give some of our game plan away.  However, after careful consideration, I decided that if you're an opposing coach, and you don't know we're going inside... you missed the boat.  So...I'll continue.

Think of our team as a mini-civilization.  Who are the Bigs?  They are our big girls, the 6'3 and up club.  They are the caesars, the czars, the emperors, the queens, the presidents, and the pharaohs of the team.  And then there are the peasants.   Introducing the Littles:  a miserly collection of point guards and shooting guards.  The Littles are sometimes combined with a small group of vagabonds, the Middles.  The Middles are a collection of migrant wing players who rotate between the Bigs and Littles as they please.

In any given drill, you can count on the fact that the Littles are given the hardest task.  In one drill the Bigs simply have is to catch the ball, pass it to a frantically hustling guard and then shoot a foul shot or take a layup; whichever option suits their fancy at the moment.  While the Bigs are busy playing tiddly-winks and lay-up drill, the guards are made to go back door hard, sprint to the outlet, make three full speed pull-up jumpers at all sorts of ungodly ends of the gym and make it back in time for their turn in line, only to begin the same ordeal again.  As if our lives weren't already hard enough, the coaches have added new ways to burden the Littles.  We don't just do the hardest parts of drills, now we have a point system.  Each jump shot is worth one point.  A missed lay up is worth minus two points.  Only one guard can win.  This pretty much means that unless you are absolutely perfect for all six reps of the drill, you and the other loser guards will be doing a suicide at the end of the drill.  Don't worry though; the entire group of Bigs is always available to cheer us on as we run.

During practice we often break up to do position drills.  Littles and Middles are on one end of the gym; Bigs are on the other.  Not surprisingly, the Bigs have two coaches work with them, Amy Tucker and Bobbie Kelsey, while the guards only get one, Kate Paye.  Kate says this is because the Bigs aren't that smart and they need the extra attention.   Kate is rarely wrong.

The Bigs have another huge advantage stemming from their cozy relationship with Amy Tucker.  Amy's official title is Associate Head Coach, however, around the locker room she's known as the "sock lady."  Amy controls all the gear.  Amy is the gatekeeper to all that is stretchy: socks and spandex, sports bras and Dri-fits. The Bigs never want for something new to wear.  I see them giggling with Amy and sashaying around the court with their blazingly bright Dri-fit t-shirts and fully padded socks.  Meanwhile, I have been asking for a new pair of white mid-calf length socks since preseason.  It's a crying shame.

The Littles endure harder drills and slow delivery of new gear only to tolerate yet another injustice: the plays aren't for us.  I will recount one example to prove my point.  Sometime during the first week or two of official team practice we began installing plays.  Tara yells out that they've created a brand new play just for our 6'5 freshman, Sarah Boothe. Boothe had been at Stanford for about five weeks and already had plays ran for her. I've been here three YEARS. Without rest, without socks, and without plays.  What's a guard got to do to come off a screen?  

Ha!  Ok, ok, ok.  While the contents of this post are mostly accurate and true (the signs do exist (see above) and I am still waiting on socks...), I've had a little fun with this post.  So please, for those who don't know me well, realize this post was written with love and a smile. 

I hope you enjoyed getting to know more about our team in this week's edition of the Rhetoric of RosGO.  Come back next week to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes! 

Upcoming games: New Mexico @ home, Rutgers @ home, then off to Hawaii for a Thanksgiving tournament!