Iowa vs. Stanford: Some early notes

STANFORD, Calif. - Here's one way to measure the difference in notoriety between the women's basketball programs at Stanford and Iowa.

The Hawkeyes knew the Cardinal players by name. Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer knew the Hawkeyes by number.

Here's a snippet of VanDerveer's observations of the Hawkeyes at Sunday's press conference:

"Their point guard, 2 (Kamille Wahlin), is an excellent shooter … 24 (Jaime Printy), she's an excellent shooter. She can score.

"No. 20 (Kelly Krei) and 12 (Morgan Johnson), they stepped up (in the first-round win over Rutgers) … 50 (Gabby Machado) works very hard."

As for Kachine Alexander?

"No. 21 creates a lot with her penetration," VanDerveer said.

Even without name knowledge, VanDerveer correctly put the numerals with the tendencies. She's no dummy; Stanford has won two NCAA titles (in 1990 and 1992) and 17 Pac-10 crowns, including 10 in a row.

"What have I learned about Iowa?" VanDerveer said. "I've learned that we shouldn't sit in a compact zone."

Iowa was 8-for-12 from long range in the second half of its first-round win over Rutgers.

"We're going to look to score. They're going to look to score," VanDerveer said.

"It could be a very exciting game to watch and a very challenging game to coach."

Recalling a record

When Stanford faced Iowa State in a regional final last year, ISU Coach Bill Fennelly was determined to prevent the Cardinal's 3-point shooters from beating him.

So the Cyclones opted not to double-team Jayne Appel in the post, and she responded with a school-record 46 points.

Appel is the headliner for Stanford. She's the school's fourth-leading career scorer at 2,071 points and the leading career rebounder (1,230).

"Jayne takes the attention and makes the rest of us a whole lot better," said teammate Rosalyn Gold-Onwude.

A sprained ankle has limited the 6-foot-4 post lately, though, and she's the Cardinal's third-leading scorer this year at 13.6 points per game. She played sparingly in the first-round win over Cal-Riverside, scoring seven points in 15 minutes.

Basketball mom

Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder is the mother of three. Two of her children are basketball fanatics. One, not so much.

"Hannah plays on a sixth-grade team," Bluder said. "Emma couldn't care less. It's all social for her.

"David has a nice shot for a 7-year-old. He can completely read a stat sheet. He learned his math from basketball."

The family played in the driveway a bit during the warm spell before the Hawkeyes traveled to California.

"It was fun," Bluder said. "But I don't ever want them to feel pressure to play because their mom is a coach."