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The return of four starters and addition of a five-player recruiting class that was ranked among the nation’s best gives the Stanford University women’s basketball program high hopes entering the 2000-01 campaign.

"I think we should have improved depth this season," Stanford women’s basketball head coach Tara VanDerveer, who enters the season just three victories shy of 500 for her storied career, said. "We obviously lost an important person in Milena (First Team All-Pac-10 selection Milena Flores), but this will also be one of our most experienced teams in several years. This will be one of our deepest teams going back to our Pac-10 Championship teams from 1995-97.

"With the depth we have, we can use just about any combination of personnel on the floor at any given time. We’re looking to really do some different things offensively, involving running more and being more aggressive."

VanDerveer’s squad is coming off a season where it made great strides en route to a second round NCAA Tournament appearance and 12th 20-win season (21-9) in the last 13 years. The Cardinal, which is ranked anywhere from No. 10-19 in the preseason polls, will now look to go further in the postseason and regain the Pac-10 title for the first time since 1997-98 as the youth from last season (six of the top nine scorers on last year’s team were freshmen and sophomores) turns into experience.

"We were in every game and were extremely competitive last year, now we just have to be more consistent," VanDerveer said. "The biggest thing for us physically is we have to improve our defense and do a better job of rebounding. And like last year, a real key will be keeping everyone healthy."

Competitive was a perfect word to describe a Cardinal squad that saw eight of its nine losses come by seven points or less. In addition, the Cardinal’s five Pac-10 losses came by a combined total of only 22 points. Stanford also won five of its eight games against ranked opposition, and lost a last-minute heartbreaker to eventual national finalist Tennessee. Stanford also snapped a three-game postseason losing streak with an impressive overtime upset of then-No. 24 Michigan in the first round before a hard-fought loss to No. 4 Georgia in the second round. VanDerveer hopes the experiences from last year carry over for her eight returning letterwinners.

"I hope that the NCAA Tournament win against Michigan is a stepping stone for us in that it has us going the right direction. We really stepped up in overtime and played well, and I think it was all of the close games we played during the season that prepared us for that kind of tight game in the NCAA Tournament. We then played up a level against a great Georgia team at Georgia. Hopefully in that game, our players saw from Georgia what it takes to get to the next level of the NCAA Tournament."

Stanford will be going the right direction in 2000-01 with four returning starters—1999-2000 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Jamie Carey, 1999-2000 Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 selections Lauren St. Clair and Carolyn Moos, and Bethany Donaphin, who ranked among the conference leaders in rebounds. Add in four other key contributors in Cori Enghusen, Sarah Dimson, Enjoli Izidor and Lindsey Yamasaki, and the Cardinal has eight players familiar with the rigors of both Pac-10 and NCAA Tournament competition.

But those eight players will not be alone, as VanDerveer and her staff has brought to The Farm a five-player recruiting class that was ranked among the top five in the nation. First Team Parade Magazine Prep All-American Nicole Powell (Phoenix, AZ), who led the U.S. Junior World Championship Qualifying Team in rebounding this summer, leads the way in a class that figures to make an immediate impact. Point guard Susan King (Richfield, MN) was a USA Today First Team All-American, and like Powell, was invited to participate in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association High School All-America game. Forwards Becky Bonner (Concord, NH) and Chelsea Trotter (San Dimas, CA) were also Parade All-Americans, while Katie Denny (Pacific Grove, CA) finished her prep career as one of the most prolific scorers in Northern California history.

VanDerveer will also look to her returners to continue the proficient shooting from the outside that rewrote both the Stanford and Pac-10 record books a year ago. Stanford made a conference and school record 213 3-pointers in 1999-2000—an average of 7.10 per game—to shatter the old mark set by the 1996-97 Cardinal of 205 in 36 contests (5.69 pg). Stanford also owned the second best 3-point percentage in Division I women’s basketball at .408 (213-of-522), which was better than the overall field goal percentage of five schools in the Pac-10. The leaders of the charge were Jamie Carey, who set a Stanford record for 3-pointers in a season with 81, and Lauren St. Clair, who finished first in the Pac-10 and ninth in the country by shooting .466 (61-of-131) from behind the arc.

"We’re a great offensive team with outstanding 3-point shooters. There’s nothing better for a post player than having great 3-point shooters like Jamie and Lauren, because the outside game really opens up things on the inside. We have a lot of other great 3-point shooters, but to be successful this season we also need to have a great inside game. We need to go out, get people on the block and be more physical in the paint."

As always, the Cardinal, which was picked to finish first in the conference in the annual Preseason Coaches Poll, will be challenged night in and night out in the rugged Pac-10. The conference race came down to the final weekend last March, with Stanford finishing one game behind conference champion Oregon, and a total of six teams finishing within four games of the top spot.

"I think the positive thing last year was that we were in the conference race right up to the end," said VanDerveer. "But we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be. We’re going to have to use our experience to our advantage this season, which is something we maybe didn’t use as well as we needed to last year.

"If we want to win the conference, we will have to win it every single day in practice. We all learned good things from our close games last year, including the wins over Michigan and at USC and Oregon State, and we’ll have to keep that going. We beat every team in the conference last year, so it’s not like there was a team that was head and shoulders above us. We’re not intimidated by anybody, but we’re also respectful of every team we’ll play."

A challenging non-conference schedule will also earn the Cardinal’s respect, including road games at national powers Tennessee and Purdue. Stanford also faces NCAA Tournament qualifiers Oklahoma, St. Joseph’s and Utah as well as Bay Area rivals Saint Mary’s, San Francisco and Santa Clara.