I'll take advantage of the football team's bye week to look ahead to the college basketball season over the next several days. With Midnight Madness approaching, it's an exciting time on the Farm.
Led by Wooden Award candidates Nnemkadi Ogwumike and Kayla Pedersen, Tara VanDerveer's squad has its sights set on a fourth straight trip to the Final Four. Many fans have already cirlced the Dec. 30 matchup with UConn on their calendars.
Johnny Dawkins, who must replace do-everything forward Landry Fields, will continue the rebuilding process with a six-player recruiting class that is ranked as one of the best in the country. Dawkins hopes to add a heralded point guard to that group in 2011. Chasson Randle, a four-star recruit from Rock Island, IL, made his official visit to Stanford over the weekend. Judging by his interview with Quad-Cities Online, he had a good time.
"I really feel like they put a lot a work into my itinerary and making sure they accommodated me to the best of their abilities. They did a good job. They've told me all the time I'm their guy, but they showed me this weekend. The players welcomed me with open arms."
Randle's potential future teammates weren't the only ones to welcome him to Stanford, however. He also met Condoleezza Rice, Mark Madsen, and Michelle Wie. (It's a shame he couldn't stick around for the Dalai Lama.) Randle, who is also considering Purdue and Illinois, will visit Champaign on Friday and hopes to make his decision by November.