Cardinal named NCAA Team of the Week

The Stanford Cardinal are rolling, quite literally, through their schedule and with impressive victories over both Arizona schools to start the New Year, they have been named the NCAA’s Team of the Week.

Riding a nine-game winning streak this season, the Cardinal are unblemished through their nonconference schedule as well as undefeated through six conference games to start the wacky 2020-21 basketball season. Stanford has been on the road for five weeks with games in Las Vegas, Berkeley, Los Angeles and most recently, two games in Arizona.

Through it all, they’ve persevered and been named the NCAA Team of the Week after victories over Arizona (81-54) and Arizona State (68-60).

The victory over Arizona, ranked No. 6 at the time, was the Cardinal’s second consecutive victory over a top-10 team after they knocked off No. 10 UCLA, 61-49 to close out the schedule for the calendar year of 2020.

Haley Jones notched an impressive, 18-point, 10-rebound double-double in the victory over Arizona while Lexie Hull, Francesca Belibi and Cameron Brink each notched double-digit points against the Wildcats. The game against Arizona State was a bit different as the Sun Devils made a valiant effort in a come-from-behind effort, after falling down 19-4 in the first quarter.

Still, Belibi reached double-digits with a 23-point outing to go along with her 12 rebounds for a double-double and though Jones was kept largely in check with just eight points, the versatility of the Cardinal offense shown brightly as Kiana Williams scored 16 points including 7-of-19 from the field.

The ‘big one’ is next up for the Cardinal, even if they just recently lost to UCLA, as the Oregon Ducks are set to be Stanford’s next opponent. Oregon lost a close game to UCLA, ending their 27-game winning streak on Monday. Oregon is currently ranked No, 11 and will mark the third time in four games that the Cardinal have to face a team ranked inside the top 25, rather, inside the top 11 overall teams in the country.

The game site is still being worked out for the Cardinal’s game against the Ducks but will be somewhere in California, or at least that’s what we think for now. The Sunday, January 10 game against Oregon State has already been postponed.

Congratulations to the Cardinal for the NCAA Team of the Week honors — and let’s go win another one!