Purple Reign
Starter
Nothing nice about bus ride to the game
[FONT=geneva,arial]- Scott Ostler
[/FONT][FONT=geneva,arial][SIZE=-2]Sunday, March 26, 2006
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San Antonio -- Butterflies and iPod tunes were floating through the Stanford team's charter bus a mile from the arena and 90 minutes before tip-off when, just ahead of the bus, the pickup truck hit the kid.
Some of the players saw the body fly through the air, along with a shoe. The truck was going about 45 mph and the impact knocked the pedestrian out of his shoes and backpack. He was laying rag-doll-like on the side of the road as the bus roared past.
The pickup truck driver, wearing a cowboy hat and chewing a toothpick, never slowed down. The bus driver said, "Oh, my God," stepped on the gas and gave chase.
That's how the day began Saturday for the Stanford women's basketball team.
It ended with the Cardinal playing a game for the ages, blitzing and upsetting heavily favored Oklahoma 88-74 to advance to the Elite Eight and a Monday date with LSU.
The day also ended with a hit-and-run driver in jail and the victim, 12-year-old Terrell Jones, in stable condition.
"They (the Stanford players) were shaken up," bus driver Bernie Laurel said just before tip-off. "A couple of the players were hysterical."
The boy had just stepped off a city transit bus and walked in front of the bus to cross the street. It's a four-lane road, in the boondocks several miles from downtown, and cars drive it like a freeway.
"All I saw," Laurel said, "was a body flying in the air about 10 feet up, and a shoe flying off his foot. The driver (of the truck) kept on going."
So did Laurel, telling a Stanford athletics official in the front seat, "We've got to get a license plate (number)."
"OK," the official said, "but don't jeopardize the players."
A driver in another car flagged down a nearby police officer, patrolman Darrell Curry, who joined the chase, which lasted less than a mile. The hit-and-run driver saw the cop car's red light in his rear-view mirror and pulled over just in front of the AT&T Center arena.
The big green Chevy extra cab was extensively damaged on the right front. The heavy-set driver was handcuffed by Curry and placed in the backseat of the police car, where the man sat expressionless, hat off but toothpick still in his mouth.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer wasn't on the team bus, having gone to the arena early to scout the first game, LSU against DePaul. That little task smacked of wishful thinking, since Oklahoma and superstar Courtney Paris were blocking the Cardinal's path.
VanDerveer checked her watch, fretted that the bus was late. Finally she saw her team filing into the arena, led by Candice Wiggins, the sophomore All-American.
"I went up to her," VanDerveer said, "and I could see something was really wrong right away."
The players, extremely subdued, went into their locker room, and VanDerveer told assistant coach Amy Tucker to go in and check on the team. Tucker huddled with Wiggins, then reported to VanDerveer that Wiggins had assured her the players would be focused.
"Then they will be," VanDerveer said.
Such is VanDerveer's confidence in Wiggins' leadership. In running the team, the two work as a unit, communicating constantly, on and off the court.
But this was a tough one for Wiggins. She was hit by a car and trapped under it when she was 3 years old and nearly died from the injuries, including severe trauma to her face. She still remembers the impact, though not the pain, and she remembers people screaming for an ambulance.
"That's the first thing I thought of (upon seeing the hit-and-run victim)," Wiggins said. "I saw the boy on the ground, and it hit me so hard."
After Stanford's early pregame warm-ups, the players returned to the locker room and Wiggins, as she often does, called a quick meeting. Many of the players still seemed shaken.
"I gave a huddle," Wiggins said, "I said we just saw a young boy get hit. You're not guaranteed what's going to happen tomorrow. We've got to go out there and leave it all on the floor."
Before the game was three minutes old, Stanford led 9-0. The Cardinal hit eight of their first nine field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers. After Wiggins scored on a 3-pointer and a drive, Stanford led 19-6.
Then Wiggins went cold, started missing easy shots.
"She was rushing a little," VanDerveer said. "I told her, 'Be patient, let's go to Brooke.' "
That would be Brooke Smith, who said the sight of the boy laying by the roadside had made her sick to her stomach. She sky-hooked the Sooners into submission, raining rainbows over Leah Rush and Courtney Paris, scoring 35 points on 14-for-16 field-goal shooting.
Wiggins, Smith and guard Krista Rappahahn, who hit five 3-pointers, played every second of the game. It was as if VanDerveer didn't want to give them any time to sit and think.
When Oklahoma was still within striking distance with 2 minutes left, Wiggins blocked shots on two consecutive Sooners' possessions.
At the buzzer, the Stanford players celebrated as if they'd just won the NCAA title. There is no way this team is talented enough to win three more games, but as they learned Saturday, you never know. E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.
[FONT=geneva,arial]- Scott Ostler
[/FONT][FONT=geneva,arial][SIZE=-2]Sunday, March 26, 2006
[/SIZE][/FONT]
San Antonio -- Butterflies and iPod tunes were floating through the Stanford team's charter bus a mile from the arena and 90 minutes before tip-off when, just ahead of the bus, the pickup truck hit the kid.
Some of the players saw the body fly through the air, along with a shoe. The truck was going about 45 mph and the impact knocked the pedestrian out of his shoes and backpack. He was laying rag-doll-like on the side of the road as the bus roared past.
The pickup truck driver, wearing a cowboy hat and chewing a toothpick, never slowed down. The bus driver said, "Oh, my God," stepped on the gas and gave chase.
That's how the day began Saturday for the Stanford women's basketball team.
It ended with the Cardinal playing a game for the ages, blitzing and upsetting heavily favored Oklahoma 88-74 to advance to the Elite Eight and a Monday date with LSU.
The day also ended with a hit-and-run driver in jail and the victim, 12-year-old Terrell Jones, in stable condition.
"They (the Stanford players) were shaken up," bus driver Bernie Laurel said just before tip-off. "A couple of the players were hysterical."
The boy had just stepped off a city transit bus and walked in front of the bus to cross the street. It's a four-lane road, in the boondocks several miles from downtown, and cars drive it like a freeway.
"All I saw," Laurel said, "was a body flying in the air about 10 feet up, and a shoe flying off his foot. The driver (of the truck) kept on going."
So did Laurel, telling a Stanford athletics official in the front seat, "We've got to get a license plate (number)."
"OK," the official said, "but don't jeopardize the players."
A driver in another car flagged down a nearby police officer, patrolman Darrell Curry, who joined the chase, which lasted less than a mile. The hit-and-run driver saw the cop car's red light in his rear-view mirror and pulled over just in front of the AT&T Center arena.
The big green Chevy extra cab was extensively damaged on the right front. The heavy-set driver was handcuffed by Curry and placed in the backseat of the police car, where the man sat expressionless, hat off but toothpick still in his mouth.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer wasn't on the team bus, having gone to the arena early to scout the first game, LSU against DePaul. That little task smacked of wishful thinking, since Oklahoma and superstar Courtney Paris were blocking the Cardinal's path.
VanDerveer checked her watch, fretted that the bus was late. Finally she saw her team filing into the arena, led by Candice Wiggins, the sophomore All-American.
"I went up to her," VanDerveer said, "and I could see something was really wrong right away."
The players, extremely subdued, went into their locker room, and VanDerveer told assistant coach Amy Tucker to go in and check on the team. Tucker huddled with Wiggins, then reported to VanDerveer that Wiggins had assured her the players would be focused.
"Then they will be," VanDerveer said.
Such is VanDerveer's confidence in Wiggins' leadership. In running the team, the two work as a unit, communicating constantly, on and off the court.
But this was a tough one for Wiggins. She was hit by a car and trapped under it when she was 3 years old and nearly died from the injuries, including severe trauma to her face. She still remembers the impact, though not the pain, and she remembers people screaming for an ambulance.
"That's the first thing I thought of (upon seeing the hit-and-run victim)," Wiggins said. "I saw the boy on the ground, and it hit me so hard."
After Stanford's early pregame warm-ups, the players returned to the locker room and Wiggins, as she often does, called a quick meeting. Many of the players still seemed shaken.
"I gave a huddle," Wiggins said, "I said we just saw a young boy get hit. You're not guaranteed what's going to happen tomorrow. We've got to go out there and leave it all on the floor."
Before the game was three minutes old, Stanford led 9-0. The Cardinal hit eight of their first nine field-goal attempts, including three 3-pointers. After Wiggins scored on a 3-pointer and a drive, Stanford led 19-6.
Then Wiggins went cold, started missing easy shots.
"She was rushing a little," VanDerveer said. "I told her, 'Be patient, let's go to Brooke.' "
That would be Brooke Smith, who said the sight of the boy laying by the roadside had made her sick to her stomach. She sky-hooked the Sooners into submission, raining rainbows over Leah Rush and Courtney Paris, scoring 35 points on 14-for-16 field-goal shooting.
Wiggins, Smith and guard Krista Rappahahn, who hit five 3-pointers, played every second of the game. It was as if VanDerveer didn't want to give them any time to sit and think.
When Oklahoma was still within striking distance with 2 minutes left, Wiggins blocked shots on two consecutive Sooners' possessions.
At the buzzer, the Stanford players celebrated as if they'd just won the NCAA title. There is no way this team is talented enough to win three more games, but as they learned Saturday, you never know. E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.
