UCLA women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier has had dreams
about it.
Worse yet, she’s had to live through it.
But for the past 1,784 days, she hasn’t been able to deny
it.
Of the last 11 times Olivier has taken her Bruins into a matchup
with Stanford, she has come out on the losing end 11 times.
The 25th-ranked Bruins will have yet another opportunity tonight
to end that streak of futility, which dates back to March 3, 2000,
when they go north to take on the No. 5 Cardinal in Palo Alto.
“The last couple of years, the games could have gone
either way, and they’ve gotten all the breaks,” Olivier
said. “We’ve given them all they can handle, but they
always seem to come out on top.”
While the Bruins have attempted to reaffirm their footing in the
upper echelon of Pac-10 teams the past few seasons, they have
always had to look up at Stanford as the benchmark for success. Not
only has the Cardinal had its way with the Bruins during the
regular season, Stanford has shown UCLA the door in each of the
last three Pac-10 Tournaments.
But the main reason for Stanford’s domination of UCLA over
the last four years is no longer inbred in the rivalry.
Former Cardinal standout Nicole Powell (2000-2004), who never
lost to UCLA in her collegiate career, has moved onto the WNBA,
which, at least to Olivier’s delight, means she won’t
be burying game-winners against the Bruins any time soon.
“No, thank you,” said Olivier as to whether she
would like to see Powell on the court again. “Nicole beat us
every time. I can remember at least four times where it came down
to her hitting a shot at the buzzer, and she hit it every time. I
do not miss her to say the least.”
While Stanford (15-2, 6-1 Pac-10) will be without its departed
superstar, the Bruins (11-5, 5-2) will also be without one of
theirs.
Sophomore Noelle Quinn underwent successful surgery yesterday to
repair torn meniscus cartilage in her left knee and is expected to
return within five to six weeks.
With Quinn out of the lineup, the much-anticipated matchup of
last year’s Pac-10 Freshman of the Year against this
year’s prohibitive favorite, Stanford’s Candice Wiggins
(17.0 points per game), will be put on hold until Feb. 20.
Of more concern to Olivier and the rest of the Bruins is the
glaring prospect of replacing Quinn’s production. Olivier has
said that she will use a rotation of junior Ortal Oren, freshman
Lauren Pedersen and sophomore Shaina Zaidi to offset Quinn’s
absence, while acknowledging this is not the ideal way to enter
arguably their toughest conference game of the season.
“I wish we were 100 percent because I think it’d be
a much better battle,” Olivier said. “Stanford is the
one team that is really carrying the Pac-10 right now; you
can’t deny that.”