Norfolk State women will try to counter Stanford’s size with their speed, athleticism in NCAA tourney opener
The Norfolk State women’s basketball team will step to the dance floor for the second straight season. The Spartans, who won the MEAC Tournament, are a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will take on No. 2 seed Stanford on the Cardinal’s home floor at 10 p.m. Friday.
The two teams have never played before, but after taking time to watch the Cardinal’s tape, NSU head coach Larry Vickers kept his scouting report short.
“They’re really, really good,” he said.
Vickers’ evaluation is spot-on. Stanford is a perennial contender, won a title in 2021 and is guided by the winningest coach in all of college basketball, Tara VanDerveer. The Cardinal come into the game with a 28-5 record, fresh off a loss in the Pac-12 championship game to USC.
“It’s a great team, they’ve been a great team and a great program for as long as I can remember,” NSU guard Diamond Johnson said. “We know we have to come out and compete, play our hardest and can’t make too many mistakes because they will capitalize off of them. So we’re just playing up against a great team, a great Stanford team. Well experienced and great coaches. So we just got to bring our everything.”
Stanford is anchored by senior Cameron Brink, who Vickers thinks is the likely No. 2 pick in the next WNBA Draft. Brink leads the Cardinal with 12 points and 12 rebounds per game. The senior is the leader of one of the best defenses in the country, averaging an NCAA-best 3.52 blocks per game for a team that leads the country with 109 total blocks.
At 6-foot-4, Brink is the tallest player on the team and one of seven players on the Stanford roster that is over 6 feet tall.
“They block a lot of shots,” Vickers said. “I mean, they have a lot of height. Sometimes, they play Cameron Brink at the three, so they’re like 6-foot-5, 6-foot-4, 6-foot-4 and then her. So we’re going to try and use our speed and athleticism and beat them up the floor, play more in transition. But we’re still gonna go our guard lineup, so we’re just going to kind of play Norfolk State basketball.”
Kierra Wheeler, Norfolk State’s star forward and the MEAC Player of the Year, will likely have to spend most of Friday night guarding Brink. Wheeler said Brink’s defense has stood out to her on tape.
“I’m always a fan of defense,” Wheeler said. “So her intensity on defense sticks out to me the most.”
For half of the Norfolk State players, this will be their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Then there’s Johnson, who has been to the NCAA Tournament every year during her college career, including an Elite Eight run in 2022.
Johnson said she’s shared her experiences with the team in the past week for advice and to calm the nerves of some.
“Just giving them the advice that you gotta stay calm,” Johnson said. “I know you might be anxious, it’s a different experience, different feelings. Especially (if it’s) your freshman year, you’re going out to Cali, you just won the MEAC, so it’s probably a lot going through their minds. Just telling them to stay focused and just stay ready. Whenever your number is called, just be ready to play.”
In last season’s NCAA Tournament matchup against South Carolina, Vickers said the Spartans didn’t look comfortable. This season, Vickers is hoping his team will be able to “compete and look comfortable” while checking off their game goals.
“They do what we call a lot of drop coverage and ball screens because they’ll just sit their fours at the rim,” Vickers said. “We want to try and execute really well with our ball-screen offense. We want to try to play at a pace that doesn’t allow their bigs to sit down there. They have great length at the guards, great length at the forwards. So we want to try and get into our early offense.”
A win, or even a close game, would be huge for a Norfolk State program that is on the rise, Vickers said. As for Wheeler, she said she wants to prove that the Spartans and other HBCUs belong on the national stage.
“We want to prove that HBCUs are here and that we are relevant and we deserve a platform just like anybody else,” Wheeler said.
The game
No. 15 Norfolk State vs. No. 2 Stanford
What: NCAA Tournament round of 64
When: 10 p.m. Friday
Where: Stanford, California
TV: ESPN2
Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com
