From Azzi to Ogwumike: Ranking the 10 greatest players in Stanford history
-
Michael Voepel, ESPN.com
Jennifer Azzi is one of the Stanford women’s basketball alumni who plan to be at Maples Pavilion this weekend in hopes of seeing history. Coach Tara VanDerveer, in her 38th season at Stanford, is two wins from becoming the all-time leader in NCAA coaching victories, men’s or women’s. VanDerveer will reach the milestone if the No. 8 Cardinal can beat Oregon on Friday and Oregon State on Sunday.
Who are the greatest players VanDerveer has coached at Stanford? Azzi is one of them, and she still has some of the recruiting letters VanDerveer sent her in the 1980s.
“I found them a couple of weeks ago,” said Azzi, who helped the Cardinal win the 1990 national championship. “One of them was sort of trying to get me to, I guess, believe in her and be more open to communication with her.”
Azzi laughed a bit and added, “Because I wouldn’t say it was like she came in my living room on the recruiting visit and I was blown away.”
VanDerveer took over at Stanford in 1985, and Azzi was part of her first recruiting class that arrived the next fall. Azzi was from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, about 25 miles west of Knoxville, home of the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. So Azzi knew about charismatic coaches; Tennessee’s Pat Summitt was just down the road.
Yet after playing a little while at Stanford, Azzi realized she and VanDerveer were more alike than she initially thought.
“I think that’s the case with a lot of us that played for her,” Azzi said. “It’s simply that shared desire to be as good as you can be.”
Now the chief business development officer for the two-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, Azzi represents how much VanDerveer influences the sport at all levels through the players she has coached. From fellow coaches to WNBA players, executives and those involved with the league’s union, to broadcasters and analysts, former Cardinal players are making a difference.
“There’s so many Stanford success stories out there,” said VanDerveer, who has led the Cardinal to 14 Final Four appearances. “They come back and say to me, ‘When things get tough, I learned how to be resilient at Stanford. I learned how to balance my time at Stanford. I gained confidence at Stanford. So I’m really proud of that.”
When VanDerveer passed Summitt for the all-time victories lead among women’s basketball coaches in 2020, we ranked VanDerveer’s top 10 players based solely on their Stanford careers. Now, we broaden that criteria to include their professional playing careers and other ways they impact the sport. Here are the 10 greatest players to play for VanDerveer at Stanford.
The eldest Ogwumike sister has had the best WNBA career of any Stanford graduate, and at 33 she shows no signs of slowing down, coming off another standout season in 2023. The WNBA’s No. 1 draft pick in 2012, Ogwumike has averaged 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in her 12 seasons in the league, all with the Los Angeles Sparks. She won the 2016 MVP award and has been named All-WNBA six times, All-Defensive team six times and an All-Star eight times.
She is also president of the WNBA players’ union and has been one of the most involved participants in every aspect of the league’s growth, along with being an influential figure helping get the WNBA through the challenging 2020 season in the COVID-19 “bubble” in Bradenton, Florida.
A three-time All-American at Stanford, Ogwumike helped the Cardinal make four consecutive Final Four appearances. She ranks fifth in Stanford history in scoring average (17.2 PPG) and rebounding average (8.5 RPG) and third in total points (2,491).
2. Jennifer Azzi: 1986-90, guard
Azzi was a dynamic force on the 1989-90 team that took Stanford to its first Final Four, first NCAA title and put the Cardinal on the map in women’s basketball. Winner of the Wade Trophy and Naismith Award as the national player of the year in 1990, the Tennessee native lived out the dream of winning the national championship in nearby Knoxville and was the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.
She is the program leader in 3-point shooting percentage (minimum of 150 made) at .452, ranks second in assists (751) and third in steals (271). She is also 12th in total points (1,634). Her 16 assists against BYU as a freshman remains Stanford’s single-game record.
Azzi played for VanDerveer on the landmark 1996 Olympic team, the popularity of which helped launch both the short-lived ABL and the WNBA. Azzi competed in both leagues, finishing with five seasons in the WNBA, where she averaged 9.1 points and 4.5 assists. Since her playing days, she has been a college coach and administrator, and now works for the Aces.
3. Candice Wiggins: 2004-08, guard
A four-time WBCA All-American, she has the highest career scoring average (19.2 PPG) in program history, leads in free throws (556) and steals (281), and is second in 3-pointers (295). She led Stanford to the Elite Eight as a freshman and sophomore. As a senior, she had 41 points against No. 1 seed Maryland in the regional final to send Stanford to its first Final Four in 11 years. VanDerveer has called that victory one of the most important and memorable of her career.
Wiggins also had 44 points in the second round of that 2008 NCAA tournament, 25 points and 13 rebounds in beating UConn in the national semifinals, and she won the Wade Trophy. The magic ended with a loss to Tennessee in the NCAA final, but Wiggins had returned Stanford to the national spotlight.
The third pick in the 2008 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, she won a league title with them in 2011 and spent eight seasons overall in the WNBA.
4. Nicole Powell: 2000-04, guard/forward
Wiggins got Stanford back to the Final Four after a drought, but Powell was the player most responsible for keeping the Cardinal at an elite level when the program went through what was — by Stanford’s lofty standards — a bit of a down period, with two losses in the second round of the NCAA tournament. By Powell’s senior year, Stanford was back in the Elite Eight. A three-time All-American, she is the most versatile player in program history: fourth in scoring average (17.3 PPG), second in rebounding average (9.6 RPG) and fifth in total assists (577). She also had six triple-doubles.
Powell was the third pick in the 2004 draft and played 11 seasons in the WNBA, winning a league championship with Sacramento in 2005. She is currently in her fourth season as head coach of the UC Riverside Highlanders.
Chiney followed sister Nneka to Stanford and is the Cardinal’s all-time leader in points (2,737) and rebounds (1,567) and ranks fourth in blocked shots (202). A three-time All-American, she helped Stanford make three Final Four appearances. Her 24 rebounds against Oregon in 2014 is the program’s single-game record. In 2014, she won the Wooden Award and was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft.
Ogwumike has played seven seasons in the WNBA despite battling injuries. She’s a two-time All-Star and has been with the Sparks and Nneka since 2019. Chiney is also a basketball analyst for ESPN.
6. Jayne Appel: 2006-10, center
She ranks second in program history in blocked shots (273), third in rebounds (1,263) and fifth in points (2,125). Appel helped Stanford reach the Final Four three times and has the program’s highest single-game point total, scoring 46 in an Elite Eight victory over Iowa State in 2009. The fifth pick in the 2010 draft, she played seven WNBA seasons, all with San Antonio. Now Jayne Appel Marinelli, she is director of player relations with the WNBPA.
7. Kate Starbird: 1993-97, guard/forward
A 6-foot-2 player with guard skills, Starbird is one of two Stanford players (the other is Wiggins) to score 40 or more points in a game twice in her career. She finished fourth all-time in points (2,215) and fifth in steals (252), helping Stanford make the Final Four three times. Starbird started her professional career in the ABL and then spent five seasons in the WNBA.
8. Kayla Pedersen: 2007-11, forward
She helped the Cardinal make four consecutive Final Four appearances and played the most minutes (4,762) of any player in Stanford history. Pedersen is second in rebounds (1,266) even though her career overlapped with three other great rebounders in the Ogwumike sisters and Appel. Pedersen is also ninth in points (1,941). She was the seventh pick in the 2011 draft and spent six seasons in the WNBA.
9. Val Whiting: 1989-93, center
Known for her powerful inside presence, she was on Stanford’s national championship teams in 1990 and 1992, and went to three Final Fours. Whiting is sixth in program history in both career points (2,077) and rebounds (1,134), and fifth in blocked shots. Whiting played professionally in the ABL and the WNBA.
10. Cameron Brink: 2020-present, forward
As a freshman, Brink helped Stanford win the program’s long-awaited third NCAA title in 2021. Currently a senior, she is already Stanford’s career leader in blocked shots (350). She also could be in the top 10 in points, rebounds and field goal percentage by the time this season is over, and has the option of returning for a fifth year because of the COVID-19 waiver. Depending on that decision, she is expected to be a WNBA draft lottery pick either this year or in 2025.
