On the team roster, Candice Wiggins insists on the .5—as in 5’11.5” tall. As she slipped on socks over Cardinal-red toenails for a recent workout, the shooting guard held up a size-10.5 shoe. “And I’m sure I’m six feet with these on.”
The two-time All-American and two-time Pac-10 Player of the Year hardly needs a boost. As she starts her junior year, Wiggins ranks 17th in Stanford history in points scored, with 1,352. She tops the Cardinal record book in points per game, averaging 19.6. And Wiggins is third in program history in free-throw percentage, at 82.9 percent. “That can go up,” she says, with more than a hint of mischief. “Way up.”
Coming off a 26-8 (15-3 Pac-10) season that saw a heartbreaking 62-59 loss to Louisiana State University in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA championships last year, the Cardinal is poised for greatness, Wiggins says. “When I got here as a freshman, we had a really special senior class: Susan King Borchardt, Kelley Suminski, Sebnem Kimyacioglu, Azella Perryman, T’Nae Thiel. You knew it was going to be a great year, and I can feel it this year.”
She isn’t the only one. Stanford is ranked third in the Lindy’s preseason poll and fourth in the Athlon poll. The Cardinal returns several strong upperclassmen: senior guards Clare Bodensteiner and Markisha Coleman, senior centers Brooke Smith and Kristen Newlin, junior guard Cissy Pierce and junior forward Christy Titchenal. The sophomores who ramped up their experience as standout freshmen last year—Morgan Clyburn, Rosalyn Gold-Onwude and Jillian Harmon—are welcoming an equally capable recruiting class.
Jayne Appel, a 6-foot-4 forward from Pleasant Hills, Calif., helped the USA Basketball’s Under-18 Women’s National Team to a gold-medal win this summer. Michelle Harrison, a 6-foot-3 forward from Orem, Utah, averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds per game in high school, and also lettered in track and field (high jump). “My jaw just falls on the floor at the fact that she can dunk,” Wiggins says.
JJ Hones, aka “JJ Jumper,” a 5-foot-10 guard and Gatorade State Player of the Year from Portland, Ore., “has that leadership quality about her,” Wiggins says. And she gives high marks to Melanie Murphy, a 5-foot-9 guard from Brooklyn: “This girl is funny.”
The Cardinal will need some good humor as they face a schedule that head coach Tara VanDerveer is calling “one of the toughest we have ever played.” Three Pac-10 opponents are ranked in the top 25 this year. Nonconference challenges include the 16-team preseason WNIT, a trip to powerhouse Tennessee on November 24 and a game against fellow Elite Eight finisher Utah at Maples Pavilion on December 16.
As for Wiggins, she’s looking to unleash even more energy on the court—and throw in a surprise or two. “I’ve worked on some flash,” she says. “Not just for the ‘wow’ factor, but in terms of not being predictable. I’m not one of the players who was born with flash, but I’ll have a few moves, a few tricks.”
