History shows Wildcats can beat No. 2 Stanford by playing team ball, getting creative

It doesn’t matter when you play Stanford. It’s never good timing.

But Monday’s showdown between No. 15 Arizona and No. 2 Stanford will be especially challenging for the Wildcats, who are at the end of a long slog to start Pac-12 Conference play.

Arizona has played three games in two states over a little less than five days — 90.5 hours, to be exact. Arizona took on ASU on Thursday night in McKale Center and traveled to Cal on Saturday, winning both games. Now, they’ll take on a Stanford team that’s annually at the top of the Pac-12 standings.

Arizona coach Adia Barnes says she’s doesn’t like the three-games-in-five-days stuff, especially with No. 2 Stanford waiting.

Barnes also doesn’t back down from challenges, even if Stanford has won 73 of 84 matchups all-time against the Wildcats.

Arizona has only beaten Stanford (14-1, 2-0) once during Barnes’ time as Arizona’s coach. It happened Feb. 28, 2020, when Aari McDonald sunk a game-winning shot with 9 seconds left in overtime and Arizona upset the No. 4 Cardinal.

To do it again, Arizona (12-1, 2-0) will need to look even further into the past.

From 1998-2001, Arizona won four games against Stanford — one each season. They did so by being team-oriented, gutsy and creative.

Blueprint for success

This started with a game that is still considered to be the greatest regular-season game in UA history. Wildcats freshman Reshea Bristol hit a buzzer-beating shot on Jan. 12, 1998, giving Arizona a 91-90 win and ending Stanford’s 48-game winning streak over league opponents. Barnes, a UA senior, was on the floor when it happened.

Former Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini said teams have “got to do something different” to beat Stanford.

Figuring that out what that something different, is not easy — especially when your opponent is Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in women’s basketball.

She is known to prepare some of the best scouting reports in the game. As a result, Cardinal seem to always know their opponents’ tendencies inside and out.

Also, “Tara is probably the best ever in adjusting during games,” Bonvicini said.

That’s why Bonvicini didn’t give VanDerveer an opportunity to do just that with 12 seconds left in the landmark win.

“I had a timeout. And I purposely didn’t use it. OK, I purposely didn’t call timeout. And I did that because I didn’t want Tara to put in some special defense or something to stop us running a play. We just let it run out,” Bonvicini said. “I could have been the one everyone blamed because I didn’t call timeout. But I felt it was the right thing to do. Everyone knew the ball was going to Adia and it did, but she was triple teamed and she kicked it out. Reshea hit a 3-pointer. They counted it as a 2, but when you look at it again, I mean, it’s definitely a 3 and it was a dogpile.”

This win gave the Wildcats the confidence that carried over into the next few years.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

“That definitely got us over an emotional hump,” said former UA guard Lisa Griffith. “We knew we could beat them. We had a seasoned and talented team. Having the confidence mentally that we could do this and that we could go toe-to-toe with them (made all the difference).”

Bristol seemingly raised her performance in each of the four wins. In her final win of the series — Jan. 6, 2001 — Bristol hit free throws at the end to give UA a 68-65 win. She also dished eight assists and grabbed five steals, to go along with her 14 points.

“Being the competitor that I am, and the fact that when you want to be better than the rest, you have to like beat the best,” Bristol said. “I felt like yes, ASU was our rival, but when we played Stanford, it was like a whole different type of rivalry. ‘Coach B’ would push it again and again. Our record versus them, how they dominated the Pac-10, how they dominated athletics altogether, I think just for us to be on that same stage, that same level as them during those games, I really feel like that helped us to be better.”

Experience, creativity is key

The confidence, chemistry and deep level of trust gained from the ‘98 win carried the Wildcats.

When the teams met again on Feb. 27, 1999, Bonvicini dug deep for something different — again.

Bonvicini deployed a diamond-and-one defense that no one had seen before, and Arizona won 81-67. Four Wildcats played zone defense while a fifth played man-to-man.

The defensive wrinkle “really threw them off,” Griffith said. The Wildcats finished the game on a 13-3 run.

“Milena Flores was the point guard at the time, and we really rattled her that game. That was key because we threw them off their rhythm,” Griffith said. “’Coach B’ was trying some new things against them. I think also having the type of team that was seasoned enough that we could pull that off. You can do that with kids who are experienced. I think (Bonvicini) trusted us to try something new against them, and we were able to execute defensively.”

The Wildcats played team ball in all four wins over Stanford. The Wildcats had 18 assists on 26 made baskets in a 79-72 win on March 9, 2000.

“We wanted to win and it wasn’t about scoring,” Griffith said. “It was about, ‘What do I need to do to beat them?’ Everybody had that mentality. There was no ego involved. It was all about, ‘What part do I need to play in it to win?’” Griffith said.

“…Whatever it was that you needed to do, we were willing to play that role to beat them. You have to do that against Stanford. You can’t have individual players wanting to do their own thing to beat a team like that. Everybody has to be in it together.”

The strategy for beating Stanford remains the same, according to Bonvicini: Play together and play your own game.

“Stanford is a kind of team … they don’t normally beat themselves … (and) you’re not going to beat them with the same kind of kids and the same style,” Bonvicini said. “If you look at Stanford stats — and it took me a while to figure this out — but they don’t force a lot of steals. That’s completely different than what Adia does. And that’s a lot different than what I did. They don’t force a lot of steals. They don’t get a lot of turnovers. It’s just solid basketball. They’re more uptempo now than they were. Tara does a great job of utilizing her talent and she coaches them up. I think the last few years I’d say four or five years, she has a much deeper team than she did back then. These kids are more athletic than they were back then. Tara does a fabulous job.”