Pac-12 women’s basketball heads into Thanksgiving week with anticipated big matchup

• COMPLETE RELEASE (PDF) | 2018-19 MEDIA GUIDE 

• Nearly every Pac-12 team hits the road for the week of Thanksgiving and some have potential matchups with some of the nation’s highest-ranked programs ... Five Pac-12 teams are featured in the latest Associated Press and USA Today/WBCA Coaches poll, including three in the top 10. No other conference has as many top-10 ranked teams. OREGON continues to lead the way with a No. 3 ranking in both polls, followed by No. 8/7 STANFORD and No. 9/8 OREGON STATE. CALIFORNIA moved up to No. 18/23 and ARIZONA STATE is No. 19/25 ... Four from the Pac-12 appeared on the WBCA’s Wade Watch List which was announced this week. Oregon is represented by Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard, Cal’s Kristine Anigwe is on the list, as is Stanford’s Alanna Smith ... ARIZONA’s Aari McDonald was voted the Pac-12 Player of the Week making her the first Wildcat to earn the honor since 2015. She enters the week as the nation’s scoring leader, averaging 29.5 points per game after netting a school-record tying 39 points on Nov. 19 ... UTAH’s Dre’Una Edwards was voted the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week for the second-consecutive week ... The Sun Devils face another top-five challenge when it travels to Las Vegas to face No. 5/4 Louisville on Friday at the South Point Shootout ... The Beavers could also have a couple of big games coming up, potentially facing No. 13/12 South Carolina on Friday and a possible matchup against defending NCAA Champion Notre Dame on Sunday at the Vancouver Showcase.

ANIGWE APPROACHES MILESTONES
California’s Kristine Anigwe is just 49 points from scoring 2,000 in her career. She is also 70 rebounds from her career 1,000th. Only 19 players in Pac-12/10 history have scored 2,000-career points and only 22 have grabbed 1,000 boards. The All-America candidate is also looking to become just the 11th player in league history to both score 2,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds.

IONESCU OWNS TRIPLE-DOUBLE RECORDS 
With her 12th triple-double on Nov. 18 against Buffalo, Oregon junior Sabrina Ionescu tied the NCAA men’s career record held by Kyle Collinsworth of BYU. She was already the NCAA’s women’s record holder heading into the season, wasting no time adding to her total by logging her first triple-double in the season opener at Alaska Fairbanks. See where she stacks up all-time in NCAA women’s basketball.

NCAA CAREER TRIPLE-DOUBLES
1. SABRINA IONESCU, OREGON • 12
2. Suzie McConnell, Penn State (1985-88) • 7
   Louella Tomlinson, Saint Mary’s (2008-11) • 7

NCAA ACTIVE LEADERS
Calfornia’s Kristine Anigwe is currently one of two players in the NCAA that has scored over 1,900 career points. She is looking to become just the 20th player in Pac-12 women’s basketball history to reach the 2k threshold. She leads active leaders in the country in free throws made and attempted.

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

2018-19 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

HISTORIC CAMPAIGN 
Pac-12 women’s basketball is in the midst of its most successful run, coming off a fifth-straight season with at least five NCAA Tournament bids. Since 2015-16, the Conference boasts the most NCAA Tournament wins (41) of any league and the best winning percentage among peer conferences (.695), posting double-digit NCAA Tournament victories in each of the last three seasons. The Pac-12 is the only conference to have at least two teams in the Elite Eight the last three years, placing at least four in the Sweet 16 during that time. Four Pac-12 teams appeared in the final Associated Press poll, the fourth- straight year the Conference had at least that many teams in the final ranking.

ALL-STAR RETURNS
Ten of the 15 All-Pac-12 honorees return this season, including national award winners at their respective positions Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu (Nancy Lieberman Award winner) and Ruthy Hebard (Katrina McClain Award winner). Cal’s Kristine Anigwe was a three-time All-Pac-12 honoree, with Colorado’s Kennedy Leonard also earning a spot on the team the last two seasons. Also returning are UO’s Maite Cazorla, Wasington State’s Borislava Hristova, Utah’s Megan Huff, Arizona State’s Kianna Ibis, Washington’s Amber Melgoza and Stanford’s Alanna Smith.

In addition, three former national freshmen of the year dot the Pac-12 rosters. Anigwe and Ionescu both were honored with the award by the USBWA in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Redshirt sophomore Destiny Slocum was bestowed the honor by the WBCA in 2017 before transferring to Oregon State.

NEW FACES & FAMILIAR FACES: The Pac-12 welcomes a new face to the sidelines as Kamie Ethridge takes over the Washington State bench. Ethridge is one of the legendary figures in women’s basketball, earning a place in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Prior to arriving in Pullman, she spent four seasons at Northern Colorado, leading the team to the NCAA Tournament. The other 11 coaches return for the 2018-19 campaign.

The other 11 coaches return for 2018-19, including Hall of Fame head coach Tara VanDerveer who is in her 33rd season at Stanford and is serving her 40th season as a head coach over three stops. The second-most tenured head coach in the Pac-12 is Arizona State’s Charli Turner Thorne who is in her 22nd season with the Sun Devils. She is a graduate of Stanford where she was a guard for VanDerveer for three years. The other Pac-12 head coaches have been at their respective institutions for single-digit seasons. Oregon State’s Scott Rueck is one shy of the 10-year mark.

ROAD TO TAMPA
Teams across the country will be focused on getting to Tampa this season, the site of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Final Four on April 5 and 7. To get to Tampe, Fla., teams will have to go through regional sites in Albany, N.Y., Chicago, Greensboro, N.C., and Portland, Ore., where the Oregon State Beavers are hosts Regional play takes place from March 29-April 1, with specific dates to be announced. The first and second round of the tournament will take place on 16 campus sites with the top-16 seeds hosting, March 22-25, 2019. The top 64 teams will learn their fates in the broadcast of the annual selection show on Monday, March 18, 2019.