TODAY’S WOMEN’S GAMES : Stanford a Little Too Close for Santa Barbara

The suspense was getting to point guard Cori Close of UC Santa Barbara as she and some of her teammates huddled around the television, watching the NCAA women’s basketball pairings show last Sunday.

The West Regional was on the screen and No. 3-ranked Stanford (25-3) went up as the top-seeded team. And now, the Cardinal would meet the first-round winner of No. 8-seeded Houston and . . .

“Anybody but us,” Close pleaded.

“ . . . UC Santa Barbara.” Close’s desire not to play the Cardinal went beyond the simple fact that Stanford has reached the Final Four twice in the last two years, winning the NCAA championship in 1990. This problem with the Cardinal hit closer to home.

Stanford assistant coach Carolyn Jenkins lives with Close’s parents in Milpitas. When Jenkins moved in with the Close family, nobody was figuring on a Stanford-Santa Barbara meeting in the NCAA tournament.

But when Santa Barbara defeated Houston during Wednesday’s first round, 80-69, the Gauchos (27-4) earned a second-round meeting with Stanford at 7:30 tonight at Maples Pavilion.

But there won’t be any Jenkins-Close conflict of interest after all.

“We’re sending (Jenkins) to scout Santa Clara at Texas Tech on Saturday and Creighton at Stephen F. Austin on Sunday . . . ,” joked Steve Raczynski, Stanford’s sports information director.

But for Santa Barbara, the rest of the Stanford team remains, ominously. The Cardinal has won 61 of its last 62 games at Maples Pavilion and has an 18-game winning streak. All five starters average in double figures, junior center Val Whiting leading at 18.8.

The 6-3 Whiting, Pacific 10 Conference player of the year, has saved her best for the Cardinal’s biggest games of the season. She scored 26 points--24 during the second half--in a 96-95 victory over defending national champion Tennessee in December. And in one three-game stretch, she scored 33 points against California and 35 each against USC and UCLA.

“Well, we’ll try to keep the ball away from her,” said Santa Barbara Coach Mark French, laughing.

There are eight other second-round games Saturday, among them second-ranked Tennessee (27-2) against visiting Rutgers (21-10), which advanced in the Mideast Regional with a 30-point victory over Southern Mississippi.

Eighth-ranked Maryland (23-5) has had two weeks off since a 68-67 first-round loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament and will play visiting Toledo (26-5) in the Mideast. The third Mideast game has No. 18-ranked Alabama (23-6) at No. 15 Western Kentucky (23-7).

In the Midwest, No. 9 Penn State (23-6) will play host to DePaul (21-9). Last season, unheralded James Madison upset Penn State during the second round. The other Midwest game has Southern Illinois (23-7) at No. 5 Mississippi (27-2).

Sixth-ranked Miami (29-1) has the nation’s longest winning streak at 29 games and will play host to North Carolina (22-8) in the East. Connecticut (23-10), a Final Four team last season, will play 13th-ranked Vanderbilt (20-8) in the other East game.

In the second West game, Santa Clara (21-9) will play at No. 12 Texas Tech (26-4). Texas Tech has failed to win a NCAA game in four attempts, but will have major crowd support in Lubbock; 8,000 tickets were sold there in less than five hours.