Ogwumike leads Stanford women's basketball on both ends of the floor

Region: Spokane
Head coach: Tara VanDerveer
Record: 31-2
Potential matchup with Duke: National championship

The Cardinal continued its domination of the Pac-12 this season, sharing its 13th consecutive regular-season conference title with No. 5 California.

Stanford is led by the Pac-12 Player of the Year and conference Defensive Player of the Year, junior forward Chiney Ogwumike, who averages 22.4 points and 13.1 rebounds per game, good for sixth and fourth in the nation, respectively, while shooting 57.4 percent from the floor (fifth in the nation).

Senior forward Joslyn Tinkle, junior guard Toni Kokenis and sophomore guard Amber Orrange help pace Stanford offensively, but the Cardinal will go only as far as Ogwumike can take them. A stingy defensive team, Stanford limits its opponents to a nation-best 31.5 percent shooting.

Read more about Duke women's basketball in the 2013 NCAA tournament

The team survived a brutal schedule, defeating then-No.1 Baylor in a tournament in Hawaii, and also notching victories against ranked, tournament-bound teams in Tennessee, South Carolina, California, UCLA and Colorado. Stanford’s two losses were to top-10 teams, Connecticut and the Golden Bears.

Stanford enters March Madness with an impressive streak on the line—the Cardinal have reached five consecutive NCAA tournament semifinals, dating to the 2007-08 season. Before this run, Stanford reached three regional finals in a span of four years, very similar to recent Duke teams, which have made three consecutive regional final appearances.

Despite its overall history of NCAA Tournament success, the Cardinal and head coach Tara VanDerveer remain the sole No. 1 seed in history to lose in its opening game, losing to No. 16 Harvard 71-67 in 1998.