Okay, here’s my attempt at a blog post about digging into Candace Parker’s Tennessee stats, written in a casual, conversational style, and focusing on my own experience piecing things together.
## Chasing Candace: My Deep Dive into Her Tennessee Stats
So, I was watching some WNBA the other day, and Candace Parker was just straight-up DOMINATING. It got me thinking about her college days at Tennessee. I remembered her being amazing, but I wanted to, like, see the numbers, you know? See the actual stats that backed up the legend. Turns out, it wasn’t as straightforward as I thought!
First thing I did, naturally, was hit up Google. Typed in “Candace Parker Tennessee stats.” Easy peasy, right? Wrong! I got a bunch of highlight reels (which, admittedly, were fun to watch), some articles about her WNBA career, and a whole lot of general info. But a clean, consolidated list of her stats for each year? Nope. Nada.
Okay, fine. I figured I’d try the official University of Tennessee Athletics website. Dug around in their women’s basketball section, searched for past players… It was like navigating a digital maze! They have a ton of info, but finding exactly what I was looking for, a season-by-season breakdown of her stats, was tough. I spent a good hour clicking through different pages, feeling like I was getting nowhere. I was about to give up, honestly.
Then I remembered something! I recalled seeing a mention of the NCAA’s official stats website somewhere. I thought maybe, just maybe, that would be a better place to look. So, I went to the NCAA website and searched for their basketball stats database. It was still a bit clunky, but at least I could filter by school and player.
I finally found Candace Parker’s profile! But…surprise! The stats weren’t all in one neat table. I had to click on each individual season to see her points, rebounds, assists, etc. It was tedious, like really tedious. I’m talking copy and paste each stat into a spreadsheet I spun up, one. by. one.
Here’s what I ended up getting:
- Freshman Year (2005-06): This was when she burst onto the scene. Remember all the hype? Well, she lived up to it averaging something like 17.5 points and 9.5 rebounds.
- Sophomore Year (2006-07): She missed some games due to injury, which stunk. But when she played, she was still a beast.
- Junior Year (2007-08): Championship year! Her stats went up across the board. She was unstoppable.
- Senior Year (2008-09): Another great season. You could tell she was ready for the WNBA.
I know, I know, it’s not the complete statistical breakdown everyone wants. But after all that digging, I was happy to just get the general picture. I spent hours piecing it all together.
So, what did I learn from all this?
- Finding specific college stats can be surprisingly difficult.
- The NCAA website, while not perfect, is a pretty good resource.
- Candace Parker was an absolute legend at Tennessee. The stats don’t lie.
Honestly, this whole process just made me appreciate her career even more. The lady is a baller. End of story.
