WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43

WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - Printable Version

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Hieronymus - Hieronymus - 01-08-2026

(01-08-2026, 09:53 PM)martyup Wrote: Nunu finishes with 27 points and 9 rebounds.

Eschmeyer with 6 Brinks tonight.

Season low scoring for WF.

30% shooting will do that. Don’t win often that way but WF wasn’t that good.

I just don’t see the offense ever being consistent this year. The 3 pt shooting was somewhat better vs. UNC and they killed UNC on the boards, but I don’t think either of those will be a regular thing this year. Overall there really isn’t anything they are consistently good at on offense and Ogden remains the only player who can create much off the dribble. Leopolo is short with a slow shot so defenders can slough way off her and still prevent her from shooting. MAS has no offensive game. Etc, etc.

It’s a better team this year, but it’s defense, being scrappy and chipping in just enough points wherever they can get them to get by this season. And I suspect we will continue to see “wherever” vary greatly from game to game. Today Agara could dominate but Clardy, Ogden and Somfai didn’t do much while in contrast Agara had almost no impact vs. UNC. Different match up’s = different players scoring when you have no elite offensive players. Going to have figure it out game by game.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - BostonCard - 01-08-2026

Eschmeyer 11 rebounds and 6 blocks in 21 minutes. She has started to separate herself from MAS and her playing time has increased accordingly. First big rebound game from her; in fact she had the game high in rebounds despite only playing 21 minutes.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - Nobadeer - 01-08-2026

Just back from Maples. Yes per Card10, the team was a bit sluggish and lethargic. Wonder if that's an after effect of the cross country travel? The game ended near midnight East Coast time. Wake shot even worse than LSJU.

Lots to like though. Eschmeyer really ascending on defense, Shay a 1-person full court press, and Agara unstoppable. Even Lepolo, in my view she's playing calmer and more confident even if the numbers don't always show it. Starting to remind me of Mitch Johnson, in a good way.

Tonight was freshman foodie night at the concession stands. We tried the Swain fried chicken, lemon/pepper. It was good! If I had known beforehand I would've fasted, and tried the Somfai sushi and Eschmeyer tacos too.

GO Card!

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - old spanish trail - 01-08-2026

That defense was perfect for Nunu and we exploited it biggly. Good for her. I said it 4 mos ago; Eschmeyer is going to be a star. Needs to adjust to speed of the game, take the mittens off her hands and hit the weight room. We aint seen nuthin yet. To be clear, WF was easier for her because they didn't have any tall, big bigs. But she will gain good strength and then...
And, yes, Lepolo didn't have her best game, but she is best at steadying things when the game gets hairy. I feel confident when we are ahead and she has the ball.

I imagine MAS's minutes will continue to be limited, but she is clearly important. The team gravitates toward her. She must be terrific in practice, etc.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - TonyLima - 01-08-2026

(01-08-2026, 10:12 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Eschmeyer 11 rebounds and 6 blocks in 21 minutes. She has started to separate herself from MAS and her playing time has increased accordingly. First big rebound game from her; in fact she had the game high in rebounds despite only playing 21 minutes.

BC

Eschmeyer reminds me of Kiki Iriafen with her smooth moves.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - BostonCard - 01-08-2026

I don’t get that vibe at all. Iriafen played much bigger despite being 2 inches shorter. Maybe the best analogy I can think of is Brooke Smith (though Smith was also a bit shorter).

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - pefloresjr - 01-09-2026

(01-08-2026, 10:30 PM)old spanish trail Wrote: That defense was perfect for Nunu and we exploited it biggly. Good for her. I said it 4 mos ago; Eschmeyer is going to be a star. Needs to adjust to speed of the game, take the mittens off her hands and hit the weight room. We aint seen nuthin yet. To be clear, WF was easier for her because they didn't have any tall, big bigs. But she will gain good strength and then...
And, yes, Lepolo didn't have her best game, but she is best at steadying things when the game gets hairy. I feel confident when we are ahead and she has the ball.

I imagine MAS's minutes will continue to be limited, but she is clearly important. The team gravitates toward her. She must be terrific in practice, etc.

This is certainly true. She is the one leading the discussion and team cheer before and after the games. I still hope we will get a little scoring out of her. She does need to fill some minutes to support the team. Unlike some, I actually like the way that Coach Paye is slowly increasing Eschmeyer's time as she is getting better and adjusting to the college game. It seems to be working really well. Eschmeyer seems very mature to me. Even when she has struggled, she keeps working, generally without committing dumb fouls. It's easy to say that she should be used differently from the sideline but the coaches have a lot of experience. As Boston Card has pointed out, the coaches have access to the players in all the practices, video review, travel, study sessions, and time in between all those things. They are in a dramatically better position to gauge the right amount of playing time. But with Coach Paye, good performance gets more playing time, so she does respond to it. Just ask Shay.

As for this game, we clearly still need to do a lot of work on beating an aggressive zone. We can't really stretch the zone out because we are not a good enough shooting team to shoot over it and force them to come out to create better space and passing/driving lanes. Inlet passes are a problem for this team. It feels like the passing is starting to get marginally better except against tight, active zone defenses. At the game tonight, it just felt like a weird game with a weird vibe. It felt like a jet lag game for both teams. Try to learn from it and have a better game on Sunday like last week.

Cheers,
Pete F.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - Hurlburt88 - 01-09-2026

I see Somfai "only" had 16 minutes. Anything going on? (I hope not . . . always fear the injury bug) Or just WF did not have tall bigs, and Esch was earning minutes with her strong play?

and I do think travel is a factor very often. Need to rename this All Coast Conference something with the phrase "jetlag" in it

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - !ZAR! - 01-09-2026

[quote="TonyLima" pid='443786' dateline='1767938111']
[quote="BostonCard" pid='443773' dateline='1767935578']
Eschmeyer 11 rebounds and 6 blocks in 21 minutes. She has started to separate herself from MAS and her playing time has increased accordingly. First big rebound game from her; in fact she had the game high in rebounds despite only playing 21 minutes.

What I loved about Eschmeyer's blocks was how often she or a teammate came away with the ball. Good stuff!

RE: WBB: Stanford vs Wake Forest (ON NOW ACCNX) - crackpot - 01-09-2026

(01-08-2026, 10:04 PM)petersalas Wrote: Hopefully this means they saved a lot of what they should have given today for Sunday. And my superstition of wearing something new and specific shoes may have affected it. I thought this should be an easy game and I wore different shoes and the new item was socks. Definitely not going to be the case Sunday.

For the UNC game, I was out of clean socks so resorted to wearing the Stanford Fluffy Socks from the giveaway a few games ago. I don't think I could manage to walk too far in them, so I'll have to make sure to wear the red bra I was also wearing.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - Spike - 01-09-2026

I noticed a very unpleasant exchange between Lara and Clardy and then Lara played limited time thereafter.
Thoughts?

RE: WBB: Stanford vs Wake Forest (ON NOW ACCNX) - petersalas - 01-09-2026

Whatever it takes.. hahahaha!

(01-09-2026, 09:44 AM)crackpot Wrote:
(01-08-2026, 10:04 PM)petersalas Wrote: Hopefully this means they saved a lot of what they should have given today for Sunday. And my superstition of wearing something new and specific shoes may have affected it. I thought this should be an easy game and I wore different shoes and the new item was socks. Definitely not going to be the case Sunday.

For the UNC game, I was out of clean socks so resorted to wearing the Stanford Fluffy Socks from the giveaway a few games ago. I don't think I could manage to walk too far in them, so I'll have to make sure to wear the red bra I was also wearing.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs Wake Forest (ON NOW ACCNX) - SkiBum80 - 01-09-2026

(01-09-2026, 09:52 AM)petersalas Wrote: Whatever it takes.. hahahaha!

(01-09-2026, 09:44 AM)crackpot Wrote:
(01-08-2026, 10:04 PM)petersalas Wrote: Hopefully this means they saved a lot of what they should have given today for Sunday. And my superstition of wearing something new and specific shoes may have affected it. I thought this should be an easy game and I wore different shoes and the new item was socks. Definitely not going to be the case Sunday.

For the UNC game, I was out of clean socks so resorted to wearing the Stanford Fluffy Socks from the giveaway a few games ago. I don't think I could manage to walk too far in them, so I'll have to make sure to wear the red bra I was also wearing.

As the famous philosopher Michael Scott said: I'm not superstitious ... I'm a little bit stitious.
So keep up what you are doing and wearing as it seems to be working.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - martyup - 01-09-2026

(01-09-2026, 04:04 AM)Hurlburt88 Wrote: I see Somfai "only" had 16 minutes. Anything going on? (I hope not . . . always fear the injury bug) Or just WF did not have tall bigs, and Esch was earning minutes with her strong play?

and I do think travel is a factor very often. Need to rename this All Coast Conference something with the phrase "jetlag" in it

She was pulled when she picked up fouls. Not sure if there were other reasons.

Poor Amborn came in for 1 minute, never took a shot, gave up a 3 from the player she was defending, and gave up an "and 1" foul on another WF possession. She can be the player that shoots over a packed zone defense if she can improve her defensive game.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - stopandpop - 01-09-2026

(01-08-2026, 10:12 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Eschmeyer 11 rebounds and 6 blocks in 21 minutes. She has started to separate herself from MAS and her playing time has increased accordingly. First big rebound game from her; in fact she had the game high in rebounds despite only playing 21 minutes.

BC

Agree. The next step for Eschmeyer is to get more touches inside or at the high post, which requires: 1) teammates looking for her more during the ball rotation and 2) Alex making herself more visible to get those passes.

RE: WBB: Stanford 55 -- Wake Forest 43 - Deejaatee - 01-09-2026

(01-09-2026, 11:50 AM)stopandpop Wrote:
(01-08-2026, 10:12 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Eschmeyer 11 rebounds and 6 blocks in 21 minutes. She has started to separate herself from MAS and her playing time has increased accordingly. First big rebound game from her; in fact she had the game high in rebounds despite only playing 21 minutes.

BC

Agree. The next step for Eschmeyer is to get more touches inside or at the high post, which requires: 1) teammates looking for her more during the ball rotation and 2) Alex making herself more visible to get those passes.

This!! Eschmeyer is very skilled at running down the court and getting her position in the post. But her teammates are not skilled at looking for her (Swain for example) or trusting that she will catch the ball (Lepolo for example). And once they start moving the ball around the perimeter, she has to move out of the key and her advantage is lost.

It will be fun to see how the team adjusts to her being in there because she is different from every other post on the team, except maybe Peterson.

RE: Hieronymus - stopandpop - 01-09-2026

(01-08-2026, 10:08 PM)Hieronymus Wrote:
(01-08-2026, 09:53 PM)martyup Wrote: Nunu finishes with 27 points and 9 rebounds.

Eschmeyer with 6 Brinks tonight.

Season low scoring for WF.

30% shooting will do that. Don’t win often that way but WF wasn’t that good.

I just don’t see the offense ever being consistent this year. The 3 pt shooting was somewhat better vs. UNC and they killed UNC on the boards, but I don’t think either of those will be a regular thing this year. Overall there really isn’t anything they are consistently good at on offense and Ogden remains the only player who can create much off the dribble. Leopolo is short with a slow shot so defenders can slough way off her and still prevent her from shooting. MAS has no offensive game. Etc, etc.

It’s a better team this year, but it’s defense, being scrappy and chipping in just enough points wherever they can get them to get by this season. And I suspect we will continue to see “wherever” vary greatly from game to game. Today Agara could dominate but Clardy, Ogden and Somfai didn’t do much while in contrast Agara had almost no impact vs. UNC. Different match up’s = different players scoring when you have no elite offensive players. Going to have figure it out game by game.

Yes. Many posters have said this before, but with the current offense, Stanford continues to overly rely on 3-point shooting. Last night, 5 of 24 (21%). Overall this season 30.7%. The team looks good when the shots are going in, but when they're not, the offense becomes sluggish. If Coach Paye sticks with the perimeter ball passing (which I believe she will), players must set stronger screens that allow ball handlers a path to the basket or at least decent mid-range shots. Nunu is the only player with the strength and athleticism who can basically get inside on her own. Every team (from little Cal Poly to FGCU to NC State, to Wake Forest) packs the paint and that will continue as we move deeper into Conference play. We have seen flashes of Somfai and Eschmeyer on pick and rolls to the hoop. That at least helps ease the pressure even within the current offense.