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WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - 81alum - 01-02-2016

Overview:

We had three teams that beat us last year lined up in a row on this year's schedule, and we just took revenge on the second.  It is becoming clear that Tara's team this year is competent offensively but very good defensively.  How good will be determined after we face a more talented offensive team.  But tonight we held Arizona to 21% shooting--and many of their successful shots came late in the game against the third string.  Meanwhile, offensively we had a very different look today--whether by necessity or design--McPhee with 21 and Smith with 16 were most of our offense, and we may have had an early glimpse of future years.

Flow of the game

The story of the first half was our defense and scoring from the bench.  We held Arizona to 18% shooting.  I saw a lot of trapping on the perimeter and when Arizona penetrated we had three bodies on them in the paint.  Superb team defense.  On the offensive end, Brittany McPhee got hot, with 14 points from all parts of the court--a couple of treys, layups, and free throws.  Alanna Smith had 8 on 3/4 shooting.  Karlie and Lili both picked up two fouls in the first half and had to sit for minutes on the bench.

The second half was not as sharp as the first.  Our offense in the third quarter seemed very stagnant until McPhee and Smith reentered the game.  We scored 4 points in the first 8 minutes of the quarter without those two in the lineup, and 7 points in the last 2 minutes with them.  The fourth quarter was somewhat sloppy and defensive as more players got a chance to play, with the only scoring again by Smith and McPhee.

Performances

This was not a career high for McPhee, but this was by far her best game of this year.  She was 3/6 from three point range, 3/4 taking it to the basket, and 6/8 from the free throw line.  If we could count on McPhee to be this accomplished in every game, alongside Lili and Erica, we could be a final four team again.

Alanna Smith was our second leading scorer--and the only other player in double digits.  She was an astounding 4/5 from three point range and was shooting with more confidence--including some semi-contested shots.  At 6'3" she is the same height as Bonnie and could be equally hard to defend from the three point line.  But better, once when she was closely defended at the three point line, she brought the ball down and took it all the way to the rim.  She was 2/3 from in close.  She did pick up 3 personal fouls, though.

Offensively, there is not much more to talk about.  Erica had 6 points--all in the first half.  Lili had only 4 for the game.  I'm not sure if they really had off nights or if it was simply the Arizona scheme to take them away.  Erica was 3/4 but never got to the line--it could have been refs who were allowing too much contact under the basket.  Lili's shot was not on--she was 1/6 and 0/3 from three point range, and she also had 6 turnovers to 4 assists.    For whatever reason, it was surprising to watch a blowout in which Erica and Lili were not significant offensive contributors.

Rebounding was scattered with no one in double digits.  There just were not so many shots that anyone could pad their rebounding totals.

On defense, we had 9 blocks--scattered among 6 blockers.  We out rebounded Arizona 45 to 29, and as I mentioned, while we shot 44%, they shot 21%.  This game was mostly about defense.

Conclusion

So far so good.  An encouraging start to the Pac 12 season for us.  This year's trip to Arizona was a whole lot better than last year's trip.  And fun to see the offensive prowess of two future stars.  A little troubling that Erica and Lili were rather emphatically shut down, though.  Monday's game at Arizona State will be a very good test--a better test than today's game--and we shall see how improved we really are.  ASU swept us last year.  It would announce our re entry into contention to get a win in their place.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - CompSci87 - 01-02-2016

Thanks for the writeup!

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - TheFarm07 - 01-02-2016

Always nice to see the blowout, but just 59 points?

Maybe I've been interpreting it wrong, but it seems that before the last couple seasons, Tara has been emphasizing a more up-tempo offense, getting tips from the Warriors and such, but from what I've seen on tv, we don't always accomplish it.

After 39 points in the first half, only 20 in the second half?  Especially in the 3rd quarter, it seems like we came out cold.  I didn't see the game, but the offense seems very streaky like it was last year.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - 81alum - 01-02-2016

Tara definitely had something different going today.  McCall had only 19 minutes despite having 0 fouls.  Lili and McPhee each had 26 minutes, and not a single other person had as many as 20.  She basically played a 9 person rotation and then had the remaining five sub in for the last 3 minutes.

Lili and Karlie I understand, since they both got into a little foul trouble, but I wonder what was up with Erica?

With regard to the 3rd quarter, Arizona came out in zone, as I recall, and our starters missed a bunch of treys.  Only when McPhee and Smith subbed in did we start making treys and forced Arizona to go back to man.

Here are some interesting stats from the boxscore.  They really tried to shut it down inside and this was bad for the bigs and reduced points in the paint considerably.  But we managed to launch a lot of fast breaks off of their missed shots, and had the highest number of fast break points I can remember:

Quote:Points in the paint-STAN 18,ARIZ 12. Points off turnovers-STAN 8,ARIZ 11.
2nd chance points-STAN 5,ARIZ 7. Fast break points-STAN 14,ARIZ 2.
Bench points-STAN 44,ARIZ 20. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.


Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - TheFarm07 - 01-02-2016

I saw that we had 20+ turnovers again.  Didn't I recall someone saying that we'll have more turnovers with the new offensive style we are playing?

However, it seems that we are not getting any reward for the 59 points.

Plus, it seems like the zone defense confounded us again.  We talked about different ways to combat that besides just hoping for a hot shooting night from the 3-point line.  Tara has decades of experience as a HoF coach, it seems like we might try something else to break the zone especially considering we weren't hitting the 3s and we had a big lead.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - 81alum - 01-02-2016

(01-02-2016, 08:46 PM)TheFarm07 link Wrote:I saw that we had 20+ turnovers again.  Didn't I recall someone saying that we'll have more turnovers with the new offensive style we are playing?

However, it seems that we are not getting any reward for the 59 points.

Plus, it seems like the zone defense confounded us again.  We talked about different ways to combat that besides just hoping for a hot shooting night from the 3-point line.  Tara has decades of experience as a HoF coach, it seems like we might try something else to break the zone especially considering we weren't hitting the 3s and we had a big lead.

The other answer to treys are splitting defenders and slashing to the basket.  But Lili was called for three charging fouls and this seems to have affected her--this was an off day for her.  Alanna and Brittany did take it to the basket, successfully--they did not just sit outside and launch bombs. 

You can see the game on the Pac 12 site, still, if you can log in with your provider.  I just rewatched the third quarter and decided it was mainly about Lili's turnovers and the missed treys from Karlie, Lili, and Bri that made it a down quarter.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - KenCard - 01-03-2016

Yes, that defense is becoming a thing of beauty to watch.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - Jskass - 01-03-2016

I was wondering if she was giving McCall extra rest since Monday night will be INTENSE? Also taking advantage of opportunity to further develop Kaylee Johnson?

Scouting the C.al @ ASU game - M T - 01-03-2016

I also watched the C.al @ ASU game on TV Saturday.  The first big surprise for me was that Chiney was doing the color for the broadcast.  I don't recall being aware that she was interested in announcing.  She did a good job.  Obviously she was knowledgeable about the game & the players & coaches.  Her coverage was good without being the kind of repetitive stuff the other announcer always says.

ASU really laid it on C.al in the 1st half, about the same as Stanford laid it on Arizona..  Half time was 35 - 19.  (Can you imagine C.al only getting 19 points in half?)  Cal, averaging 84 points per game, played more typically in the second half, but lost 57-49.  Oh, turnovers?  C.al: 26, ASU: 13.

ASU and C.al teams are about like you'd expect if you've been around for a while.  There was one senior starting between the two teams.  ASU (10-2) employed line changes and ran a motion offense about like Stanford's motion defense.  That will be a very interesting match-up!  Although lots of people came & went, in this game, only four scored more than 2 points.  ( 6-1 F Bruner: 16 pts; 6-4 C Dornstauder: 14 pts; 5-9 G Hempen: 14 pts; 5-10 G Hawkins: 9 pts).  I'm not sure why Dornstauder played only 22 minutes (0 fouls).  She seemed to play bigger than her listed height.  ASU completely disrupted C.al's offense in the first half.

The announcers kept saying in the first half that C.al's roster of only 8 players would get worn out.  But the actuality was that C.al did better later while ASU did better earlier.

C.al was the usual mix of big & quick & rough that their coach seems to want (or has to settle for).  Freshman Angiwe (6-4 C) is going to be a challenge the rest of her career.  I think she's had 5 Freshman-of-the-week awards so far.  She's their go-to player for scoring.  She got 22 of their 49 points.  No one else got more than 8.  Shut her down and C.al was cold.  That's what happened to them against ASU.  First half:  C.al 18, Angiwe 6.  Second half: C.al: 30, Angiwe 16.  BUT, the next 3 most prolific scorers hit 3-pointers at 40-45% each.  (Is this starting to sound familiar?)

It will be an interesting game on Tuesday against ASU.  My worry is that Stanford will be outscored by 15 points in the 3rd quarter, but ASU didn't do themselves proud in the 3rd.

There were some disturbing things in the game.  Once again, a Cal player launched a ball about as hard as she could at an opponents face as she was falling out of bounds.  This kind of DANGEROUS, bad sportsmanship seems to be inbred to the Cal team.  Does anyone see other teams doing this?  It is further frustrating to me that the NCAA (at least as of last year) has no rules against this.  If you want to see it in the PAC-12 replays (online or on TV), it was at 5:08 left in the 2nd.  Look at where she throws the ball relative to the other 4 Cal players in the live shot.  Then look at the replay after the timeout at 4:45 to see that she's doing this as she is in danger of falling out of bounds. 

Another thing that I thought the refs were got wrong was that a Cal player would capture the other players shoulder in her armpit.  She could then easily control the player and even got a foul called on the other player.  I hate the Cal blatant fouling like the hip into the back of a Arizona rebounder that knocked her onto her face (no foul called at 1:48 in the 3rd).

Ah, the referees.  How did they miss a double dribble on an ASU breakaway at 8:15 in the 4th?  And then at 7:08, they call an ASU travel when it wasn't.  Both teams were allowed to camp in the lane.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - M T - 01-03-2016

(01-02-2016, 03:53 PM)81alum link Wrote:Karlie and Lili both picked up two fouls in the first half and had to sit for minutes on the bench.
Karlie got 2 in the first 3 minutes, and picked up her third in the second quarter.

(01-02-2016, 03:53 PM)81alum link Wrote:The second half was not as sharp as the first.
Are you always a master of understatement?

A glaring statistic is the 60% FG% in the first half, and then just an embarrassing 22% in the second half.  Did we do that to ourselves, or did the opponents cause it somehow?

In the 3rd quarter, we were 2/11 FG with 5 TO.  All by regular players (except maybe 1 team TO)
In the 4th quarter, we took only 7 shots (hitting 2) and had 9 turnovers.  Our regular players were 2/4 FG with 4 TO.
So, in the second half, our regular players shot 27% with 9 TO.  UGLY....
Our non-regular players got 19 total minutes of playing time.  The second half has 100 minutes of player time, so our regular players played 81% of the half.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - 81alum - 01-03-2016

Thanks MT for your observations about C.al and ASU.  I watched too, and it was fun listening to Chiney.  I tuned in a little late and kept thinking to myself that I recognized the voice of one of the announcers...it took a while before I caught on, and then I heard the name.

I share your concern about Anigwe.  She is exceeding Chiney's freshman production so far, and we will be facing her for 4 years.  I'm not ready to anoint her just yet, but she is already far better as a freshman in my estimation than Reshanda Gray was as a senior.  That is scary.

I was surprised to see ASU handle C.al so easily in the first half.  It occurred to me that one of the reasons Tara may have played 9 players so extensively against Arizona was to prepare us for ASU's line-changes.  Having a deep rotation, however, is useful in another way.  It makes it hard for the other side to do a scouting-report defense where they focus on one or two key players.  If the key players are always coming and going, it is easier just to play a more vanilla defense.

I can't remember if it was the first or second ASU game last year, but Dornstauder just killed us in one of them.  We had no way of stopping her inside.  She is a legit 6'4" and long, and while not particularly agile, she is fluid enough to score fairly easily if she gets the ball in close.  Yesterday she was 7/10 with a block in 22 minutes.  She is not the rebounder that Sophie Brunner is, though.  I bet we will see a lot of her and we had better be ready for her this time.  I'm thinking Kailee will probably get the assignment to guard her.

The refs were letting the thuggery flow freely in the C.al ASU game.  ASU took only 4 free throws all game--appalling considering the style of game.  I also wonder if the quarter system actually helps physical inside teams like C.al--there are now 16 fouls to give instead of 12, if spread properly.  On the other hand, whenever C.al runs into a closely called game they will be big trouble with their dangerous lack of depth.

With regard to my understatement regarding our own game....well, yes.  The problem with the 3rd quarter were 5 turnovers and 6 missed treys--giving the ball back 11 times in 10 minutes is a recipe for depressed point scoring.  So what was the cause?  Mostly it was a sub-par game from Lili that became most obvious in the third quarter.  Not only were some of those misses and turnovers hers, she also collected her third charging foul which caused her to back off of attacking the basket.  Fortunately, the entire feel of the game changed when McPhee and Smith came back in during that quarter.  Each of them had established that they could shoot and drive.

We actually "lost" the fourth quarter, but Tara was giving players practice with a big, so I'm not as worried about that one.  I'll be keeping an eye on Lili and Erica, though, to be sure that yesterday was only a transitory phase.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - 81alum - 01-03-2016

Just noticed that 34 points ties the Stanford record for fewest points allowed in a Pac-12 game, and sets the record for the fewest points scored by Arizona in a Pac 12 game.

Re: WBB: Stanford 59 Arizona 34 - TheFarm07 - 01-03-2016

(01-03-2016, 07:43 AM)81alum link Wrote:I share your concern about Anigwe.  She is exceeding Chiney's freshman production so far, and we will be facing her for 4 years.  I'm not ready to anoint her just yet, but she is already far better as a freshman in my estimation than Reshanda Gray was as a senior.  That is scary.

Hopefully Alanna and McPhee will continue putting up big numbers/performances and our opponents will be saying the same things about them.