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WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - 81alum - 02-02-2016

Overview:
The best offense on the floor tonight was the California Rush, the 5th graders who performed at halftime.  The national player of the week returned to earth with a 3-15 performance and showed that without her hot shooting we are quite mediocre on offense.  Fortunately, California was even worse that we were, and we bludgeoned our way to a win in a relatively ugly game.

Pregame:
After a pair of much-needed wins over the Washington schools, we need another pair of wins over our cross bay rival if we are going to create something good out of this season.  With only a one day turn-around there has not been much time to install a scouting report defense tailored to the C.al players.  C.al, which began the season with high hopes, has been struggling mightily in conference play, where it is 2-8.  This despite the fact that they have the best freshman in the country in Kristine Anigwe, who at 20 ppg is the nations #25 scorer.  She also pulls down 9 rp, blocks shots, and makes most of her free throws.  Not at all bad for a freshman, and she is only going to get better over the next four years.  So what has gone wrong for C.al?  Graduations, player dismissals, injuries...they have only 9 TOTAL players on their roster now, and 2 play very limited minutes.  A successful strategy is to rotate a lot of fresh players against them and make them work hard until their energy flags in the fourth quarter, and many teams have exploited this.  C.al is dangerous, though, ranked 67 out of 344 in scoring offense, and 260th in defense.  But as we saw with UCLA, if C.al wants to go zone and our shooters go cold--why any defense can make us look bad under those circumstances.

Coaches notes:
Tempie got a rare chance to talk to us after a win.  Tonight there were lots of excellent questions, even a question about a non-performing player.  The greatest insight came when Tempie explained some of the complexities of our man defense based on analytics.  Doubling a player who has a strong directional tendency when that player is to the right of the key, not doubling them when they are left of the key--stuff like that.  I think it even impressed the hardcore basketball fans.  And it is working quite well--defense is the only reason we have a winning record right now.  She talked about the challenge of covering Anigwe.  She also discussed the hope that we would build a good lead and have a chance to play a lot more players, given how many games we have had in so few days.  She discussed McPhee playing well in the first half of the last game and getting pulled in the second--for nothing that she did, but because she and Karlie mainly share the same slot and Karlie was playing so well.  She discussed the struggle to get freshmen integrated--Marta's need to score, Alanna's need for consistency, etc. 

Flow of the Game
The first quarter repeated our general tendency to start out ice cold.  The one bit of good news is that Bri hit a trey--her first in league play, believe it or not, and this created hope that global warming was helping her emerge from the ice age.  But the bad news was that Lili looked nothing at all like the national player of the week, starting off missing a jumper, a trey, another trey, a jumper, a trey, a layup, another layup, another layup, another layup, yet another layup, until making her first basket--a trey, with 2:30 left in the third quarter.  We were going to find out if we could win a game without our leading scorer, I guess.

In fact, the first half was simply appalling from an offensive standpoint.  Am I hopelessly biased to think that C.al's offense was terrible because of our awesome defense, but our offense was terrible because...our offense was terrible?  Ca.l did not leave a lot of open shooters, true, but they certainly did not seem to be playing suffocating defense a la ASU.  As so often has happened, we often passed up semi-open shots hoping to get fully open shots that never materialized.  Erica was taking 15 foot jumpers and not making them.  By some act of divine intervention both teams reached the lofty heights of two dozen points in the half, and we took a commanding 25-24 point lead into halftime. 

The third quarter was also dreadful, with Stanford outscoring C.al 10-9.  I missed the crisp fast breaks of the California Crush by that point.  Still, our defense stayed relatively solid, although the refs went from allowing anything at all to go in the paint to calling fouls on our double teams whenever Anigwe or Range decided to bump into our people.  With eight minutes left in the game C.al had cut the lead to one point, and things were looking bleak--althought I was beginning to think that both teams might go scoreless for the final 8!.  But then Karlie hit a trey, and a few minutes later Lili got two layups to go down, and and 8 point lead seemed almost insurmountable.  It turns out it was.  Free throws were all that was left.

Performances
Does anyone remember a Stanford player as streaky as Lili has been this year?  From the best offensive player in the nation to 3/15, 1/5 from three point range. 

Erica had yet another double-double, but she had to work hard for her 11 points.  She wound up 5/9, but I would guess most of the misses were jumpers in the first half, and most of the makes were layups (and one jumper) in the second.  She obviously has permission to shoot the 15 foot jumper this year, and sometimes they go down--but not with any consistency.  Her 13 rebounds--5 offensive--were critical, and helped us out rebound C.al

Karlie is coming into her own this year, and quietly has been building her portfolio as our most consistent player.  She had a game leading 15 points and shot 3/4 from three point range.  She continues to take the ball to the rim when there is an opening.  She hit 4/4 free throws, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, and won several scrappy hustle plays as usual.  Today, she was our most valuable player.

Kaylee vacuumed up 15 rebounds--almost all defensive--had a couple of assists but only 3 points.  She got into foul trouble attempting to keep Anigwe in check.

Marta started but soon left for Bri, who had 9 points and kept the defense honest.  McPhee played quite a bit but was only 1/5.  The coaches clearly want to see her defense improve.  Kailee was healthy enough to play but had some real problems on defense and did not get a lot of minutes.  She had one high post-to-the-basket move for a much needed basket in the second half, but I don't think she is 100%.

As a team we won rebounding, almost entirely because of Bird and Kaylee.  We had 12 assists on 18 made baskets, so our passing was helping some.  Turnovers at 15 seemed about average for us. 

Conclusion:

Our defense is really, really good.  Unfortunately, so too is ASU's and OSU's.  Our offense right now depends on Karlie and Bird and Lili shooting well.  WHen we go to C.al on Friday, all three had better be ready to shoot, because C.al is a better offensive team when they are at home, and they kept the game tonight highly competitive.  We are not used to thinking of C.al as an easy win, but the truth is that C.al is not a good team just now, and we need a second win over them.  And hopefully a win with no drama.



Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - BobK - 02-02-2016

One of the nine is injured the other not playing for personal reasons. 

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - JJJ - 02-02-2016

4 turnovers by each team in first 6:40 or so. Feels like more.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - JJJ - 02-02-2016

Let's not wait until the second half to turn Lili's switch to that "on" position. Two air ball treys in 1Q. Shake it off and bust loose!

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

Down 15-8 after one quarter.  6 turnovers, a lot of them unforced.  Lili's completely missed on her field goal attempts and other players are making bad decisions. Karlie has a half decent look and passes into a turnover, while Erica shoots a jumper from nearly the 3-point line.

I hope we are exhausting them.  Thinking of ESPN's Charlie Creme's comments about how we no where looked like a FF contender and he is so right. How the mighty have fallen.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

We lead 25-24 at halftime.  Lili has missed every field goal shot so far (0-7), but luckily Bri has knocked down her first two three point attempts of 2016.  We also missed a couple layups as well.  We are shooting a misly 26.7%, but only made 1 turnover in the quarter after 6 in the first.  Gone are the days where we would be scoring 35-40 pts in a half and shooting near 50%, though.

Defensively, Ca.l has not made any 3-pt shots (0-7) and we have grabbed 6 more rebounds with Kaylee and Erica only a couple rebounds each from double figures already.  Anigwe had to sit with 2 fouls late in the quarter.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - BostonCard - 02-02-2016

Man, that was painful to watch.  Hard to believe that we were up at halftime, but that's mostly because they simply stopped being able to score.  We didn't really score either, but we were slightly less bad.

BC

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - CompSci87 - 02-02-2016

I'm worried about what will happen when Anigwe comes back in. Hope we can draw some more fouls on her and send her back to the bench.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - BostonCard - 02-02-2016

Sometimes you are the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.

Lilli was the windshield last week, she's the bug tonight.  0-11.  Yea he.

BC

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

We led 35-33 after 3 quarters.  We are shooting 27.4%.  Ugly.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

We win 53-46. 

The good: Karlie's 15 points on 4-5 shooting (3-4 3P%) and 4-4 FT% with 6 rebounds and 4 assists.  We outrebounded Ca.l 43-35 with McCall and Kaylee both in double digits.  We held Ca.l to 28.6% shooting and 2-11 from 3-pt range. We shot 11-14 from the FT line.  We exploded early in the 4th quarter and hung around.  Erica with another double-double and Kailee back playing.  Bri finally landing some three's.

The bad: Lili 3-15 shooting. 15 turnovers, again on a lot of careless passes.  It's really frustrating, especially since we've been struggling to score, to see ourselves shoot ourselves in the foot and not even attempt a shot because of a stupid pass or reckless mistake.  Shooting 35% from the field. Alanna and Brittany a non-factor.  Our offense being their usual bad self. 

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - JJJ - 02-02-2016

I hope we figure it out before Friday or it'll be painful...  :(

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

(02-02-2016, 09:56 PM)JJJ link Wrote:I hope we figure it out before Friday or it'll be painful...  :(

Figure what out?  Our offense? It's already been painful.

My expectations for the rest of this year is maybe a Sweet 16 appearance if we are lucky.  I could see us lose in the 1st round if we play a team that catches fire and our offense continues to be inept.

I am just hoping that Tara will use the offseason to find a way to add 15-20 points to our offense and make it more dynamic for next year.  No wonder Tara didn't want to play UConn this year.  We would struggle to break 30 against them.  We can't use the excuse that we are "young" next year with Erica, Karlie, Bri, and Kailee being seniors.  Maybe Carrington, Wilson and/or Fingall can make an instant impact.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - JJJ - 02-02-2016

(02-02-2016, 09:59 PM)TheFarm07 link Wrote:[quote author=JJJ link=topic=14530.msg155325#msg155325 date=1454475411]
I hope we figure it out before Friday or it'll be painful...  :(

Figure what out?  Our offense? It's already been painful.

My expectations for the rest of this year is maybe a Sweet 16 appearance if we are lucky.  I could see us lose in the 1st round if we play a team that catches fire and our offense continues to be inept.

I am just hoping that Tara will use the offseason to find a way to add 15-20 points to our offense and make it more dynamic for next year.  No wonder Tara didn't want to play UConn this year.  We would struggle to break 30 against them.  We can't use the excuse that we are "young" next year with Erica, Karlie, Bri, and Kailee being seniors.  Maybe Carrington, Wilson and/or Fingall can make an instant impact.
[/quote]

I should have said "it would be MORE painful" playing AT Cal. If we play like today, no way we get a W.
Yes, figure out the offense. Didn't it seem to you like they hesitated when they caught a pass with a good look, with said hesitation negating the good look so that they ended up passing the ball? Or the "shooter" (in relative terms) with the clean look not taking it and passing it to a less-strong shooter who doesn't get the shot off? Careless and/or ill-advised passes chosen instead of shooting the ball? I understand that poor shooting can be contagious and lead to a lack of confidence, but poor decision-making should be fixable, or so I'd like to believe. An ugly W is better than an ugly L, so I am not unhappy with the outcome.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. C.al, 7pm Pacific - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

(02-02-2016, 10:47 PM)JJJ link Wrote:I should have said "it would be MORE painful" playing AT Low APR U. If we play like today, no way we get a W.
Yes, figure out the offense. Didn't it seem to you like they hesitated when they caught a pass with a good look, with said hesitation negating the good look so that they ended up passing the ball? Or the "shooter" (in relative terms) with the clean look not taking it and passing it to a less-strong shooter who doesn't get the shot off? Careless and/or ill-advised passes chosen instead of shooting the ball? I understand that poor shooting can be contagious and lead to a lack of confidence, but poor decision-making should be fixable, or so I'd like to believe. An ugly W is better than an ugly L, so I am not unhappy with the outcome.

Totally agree.  We had decent looks, but often made the extra pass, which sometimes either resulted in a turnover or a worse, desperation shot as the shot clock was expiring.

I feel like a broken record after watching the same things happen time after time.

Agreed with 81alum's point that our great defense is the only thing keeping us from a .500 or worse record.  Our offense is nowhere near where it should be, especially this late in the season.  It's just not missing shots, but the wrong kind of shots.  We are not putting ourselves in the right position to score.  No team is perfect and everyone misses shots, but our shot selection seems very poor.  I know Tara wants us to "move" the defense through passes and ball reversals, but I am just seeing a lot of standing around and guards nearly at midcourt, waiting for the shot clock to wind down, rather than any dynamic plays or creating something.  I dunno, I am not a basketball coach.  Maybe I am expecting too much?

Re: WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - TheFarm07 - 02-02-2016

(02-02-2016, 07:29 AM)81alum link Wrote:Coaches notes:
Tempie got a rare chance to talk to us after a win.  Tonight there were lots of excellent questions, even a question about a non-performing player.  The greatest insight came when Tempie explained some of the complexities of our man defense based on analytics.  Doubling a player who has a strong directional tendency when that player is in the right and not doubling them when they are left of the key--stuff like that.  I think it even impressed the hardcore basketball fans.  And it is working quite well--defense is the only reason we have a winning record right now.  She talked about the challenge of covering Anigwe.  She also discussed the hope that we would build a good lead and have a chance to play a lot more players, given how many games we have had in so few days.  She discussed McPhee playing well in the first half of the last game and getting pulled in the second--for nothing that she did, but because she and Karlie mainly share the same slot and Karlie was playing so well.  She discussed the struggle to get freshmen integrated--Marta's need to score, Alanna's need for consistency, etc. 

To get the good lead, we need to score in double digits every quarter and not take nearly 13 minutes into the game to get to 10 points.  I would like to see McPhee and Karlie get hot and be on the floor at the same time.  I've seen Tara experiment with the one true guard lineup more recently as we had been wanting, but not as much as I would like.  Bri showed glimpses that she can start hitting her shots again, but McPhee and Smith are nowhere to be found during the waning minutes of the game usually.

Re: WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - Viking_Guy - 02-03-2016

To be fair, K.al played a much longer and more athletic zone that UW did last week. 

Kailee had a tough game - a couple of nice drives, but she didn't do a great job in the high post, which was strange, because one of her first plays was a nice drive.  But when the defense sagged, she sat there wide open at 14 feet and never even looked at the basket on numerous plays in the second half.

I REALLY wish the referees would take a look at Anigwe's go-to post move - she's hooking the defender with her off-arm almost every time, starting on the right block, sweeping her left arm down and around the defender's hip to pin her, then pivoting to the hoop.

But her play did point out another weakness - our big to big passing isn't great, especially on the interior.  That's one of the issues with exploiting the hole in the center of the zone - the high posts don't dump it down to the low block very often.  Another is that when the guards drove into the center of the lane, they didn't often look to shoot the pull-up, but tried to pass out to the wing - against a player still being marked by the backline of the zone, which led to numerous live ball turnovers.  As did Kaylee at some points, when she got into the habit of not even looking for the drive.  And Marta fell in to the "I'm not shooting" pattern again.

And this schedule is lovely.  4 games in 8 days, then a full week off before ASU.  Thanks Pac-12!  It did seem to me that Lili's legs weren't quite under her a lot of the game; many of her early shots were short and she couldn't seem to get much lift when she was driving.

Finally, I do think that one misfortunate thing is that Stanford and K.al both have similar weaknesses on the perimeter this year - only 1 or 2 really consistent outside shooters.  That makes opponent prep a lot easier for conference teams on their Bay Area trip.  They can work on their 2-3 zone all week in practice.

VG


Re: WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - mcortesi - 02-03-2016

Lili's less than stellar performance today may have been due to having the ring & pinkie fingers of her right hand taped -- broken pinkie? Didn't keep her from playing for 36 minutes.

Re: WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - CompSci87 - 02-03-2016

Another item Tempie addressed was players who are reluctant to shoot. She particularly mentioned how some players despite being open will hesitate and look to do something else first. Then sometimes they realize, okay, I'm the most open, I have to shoot. That results in shooting out of rhythm and a lot of air balls.

My pet theory is that when Tara talks about better shot selection, players sometimes start worrying more about avoiding bad shots when their greater problem may be passing up shots they should take.

Re: WBB: Stanford 53 C.al 46 - JJJ - 02-03-2016

(02-03-2016, 02:24 AM)CompSci87 link Wrote:Another item Tempie addressed was players who are reluctant to shoot. She particularly mentioned how some players despite being open will hesitate and look to do something else first. Then sometimes they realize, okay, I'm the most open, I have to shoot. That results in shooting out of rhythm and a lot of air balls.

My pet theory is that when Tara talks about better shot selection, players sometimes start worrying more about avoiding bad shots when their greater problem may be passing up shots they should take.
Thank you for posting this. Sort of glad that they see it and are cognizant of it (and thus maybe, just maybe, we can do something about it). I actually thought a number of Lili's early shots today were "in rhythm" but just not falling. (Some of the later ones were not in rhythm.) I think your pet theory holds water.

Bruce Lee's advice might be needed for them: "Don't think. FEEL."