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WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - Printable Version

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WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - 81alum - 02-01-2013

The story of this game was that Stanford had very snappy passing, with 25 assists on 32 made baskets.  That was more than enough to defeat an injury-riddled, overmatched Oregon team.  Also of note were 10 three point baskets, with Sara breaking her scoring drought and hitting 3 treys and 11 points overall.  And, finally, we had only 8 turnovers for the entire game--perhaps reflecting that Oregon is not much of a defensive team.

The game began very, very well for Stanford as it raced out to a 23-4 lead in only the first 8 minutes.  Visions of a 100 point game were dancing in my head.  Oregon's zone was completely ineffective as we scored mid range jumpers, layups, and treys against it.  Oregon reluctantly switched to P2P and the Stanford offense stalled, allowing Oregon to crawl back within single digits at one point.  Their quick guard Ariel Thomas made many excellent individual plays.

But in the second half Toni shut Thomas down for long stretches, and Stanford built its lead back, eventually letting Tara rest Chiney for 12 minutes and giving the bench quite a lot of play time.  In fact, it almost seemed as if Tara had read the Cardboard and decided to take our advice--letting the team learn how to run a Chiney-less offense and giving Greenfield, Samuelson, Camp, Picknell and Payne some significant minutes.  The TV commentators noted that Tara was looking to rest Chiney because of her sore ankle--but I do not know if they were speculating based upon the ankle-roll last game or whether they had actually been told this.

Joslyn had a great first half and finished with 16 points.  Ros pointed out that Jos is the key to Stanford's success this year.  She is inconsistent about the games in which she scores, but when she is doing well Stanford is a completely different team.  Ros seemed to agree with us that Joslyn's issue is being sufficiently aggressive and taking shots.  It is rare to see her take a lot of shots and miss--instead, she just goes through stretches where she doesn't feel she gets open enough to shoot.

Amber had 9 assists and 9 points, and only tossed the ball away a couple of times.  Her offense was a bit off tonight (3/9) but she was doing a much better job distributing.  Toni had 6 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals.  Sara finished with 11 points.

Chiney had a better shooting touch tonight that she sometimes does--that makes two games in a row where she has increased her %.  Perhaps she is peaking at the right time.  Tonight she was 9/13 and wound up with 22 points and 13 rebounds.

Of the bench players, Tess did herself some good.  She only played 5 minutes but had 4 points and a couple of rebounds.  She made one basket on a slow spin-move that had Amy and Tara on their feet and laughing and clapping.  On the other hand, Erica Payne collected 3 4 fouls in 5 minutes.

I find it troubling, though, that Oregon had a significant rebounding advantage over us.  I do not understand why a tall team like Stanford should be losing the rebounding battle 35/44.

All in all, this game was never much in doubt, but it gave Tara a chance to play some of her bench and to try different lineups.  Oregon's zone necessitated that we prove that we could make treys, and we did, at a respectable 37%.



Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - BobK - 02-01-2013

Oregon didn't try to run as in past years instead had 3-4 players crashing the boards to eliminate Stanford offense put backs. 

Chiney on crutches for a couple of days then a walking boot so Ros wasn't guessing.  Jos out of her boot several games ago.  Toni without the hand wrap last 2 games.  Heath is a wonderful thing.  :)

Cal wins easily, ucla winning easily.

Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - M T - 02-02-2013

It looks like if we can just get the other team to play zone, we can be really good.  At times it looked like Oregon was playing pretty physical (for instance, see the plays at the right block at about 9:36 in the first half).

Stanford had season highs in FG Attempts (72) due to a lot of up and down the court breaks, both 3PT(10) and 3PT attempts (27) and a near-season high with 38% of our FGA being 3PTA.  While our 25 assists was a season high, the 78% assist to FGA ratio was impressive.  11 steals ties the season high, and lead to our season best 22 points off their turnovers (near season high of 17), and season high of 24 fast break points (previous high was 8  )

While the 37% 3PT% was better than our average, earlier in the season we were regularly doing better.  Our 2PT% was a shade under our average, as was our FT%.  As noted by 81alum, our rebounding was bad, with 22% OR% + 66% DR% = 88%.  Oregon does lead the conference in offensive rebounds, while they are next to last in defensive rebounds.  So, that means our OR% was especially bad, while our DR% was probably acceptable.  Jos is going toward the basket on the shot most of the time, but she's often out on the perimeter on offense so she doesn't get into good rebounding position.  So it is typically double-teamed Chiney versus 3 or more defensive rebounders.

Tess may be our future, but she's still kinda awkward in there, picking up 2 fouls in 5 minutes.  The stat sheet shows Erica got 4 (not 3) fouls in 5 minutes.

After we were up 20 with 6:20 left in the half, we let them get 10 straight points until 2:37, when Paul Westhead got called for a technical.  That seems a pretty dumb thing by him.  He kept going at the official like he wanted the technical.  No one on his bench tried to pull him back.  The only thing I could see was that he was upset by the foul call on Alleyne, but it looked like an easy call to me (one hand came down on the players shoulder and then swiped across the arms).  He was in his seat before that foul, and continuously up talking at the official after it.

Clearly that one ref, Shelley Nakasone, tried to make up for the technical on the coach by then calling a technical on Jos just 8 seconds later.  The fact that she called the second technical so quickly after she called the first technical brings into question her competence.  The rules have no provision for make up calls.  The second technical was dubious enough that the TV announcers didn't figure out what was going on (ie, that there was a technical), and despite looking at the replay over & over, never saw anything that could be called.  If the NCAA reviews officials' conduct on the court, this should be reviewed.  (Oh yea, you have to really stretch your imagination to think that Jos committed a Flagrant 1 Personal Foul there.  Then you have to stretch your interpretation of how that was after the tie ball call to make that a Contact Dead Ball Technical Foul, which is the only thing I can imagine she found to call that was a technical, as she signaled.  Surely one couldn't stretch the call far enough for it to be a Flagrant 2 Technical Foul.  So I also think the excuse for this to be a technical is suspect and further calls into question the competency of that official, and the team of officials.)

Anyway, during this 4 minute, 10 point run by Oregon, we had most of our starters in, so it can't be blamed on having the second string in.  I really didn't see anything that jumped out at me other than Oregon was hitting shots and Stanford was missing.  We weren't able to get the ball inside much during this time.  We tried, and missed four 3-pointers, during that time.

In all, I think the fact that our starters played as much time as they did is not a good sign.  I certainly wish we had played well enough to let Chiney play less than the 28 minutes she played.  She had her double-double with 10 minutes left in the game (about 4 minutes before she finally left).

I hope Sunday will be an even easier game, giving more development time to the subs.


Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - 81alum - 02-02-2013

Thank you BobK for that information on our players' health.  It sounds as if Chiney's ankle roll was a little more serious that we knew--unless crutches and boots are only precautionary devices.  I suppose that must have limited her practice time this week, which makes her 9/13 even more remarkable.  And good to know that Jos and Toni are back to 100%.

Your point that Oregon was keeping players back for defensive rebounds rather than running is well taken, and could have something to do with our low number of ORs.  But I get the impression that Tara this year has just decided to get more of our players back on defense and leaves fewer (0 or 1) in place for an OR.  This has been a season-long trend and may help explain how this is the best defensive team in Stanford WBB history, but this has been accomplished at a significant cost on ORs and putbacks.   

MT, that 0-10 stretch had me concerned too.  I don't have the game on tape, but the play by play shows that Thomas was responsible for 8 out of 10 of those points, with nothing assisted.  All her individual effort.  Was Toni defending her during that stretch, or someone else?  In the second half I noticed that Toni was always defending Thomas and Thomas was much more limited.

I also was absolutely mystified by the technical on Jos and the long, long negotiating session between the refs.  They watched the replay repeatedly but not as often as we the viewing audience did.  I never saw anything flagrant or even that was a foul.  Her elbows were never up--all I could see was that she tried to cling to the ball as it was being ripped out of her arms.  Where was the foul in that?  The announcers wondered if she could have said something.  But if it was based on something she said, then why were the refs staring at the replay on the side for so long?  Does their replay have player sound on it?

Yes, this looks very much like a make-up call and it would be good for the league to look into the actions of the refs there.

For that matter, does anyone know what had Westhead so angry leading to the first technical?  It was pretty easy to lipread and he was spewing some foul language, but it was not at all clear what it was about.  I had not noticed particularly bad officiating--as common as that may be.  Or was he trying to get himself tossed in some weird strategy to motivate his team?



Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - BobK - 02-02-2013

Well we now know raising your elbow is a T. Geesh. No contact that any of us saw, agree with both of you a make up. 

Toni's illness remains a mystery but she certainly is coping with it. 

Easy wins by cal and UCLA.

Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - M T - 02-03-2013

(02-02-2013, 08:30 AM)81alum link Wrote:I don't have the game on tape, but the play by play shows that Thomas was responsible for 8 out of 10 of those points, with nothing assisted.  All her individual effort.  Was Toni defending her during that stretch, or someone else?  In the second half I noticed that Toni was always defending Thomas and Thomas was much more limited.

Amber, Sara, Taylor, Jos, Chiney are in the game.
6:34  Thomas takes Amber on the dribble from the 3pt line and hits a 2ptr from 3'.  (It looks like Chiney made an aggressive foul on Thomas after the shot with an elbow to the neck, knocking Thomas down.  But what happened is that Chiney is standing straight up & looking up at the ball when #40 blindsides her (not too unfairly) with a hip, knocking her 2-3 feet and into Thomas.)
6:21  Chiney does her magic.
6:13  The setup & shot is off camera.  As the 3ptr goes in, Thomas is 3' behind the line with Amber near her, now looking at the basket.
5:47  Except for one pass to Sara in the corner, Stanford weakly passes the ball around until the shot clock is gone.  Amber takes the ball one dribble inside the 3pt line & passes out to James with 3 seconds on the clock.  Her 3pt shot is short.  (It seems like she always misses short.)
5:31  Off the miss, Thomas hustles it down the court.  At the top of the key she has only Amber & Taylor in front of her.  Amber engages her at the foul line, and when Thomas goes to the outside, Amber does that reach she does, but doesn't stop the shot (which misses) and does get called for the foul.  Both free throws are good.
Toni replaces Amber.
5:05 Some better ball movement with passes into Jos & out, and into Chiney to Jos to Sara with :07 left.  Sara's 3ptr misses.  Jos has a chance for the rebound, but it was controlled by Oregon.
4:59 During transition, Taylor, Sara, and Toni are back, with Chiney & Jos catching up.  Toni takes the dribbler,, #4.  The pass goes out to #32 (Iamaleava) & Jos takes her.  From the corner she dribbles to an open spot to take a 16' jumper & hits it.  Jos was just a little late but did contest the shot.
4:28 Chiney takes a fairly open 10' shot as she backs out, but it rims out.  Jos (and all other Stanfod players) was out beyond the arc as the shot went up and she breaks to the basket as the shot goes up, but it falls down to the defenders under the basket.
4:19 Toni defends #4 as she dribbles in & takes a wild, low percentage shot with 22 seconds left on the shot clock.  Chiney helped discourage the dribbler from coming down the lane. We had 2 rebounders to their 1.  Chiney gets the rebound.
4:07  Good movement with the ball.  Chiney passes out to Taylor with 20 on the shot clock, who tries a 3.  Toni is out of frame, back on defense.  Effectively her player & Chiney's are blocking Chiney out.  Jos is out wide and only makes a token effort to get near the ball.  One of Chiney's defenders gets the rebound.
3:52  An Oregon player dribbles the ball off her foot, resulting in a tie ball.  Stanford ball.
Bonnie replaces Sara
3:27  Good passing in the triangle.  Bonnie gets the ball in the right corner & puts up a clear shot but it is long. The defenders on Jos & Chiney have inside position.  Bonnie is still watching as the ball hits the rim.  Taylor & Toni are starting back on defense.  Chiney cuts around her player and gets a hand on the ball, but is called for a foul.
Mikaela replaces Chiney
3:01  Toni was on Thomas, but she & Bonnie switch as she dribbles.  When the ball is passed back to Thomas, Bonnie is not quick enough to keep up with her movements. Thomas takes a step across the 3pt line & back to get enough space to hit a 3pt shot.
2:44 As the foul is committed by Alleyne on Jos, Paul Westhead & his assistant coach are seated, clearly looking at & discussing what is happening where Mikaela is executing some picks near the foul line.  The asst coach raises his right arm, points towards Mikaela & lowers it. Just as the official raises her arm to call the foul, Westhead starts to raise his left arm to point across the court (but no contact is happening anywhere except at the foul). When the whistle blows, he turns toward the official & where the foul happened.  It is clear to me, he wasn't watching where the foul was called & couldn't have had any informed opinion on that foul.  The next time we see him he is standing, jawboning the official before the throw-in happens.  We see him talking at the official for 10 seconds until the technical is called.    I can't see him arguing about Mikaela's picks either.  The first pick was quite stationary & set well in advance.  The second pick didn't materialize as the defenders switched.  There was no possibility of a 3-second call either.  We get to see the full half court view during the entire time Stanford has the ball and so we know there isn't an off-camera foul (at least until the Alleyne foul is called, but we see the full half court view from when the ball is handed to the player for the inbound pass).  The previous shot by his team was not such that a foul was possible.  The previous possession by Stanford resulted in a foul on Chiney.  It was the first foul on Alleyne (per the stats; the announcers said it was the second) and only the 3rd on Oregon.  I can't imagine what he was that unhappy about.


Re: WBB: Stanford 86 Oregon 62 - 81alum - 02-03-2013

Thanks MT!  So now we know fairly well that Toni was not exclusively guarding Thomas in the first half when Oregon made its run and Thomas had her best offensive output--it sounds like Amber was mostly on Thomas.  At the half,  Tara seems to have made an adjustment that worked.  We know she regards Toni as our best perimeter defender, and I think at the half she changes her assignment to help with the hot opposing player.

And Westhead's anger remains a mystery.  Ah well, he had other things to be angry about, and maybe the refs just suffered from displacement.