[81alum]

Preliminary:

Tara has certainly got this team improving, but how much?  I think Oregon deserves its #6 ranking.  Frankly, I can't see us matching up well.  If we double Hebard the way we doubled Gulich we will wind up leaving elite three point shooters open.  To have any chance everything will have to fall in place--they get key players into foul trouble, we get hot from three point range, someone on their team has an off day, we don't turn it over and we get our rebounding going.  What are the chances of that happening?  Let's just say that beating Plum and Osahor in Seattle last year was an easier task than this.

Overview:

My preface above reflects my skepticism that our team was ready to compete with Oregon.  The first half showed we could compete but gave no assurance we would pull it off against the nation's #6 team in the second half.  After all, Hebard had scorched us for 16 in the first half and we were outscored by 10 in the second quarter alone.  But Tara's defense came alive in the second half, holding Hebard scoreless--repeating the number we had just done to Gulich at OSU.  Our rebounding improved, turnovers stayed low, and McPhee caught on fire, making 13 second half baskets, including 3/3 from three point range.  As the clock ticked down Oregon fell apart, making uncharacteristic turnovers, giving us an 11-0 run over the last five minutes of the game.  And so we win a piece of first place--and declare to the world that our we deserve to be back on center stage.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter started badly, with Ionescu, Sabally, and Heberd getting Oregon out to an 8-0 lead.  Tara substituted quickly, partly because Kaylee picked up 2 early fouls, and we sometimes played with four guards on the floor.  Williams began to hit some treys and our defense tightened, and we scratched back to a 16-15 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was a different story.  We managed to score another 16 points, but the wheels came off our defense and Oregon racked up 26.  I don't remember Stanford giving up 26 points in a quarter this year.  It was not mainly three point shooting but Heberd inside, who could not be defended one on one, and Oregon guards getting to the rim.  The half was called tight and this dramatically favored Oregon's offense.  We staggered to halftime down 41-32.  We were outrebounded 17-10, but the good news--only 4 turnovers.  After starting hot in the first, Williams did not score in the second--continuing an unusual pattern.  Oregon's top two had 16 and 10--making Tara's scouting report defense look a bit anemic.

The third quarter began a turnaround in our fortunes.  McPhee's three point shot has been erratic all year, but she rapidly hit two quick treys to go with a layup of her own, a Smith layup and a Williams trey and we evened up the score 48-48 in the first five minutes of the half.  We had a new game with 15 minutes left to play, and my nerves were acting up.  From this point on McPhee hit many mid range jumpers curling around a screen set by Johnson--Williams hit a couple of them too.  This worked against OSU but McPhee's accurate mid range shot made it especially deadly today.

Then what looked like a disaster.  Scrambling for a ball, McPhee and Williams lunge from opposite directions and play bocce ball with their heads.  Both went to the floor.  The collision was violent enough that I was sure both would be gone under concussion protocol for the game if not longer.  ESPN showed it three times from different angles, and showed Williams trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose, her left hand coated.  She was taken to the locker room, given stitches to the bridge of her nose, and reentered the game late.  McPhee sat out a minute or two but came back to continue her offensive clinic.  I can only guess that the collision was cushioned by William's nose, which must have hurt horribly but may have prevented far worse.

For the last five minutes of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth we kept a slight lead, but Oregon did not let us pull away.  Ionescu kep them in contact by hitting treys even when well defended.  And so we were up only 67-65 with 5:08 in the game, and playing on the road in front of a full house gave little reassurance that we had the game in the bag.  Far from it. 

But then something strange happened.  Everything went our way.  McPhee made a trey, we got a stop, McPhee made a jumper.  Kiana, back in the game, stole the ball and got it to McPhee for another jumper.  At 2:54 we got the rebound after a Hebert miss with a 9 point lead.  Two offensive rebounds and a foul by Ionescu let us keep the ball in that one possession until Marta found McPhee on a beautiful back door cut--taking nearly 2 minutes off the clock and giving us an 11 point lead with barely a minute left.  The court was very, very quiet outside the immediate environs of the Stanford bench.  And that's just the way we wanted it.

Performances:

As a team, it was a tale of two halves.  We had only 3 total rebounds in the second quarter, 13 for the 1st half, compared with Oregon's 23.  Second half was almost reversed, we had 21 to Oregon's 13.  After 4 turnovers in the 1st half we had only 2 in the 2nd--possibly our best half of the year on that count.  After shooting 38% in the first, we shot 56% in the second.  We made 3/12 treys in the first, but 6/11 in the second.  Six assists in the first, 11 in the second.  Gave up 16 points to Hebard in the 1st, 0 in the second.  McPhee with 2 points in the 1st, 31 in the 2nd. 

McPhee's previous career high was 28 points against Texas in 2016, so her 33 tonight tops that.  Every so often we witness a player who gets into a psychological zone and seemingly can't miss, and that was McPhee today.  She was 9/10 in the fourth quarter.  The rest of her stat line was pretty quiet--she was too busy scoring.  She also spend much of the game defending taller players.

Williams had a very respectable 14 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers, and a couple of steals and a block! for good measure.  I think her block was of a much taller player--the second time I have seen her leap to do that.

Smith also had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a whopping 4 blocks.  4 blocks against a significantly taller team!  She did pick up 4 fouls and this limited her minutes--an all too regular problem for her.

No one else was in double digit scoring--they did not need to be.  Carrington had 6 points, 3 assists and 2 steals and played good defense during critical stretches of her 23 minutes.  Marta had 4 points, 5 assists to 1 turnover, and 2 steals in her 35 minutes.  Fingall played 13 minutes and nailed a trey.  Dodson played 9 and made fabulous moves to the basket, but consistently finished too hard and left 0/3.  Jerome and Wilson also got in the game--nice to see that Wilson is OK.

Conclusion:

Winning against two quality teams on the road and seizing a piece of first place should dispel many of our early season ghosts.  But we probably won't be able to count on another 31 point half from Britt if we meet Oregon in the Pac 12 tournament.  Can we finish out our regular season with consistent performances?  Can we beat C.al twice in week?  Will we overlook two dangerous Washington teams on our final road trip?  Or will we keep getting better, climb the RPI, and prime ourselves for a deep NCAA run? 

[81alum]

Preliminary:

Tara has certainly got this team improving, but how much?  I think Oregon deserves its #6 ranking.  Frankly, I can't see us matching up well.  If we double Hebard the way we doubled Gulich we will wind up leaving elite three point shooters open.  To have any chance everything will have to fall in place--they get key players into foul trouble, we get hot from three point range, someone on their team has an off day, we don't turn it over and we get our rebounding going.  What are the chances of that happening?  Let's just say that beating Plum and Osahor in Seattle last year was an easier task than this.

Overview:

My preface above reflects my skepticism that our team was ready to compete with Oregon.  The first half showed we could compete but gave no assurance we would pull it off against the nation's #6 team in the second half.  After all, Hebard had scorched us for 16 in the first half and we were outscored by 10 in the second quarter alone.  But Tara's defense came alive in the second half, holding Hebard scoreless--repeating the number we had just done to Gulich at OSU.  Our rebounding improved, turnovers stayed low, and McPhee caught on fire, making 13 second half baskets, including 3/3 from three point range.  As the clock ticked down Oregon fell apart, making uncharacteristic turnovers, giving us an 11-0 run over the last five minutes of the game.  And so we win a piece of first place--and declare to the world that our we deserve to be back on center stage.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter started badly, with Ionescu, Sabally, and Heberd getting Oregon out to an 8-0 lead.  Tara substituted quickly, partly because Kaylee picked up 2 early fouls, and we sometimes played with four guards on the floor.  Williams began to hit some treys and our defense tightened, and we scratched back to a 16-15 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was a different story.  We managed to score another 16 points, but the wheels came off our defense and Oregon racked up 26.  I don't remember Stanford giving up 26 points in a quarter this year.  It was not mainly three point shooting but Heberd inside, who could not be defended one on one, and Oregon guards getting to the rim.  The half was called tight and this dramatically favored Oregon's offense.  We staggered to halftime down 41-32.  We were outrebounded 17-10, but the good news--only 4 turnovers.  After starting hot in the first, Williams did not score in the second--continuing an unusual pattern.  Oregon's top two had 16 and 10--making Tara's scouting report defense look a bit anemic.

The third quarter began a turnaround in our fortunes.  McPhee's three point shot has been erratic all year, but she rapidly hit two quick treys to go with a layup of her own, a Smith layup and a Williams trey and we evened up the score 48-48 in the first five minutes of the half.  We had a new game with 15 minutes left to play, and my nerves were acting up.  From this point on McPhee hit many mid range jumpers curling around a screen set by Johnson--Williams hit a couple of them too.  This worked against OSU but McPhee's accurate mid range shot made it especially deadly today.

Then what looked like a disaster.  Scrambling for a ball, McPhee and Williams lunge from opposite directions and play bocce ball with their heads.  Both went to the floor.  The collision was violent enough that I was sure both would be gone under concussion protocol for the game if not longer.  ESPN showed it three times from different angles, and showed Williams trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose, her left hand coated.  She was taken to the locker room, given stitches to the bridge of her nose, and reentered the game late.  McPhee sat out a minute or two but came back to continue her offensive clinic.  I can only guess that the collision was cushioned by William's nose, which must have hurt horribly but may have prevented far worse.

For the last five minutes of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth we kept a slight lead, but Oregon did not let us pull away.  Ionescu kep them in contact by hitting treys even when well defended.  And so we were up only 67-65 with 5:08 in the game, and playing on the road in front of a full house gave little reassurance that we had the game in the bag.  Far from it. 

But then something strange happened.  Everything went our way.  McPhee made a trey, we got a stop, McPhee made a jumper.  Kiana, back in the game, stole the ball and got it to McPhee for another jumper.  At 2:54 we got the rebound after a Hebert miss with a 9 point lead.  Two offensive rebounds and a foul by Ionescu let us keep the ball in that one possession until Marta found McPhee on a beautiful back door cut--taking nearly 2 minutes off the clock and giving us an 11 point lead with barely a minute left.  The court was very, very quiet outside the immediate environs of the Stanford bench.  And that's just the way we wanted it.

Performances:

As a team, it was a tale of two halves.  We had only 3 total rebounds in the second quarter, 13 for the 1st half, compared with Oregon's 23.  Second half was almost reversed, we had 21 to Oregon's 13.  After 4 turnovers in the 1st half we had only 2 in the 2nd--possibly our best half of the year on that count.  After shooting 38% in the first, we shot 56% in the second.  We made 3/12 treys in the first, but 6/11 in the second.  Six assists in the first, 11 in the second.  Gave up 16 points to Hebard in the 1st, 0 in the second.  McPhee with 2 points in the 1st, 31 in the 2nd. 

McPhee's previous career high was 28 points against Texas in 2016, so her 33 tonight tops that.  Every so often we witness a player who gets into a psychological zone and seemingly can't miss, and that was McPhee today.  She was 9/10 in the fourth quarter.  The rest of her stat line was pretty quiet--she was too busy scoring.  She also spend much of the game defending taller players.

Williams had a very respectable 14 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers, and a couple of steals and a block! for good measure.  I think her block was of a much taller player--the second time I have seen her leap to do that.

Smith also had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a whopping 4 blocks.  4 blocks against a significantly taller team!  She did pick up 4 fouls and this limited her minutes--an all too regular problem for her.

No one else was in double digit scoring--they did not need to be.  Carrington had 6 points, 3 assists and 2 steals and played good defense during critical stretches of her 23 minutes.  Marta had 4 points, 5 assists to 1 turnover, and 2 steals in her 35 minutes.  Fingall played 13 minutes and nailed a trey.  Dodson played 9 and made fabulous moves to the basket, but consistently finished too hard and left 0/3.  Jerome and Wilson also got in the game--nice to see that Wilson is OK.

Conclusion:

Winning against two quality teams on the road and seizing a piece of first place should dispel many of our early season ghosts.  But we probably won't be able to count on another 31 point half from Britt if we meet Oregon in the Pac 12 tournament.  Can we finish out our regular season with consistent performances?  Can we beat C.al twice in week?  Will we overlook two dangerous Washington teams on our final road trip?  Or will we keep getting better, climb the RPI, and prime ourselves for a deep NCAA run? 

[81alum]

Preliminary:

Tara has certainly got this team improving, but how much?  I think Oregon deserves its #6 ranking.  Frankly, I can't see us matching up well.  If we double Hebard the way we doubled Gulich we will wind up leaving elite three point shooters open.  To have any chance everything will have to fall in place--they get key players into foul trouble, we get hot from three point range, someone on their team has an off day, we don't turn it over and we get our rebounding going.  What are the chances of that happening?  Let's just say that beating Plum and Osahor in Seattle last year was an easier task than this.

Overview:

My preface above reflects my skepticism that our team was ready to compete with Oregon.  The first half showed we could compete but gave no assurance we would pull it off against the nation's #6 team in the second half.  After all, Hebard had scorched us for 16 in the first half and we were outscored by 10 in the second quarter alone.  But Tara's defense came alive in the second half, holding Hebard scoreless--repeating the number we had just done to Gulich at OSU.  Our rebounding improved, turnovers stayed low, and McPhee caught on fire, making 13 second half baskets, including 3/3 from three point range.  As the clock ticked down Oregon fell apart, making uncharacteristic turnovers, giving us an 11-0 run over the last five minutes of the game.  And so we win a piece of first place--and declare to the world that our we deserve to be back on center stage.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter started badly, with Ionescu, Sabally, and Heberd getting Oregon out to an 8-0 lead.  Tara substituted quickly, partly because Kaylee picked up 2 early fouls, and we sometimes played with four guards on the floor.  Williams began to hit some treys and our defense tightened, and we scratched back to a 16-15 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was a different story.  We managed to score another 16 points, but the wheels came off our defense and Oregon racked up 26.  I don't remember Stanford giving up 26 points in a quarter this year.  It was not mainly three point shooting but Heberd inside, who could not be defended one on one, and Oregon guards getting to the rim.  The half was called tight and this dramatically favored Oregon's offense.  We staggered to halftime down 41-32.  We were outrebounded 17-10, but the good news--only 4 turnovers.  After starting hot in the first, Williams did not score in the second--continuing an unusual pattern.  Oregon's top two had 16 and 10--making Tara's scouting report defense look a bit anemic.

The third quarter began a turnaround in our fortunes.  McPhee's three point shot has been erratic all year, but she rapidly hit two quick treys to go with a layup of her own, a Smith layup and a Williams trey and we evened up the score 48-48 in the first five minutes of the half.  We had a new game with 15 minutes left to play, and my nerves were acting up.  From this point on McPhee hit many mid range jumpers curling around a screen set by Johnson--Williams hit a couple of them too.  This worked against OSU but McPhee's accurate mid range shot made it especially deadly today.

Then what looked like a disaster.  Scrambling for a ball, McPhee and Williams lunge from opposite directions and play bocce ball with their heads.  Both went to the floor.  The collision was violent enough that I was sure both would be gone under concussion protocol for the game if not longer.  ESPN showed it three times from different angles, and showed Williams trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose, her left hand coated.  She was taken to the locker room, given stitches to the bridge of her nose, and reentered the game late.  McPhee sat out a minute or two but came back to continue her offensive clinic.  I can only guess that the collision was cushioned by William's nose, which must have hurt horribly but may have prevented far worse.

For the last five minutes of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth we kept a slight lead, but Oregon did not let us pull away.  Ionescu kep them in contact by hitting treys even when well defended.  And so we were up only 67-65 with 5:08 in the game, and playing on the road in front of a full house gave little reassurance that we had the game in the bag.  Far from it. 

But then something strange happened.  Everything went our way.  McPhee made a trey, we got a stop, McPhee made a jumper.  Kiana, back in the game, stole the ball and got it to McPhee for another jumper.  At 2:54 we got the rebound after a Hebert miss with a 9 point lead.  Two offensive rebounds and a foul by Ionescu let us keep the ball in that one possession until Marta found McPhee on a beautiful back door cut--taking nearly 2 minutes off the clock and giving us an 11 point lead with barely a minute left.  The court was very, very quiet outside the immediate environs of the Stanford bench.  And that's just the way we wanted it.

Performances:

As a team, it was a tale of two halves.  We had only 3 total rebounds in the second quarter, 13 for the 1st half, compared with Oregon's 23.  Second half was almost reversed, we had 21 to Oregon's 13.  After 4 turnovers in the 1st half we had only 2 in the 2nd--possibly our best half of the year on that count.  After shooting 38% in the first, we shot 56% in the second.  We made 3/12 treys in the first, but 6/11 in the second.  Six assists in the first, 11 in the second.  Gave up 16 points to Hebard in the 1st, 0 in the second.  McPhee with 2 points in the 1st, 31 in the 2nd. 

McPhee's previous career high was 28 points against Texas in 2016, so her 33 tonight tops that.  Every so often we witness a player who gets into a psychological zone and seemingly can't miss, and that was McPhee today.  She was 9/10 in the fourth quarter.  The rest of her stat line was pretty quiet--she was too busy scoring.  She also spend much of the game defending taller players.

Williams had a very respectable 14 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers, and a couple of steals and a block! for good measure.  I think her block was of a much taller player--the second time I have seen her leap to do that.

Smith also had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a whopping 4 blocks.  4 blocks against a significantly taller team!  She did pick up 4 fouls and this limited her minutes--an all too regular problem for her.

No one else was in double digit scoring--they did not need to be.  Carrington had 6 points, 3 assists and 2 steals and played good defense during critical stretches of her 23 minutes.  Marta had 4 points, 5 assists to 1 turnover, and 2 steals in her 35 minutes.  Fingall played 13 minutes and nailed a trey.  Dodson played 9 and made fabulous moves to the basket, but consistently finished too hard and left 0/3.  Jerome and Wilson also got in the game--nice to see that Wilson is OK.

Conclusion:

Winning against two quality teams on the road and seizing a piece of first place should dispel many of our early season ghosts.  But we probably won't be able to count on another 31 point half from Britt if we meet Oregon in the Pac 12 tournament.  Can we finish out our regular season with consistent performances?  Can we beat C.al twice in week?  Will we overlook two dangerous Washington teams on our final road trip?  Or will we keep getting better, climb the RPI, and prime ourselves for a deep NCAA run? 

[81alum]

Preliminary:

Tara has certainly got this team improving, but how much?  I think Oregon deserves its #6 ranking.  Frankly, I can't see us matching up well.  If we double Hebard the way we doubled Gulich we will wind up leaving elite three point shooters open.  To have any chance everything will have to fall in place--they get key players into foul trouble, we get hot from three point range, someone on their team has an off day, we don't turn it over and we get our rebounding going.  What are the chances of that happening?  Let's just say that beating Plum and Osahor in Seattle last year was an easier task than this.

Overview:

My preface above reflects my skepticism that our team was ready to compete with Oregon.  The first half showed we could compete but gave no assurance we would pull it off against the nation's #6 team in the second half.  After all, Hebard had scorched us for 16 in the first half and we were outscored by 10 in the second quarter alone.  But Tara's defense came alive in the second half, holding Hebard scoreless--repeating the number we had just done to Gulich at OSU.  Our rebounding improved, turnovers stayed low, and McPhee caught on fire, making 13 second half baskets, including 3/3 from three point range.  As the clock ticked down Oregon fell apart, making uncharacteristic turnovers, giving us an 11-0 run over the last five minutes of the game.  And so we win a piece of first place--and declare to the world that our we deserve to be back on center stage.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter started badly, with Ionescu, Sabally, and Heberd getting Oregon out to an 8-0 lead.  Tara substituted quickly, partly because Kaylee picked up 2 early fouls, and we sometimes played with four guards on the floor.  Williams began to hit some treys and our defense tightened, and we scratched back to a 16-15 lead after the first quarter.

The second quarter was a different story.  We managed to score another 16 points, but the wheels came off our defense and Oregon racked up 26.  I don't remember Stanford giving up 26 points in a quarter this year.  It was not mainly three point shooting but Heberd inside, who could not be defended one on one, and Oregon guards getting to the rim.  The half was called tight and this dramatically favored Oregon's offense.  We staggered to halftime down 41-32.  We were outrebounded 17-10, but the good news--only 4 turnovers.  After starting hot in the first, Williams did not score in the second--continuing an unusual pattern.  Oregon's top two had 16 and 10--making Tara's scouting report defense look a bit anemic.

The third quarter began a turnaround in our fortunes.  McPhee's three point shot has been erratic all year, but she rapidly hit two quick treys to go with a layup of her own, a Smith layup and a Williams trey and we evened up the score 48-48 in the first five minutes of the half.  We had a new game with 15 minutes left to play, and my nerves were acting up.  From this point on McPhee hit many mid range jumpers curling around a screen set by Johnson--Williams hit a couple of them too.  This worked against OSU but McPhee's accurate mid range shot made it especially deadly today.

Then what looked like a disaster.  Scrambling for a ball, McPhee and Williams lunge from opposite directions and play bocce ball with their heads.  Both went to the floor.  The collision was violent enough that I was sure both would be gone under concussion protocol for the game if not longer.  ESPN showed it three times from different angles, and showed Williams trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose, her left hand coated.  She was taken to the locker room, given stitches to the bridge of her nose, and reentered the game late.  McPhee sat out a minute or two but came back to continue her offensive clinic.  I can only guess that the collision was cushioned by William's nose, which must have hurt horribly but may have prevented far worse.

For the last five minutes of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth we kept a slight lead, but Oregon did not let us pull away.  Ionescu kep them in contact by hitting treys even when well defended.  And so we were up only 67-65 with 5:08 in the game, and playing on the road in front of a full house gave little reassurance that we had the game in the bag.  Far from it. 

But then something strange happened.  Everything went our way.  McPhee made a trey, we got a stop, McPhee made a jumper.  Kiana, back in the game, stole the ball and got it to McPhee for another jumper.  At 2:54 we got the rebound after a Hebert miss with a 9 point lead.  Two offensive rebounds and a foul by Ionescu let us keep the ball in that one possession until Marta found McPhee on a beautiful back door cut--taking nearly 2 minutes off the clock and giving us an 11 point lead with barely a minute left.  The court was very, very quiet outside the immediate environs of the Stanford bench.  And that's just the way we wanted it.

Performances:

As a team, it was a tale of two halves.  We had only 3 total rebounds in the second quarter, 13 for the 1st half, compared with Oregon's 23.  Second half was almost reversed, we had 21 to Oregon's 13.  After 4 turnovers in the 1st half we had only 2 in the 2nd--possibly our best half of the year on that count.  After shooting 38% in the first, we shot 56% in the second.  We made 3/12 treys in the first, but 6/11 in the second.  Six assists in the first, 11 in the second.  Gave up 16 points to Hebard in the 1st, 0 in the second.  McPhee with 2 points in the 1st, 31 in the 2nd. 

McPhee's previous career high was 28 points against Texas in 2016, so her 33 tonight tops that.  Every so often we witness a player who gets into a psychological zone and seemingly can't miss, and that was McPhee today.  She was 9/10 in the fourth quarter.  The rest of her stat line was pretty quiet--she was too busy scoring.  She also spend much of the game defending taller players.

Williams had a very respectable 14 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers, and a couple of steals and a block! for good measure.  I think her block was of a much taller player--the second time I have seen her leap to do that.

Smith also had 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a whopping 4 blocks.  4 blocks against a significantly taller team!  She did pick up 4 fouls and this limited her minutes--an all too regular problem for her.

No one else was in double digit scoring--they did not need to be.  Carrington had 6 points, 3 assists and 2 steals and played good defense during critical stretches of her 23 minutes.  Marta had 4 points, 5 assists to 1 turnover, and 2 steals in her 35 minutes.  Fingall played 13 minutes and nailed a trey.  Dodson played 9 and made fabulous moves to the basket, but consistently finished too hard and left 0/3.  Jerome and Wilson also got in the game--nice to see that Wilson is OK.

Conclusion:

Winning against two quality teams on the road and seizing a piece of first place should dispel many of our early season ghosts.  But we probably won't be able to count on another 31 point half from Britt if we meet Oregon in the Pac 12 tournament.  Can we finish out our regular season with consistent performances?  Can we beat C.al twice in week?  Will we overlook two dangerous Washington teams on our final road trip?  Or will we keep getting better, climb the RPI, and prime ourselves for a deep NCAA run? 

[TheFarm07]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

Our team usually wins by defense, but I don't know if we can totally shut down the Ducks. We need to score as well.

Can we take some solace in that we swept them in our 3 meetings last year?

We won 81-60 at Maples in our first meeting last year, where Ionescu was 4/18 and Hebard 2/6. McGwire was their best scorer that game, 16 pts on 7/15 shooting. For us, Smith was critical coming off the bench scoring 24 pts on 9/15 shooting in just 20 minutes.

It was a much closer affair the second time around in Eugene, as we won 65-59. We did a pretty good job again on Ionescu as she was 6/17 and Hebard was 5/10. Their third option was Gildon that game with 10 pts. Unfortunately for us, our two leading scorers in that game (McCall and Karlie) are now graduated. But again Smith was a key contributor with 14 pts and 10 rebounds.

In the semis of the Pac-12 conference tourney, it was a close affair until the Ducks' run, including an upset of UW in the quarters caught up to them in the last 10 minutes. Ionescu was 5/11, but we did a great job on Hebard as she was 1/9. Cazorla was 6/12 for 14 pts for them. McCall had a double-double and Bri had double digit pts, but Kaylee had a double-double as well and McPhee had 15 pts of her own.

Having said all that, Oregon has obviously improved since last year and added Sabally to the mix, though not having Bando will help us in this match (one less long range shooter to worry about).

If we are serious about not only making the NCAA tourney, but making a good run, this game against a top-5ish opponent on their home court is the best barometer we can have this late in the season. Are we going to get embarrassed like we did against Baylor, where we were helpless against Kalani Brown and couldn't muster any offense? Or are we going to use the collective experience over this season to give the Ducks all they can handle?

We need to not only have the shutdown defense like we did for most of the Oregon State game, where we denied their best 3-pt shooter any opportunities from long range and kept their post player extraordinaire in single digits for the first time all season, but we can't afford any prolonged lapses offensively either.

As good as Oregon has been, they have given up 83 pts to UW (who we held to 45 pts) and 87 pts to Weber State. We can't be 2/19 from 3-pt range and expect to leave Eugene with a win.

[TheFarm07]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

Our team usually wins by defense, but I don't know if we can totally shut down the Ducks. We need to score as well.

Can we take some solace in that we swept them in our 3 meetings last year?

We won 81-60 at Maples in our first meeting last year, where Ionescu was 4/18 and Hebard 2/6. McGwire was their best scorer that game, 16 pts on 7/15 shooting. For us, Smith was critical coming off the bench scoring 24 pts on 9/15 shooting in just 20 minutes.

It was a much closer affair the second time around in Eugene, as we won 65-59. We did a pretty good job again on Ionescu as she was 6/17 and Hebard was 5/10. Their third option was Gildon that game with 10 pts. Unfortunately for us, our two leading scorers in that game (McCall and Karlie) are now graduated. But again Smith was a key contributor with 14 pts and 10 rebounds.

In the semis of the Pac-12 conference tourney, it was a close affair until the Ducks' run, including an upset of UW in the quarters caught up to them in the last 10 minutes. Ionescu was 5/11, but we did a great job on Hebard as she was 1/9. Cazorla was 6/12 for 14 pts for them. McCall had a double-double and Bri had double digit pts, but Kaylee had a double-double as well and McPhee had 15 pts of her own.

Having said all that, Oregon has obviously improved since last year and added Sabally to the mix, though not having Bando will help us in this match (one less long range shooter to worry about).

If we are serious about not only making the NCAA tourney, but making a good run, this game against a top-5ish opponent on their home court is the best barometer we can have this late in the season. Are we going to get embarrassed like we did against Baylor, where we were helpless against Kalani Brown and couldn't muster any offense? Or are we going to use the collective experience over this season to give the Ducks all they can handle?

We need to not only have the shutdown defense like we did for most of the Oregon State game, where we denied their best 3-pt shooter any opportunities from long range and kept their post player extraordinaire in single digits for the first time all season, but we can't afford any prolonged lapses offensively either.

As good as Oregon has been, they have given up 83 pts to UW (who we held to 45 pts) and 87 pts to Weber State. We can't be 2/19 from 3-pt range and expect to leave Eugene with a win.

[TheFarm07]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

Our team usually wins by defense, but I don't know if we can totally shut down the Ducks. We need to score as well.

Can we take some solace in that we swept them in our 3 meetings last year?

We won 81-60 at Maples in our first meeting last year, where Ionescu was 4/18 and Hebard 2/6. McGwire was their best scorer that game, 16 pts on 7/15 shooting. For us, Smith was critical coming off the bench scoring 24 pts on 9/15 shooting in just 20 minutes.

It was a much closer affair the second time around in Eugene, as we won 65-59. We did a pretty good job again on Ionescu as she was 6/17 and Hebard was 5/10. Their third option was Gildon that game with 10 pts. Unfortunately for us, our two leading scorers in that game (McCall and Karlie) are now graduated. But again Smith was a key contributor with 14 pts and 10 rebounds.

In the semis of the Pac-12 conference tourney, it was a close affair until the Ducks' run, including an upset of UW in the quarters caught up to them in the last 10 minutes. Ionescu was 5/11, but we did a great job on Hebard as she was 1/9. Cazorla was 6/12 for 14 pts for them. McCall had a double-double and Bri had double digit pts, but Kaylee had a double-double as well and McPhee had 15 pts of her own.

Having said all that, Oregon has obviously improved since last year and added Sabally to the mix, though not having Bando will help us in this match (one less long range shooter to worry about).

If we are serious about not only making the NCAA tourney, but making a good run, this game against a top-5ish opponent on their home court is the best barometer we can have this late in the season. Are we going to get embarrassed like we did against Baylor, where we were helpless against Kalani Brown and couldn't muster any offense? Or are we going to use the collective experience over this season to give the Ducks all they can handle?

We need to not only have the shutdown defense like we did for most of the Oregon State game, where we denied their best 3-pt shooter any opportunities from long range and kept their post player extraordinaire in single digits for the first time all season, but we can't afford any prolonged lapses offensively either.

As good as Oregon has been, they have given up 83 pts to UW (who we held to 45 pts) and 87 pts to Weber State. We can't be 2/19 from 3-pt range and expect to leave Eugene with a win.

[TheFarm07]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

Our team usually wins by defense, but I don't know if we can totally shut down the Ducks. We need to score as well.

Can we take some solace in that we swept them in our 3 meetings last year?

We won 81-60 at Maples in our first meeting last year, where Ionescu was 4/18 and Hebard 2/6. McGwire was their best scorer that game, 16 pts on 7/15 shooting. For us, Smith was critical coming off the bench scoring 24 pts on 9/15 shooting in just 20 minutes.

It was a much closer affair the second time around in Eugene, as we won 65-59. We did a pretty good job again on Ionescu as she was 6/17 and Hebard was 5/10. Their third option was Gildon that game with 10 pts. Unfortunately for us, our two leading scorers in that game (McCall and Karlie) are now graduated. But again Smith was a key contributor with 14 pts and 10 rebounds.

In the semis of the Pac-12 conference tourney, it was a close affair until the Ducks' run, including an upset of UW in the quarters caught up to them in the last 10 minutes. Ionescu was 5/11, but we did a great job on Hebard as she was 1/9. Cazorla was 6/12 for 14 pts for them. McCall had a double-double and Bri had double digit pts, but Kaylee had a double-double as well and McPhee had 15 pts of her own.

Having said all that, Oregon has obviously improved since last year and added Sabally to the mix, though not having Bando will help us in this match (one less long range shooter to worry about).

If we are serious about not only making the NCAA tourney, but making a good run, this game against a top-5ish opponent on their home court is the best barometer we can have this late in the season. Are we going to get embarrassed like we did against Baylor, where we were helpless against Kalani Brown and couldn't muster any offense? Or are we going to use the collective experience over this season to give the Ducks all they can handle?

We need to not only have the shutdown defense like we did for most of the Oregon State game, where we denied their best 3-pt shooter any opportunities from long range and kept their post player extraordinaire in single digits for the first time all season, but we can't afford any prolonged lapses offensively either.

As good as Oregon has been, they have given up 83 pts to UW (who we held to 45 pts) and 87 pts to Weber State. We can't be 2/19 from 3-pt range and expect to leave Eugene with a win.

[81alum]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

You are right, Farm, Bando did not play in their last six games.  Interesting that they replaced her minutes mostly with McGwire, giving them three towers (6'5", 6'4", 6'4") and two guards.  We will have to be very very good about boxing out and hope that Johnson and Smith are more agile than Hebard and McGwire.  But who defends Sabally?  I wonder if Tara will go with three bigs and send in Coffee or Dodson or Fingall to play alongside Johnson and Smith.  If not, then McPhee probably has to defend Sabally, and she gives up 4".  And will it be Williams or Sniezek we put on Ionescu--and whoever doesn't get the conference's top all-around scoring threat will have to try to prevent Cazorla from shooting treys at 40%+.

I am glad that Tara is our coach.

[81alum]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

You are right, Farm, Bando did not play in their last six games.  Interesting that they replaced her minutes mostly with McGwire, giving them three towers (6'5", 6'4", 6'4") and two guards.  We will have to be very very good about boxing out and hope that Johnson and Smith are more agile than Hebard and McGwire.  But who defends Sabally?  I wonder if Tara will go with three bigs and send in Coffee or Dodson or Fingall to play alongside Johnson and Smith.  If not, then McPhee probably has to defend Sabally, and she gives up 4".  And will it be Williams or Sniezek we put on Ionescu--and whoever doesn't get the conference's top all-around scoring threat will have to try to prevent Cazorla from shooting treys at 40%+.

I am glad that Tara is our coach.

[81alum]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

You are right, Farm, Bando did not play in their last six games.  Interesting that they replaced her minutes mostly with McGwire, giving them three towers (6'5", 6'4", 6'4") and two guards.  We will have to be very very good about boxing out and hope that Johnson and Smith are more agile than Hebard and McGwire.  But who defends Sabally?  I wonder if Tara will go with three bigs and send in Coffee or Dodson or Fingall to play alongside Johnson and Smith.  If not, then McPhee probably has to defend Sabally, and she gives up 4".  And will it be Williams or Sniezek we put on Ionescu--and whoever doesn't get the conference's top all-around scoring threat will have to try to prevent Cazorla from shooting treys at 40%+.

I am glad that Tara is our coach.

[81alum]

I agree 81. Tara's scout defense is negated by a team with multiple options. Focus on Ionescu and Hebard, their two best players, but the others are still very dangerous. But isn't Bando still out with her leg injury?

You are right, Farm, Bando did not play in their last six games.  Interesting that they replaced her minutes mostly with McGwire, giving them three towers (6'5", 6'4", 6'4") and two guards.  We will have to be very very good about boxing out and hope that Johnson and Smith are more agile than Hebard and McGwire.  But who defends Sabally?  I wonder if Tara will go with three bigs and send in Coffee or Dodson or Fingall to play alongside Johnson and Smith.  If not, then McPhee probably has to defend Sabally, and she gives up 4".  And will it be Williams or Sniezek we put on Ionescu--and whoever doesn't get the conference's top all-around scoring threat will have to try to prevent Cazorla from shooting treys at 40%+.

I am glad that Tara is our coach.

[2006alum]

Agreed that our odds here are pretty low. If they're going with 3 bigs, I actually think we need to play a fast lineup and really push the pace and tire them out. Tara going with Williams-Carrington-McPhee for so much of the OSU game was wise, because they're our best trio to get out ahead on offense and make some quick baskets. In addition to McPhee, I think Carrington is probably our best bet to guard Ionescu. She hounded Pivec pretty successfully on Friday and both Pivec and Ionescu are 5'10", and she's got more wingspan than Williams. Williams could then handle one of the perimeter threats like Carzola the way she handled Tudor, with Sniezek alternating on that assignment. I agree that Sabally is a question mark; I'd probably go with Smith since she's a little more versatile than Johnson or Fingall. Maybe the best bet is to leave a size mismatch on McGwire and force her to step up and deliver. McGwire also seems to get into foul trouble easily (she commits a foul on average every 7.2 minutes she's on the court), so a smaller, faster guard could possibly fluster her and draw a few fouls.

Speaking of which: the real key is going to be staying out of foul trouble with our bigs and with Carrington. If Smith picks up fouls early and we have to rotate her out, its going to be a steeper hill to climb.

I'd peg our chances of winning as being pretty small, but I'm hoping at least for a battle.

[2006alum]

Agreed that our odds here are pretty low. If they're going with 3 bigs, I actually think we need to play a fast lineup and really push the pace and tire them out. Tara going with Williams-Carrington-McPhee for so much of the OSU game was wise, because they're our best trio to get out ahead on offense and make some quick baskets. In addition to McPhee, I think Carrington is probably our best bet to guard Ionescu. She hounded Pivec pretty successfully on Friday and both Pivec and Ionescu are 5'10", and she's got more wingspan than Williams. Williams could then handle one of the perimeter threats like Carzola the way she handled Tudor, with Sniezek alternating on that assignment. I agree that Sabally is a question mark; I'd probably go with Smith since she's a little more versatile than Johnson or Fingall. Maybe the best bet is to leave a size mismatch on McGwire and force her to step up and deliver. McGwire also seems to get into foul trouble easily (she commits a foul on average every 7.2 minutes she's on the court), so a smaller, faster guard could possibly fluster her and draw a few fouls.

Speaking of which: the real key is going to be staying out of foul trouble with our bigs and with Carrington. If Smith picks up fouls early and we have to rotate her out, its going to be a steeper hill to climb.

I'd peg our chances of winning as being pretty small, but I'm hoping at least for a battle.

[2006alum]

Agreed that our odds here are pretty low. If they're going with 3 bigs, I actually think we need to play a fast lineup and really push the pace and tire them out. Tara going with Williams-Carrington-McPhee for so much of the OSU game was wise, because they're our best trio to get out ahead on offense and make some quick baskets. In addition to McPhee, I think Carrington is probably our best bet to guard Ionescu. She hounded Pivec pretty successfully on Friday and both Pivec and Ionescu are 5'10", and she's got more wingspan than Williams. Williams could then handle one of the perimeter threats like Carzola the way she handled Tudor, with Sniezek alternating on that assignment. I agree that Sabally is a question mark; I'd probably go with Smith since she's a little more versatile than Johnson or Fingall. Maybe the best bet is to leave a size mismatch on McGwire and force her to step up and deliver. McGwire also seems to get into foul trouble easily (she commits a foul on average every 7.2 minutes she's on the court), so a smaller, faster guard could possibly fluster her and draw a few fouls.

Speaking of which: the real key is going to be staying out of foul trouble with our bigs and with Carrington. If Smith picks up fouls early and we have to rotate her out, its going to be a steeper hill to climb.

I'd peg our chances of winning as being pretty small, but I'm hoping at least for a battle.

[2006alum]

Agreed that our odds here are pretty low. If they're going with 3 bigs, I actually think we need to play a fast lineup and really push the pace and tire them out. Tara going with Williams-Carrington-McPhee for so much of the OSU game was wise, because they're our best trio to get out ahead on offense and make some quick baskets. In addition to McPhee, I think Carrington is probably our best bet to guard Ionescu. She hounded Pivec pretty successfully on Friday and both Pivec and Ionescu are 5'10", and she's got more wingspan than Williams. Williams could then handle one of the perimeter threats like Carzola the way she handled Tudor, with Sniezek alternating on that assignment. I agree that Sabally is a question mark; I'd probably go with Smith since she's a little more versatile than Johnson or Fingall. Maybe the best bet is to leave a size mismatch on McGwire and force her to step up and deliver. McGwire also seems to get into foul trouble easily (she commits a foul on average every 7.2 minutes she's on the court), so a smaller, faster guard could possibly fluster her and draw a few fouls.

Speaking of which: the real key is going to be staying out of foul trouble with our bigs and with Carrington. If Smith picks up fouls early and we have to rotate her out, its going to be a steeper hill to climb.

I'd peg our chances of winning as being pretty small, but I'm hoping at least for a battle.

[qwerty49]

My recollection of McGwire is she’s strictly a high post and that her first thought on offense is to shoot from the elbow. She moves around a bit but I don’t remember her mixing it up underneath much; I think they leave that to Hebard.

As others have said, guarding the 6-4 frosh will be the challenge. Depth will be an issue here as we can’t afford foul trouble for Kaylee and Alana. How Tara uses Dijonnai on D will be interesting.

If there was ever a game for our outside shooting to show up, this is it.

[qwerty49]

My recollection of McGwire is she’s strictly a high post and that her first thought on offense is to shoot from the elbow. She moves around a bit but I don’t remember her mixing it up underneath much; I think they leave that to Hebard.

As others have said, guarding the 6-4 frosh will be the challenge. Depth will be an issue here as we can’t afford foul trouble for Kaylee and Alana. How Tara uses Dijonnai on D will be interesting.

If there was ever a game for our outside shooting to show up, this is it.

[qwerty49]

My recollection of McGwire is she’s strictly a high post and that her first thought on offense is to shoot from the elbow. She moves around a bit but I don’t remember her mixing it up underneath much; I think they leave that to Hebard.

As others have said, guarding the 6-4 frosh will be the challenge. Depth will be an issue here as we can’t afford foul trouble for Kaylee and Alana. How Tara uses Dijonnai on D will be interesting.

If there was ever a game for our outside shooting to show up, this is it.

[qwerty49]

My recollection of McGwire is she’s strictly a high post and that her first thought on offense is to shoot from the elbow. She moves around a bit but I don’t remember her mixing it up underneath much; I think they leave that to Hebard.

As others have said, guarding the 6-4 frosh will be the challenge. Depth will be an issue here as we can’t afford foul trouble for Kaylee and Alana. How Tara uses Dijonnai on D will be interesting.

If there was ever a game for our outside shooting to show up, this is it.

[BobK]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

[BobK]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

[BobK]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

[BobK]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

[CompSci87]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

I remember McGuire hitting some outside shots against Stanford. That could have been what our scout defense was allowing her, though, not what she preferred.

[CompSci87]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

I remember McGuire hitting some outside shots against Stanford. That could have been what our scout defense was allowing her, though, not what she preferred.

[CompSci87]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

I remember McGuire hitting some outside shots against Stanford. That could have been what our scout defense was allowing her, though, not what she preferred.

[CompSci87]

My thoughts on McGuire and I go back to Travel are different.  But we shall see shortly

I remember McGuire hitting some outside shots against Stanford. That could have been what our scout defense was allowing her, though, not what she preferred.

[Lorcan]

Well, Kaylee already to the bench with 2 fouls. Oregon doing a great job of collapsing on Smith and we're out of sorts early.

[Lorcan]

Well, Kaylee already to the bench with 2 fouls. Oregon doing a great job of collapsing on Smith and we're out of sorts early.

[Lorcan]

Well, Kaylee already to the bench with 2 fouls. Oregon doing a great job of collapsing on Smith and we're out of sorts early.

[Lorcan]

Well, Kaylee already to the bench with 2 fouls. Oregon doing a great job of collapsing on Smith and we're out of sorts early.

[crackpot]

I think I like the speedy lineup.

But between the Ducks' unis, the floor, and the McD's ads, my eyes are pretty blurry so I'm not sure who is on the floor.

[crackpot]

I think I like the speedy lineup.

But between the Ducks' unis, the floor, and the McD's ads, my eyes are pretty blurry so I'm not sure who is on the floor.

[crackpot]

I think I like the speedy lineup.

But between the Ducks' unis, the floor, and the McD's ads, my eyes are pretty blurry so I'm not sure who is on the floor.

[crackpot]

I think I like the speedy lineup.

But between the Ducks' unis, the floor, and the McD's ads, my eyes are pretty blurry so I'm not sure who is on the floor.

[Lorcan]

I really like that we are getting a preview of what next year might look like now. Carrington doing an excellent job on defense so far.

[Lorcan]

I really like that we are getting a preview of what next year might look like now. Carrington doing an excellent job on defense so far.

[Lorcan]

I really like that we are getting a preview of what next year might look like now. Carrington doing an excellent job on defense so far.

[Lorcan]

I really like that we are getting a preview of what next year might look like now. Carrington doing an excellent job on defense so far.