Preview:
We have a rich history of playing UC Davis. Two years ago we played them in late December for a 67-55 win in which a pre-injury Haley Jones scored 21 points. The prior year we opened with UC Davis. Alanna Smith and Lexie led the way, and then we caught them in the first round of the NCAAs, and Smith and Carrington finished them off. We tend to play them quite a bit partly because it is a convenient matchup for the NCAA committee to make in the first round, and partly because Tara has developed a warm relationship with the coaches at Davis. Coaches Gross and Teramoto are experts at the Princeton, and they actually came to Stanford a few years ago to help Tara learn how to incorporate elements of the Princeton offense.
This year UC Davis is off to a 4-3 start. Their best win by far was their defeat of Oregon in Eugene by the score of 64-57. On the other hand, USF pasted them, and on Saturday Washington State crushed them 71-49. So this is a team that can beat good teams and lose to good teams.
As a team Davis is hitting 34% of its treys, which is quite high, and making 8 of them a game. That is a veritable barrage of three point attempts. Cierra Hall, a 6'0" senior forward, leads them in scoring at 12 ppg, and in three point shooting at 37%. Their second leading scorer is a 5'9" sophomore guard Evanne Turner who is shooting 31% from three point range. These two take about half their shots from downtown, so they are scoring from inside also. A 6'3" senior seems to be the only tallish starter. There are only 7 players averaging in double digit minutes. Davis has been out rebounded by its competition so far this year, and has more turnovers than its competition--so those could be weaknesses.
Davis is one of those "system teams" which we Stanford fans should love to watch, given that it is as much about the plays and the system as it is about individual stars and talent. They are reasonably successful and always seem to give us a good game. Last time we played them I remember one of our players (I think it was Williams) commenting that "they knew our plays better than we did." So it will be an interesting challenge. I expect our pure size and talent to overwhelm them, but it would be nice if our system worked as well as their system, too. We will find out soon enough.
We have a rich history of playing UC Davis. Two years ago we played them in late December for a 67-55 win in which a pre-injury Haley Jones scored 21 points. The prior year we opened with UC Davis. Alanna Smith and Lexie led the way, and then we caught them in the first round of the NCAAs, and Smith and Carrington finished them off. We tend to play them quite a bit partly because it is a convenient matchup for the NCAA committee to make in the first round, and partly because Tara has developed a warm relationship with the coaches at Davis. Coaches Gross and Teramoto are experts at the Princeton, and they actually came to Stanford a few years ago to help Tara learn how to incorporate elements of the Princeton offense.
This year UC Davis is off to a 4-3 start. Their best win by far was their defeat of Oregon in Eugene by the score of 64-57. On the other hand, USF pasted them, and on Saturday Washington State crushed them 71-49. So this is a team that can beat good teams and lose to good teams.
As a team Davis is hitting 34% of its treys, which is quite high, and making 8 of them a game. That is a veritable barrage of three point attempts. Cierra Hall, a 6'0" senior forward, leads them in scoring at 12 ppg, and in three point shooting at 37%. Their second leading scorer is a 5'9" sophomore guard Evanne Turner who is shooting 31% from three point range. These two take about half their shots from downtown, so they are scoring from inside also. A 6'3" senior seems to be the only tallish starter. There are only 7 players averaging in double digit minutes. Davis has been out rebounded by its competition so far this year, and has more turnovers than its competition--so those could be weaknesses.
Davis is one of those "system teams" which we Stanford fans should love to watch, given that it is as much about the plays and the system as it is about individual stars and talent. They are reasonably successful and always seem to give us a good game. Last time we played them I remember one of our players (I think it was Williams) commenting that "they knew our plays better than we did." So it will be an interesting challenge. I expect our pure size and talent to overwhelm them, but it would be nice if our system worked as well as their system, too. We will find out soon enough.
