True on all fronts, 81. Gulich is closer to an Appel, though not as crafty around the basket. It may have been our defense on her, but I didn't see her make many back to the basket shots. I felt like those were Jayne's bread and butter. And she boxed out so, so well. That said, I don't think we've ever had a player with Gulich's height and her skills. Our really big bigs have generally not been as successful. (I guess Jayne at 6'4" might just qualify as a big big.)
And yeah, the Rueck technical was bizarre because while I think the foul call was probably unnecessary, it was so early in the game, the first on Gulich, and I generally think ticky tacky fouls are less worth getting upset about than no-calls when your player gets mauled.
And as you note, the lightly called game definitely helped us, especially with Carrington, although my perception was that they started calling it closer in the second half, and that was when Smith and Carrington started picking up fouls. I wonder whether the Rueck technical might have backfired by making the refs more skittish about making calls in the first half? While he obviously wants to keep Gulich in the game, I think our team is definitely more prone to foul trouble and plays more aggressively, so scaring them off from calling it tightly might not make sense against a team like.
Mostly what I noticed was that they were not as attentive to action away from the game ball. I suspect Carrington could reasonably have been called once or twice for fouls when she was guarding away from the ball. There was one collision in the 4th between her and two OSU players during a rebound that opened the paint up for McPhee to score an easy layup. Carrington was just out of focus the first time and the replay was at a bad angle, but I suspect that would have been a reasonable call to make. All that said, I love the aggressiveness. We haven't had much of that at Stanford in the past decade, so it's refreshing to for once feel like when the game is tight, we're the team that will press, push, and challenge.
And yeah, the Rueck technical was bizarre because while I think the foul call was probably unnecessary, it was so early in the game, the first on Gulich, and I generally think ticky tacky fouls are less worth getting upset about than no-calls when your player gets mauled.
And as you note, the lightly called game definitely helped us, especially with Carrington, although my perception was that they started calling it closer in the second half, and that was when Smith and Carrington started picking up fouls. I wonder whether the Rueck technical might have backfired by making the refs more skittish about making calls in the first half? While he obviously wants to keep Gulich in the game, I think our team is definitely more prone to foul trouble and plays more aggressively, so scaring them off from calling it tightly might not make sense against a team like.
Mostly what I noticed was that they were not as attentive to action away from the game ball. I suspect Carrington could reasonably have been called once or twice for fouls when she was guarding away from the ball. There was one collision in the 4th between her and two OSU players during a rebound that opened the paint up for McPhee to score an easy layup. Carrington was just out of focus the first time and the replay was at a bad angle, but I suspect that would have been a reasonable call to make. All that said, I love the aggressiveness. We haven't had much of that at Stanford in the past decade, so it's refreshing to for once feel like when the game is tight, we're the team that will press, push, and challenge.