[Viking_Guy]

81Alum--

Watched, then listened, then watched.  After watching the near-debacle at the end of the men's game, didn't have the wherewithal to do a full writeup.

You've hit on the key points, but it's hard to overstate how ugly the Utah offensive style made the game. It wasn't as if they were running a Princeton offense of back cuts and precise passing to generate good looks; they just didn't shoot for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock, then either drove or put up a 3 and got 4 players back on defense.  Because they didn't want to score early, they also kept pretty much everyone in for defensive rebounds, which meant that Nneka and Chiney didn't get a lot of the offensive rebound looks they normally do, at least early in either half.

In other words, it was almost as ugly as the early Utah men's offense :).

Amber and Jos started in place of Lindy and Taylor, and early on Amber had some nice moments.  But the lack of outside shooting really hurt; Utah was playing a three-person triangle around Nneka (one behind, one dropping into the entry pass lane, and Chiney's player ready to double from across the lane), and Stanford just couldn't punish them for it and force them to open up a bit.  It also didn't help that they missed 4 of their first 6 foul shots, by Amber and Chiney.

It's not just an effective wing, it's both the 2 and 3 positions that are in question right now.  If Toni plays a lot at the 2, I'm starting to get worried about her minutes; she played 36 last night.  Amber did a nice job, but her lack of height and hesitancy about her outside shot means that her defender can sag in a bit to front the post; we'll really miss Jasmine for the rest of the year.  Jos started at the 3, but there was a regular shuttle to the bench throughout the game as Tara looked for someone who could hit - first Taylor and Lindy, then Bonnie, and no one showed much. 

The big takeaway for me was that Utah, like Oregon State, stuck to their gameplan; they kept the pace slow, kept packing in the defense, and tried to keep Stanford from getting any offensive flow to their game, and the Cardinal offense sputtered throughout.  It wasn't really a winning strategy; more of a "don't get blown out, try to stick around and see if Stanford shoots itself in the foot" sort of approach.  And the Cardinal kept stubbing their toes, but never really was threatened after about 5 minutes left in the first half (the lead never got below double digits after that, which, given Utah's pace of play, felt like around 20-25 points).

Stanford did show some defensive pressure at points to try to speed the game up, but never really stuck with it.  And the Cardinal interior defense really clamped down on Michelle Plouffe, the Utes' biggest inside threat, holding her to 1-8 from the field.

Ugly but effective.  Has anyone heard anything about Mikaela's condition?

VG

[Viking_Guy]

81Alum--

Watched, then listened, then watched.  After watching the near-debacle at the end of the men's game, didn't have the wherewithal to do a full writeup.

You've hit on the key points, but it's hard to overstate how ugly the Utah offensive style made the game. It wasn't as if they were running a Princeton offense of back cuts and precise passing to generate good looks; they just didn't shoot for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock, then either drove or put up a 3 and got 4 players back on defense.  Because they didn't want to score early, they also kept pretty much everyone in for defensive rebounds, which meant that Nneka and Chiney didn't get a lot of the offensive rebound looks they normally do, at least early in either half.

In other words, it was almost as ugly as the early Utah men's offense :).

Amber and Jos started in place of Lindy and Taylor, and early on Amber had some nice moments.  But the lack of outside shooting really hurt; Utah was playing a three-person triangle around Nneka (one behind, one dropping into the entry pass lane, and Chiney's player ready to double from across the lane), and Stanford just couldn't punish them for it and force them to open up a bit.  It also didn't help that they missed 4 of their first 6 foul shots, by Amber and Chiney.

It's not just an effective wing, it's both the 2 and 3 positions that are in question right now.  If Toni plays a lot at the 2, I'm starting to get worried about her minutes; she played 36 last night.  Amber did a nice job, but her lack of height and hesitancy about her outside shot means that her defender can sag in a bit to front the post; we'll really miss Jasmine for the rest of the year.  Jos started at the 3, but there was a regular shuttle to the bench throughout the game as Tara looked for someone who could hit - first Taylor and Lindy, then Bonnie, and no one showed much. 

The big takeaway for me was that Utah, like Oregon State, stuck to their gameplan; they kept the pace slow, kept packing in the defense, and tried to keep Stanford from getting any offensive flow to their game, and the Cardinal offense sputtered throughout.  It wasn't really a winning strategy; more of a "don't get blown out, try to stick around and see if Stanford shoots itself in the foot" sort of approach.  And the Cardinal kept stubbing their toes, but never really was threatened after about 5 minutes left in the first half (the lead never got below double digits after that, which, given Utah's pace of play, felt like around 20-25 points).

Stanford did show some defensive pressure at points to try to speed the game up, but never really stuck with it.  And the Cardinal interior defense really clamped down on Michelle Plouffe, the Utes' biggest inside threat, holding her to 1-8 from the field.

Ugly but effective.  Has anyone heard anything about Mikaela's condition?

VG