02-01-2020, 03:22 AM
Maybe the starting 5 for Washington were all sick, because it took 16 minutes for their first basket (per TV announcers). They only scored 7 points in the entire game (granted, they only played 44% of the available minutes -- they were on track for a 16 point game, if they played the full game and scored at the same rate).
I disagree with triangle2 and feel the defense was a major cause of the low score by Washington. Indeed, Washington did very well on offense when their defense and Stanford's mistakes resulted in turnovers and fast breaks, scoring almost half (19 of 41) their points in the 2nd quarter. Those are situations where Stanford's defense isn't effective.
The defense wasn't perfect, but there was a lot of tight defense that shut down opportunities players were probably used to. Take away the best opportunities, and what's left may not be what players are used to doing. Reduce the ball getting to the better players and shots are less likely to fall. I don't think I've ever seen a game where the starting 5 only got 17% of the scoring.
One of the interesting aspects of that shutdown was that the starting 5 didn't even get many free throws (all of the starting 5's 6 FTs were by one starter, who made 2). It has been my impression that much more physical play is being allowed, without fouls being called. I haven't looked at any statistics to see if fewer fouls are being called. (Note that allowing more contact only temporarily (over a season or so) reduces the number of fouls. The players will just cause more contact until they get called for fouls again. Similarly, calling a tighter game with less contact allowed will only temporarily increase the number of fouls, until the play adjusts.)
Our offense wasn't great. I didn't think about it during the game, but shooting (& steals) stats suggests they clogged the middle. Just over half our shots were 3ptrs (9/33(27%), with Jump only 3/11), while for the season only 36% of our shots have been from 3. Our non-layup 2-ptrs were 7/21(33%). Our layups/dunks were 5/10(50%). Yet we did very well on offensive rebounding. I'm tempted to say a lot of that was due to Lexie's hustle.
Belibi is a very smooth player, but she seems a little slow to react on defense.
I disagree with triangle2 and feel the defense was a major cause of the low score by Washington. Indeed, Washington did very well on offense when their defense and Stanford's mistakes resulted in turnovers and fast breaks, scoring almost half (19 of 41) their points in the 2nd quarter. Those are situations where Stanford's defense isn't effective.
The defense wasn't perfect, but there was a lot of tight defense that shut down opportunities players were probably used to. Take away the best opportunities, and what's left may not be what players are used to doing. Reduce the ball getting to the better players and shots are less likely to fall. I don't think I've ever seen a game where the starting 5 only got 17% of the scoring.
One of the interesting aspects of that shutdown was that the starting 5 didn't even get many free throws (all of the starting 5's 6 FTs were by one starter, who made 2). It has been my impression that much more physical play is being allowed, without fouls being called. I haven't looked at any statistics to see if fewer fouls are being called. (Note that allowing more contact only temporarily (over a season or so) reduces the number of fouls. The players will just cause more contact until they get called for fouls again. Similarly, calling a tighter game with less contact allowed will only temporarily increase the number of fouls, until the play adjusts.)
Our offense wasn't great. I didn't think about it during the game, but shooting (& steals) stats suggests they clogged the middle. Just over half our shots were 3ptrs (9/33(27%), with Jump only 3/11), while for the season only 36% of our shots have been from 3. Our non-layup 2-ptrs were 7/21(33%). Our layups/dunks were 5/10(50%). Yet we did very well on offensive rebounding. I'm tempted to say a lot of that was due to Lexie's hustle.
Belibi is a very smooth player, but she seems a little slow to react on defense.