[triangle2]

Win or lose this season, I'm going to put forth my theory that this is the team's finest hour. Stepping back to the thousand foot view, this season won't ever be forgotten. And these players will be talking about the 2020-21 season when they're too old to remember yesterday's news. These kids are trying to play top level DI basketball during a world-wide medical emergency, and they just spent several weeks living out of hotel rooms without any home games and doing their classwork online, social distancing, mask wearing, etc. while Santa Clara County turned them into traveling orphans. None of them will ever forget this experience. Just like we won't ever forget what each of us is going through in our personal universes.

We have so many young freshman and sophomores that are still learning the system and adjusting to the college game while still contributing at an extremely high level. Looking backwards, that's very unusual in the Tara universe except for the occasional instant 4-year starter. Recall how many Stanford players who didn't emerge until their junior or even senior seasons. Or even (cough) not until the Pac-12 tournament during senior year. This gives me perspective and helps me marvel at the great contributions the team is getting from the underclassmen. For instance, we don't talk about Van Gytenbeek a lot, but I am acutely aware of how unusual it is for Stanford to have a backup freshman point guard who has such a great handle, speed, and ability to hit the 3. Remember when Stanford's post-season hopes went down the drain after JJ Hones blew her knee out against Cal, and the team couldn't bring the ball up against a press?

I like to play the game of what if from time to time (Pivec? - bangs head against desk), but I give so much credit to the staff for maintaining a low drama program where the kids seem to genuinely like each other and play for each other. They earn Stanford degrees and go on to do interesting things (e.g. Kate the Great is now Associate Professor at UW in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. How cool is that?).

My personal theory is that after a small outbreak of discord a few years ago, the coaches bumped up the list "plays for teammates" and "loves Stanford" on the list of subjectives. If true, I can't argue with that. FWIW, I think Jump is following a Karlie trajectory and I'm looking forward to seeing her game mature over the next 2.5 seasons. She's already a smart decision maker, an improving defender, and a lights out (but streaky!) shooter. Everyone seems to be working their butts off under enormously stressful circumstances. I applaud each and every one of them.

I also don't want to lose sight of how thoughtful Coach Tara has been in the midst of all of this - no bad mouthing anyone (opposing teams, Santa Clara County, COVID rules). Every time I see her speaking, she's thanking opposing teams for being safe and enabling games to get played, encouraging everyone to follow the rules, and thanking opposing coaches who scheduled games on the fly, lent practice facilities, and changed plans on a moment's notice. And this season is happening during the most significant period of racial strife in 50 years, give or take. Stanford has posted some great conversations among players where we get to see them talk frankly about really hard topics with maturity. Wow, 2020-21 has just been beyond what any athlete could have imagined going through.

Maybe this is a Final Four team. Maybe not. But it's a really fun team to watch develop and I'm grateful that I'm getting to see it. This is not a year to be doing much complaining (except at COVID, Larry Scott, or maybe Missy). I'm appreciating every minute of this season, a bright spot in a pretty horrible 12 months.

[triangle2]

Win or lose this season, I'm going to put forth my theory that this is the team's finest hour. Stepping back to the thousand foot view, this season won't ever be forgotten. And these players will be talking about the 2020-21 season when they're too old to remember yesterday's news. These kids are trying to play top level DI basketball during a world-wide medical emergency, and they just spent several weeks living out of hotel rooms without any home games and doing their classwork online, social distancing, mask wearing, etc. while Santa Clara County turned them into traveling orphans. None of them will ever forget this experience. Just like we won't ever forget what each of us is going through in our personal universes.

We have so many young freshman and sophomores that are still learning the system and adjusting to the college game while still contributing at an extremely high level. Looking backwards, that's very unusual in the Tara universe except for the occasional instant 4-year starter. Recall how many Stanford players who didn't emerge until their junior or even senior seasons. Or even (cough) not until the Pac-12 tournament during senior year. This gives me perspective and helps me marvel at the great contributions the team is getting from the underclassmen. For instance, we don't talk about Van Gytenbeek a lot, but I am acutely aware of how unusual it is for Stanford to have a backup freshman point guard who has such a great handle, speed, and ability to hit the 3. Remember when Stanford's post-season hopes went down the drain after JJ Hones blew her knee out against Cal, and the team couldn't bring the ball up against a press?

I like to play the game of what if from time to time (Pivec? - bangs head against desk), but I give so much credit to the staff for maintaining a low drama program where the kids seem to genuinely like each other and play for each other. They earn Stanford degrees and go on to do interesting things (e.g. Kate the Great is now Associate Professor at UW in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. How cool is that?).

My personal theory is that after a small outbreak of discord a few years ago, the coaches bumped up the list "plays for teammates" and "loves Stanford" on the list of subjectives. If true, I can't argue with that. FWIW, I think Jump is following a Karlie trajectory and I'm looking forward to seeing her game mature over the next 2.5 seasons. She's already a smart decision maker, an improving defender, and a lights out (but streaky!) shooter. Everyone seems to be working their butts off under enormously stressful circumstances. I applaud each and every one of them.

I also don't want to lose sight of how thoughtful Coach Tara has been in the midst of all of this - no bad mouthing anyone (opposing teams, Santa Clara County, COVID rules). Every time I see her speaking, she's thanking opposing teams for being safe and enabling games to get played, encouraging everyone to follow the rules, and thanking opposing coaches who scheduled games on the fly, lent practice facilities, and changed plans on a moment's notice. And this season is happening during the most significant period of racial strife in 50 years, give or take. Stanford has posted some great conversations among players where we get to see them talk frankly about really hard topics with maturity. Wow, 2020-21 has just been beyond what any athlete could have imagined going through.

Maybe this is a Final Four team. Maybe not. But it's a really fun team to watch develop and I'm grateful that I'm getting to see it. This is not a year to be doing much complaining (except at COVID, Larry Scott, or maybe Missy). I'm appreciating every minute of this season, a bright spot in a pretty horrible 12 months.