[BillBradley]

Cam and Jana join Tara in the post-game presser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVm04ELt4pw

Just watched the presser.  A couple of impressions:

1) I have seldom seen Tara gush before, but her praise of JVG was really strong.  She also mentioned that she had been playing the other guards too much and I take that to mean that as the season grinds along she would like to distribute the minutes a bit further--probably to avoid what happened to Williams last year who seemed exhausted by the end.  She also noted how much improvement there has been with our guard play and point guard play since the fall, and that fans now should see the difference over those earlier losses.

2) JVG was absolutely ferocious in the game, but was so modest and soft spoken in the presser.  Quite a contrast!  Getting so much attention and going to a press conference is clearly a new experience for her, and it was heart warming to see her dealing with it!

PT breeds confidence ==> better play on the court.  You can pretty much take that formula to the bank.

JVG the last couple games is just the latest data point on that.  I'd argue Anna Wilson's play over last handful of games is another.  And of course, Jump for this entire season (or was it last when Tara inserted her into starting lineup?) is another data point.

The Stanford roster is comprised of elite recruits.  The top 10 players would be starters at almost all other universities.  They would perform well, if given starter minutes, in most games.  This isn't a critique of coach's PT decisions, or a knock on the decision to have a Starting 5 earned in practice (which I assume is the case).  Rather, it's just to state the point that each young woman on this team is a player - it shouldn't surprise us when they play well after being given extended PT.  

Or put it this way:  don't we all think Iriafen, Demetre, Bosgana, Emma-Nopu, etc. (pick your young player whom we have yet to see get a lot of minutes) would all be at least competent players, if given starters' minutes?  I certainly do.  I think they'd be more than that - they'd all be good (though maybe not excellent . . . yet).

Having said that, you can be sure that whenever JVG plays going forward, opponents will mark her further and further out.  If she plays 3-5 minutes a game, it probably is easier to stay on that mark and limit/take away her shots (not to mention that fewer minutes ==> fewer opportunities to shoot generally).  But playing 20+ minutes?  Well, it's hard to guard someone everywhere all game long.  Same obviously holds for Jump.  What Jump has done (that JVG still needs to do) is develop another shot, besides the catch and shoot trey.  [I'm partial to a baseline floater, even though it's a hard shot to make, because it's easier to get that off when the defender is rushing out to cover the trey and may be off balance for a moment on the drive - but whatever it is, JVG needs another shot in her arsenal.  I expect to see it developed in the coming seasons].

Well said. For sure, our bench would start at many other programs and do just fine. Our players are all very, very talented.

I do think there's some nuance here that's worth mentioning though. I think coaches/players/parents/fans should recognize that there are many instances where players are NOT ready to compete and don't deserve to play, and shouldn't take it personally. We get a lot of "why isn't so and so playing? She needs to be developed..." type of comments on this board. The best coaches are the ones who are constantly evaluating vs. those who evaluate players early, lock in on a rotation, and then never look back. There are plenty of those types of coaches, and I can't stand it. If a player at a particular college is not playing and is also being ignored, they need to get the heck out of there. Tara, and Steve Kerr keep all their players engaged through the entire season, which is why they rank up there as favorites of mine and their players testify about how much they love playing for them. It's also why I think that if a player isn't playing much for Tara, there's a good reason for it.

Even highly rated or highly talented players sometimes don't have the physical, emotional, or mental maturity to compete at the level of the other players, usually veterans, on the team. And yes, they could do just fine at other schools. But I don't think it's always the case that PT breeds confidence when so much is at stake (on a national championship caliber team). I think PT breeds confidence when the player contributes, and you have to be careful because if the player isn't ready or isn't playing well for some reason it can go the other way. In Jana's case, she did have injury to deal with (physical) early on, which has been mentioned multiple times. Also, my sense is that she was recruited as a point guard, but hasn't been excelling at that position in practice. I don't know this to be true, but if Tara had played her at PG early on in the Bahamas or against Gonzaga, Portland, etc., she might have failed miserably and sometimes there's no coming back from that. Hence the decision to go with Lacie/Anna who neither have the ball handling capabilities that you would find in a classic point guard but excel in other areas. But instead of tossing her aside, Tara looks to have found a valuable role for Jana as a shooting guard. Jana has mentioned twice that she knows Tara has confidence in her shooting. How marvelous is that - to basically take a player who hasn't been playing much at her recruited position, stick with her, move her to a different position, and then beat a Top 10 team with her. Just so great.

[BillBradley]

Cam and Jana join Tara in the post-game presser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVm04ELt4pw

Just watched the presser.  A couple of impressions:

1) I have seldom seen Tara gush before, but her praise of JVG was really strong.  She also mentioned that she had been playing the other guards too much and I take that to mean that as the season grinds along she would like to distribute the minutes a bit further--probably to avoid what happened to Williams last year who seemed exhausted by the end.  She also noted how much improvement there has been with our guard play and point guard play since the fall, and that fans now should see the difference over those earlier losses.

2) JVG was absolutely ferocious in the game, but was so modest and soft spoken in the presser.  Quite a contrast!  Getting so much attention and going to a press conference is clearly a new experience for her, and it was heart warming to see her dealing with it!

PT breeds confidence ==> better play on the court.  You can pretty much take that formula to the bank.

JVG the last couple games is just the latest data point on that.  I'd argue Anna Wilson's play over last handful of games is another.  And of course, Jump for this entire season (or was it last when Tara inserted her into starting lineup?) is another data point.

The Stanford roster is comprised of elite recruits.  The top 10 players would be starters at almost all other universities.  They would perform well, if given starter minutes, in most games.  This isn't a critique of coach's PT decisions, or a knock on the decision to have a Starting 5 earned in practice (which I assume is the case).  Rather, it's just to state the point that each young woman on this team is a player - it shouldn't surprise us when they play well after being given extended PT.  

Or put it this way:  don't we all think Iriafen, Demetre, Bosgana, Emma-Nopu, etc. (pick your young player whom we have yet to see get a lot of minutes) would all be at least competent players, if given starters' minutes?  I certainly do.  I think they'd be more than that - they'd all be good (though maybe not excellent . . . yet).

Having said that, you can be sure that whenever JVG plays going forward, opponents will mark her further and further out.  If she plays 3-5 minutes a game, it probably is easier to stay on that mark and limit/take away her shots (not to mention that fewer minutes ==> fewer opportunities to shoot generally).  But playing 20+ minutes?  Well, it's hard to guard someone everywhere all game long.  Same obviously holds for Jump.  What Jump has done (that JVG still needs to do) is develop another shot, besides the catch and shoot trey.  [I'm partial to a baseline floater, even though it's a hard shot to make, because it's easier to get that off when the defender is rushing out to cover the trey and may be off balance for a moment on the drive - but whatever it is, JVG needs another shot in her arsenal.  I expect to see it developed in the coming seasons].

Well said. For sure, our bench would start at many other programs and do just fine. Our players are all very, very talented.

I do think there's some nuance here that's worth mentioning though. I think coaches/players/parents/fans should recognize that there are many instances where players are NOT ready to compete and don't deserve to play, and shouldn't take it personally. We get a lot of "why isn't so and so playing? She needs to be developed..." type of comments on this board. The best coaches are the ones who are constantly evaluating vs. those who evaluate players early, lock in on a rotation, and then never look back. There are plenty of those types of coaches, and I can't stand it. If a player at a particular college is not playing and is also being ignored, they need to get the heck out of there. Tara, and Steve Kerr keep all their players engaged through the entire season, which is why they rank up there as favorites of mine and their players testify about how much they love playing for them. It's also why I think that if a player isn't playing much for Tara, there's a good reason for it.

Even highly rated or highly talented players sometimes don't have the physical, emotional, or mental maturity to compete at the level of the other players, usually veterans, on the team. And yes, they could do just fine at other schools. But I don't think it's always the case that PT breeds confidence when so much is at stake (on a national championship caliber team). I think PT breeds confidence when the player contributes, and you have to be careful because if the player isn't ready or isn't playing well for some reason it can go the other way. In Jana's case, she did have injury to deal with (physical) early on, which has been mentioned multiple times. Also, my sense is that she was recruited as a point guard, but hasn't been excelling at that position in practice. I don't know this to be true, but if Tara had played her at PG early on in the Bahamas or against Gonzaga, Portland, etc., she might have failed miserably and sometimes there's no coming back from that. Hence the decision to go with Lacie/Anna who neither have the ball handling capabilities that you would find in a classic point guard but excel in other areas. But instead of tossing her aside, Tara looks to have found a valuable role for Jana as a shooting guard. Jana has mentioned twice that she knows Tara has confidence in her shooting. How marvelous is that - to basically take a player who hasn't been playing much at her recruited position, stick with her, move her to a different position, and then beat a Top 10 team with her. Just so great.