[old spanish trail]

Seems to me we need a thread that deals with the entire final four, not just the Friday Stanford-U Conn game for which we have a great thread going 

Heading off, an article from yesterday's NY Times about all four teams

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/sport...ament.html

That is a fair, if not particularly insightful, article--talking about the reputations of the teams but no talk about basketball Xs and Os.

Everyone keeps talking about how tall we are.  But Belibi and Jones--who usually play inside--are only 6'1", certainly not tall for where they play.  Brink is 6'4" but in a position where we often come up against 6'5" to 6'7" players.  Wilson is undersized at 5'9".  Only Lacie and Lexie might be considered tall for their positions at 6'1" but not excessively so.  Where is all this talk of how tall we are coming from?

Maybe the article is conflating "tall" with Jay Bilas's favorite term "long."  
I do think Brink, the Hulls, and even Belibi are long.  Impressive wingspans.

ESPN also had an article on the FF and how each team's path to cutting down the nets.  I loved the comment attributed to Louisville's coach ("If we can score 70, we should be all right").  They are not scoring 70 against South Carolina.  But Louisville could still prevail in an ugly, defensive struggle.  Second chance points - and Boston cleaning up in the post generally - are Louisville's biggest concerns.  But man, are they scrappy.  They will fight you to the end.  I'm interested in that game, too (and not just because I hope Stanford plays the winner).

As for Stanford-UConn, I've been secretly harboring a hope that UConn is not "all that" on D, and that Stanford could win in an offensive fireworks display.  But Stanford hasn't been striping it from distance, and specifically, Jump has not gone off on a flurry of treys (4 of 5, for example) in the tourney.  Friday would be a great time for that!

Jump has not gone off because she hasn't played much. The teams we have played have had good quick guards who give Jump trouble getting open for her shot and also at playing D at this stage of her career. She is quicker now than she was last two years, and hopefully will be even more quick next year.

[old spanish trail]

Seems to me we need a thread that deals with the entire final four, not just the Friday Stanford-U Conn game for which we have a great thread going 

Heading off, an article from yesterday's NY Times about all four teams

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/sport...ament.html

That is a fair, if not particularly insightful, article--talking about the reputations of the teams but no talk about basketball Xs and Os.

Everyone keeps talking about how tall we are.  But Belibi and Jones--who usually play inside--are only 6'1", certainly not tall for where they play.  Brink is 6'4" but in a position where we often come up against 6'5" to 6'7" players.  Wilson is undersized at 5'9".  Only Lacie and Lexie might be considered tall for their positions at 6'1" but not excessively so.  Where is all this talk of how tall we are coming from?

Maybe the article is conflating "tall" with Jay Bilas's favorite term "long."  
I do think Brink, the Hulls, and even Belibi are long.  Impressive wingspans.

ESPN also had an article on the FF and how each team's path to cutting down the nets.  I loved the comment attributed to Louisville's coach ("If we can score 70, we should be all right").  They are not scoring 70 against South Carolina.  But Louisville could still prevail in an ugly, defensive struggle.  Second chance points - and Boston cleaning up in the post generally - are Louisville's biggest concerns.  But man, are they scrappy.  They will fight you to the end.  I'm interested in that game, too (and not just because I hope Stanford plays the winner).

As for Stanford-UConn, I've been secretly harboring a hope that UConn is not "all that" on D, and that Stanford could win in an offensive fireworks display.  But Stanford hasn't been striping it from distance, and specifically, Jump has not gone off on a flurry of treys (4 of 5, for example) in the tourney.  Friday would be a great time for that!

Jump has not gone off because she hasn't played much. The teams we have played have had good quick guards who give Jump trouble getting open for her shot and also at playing D at this stage of her career. She is quicker now than she was last two years, and hopefully will be even more quick next year.