[TheWildJacko]

We have a Hall of Fame Coach of course but certainly no one here thinks strong point guard play has been a hallmark of Stanford’s program for the last 40 years or so with few exceptions.

Speak for yourself please, you don’t represent everyone here. We’ve had plenty of strong point guards over the years:

Jennifer Azzi
Sonja Henning
Kate Paye
Jamila Wideman
Milena Flores
Jamie Carey (pre-injuries/transfer)
Susan King-Borchardt
J.J. Hones
Jeanette Pohlen
Amber Orrange
Kiana Williams

to name a few. Maybe your definition of strong is different than mine. If you mean Sue Bird-level, well that just doesn’t come around that often.

We’ve had a ton of bad luck with injuries with respect to point guards, and we‘ve also had some very strong point guards on teams where our play at other positions was not that strong. It takes a lot of elements coming together at the right time, plus a lot of luck, to win a championship.

I think your take on Lepolo is premature at best. You have no idea how she will develop—none of us do. You also have no idea what our ceiling is this year, because neither you nor anyone else can predict the future. Injuries could happen, to us or to other teams (knock on wood that they don’t in either case). A cinderella team could come out of nowhere and knock off UCONN or S. Carolina before we ever see them in the NCAA’s. Heck, Utah’s offense looks formidable this year—they could surprise a lot of teams. We just don’t know. BTW, I am not as convinced as you are that UCONN doesn’t have what it takes to win it all this year. They haven’t flinched yet, and they’ve had to deal with more adversity than most so far this season.

IMO, Lepolo has performed admirably in both wins and losses this season, and if I have have any misgivings about the prospects of our team this season, they don’t revolve around her playing. I want to see Tara give Betts more of a chance. Less than a minute in a game is ridiculous—I’ve never seen any #1 recruit ride the bench like she does. I’d like to see more Bosgana and more Nivar, but not because I don’t like Lepolo’s playing—I just think they add value and deserve more minutes, and Lepolo probably could use more rest.

I just don’t see the same problems you do with Lepolo; as others have pointed out, she is driving, she is hitting pull-up jumpers, she is hitting the occasional 3. If she were hitting multiple 3’s a game we’d probably be scoring 90+ a game, but as it is we’re scoring 85.6 pts/game, which btw would qualify for #4 all time in single-season scoring averages, tied with our 1991-1992 championship team. For a more modern comparison, our 2021 championship team scored 77.7 pts/game. Not saying I wouldn’t be happy with her taking and hitting more 3’s, just that we’re objectively scoring plenty already.

Defensively, we’re currently holding opponents to 52.3 points per game. That’s objectively fantastic; on a single-season basis, it would rank #2 all-time, ahead of our 2021 championship team which held teams to 53.7 ppg. The #1 spot, btw, belongs to the 2012-2013 team which lost in the S16 to Georgia (they only averaged 70ppg offensively).

So we are, currently, a top 5 team offensively and a top 2 team defensively with respect to past Stanford teams, although it’s early days, obviously, with two #1 recruits and a #3 recruit plus several other top recruits, and a freshman point guard who has proven she can distribute effectively to those highly ranked players. Given the pieces this team has, I choose to remain optimistic that we can go as far as we want this season, and I will look forward to seeing how the games play out rather than writing out the future in my head beforehand.

[TheWildJacko]

We have a Hall of Fame Coach of course but certainly no one here thinks strong point guard play has been a hallmark of Stanford’s program for the last 40 years or so with few exceptions.

Speak for yourself please, you don’t represent everyone here. We’ve had plenty of strong point guards over the years:

Jennifer Azzi
Sonja Henning
Kate Paye
Jamila Wideman
Milena Flores
Jamie Carey (pre-injuries/transfer)
Susan King-Borchardt
J.J. Hones
Jeanette Pohlen
Amber Orrange
Kiana Williams

to name a few. Maybe your definition of strong is different than mine. If you mean Sue Bird-level, well that just doesn’t come around that often.

We’ve had a ton of bad luck with injuries with respect to point guards, and we‘ve also had some very strong point guards on teams where our play at other positions was not that strong. It takes a lot of elements coming together at the right time, plus a lot of luck, to win a championship.

I think your take on Lepolo is premature at best. You have no idea how she will develop—none of us do. You also have no idea what our ceiling is this year, because neither you nor anyone else can predict the future. Injuries could happen, to us or to other teams (knock on wood that they don’t in either case). A cinderella team could come out of nowhere and knock off UCONN or S. Carolina before we ever see them in the NCAA’s. Heck, Utah’s offense looks formidable this year—they could surprise a lot of teams. We just don’t know. BTW, I am not as convinced as you are that UCONN doesn’t have what it takes to win it all this year. They haven’t flinched yet, and they’ve had to deal with more adversity than most so far this season.

IMO, Lepolo has performed admirably in both wins and losses this season, and if I have have any misgivings about the prospects of our team this season, they don’t revolve around her playing. I want to see Tara give Betts more of a chance. Less than a minute in a game is ridiculous—I’ve never seen any #1 recruit ride the bench like she does. I’d like to see more Bosgana and more Nivar, but not because I don’t like Lepolo’s playing—I just think they add value and deserve more minutes, and Lepolo probably could use more rest.

I just don’t see the same problems you do with Lepolo; as others have pointed out, she is driving, she is hitting pull-up jumpers, she is hitting the occasional 3. If she were hitting multiple 3’s a game we’d probably be scoring 90+ a game, but as it is we’re scoring 85.6 pts/game, which btw would qualify for #4 all time in single-season scoring averages, tied with our 1991-1992 championship team. For a more modern comparison, our 2021 championship team scored 77.7 pts/game. Not saying I wouldn’t be happy with her taking and hitting more 3’s, just that we’re objectively scoring plenty already.

Defensively, we’re currently holding opponents to 52.3 points per game. That’s objectively fantastic; on a single-season basis, it would rank #2 all-time, ahead of our 2021 championship team which held teams to 53.7 ppg. The #1 spot, btw, belongs to the 2012-2013 team which lost in the S16 to Georgia (they only averaged 70ppg offensively).

So we are, currently, a top 5 team offensively and a top 2 team defensively with respect to past Stanford teams, although it’s early days, obviously, with two #1 recruits and a #3 recruit plus several other top recruits, and a freshman point guard who has proven she can distribute effectively to those highly ranked players. Given the pieces this team has, I choose to remain optimistic that we can go as far as we want this season, and I will look forward to seeing how the games play out rather than writing out the future in my head beforehand.