[TheFarm07]

Wow CardFan1996, you've taught me a great lesson.  Don't read game thread posts that are more than 12 hours old.

According to your logic, we should all just stop watching our 20-2 team play. 

Nah.  I'm with Johnny.  I'm going to cherish watching our team until the last game of the season, win or lose.  I can't even imagine being in a mindset where I thought I knew more than Tara in how to guide this team.

You must have been reading a different post. Because the one I read from CardFan1996, they never said we should stop watching the team. They were just pointing out that BosCard's assertion that this is essentially the same team that won the national title two years ago and made the Final Four is incorrect.

The graduations of Kiana Williams, Lexie & Lacie Hull and Anna Wilson have not been compensated by the additions of the incoming class, because the underclassmen either are playing different positions and/or do not have the same level or type of skill set of the departing players.

I come down in support of CardFan1996's points. While our underclassmen are talented and more importantly, they will contribute to Stanford and the community in many different and much more important ways than their role on the women's team, Tara and the coaching staff has not adapted as well this year to our strengths and weaknesses, IMO.

A side note and related to CardFan1996's point regarding our relative lack of success in recruiting top flight guards as compared to forwards and posts, I wonder whether our allusions to whether players have been instructed not to take midrange jumpers and Tara's general aversion to them, plays a role in turning off those elite guards whose midrange game is an important part of their arsenal from wanting to join our program. If you're an elite scoring guard used to scoring at all three levels, if you've heard that a coach actively dislikes a certain type of shot that you're used to, you might not be as enthuastic as joining the program (with all other things being equal).

Tara is a HoF coach and she has had unparalleled success in the game, but she is not infallible. She has strengths and weaknesses as every other coach. As fans, we can grumble and criticize in a fair and fact-based manner. Believe me, the criticism on this board is restrained and objective, compared to the kneejerk, emotional responses I've read elsewhere in response to coaching decisions: "Coach X is an idiot...Coach Y is a coward."

Stubbornness can be a good and a bad thing. From her statements in the postgame pressers and from what we've seen on the court, the changes we believe she should make will likely not be implemented. It is what it is. I, nor any of us can change her mind.

I still think we have the talent this year to challenge for the national title. What has changed for me is that I believe the variability has widened based on our recent results. I thought our floor was an Elite Eight or even Final Four with an unbeaten conference season, but given our offensive struggles, I won't be surprised if we dropped three or four more regular season games and be susceptible to a Sweet 16 upset loss (based on the matchup).

That change in expectation will help manage my emotions and frustration, but that doesn't make me less of a fan or make me believe we should stop watching the team. 

To 81alum's post on changing offensive schemes, I don't follow other programs closely enough, but is this a common theme with other coaches, to change the strategy - Princeton, triangle, flow, etc. multiple times within a few years? Obviously, coaching staffs should tweak things based on the strengths and weaknesses of their current roster, but it seems like changing the general strategy so greatly is causing more consternation than it should?

[TheFarm07]

Wow CardFan1996, you've taught me a great lesson.  Don't read game thread posts that are more than 12 hours old.

According to your logic, we should all just stop watching our 20-2 team play. 

Nah.  I'm with Johnny.  I'm going to cherish watching our team until the last game of the season, win or lose.  I can't even imagine being in a mindset where I thought I knew more than Tara in how to guide this team.

You must have been reading a different post. Because the one I read from CardFan1996, they never said we should stop watching the team. They were just pointing out that BosCard's assertion that this is essentially the same team that won the national title two years ago and made the Final Four is incorrect.

The graduations of Kiana Williams, Lexie & Lacie Hull and Anna Wilson have not been compensated by the additions of the incoming class, because the underclassmen either are playing different positions and/or do not have the same level or type of skill set of the departing players.

I come down in support of CardFan1996's points. While our underclassmen are talented and more importantly, they will contribute to Stanford and the community in many different and much more important ways than their role on the women's team, Tara and the coaching staff has not adapted as well this year to our strengths and weaknesses, IMO.

A side note and related to CardFan1996's point regarding our relative lack of success in recruiting top flight guards as compared to forwards and posts, I wonder whether our allusions to whether players have been instructed not to take midrange jumpers and Tara's general aversion to them, plays a role in turning off those elite guards whose midrange game is an important part of their arsenal from wanting to join our program. If you're an elite scoring guard used to scoring at all three levels, if you've heard that a coach actively dislikes a certain type of shot that you're used to, you might not be as enthuastic as joining the program (with all other things being equal).

Tara is a HoF coach and she has had unparalleled success in the game, but she is not infallible. She has strengths and weaknesses as every other coach. As fans, we can grumble and criticize in a fair and fact-based manner. Believe me, the criticism on this board is restrained and objective, compared to the kneejerk, emotional responses I've read elsewhere in response to coaching decisions: "Coach X is an idiot...Coach Y is a coward."

Stubbornness can be a good and a bad thing. From her statements in the postgame pressers and from what we've seen on the court, the changes we believe she should make will likely not be implemented. It is what it is. I, nor any of us can change her mind.

I still think we have the talent this year to challenge for the national title. What has changed for me is that I believe the variability has widened based on our recent results. I thought our floor was an Elite Eight or even Final Four with an unbeaten conference season, but given our offensive struggles, I won't be surprised if we dropped three or four more regular season games and be susceptible to a Sweet 16 upset loss (based on the matchup).

That change in expectation will help manage my emotions and frustration, but that doesn't make me less of a fan or make me believe we should stop watching the team. 

To 81alum's post on changing offensive schemes, I don't follow other programs closely enough, but is this a common theme with other coaches, to change the strategy - Princeton, triangle, flow, etc. multiple times within a few years? Obviously, coaching staffs should tweak things based on the strengths and weaknesses of their current roster, but it seems like changing the general strategy so greatly is causing more consternation than it should?