11-21-2024, 07:11 PM
I think that Saturday's game at Santa Clara and Tuesday's game vs. Grand Canyon in Palm Desert will both be better indications of how competitive Stanford might be. According to KenPom, they will be the best teams Stanford has faced so far and both are rated higher than 5 ACC teams (including Cal). I'm not sure how reliable any of the ratings are at this point in the year - Stanford was picked to finish 17th out of 18 in the ACC pre-season poll, and after beating 5 teams that they should have beaten, now they are around the middle of the ACC depending on which ranking you look at.
The Norfolk State game was concerning due to the lousy shooting - pretty much 10% below season average for FGs, 3s, and FTs. The bright side is that they made the adjustment to go inside more, and when the game was on the line they finally hit more 3s and FTs. Hopefully that game was an anomaly - if not, it could be another long year. But they have been fun to watch (for a nice change) and exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations so far.
The Norfolk State game was concerning due to the lousy shooting - pretty much 10% below season average for FGs, 3s, and FTs. The bright side is that they made the adjustment to go inside more, and when the game was on the line they finally hit more 3s and FTs. Hopefully that game was an anomaly - if not, it could be another long year. But they have been fun to watch (for a nice change) and exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations so far.