[2006alum]

Great W for the ladies! Congratulations to both players and coaches. 

FWIW, this team has a much higher ceiling than today's performance. I really didn't think we played all that great. We were fortunate in that UNC went 3-14 from 3 and 18-30 from the line. There's ample room to clean up sloppy play (22 TO's), slot selection, stagnation, etc. and we could be really good. Been saying it all season - the talent is there for this to be a Top-20 team. 

Not that Alex's play was the sole reason for the win, but OMG - can we please get her on the court? Broken record...

When playing NC State the team looked very tense and almost intimidated.  Why?  Against N Car they did not seem intimidated.  Obviously, they are a young team and intimidation would not be unexpected.  Agara and Ogden seemed a little less intimidated than the others but even they were tight.  I can think of perhaps a dozen reasons and a couple of them are coaching related.  I do not have the answer, and I do not want to blame the coaches without knowing more.  However, I do blame the coaches for some of the issues.   
What is KP thinking when she plays Lepolo and Stephenson at the same time and this happened for at least a quarter of the game.  Neither will shoot (Lepolo will until she misses) and they both play mediocre defense.  This move puts tremendous pressure on the other three.  Eschmeyer is very efficient in her 7 minutes but all it gets her is a quick hook.  At least KP recognized that Shay changes the game and left her in.  She may well have won the game for us.   The referring was horrendous – 26 fouls on us to 18 on UNC.  (FTs were i8 for us to 30 which indicates they called even more shooting fouls against us.) Clardy was probably fouled on the last play of regulation and if it had been UNC on offense it would certainly have been called.  It seems like the ACC referees resent Stanford being in their conference. 
We could be a very good team (15-20 nationally)  with the proper allocation of minutes, but it seems like we are destined to be a somewhat better than average team who can occasionally win a big game.

I think we don't match up well with NC State in general (they are almost always fast and physical), and Wes Moore is one of the best at creating a scout to disrupt the other team. Our personnel are much more similar to UNC's and I don't think Banghart does an incredible job taking away the other team's best weapons.

Yes, Shay was a real sparkplug in  this game, but I'm surprised that no one has commented on Clardy's contribution. We did not have her on Thursday, and that really hurt. Today, she was back, and played 31 minutes, had 13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and two steals. FWIT, for me, she was the player of the game, and the real difference maker.

Totally agree. Clardy is the only player on our team who can go toe to toe NC States guards, so it was a particularly disastrous game for her to miss. And I think she's quietly actually the most crucial player to our team, even though she's coming off the bench, because none of our other guards can reliably do it all - including three point shooting. Her speed, versatility, and shooting are critical to creating spacing for our offense to work.

[2006alum]

Great W for the ladies! Congratulations to both players and coaches. 

FWIW, this team has a much higher ceiling than today's performance. I really didn't think we played all that great. We were fortunate in that UNC went 3-14 from 3 and 18-30 from the line. There's ample room to clean up sloppy play (22 TO's), slot selection, stagnation, etc. and we could be really good. Been saying it all season - the talent is there for this to be a Top-20 team. 

Not that Alex's play was the sole reason for the win, but OMG - can we please get her on the court? Broken record...

When playing NC State the team looked very tense and almost intimidated.  Why?  Against N Car they did not seem intimidated.  Obviously, they are a young team and intimidation would not be unexpected.  Agara and Ogden seemed a little less intimidated than the others but even they were tight.  I can think of perhaps a dozen reasons and a couple of them are coaching related.  I do not have the answer, and I do not want to blame the coaches without knowing more.  However, I do blame the coaches for some of the issues.   
What is KP thinking when she plays Lepolo and Stephenson at the same time and this happened for at least a quarter of the game.  Neither will shoot (Lepolo will until she misses) and they both play mediocre defense.  This move puts tremendous pressure on the other three.  Eschmeyer is very efficient in her 7 minutes but all it gets her is a quick hook.  At least KP recognized that Shay changes the game and left her in.  She may well have won the game for us.   The referring was horrendous – 26 fouls on us to 18 on UNC.  (FTs were i8 for us to 30 which indicates they called even more shooting fouls against us.) Clardy was probably fouled on the last play of regulation and if it had been UNC on offense it would certainly have been called.  It seems like the ACC referees resent Stanford being in their conference. 
We could be a very good team (15-20 nationally)  with the proper allocation of minutes, but it seems like we are destined to be a somewhat better than average team who can occasionally win a big game.

I think we don't match up well with NC State in general (they are almost always fast and physical), and Wes Moore is one of the best at creating a scout to disrupt the other team. Our personnel are much more similar to UNC's and I don't think Banghart does an incredible job taking away the other team's best weapons.

Yes, Shay was a real sparkplug in  this game, but I'm surprised that no one has commented on Clardy's contribution. We did not have her on Thursday, and that really hurt. Today, she was back, and played 31 minutes, had 13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and two steals. FWIT, for me, she was the player of the game, and the real difference maker.

Totally agree. Clardy is the only player on our team who can go toe to toe NC States guards, so it was a particularly disastrous game for her to miss. And I think she's quietly actually the most crucial player to our team, even though she's coming off the bench, because none of our other guards can reliably do it all - including three point shooting. Her speed, versatility, and shooting are critical to creating spacing for our offense to work.