[Viking_Guy]

A couple of more thoughts.

(1) This is a defensive gameplan we're going to see a lot more of - tight coverage on the perimeter and passers and a whole lot of traffic in the paint.  And unless Stanford has more players willing and able to do a better job off the dribble, it will work.  I know that I may sound like a broken record, but right now, teams KNOW that the drive is not a threat.  They have to take away the open look at a jumper and the easy entry pass to Chiney with high hands, and all that happens if they overcommit high is Stanford will have to make a more difficult bounce pass into Chiney; the perimeter, with the exception of Amber, is not going to drive around them and go to the hoop.  Or at least is not very efficient at that maneuver.  Jos and Mikaela both drove yesterday, but generally from a high post position, not the three point line.  The one time Taylor tried, she ended up committing an offensive foul going against three defenders, instead of trying a pull-up jumper.  Or better yet, dishing the ball to an open Jos on the weak side, even if it had to be a jump pass.  But it's hard to blame people for being inexperienced on the drive, because Stanford doesn't run it often at all.  Beyond Amber, Sara is the most willing, but she and most of her teammates don't have the quickness to easily separate from a good defender and get to the rim before the defense can rotate.

It's also tough to do with the current setup, because Chiney is ALWAYS going to drag two defenders into the paint if she's always camped down low.  Meaning a driver is going to have potentially three players to contend with unless Chiney clears the lane.  Which is why I liked the high pick look Amber was running off late in the game - she had a lot of success because Chiney's defender was having to recover from the perimeter, opening up more room low in the paint.  Same with Mikaela driving across the lane - Chiney, and her defender essentially became a two person pick, because the defender was unwilling to leave Chiney to pick up the drive.

(2) I also think we're going to see teams put A LOT of pressure on Amber.  I would really like to see a couple of rotations with both Amber and Jasmine out there, just to cut down on the load a little and to help out against the pressure Stanford is sure to see.  The tournament, as people say time and again, is a guard-oriented event, whether because of the quality of the defenses, the laxity of the officiating, or the impact of the three point line.  Stanford has essentially been playing one guard, one tweener shooting guard small forward in James (who doesn't have a great handle or the speed to break a press herself), and a bunch of power forwards as starters.

(3) All that being said, it was a quality win over a quality opponent who had all of the motivation in the world to beat Stanford, and who had more rest after a MUCH easier game on Saturday, both in terms of score and physicality.  And who is very familiar with the Cardinal.  A lot of commenters on some of the women's basketball boards were saying this just showed how overrated Stanford is, and any team who is in their region has to be "licking their chops."

Um, Notre Dame had tremendous problems putting away SOUTH FLORIDA on Sunday.  USF, #52 in the RPI.  There is not a team in the Big East other than UConn who is nearly as good as UCLA.  And Louisville, the next best team, is roughly equivalent to Colorado.

The potential Notre Dame-UConn match is the only one tougher remaining for any of the teams than UCLA.  Kentucky lost to Texas A&M, Duke beat a consistently overrated North Carolina, and Penn State lost in the Big 10 semis to a not-very-good Michigan State team.  And Baylor, playing this year's Big XII, had the easiest conference of any of the contenders - hell, I hate the fact that Brittany Griner is getting accolades for scoring 50 points against a team that trotted out a lineup without a single starter taller than 5'11" in Kansas State.  The second toughest team in their conference?  #24 Iowa State.

Stanford UCLA was the equivalent of a Sweet 16 matchup.  Against an opponent that matches up well against Stanford.  Stanford-Cal would've been the equivalent of an Elite 8 matchup, if da Bares had kept up their end of the bargain.  But like almost every other 2 seed aspiring to a #1, they folded up their tent early.

(4)  The officiating?  Well, I hope we don't see much looser officiating in the NCAAs than we've seen over the last two games.  But again, it was the wild inconsistency that killed me.  And I think there's still a massive bias in favor of the charge call that is really changing the game, even with the restricted arc - the amount of flopping going on is crazy.  I do think the officials should have the ability to call an unsportsmanlike technical foul against players that "exaggerate" - I remember watching one of the Pac-12 tournament games featuring Cal, when Brittany Boyd was guarding someone in the corner.  The player brought her arms up and over, and Boyd's head snapped back - late.  The whistle blew for an offensive foul, and they went to the replay.  Which showed the offensive player's elbows and forearms missed Boyd by an inch or so.  No correction, no punishment for Boyd - the only purpose of the replay was to potentially assess a flagrant foul.  Um, why not have the ability to at least try to deter obvious embellishment?

That being said, Chiney's first foul was dumb, and a reversion to some of her past tendencies to pick up a silly foul - she was boxed out by three people and slapped down over someone's shoulder.

More later,

VG

[Viking_Guy]

A couple of more thoughts.

(1) This is a defensive gameplan we're going to see a lot more of - tight coverage on the perimeter and passers and a whole lot of traffic in the paint.  And unless Stanford has more players willing and able to do a better job off the dribble, it will work.  I know that I may sound like a broken record, but right now, teams KNOW that the drive is not a threat.  They have to take away the open look at a jumper and the easy entry pass to Chiney with high hands, and all that happens if they overcommit high is Stanford will have to make a more difficult bounce pass into Chiney; the perimeter, with the exception of Amber, is not going to drive around them and go to the hoop.  Or at least is not very efficient at that maneuver.  Jos and Mikaela both drove yesterday, but generally from a high post position, not the three point line.  The one time Taylor tried, she ended up committing an offensive foul going against three defenders, instead of trying a pull-up jumper.  Or better yet, dishing the ball to an open Jos on the weak side, even if it had to be a jump pass.  But it's hard to blame people for being inexperienced on the drive, because Stanford doesn't run it often at all.  Beyond Amber, Sara is the most willing, but she and most of her teammates don't have the quickness to easily separate from a good defender and get to the rim before the defense can rotate.

It's also tough to do with the current setup, because Chiney is ALWAYS going to drag two defenders into the paint if she's always camped down low.  Meaning a driver is going to have potentially three players to contend with unless Chiney clears the lane.  Which is why I liked the high pick look Amber was running off late in the game - she had a lot of success because Chiney's defender was having to recover from the perimeter, opening up more room low in the paint.  Same with Mikaela driving across the lane - Chiney, and her defender essentially became a two person pick, because the defender was unwilling to leave Chiney to pick up the drive.

(2) I also think we're going to see teams put A LOT of pressure on Amber.  I would really like to see a couple of rotations with both Amber and Jasmine out there, just to cut down on the load a little and to help out against the pressure Stanford is sure to see.  The tournament, as people say time and again, is a guard-oriented event, whether because of the quality of the defenses, the laxity of the officiating, or the impact of the three point line.  Stanford has essentially been playing one guard, one tweener shooting guard small forward in James (who doesn't have a great handle or the speed to break a press herself), and a bunch of power forwards as starters.

(3) All that being said, it was a quality win over a quality opponent who had all of the motivation in the world to beat Stanford, and who had more rest after a MUCH easier game on Saturday, both in terms of score and physicality.  And who is very familiar with the Cardinal.  A lot of commenters on some of the women's basketball boards were saying this just showed how overrated Stanford is, and any team who is in their region has to be "licking their chops."

Um, Notre Dame had tremendous problems putting away SOUTH FLORIDA on Sunday.  USF, #52 in the RPI.  There is not a team in the Big East other than UConn who is nearly as good as UCLA.  And Louisville, the next best team, is roughly equivalent to Colorado.

The potential Notre Dame-UConn match is the only one tougher remaining for any of the teams than UCLA.  Kentucky lost to Texas A&M, Duke beat a consistently overrated North Carolina, and Penn State lost in the Big 10 semis to a not-very-good Michigan State team.  And Baylor, playing this year's Big XII, had the easiest conference of any of the contenders - hell, I hate the fact that Brittany Griner is getting accolades for scoring 50 points against a team that trotted out a lineup without a single starter taller than 5'11" in Kansas State.  The second toughest team in their conference?  #24 Iowa State.

Stanford UCLA was the equivalent of a Sweet 16 matchup.  Against an opponent that matches up well against Stanford.  Stanford-Cal would've been the equivalent of an Elite 8 matchup, if da Bares had kept up their end of the bargain.  But like almost every other 2 seed aspiring to a #1, they folded up their tent early.

(4)  The officiating?  Well, I hope we don't see much looser officiating in the NCAAs than we've seen over the last two games.  But again, it was the wild inconsistency that killed me.  And I think there's still a massive bias in favor of the charge call that is really changing the game, even with the restricted arc - the amount of flopping going on is crazy.  I do think the officials should have the ability to call an unsportsmanlike technical foul against players that "exaggerate" - I remember watching one of the Pac-12 tournament games featuring Cal, when Brittany Boyd was guarding someone in the corner.  The player brought her arms up and over, and Boyd's head snapped back - late.  The whistle blew for an offensive foul, and they went to the replay.  Which showed the offensive player's elbows and forearms missed Boyd by an inch or so.  No correction, no punishment for Boyd - the only purpose of the replay was to potentially assess a flagrant foul.  Um, why not have the ability to at least try to deter obvious embellishment?

That being said, Chiney's first foul was dumb, and a reversion to some of her past tendencies to pick up a silly foul - she was boxed out by three people and slapped down over someone's shoulder.

More later,

VG