[81alum]

The league-leading 3PT% shooter only had one 3pt attempt, and missed.

I had not realized this.  Very impressive.  I presume Toni was on her?  Maybe that was part of Toni's issue, using up her energy closely defending the opponent's top perimeter player.  Toni has become the new Ros--the shut-down defensive perimeter player who doesn't score a whole lot.

Tara is fully aware of our offensive vulnerabilities: 

"I'm just glad Chiney and Jos came to the game tonight," Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said.  "Otherwise it would have been tough. We're trying to get more people involved but we really struggled on the perimeter. It was the Chiney-Jos show and they really got it done."

And here is a particularly revealing Tara pre-game quote coming off of Drukarev's board http://stanford.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1464265 :

"We're working on pace, our offensive pace, and trying to get people to set better screens," VanDerveer said. "We're working on getting on the o-boards better. I showed our team the Pac-12 statistics where we're working being more aggressive. We're 12th in the Pac-12 in steals, we're 11th I think in o-boards. We're living a lot on what Chiney does and we need some people to carry more of a load. I really think the blueprint of our team is Sara James, how well she's done and how well she's contributing. So for other people it's if she can do it, you can do it, that's been our message. We're just hoping to get more contributions from more people. We think we have capable players that are spectating. We have to make more happen."

So Tara is certainly focussed on the offense.  She is seeing all the things we are seeing, and is trying to get more players involved in the offense.

Also, the Drukarev quotes say something interesting about Toni:

"Toni's knee was a little sore, she was out today. Everybody else was going 100 percent. Toni felt fine. She has[a brace on her right thumb. She has a lot of dings. It might be affecting her shot, she hurt it right before UConn. It's on her shooting hand, a little brace for her thumb, and her shooting is way down from last year. Maybe she has to adjust to it."

Other reports about the game pointed out something that gives this game a little more context:  Utah's flight to California was grounded on Thursday and delayed until Friday morning, then delayed again.  They did not land until 5 hours before game time.  A messed-up, discombobulated day, capped off with an injury.  How awful for them.

When Chiney went out I noticed at the time that--while everything looked a bit disjointed--we actually expanded our lead (from 10-3 to 16-5).  I said to myself "this is going to show up in MT's stats."  But it seems we expanded our lead even faster when she was in the game, no?

We won the first half 35-19, and the second half 30-26.  The contrast was not nearly as extreme as with USC--we seemed to do a better job staying focussed in the second half.  Still, it is worth watching.

[81alum]

The league-leading 3PT% shooter only had one 3pt attempt, and missed.

I had not realized this.  Very impressive.  I presume Toni was on her?  Maybe that was part of Toni's issue, using up her energy closely defending the opponent's top perimeter player.  Toni has become the new Ros--the shut-down defensive perimeter player who doesn't score a whole lot.

Tara is fully aware of our offensive vulnerabilities: 

"I'm just glad Chiney and Jos came to the game tonight," Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said.  "Otherwise it would have been tough. We're trying to get more people involved but we really struggled on the perimeter. It was the Chiney-Jos show and they really got it done."

And here is a particularly revealing Tara pre-game quote coming off of Drukarev's board http://stanford.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1464265 :

"We're working on pace, our offensive pace, and trying to get people to set better screens," VanDerveer said. "We're working on getting on the o-boards better. I showed our team the Pac-12 statistics where we're working being more aggressive. We're 12th in the Pac-12 in steals, we're 11th I think in o-boards. We're living a lot on what Chiney does and we need some people to carry more of a load. I really think the blueprint of our team is Sara James, how well she's done and how well she's contributing. So for other people it's if she can do it, you can do it, that's been our message. We're just hoping to get more contributions from more people. We think we have capable players that are spectating. We have to make more happen."

So Tara is certainly focussed on the offense.  She is seeing all the things we are seeing, and is trying to get more players involved in the offense.

Also, the Drukarev quotes say something interesting about Toni:

"Toni's knee was a little sore, she was out today. Everybody else was going 100 percent. Toni felt fine. She has[a brace on her right thumb. She has a lot of dings. It might be affecting her shot, she hurt it right before UConn. It's on her shooting hand, a little brace for her thumb, and her shooting is way down from last year. Maybe she has to adjust to it."

Other reports about the game pointed out something that gives this game a little more context:  Utah's flight to California was grounded on Thursday and delayed until Friday morning, then delayed again.  They did not land until 5 hours before game time.  A messed-up, discombobulated day, capped off with an injury.  How awful for them.

When Chiney went out I noticed at the time that--while everything looked a bit disjointed--we actually expanded our lead (from 10-3 to 16-5).  I said to myself "this is going to show up in MT's stats."  But it seems we expanded our lead even faster when she was in the game, no?

We won the first half 35-19, and the second half 30-26.  The contrast was not nearly as extreme as with USC--we seemed to do a better job staying focussed in the second half.  Still, it is worth watching.