[Viking_Guy]

While the final score may not be indicative of the flow of the game, its palindromic nature matches the, well, weirdness on the court tonight.

Again, the caveat is Stanford playing without reigning conference POY Nneka Ogwumike, still healing up the sprained right ankle she suffered in the win against USC last weekend and currently listed as doubtful for Saturday\'s tilt against the Ducks.  As I said about the last game, I\'m glad the coaches are holding her out, and hope that she can get some play in the final home game against Berkeley.  In this particular case, the Pac-10 tourney format perversely may not work in Stanford\'s favor - with the Cardinal having clinched the final Pac-10 regular season title, they get a bye into the semi-finals.  Overall a good thing, but that means Nneka won\'t get to warm up against a weaker team, but instead jump right in against an ASU or a USC, more than likely.  Unless she can go against the Bares next week.

Against a game Beavers side tonight, she wasn\'t needed.

First, full credit to OSU.  Even fielding a team this year is an accomplishment given the turmoil at the end of the last season, having their coach fired, then losing pretty much their entire roster, either by transfer or by simply quitting basketball.  First year coach Scott Rueck has put together a hard-working bunch.

And early in the game, that led to a strange sight.  Stanford, giving up an 11-0 run against anyone, let alone a Pac-10 cellar dwellar, on their home court.  After scoring the game\'s opening 6 points, a couple of bad turnovers against the Beavers\' 2-3 zone led to a quick 11 points, scoring on 5 out of 6 possessions, including a 24 foot three-pointer from straight on by Sage Indendi.

That 11-6 OSU lead then blew apart, as Stanford got the ball inside the zone with crisp interior passing, played much more aggressive defense and, well, the talent levels started telling.  The Cardinal scored 17 consecutive points, and really should\'ve had more, but still turned the ball over too much on less-than-crisp passes against a Beavers defense that really tried to get out in the lanes from their zone.

Typical of the play was my favorite bugaboo, the end of half play.  Stanford, having held OSU to one field goal and three points in the final nearly 14 minutes of the half, led 29-14 with the ball and no shot clock.  Again, we didn\'t initiate offense, with Jeanette holding the ball until about 12 seconds were left on the shot clock, then dishing and trying to run off a screen to the corner.  When the shot was closed out, she tried to drive baseline and lost the ball.  Just not at all in sync.

Of course, when the opposition shoots 20% for the first half, and 15% from 3 point range, it may not matter.  And I\'m not at all certain that it was good Stanford defense that did it, although it did prevent OSU from getting many easy looks inside after the opening 4 minutes or so.  Or any looks, really, as other than 2 long Indendi 3 pointers, the Beavers scored all of 8 points.

The second half started the same way as the first, much more balanced than it should\'ve been.  Although Chiney came out and made two great plays, one a nice move inside, and the second a steal and layup as the point person on a 1-2-2 press, OSU came right back, hitting some shots for the first time in a while, and closing to within 37-26 on the first of two free throws by El Sara Greer, one of the few holdovers from the previous regime, with about 15 minutes left.

OSU would score four more points in the next 13 minutes.  Stanford would score 33 in that span.

I\'m not sure what clicked.  A large part of it was the play of Sara Boothe off the bench, who finally came in against a smaller team and simply dominated.  The Cardinal also cut dramatically down on the turnovers against the 2-3 zone, from 11 in the first half to 5 in the second.  And OSU simply seemed to be in "chuck and duck" mode, hurling up one desperate 3-point heave after another.

The ignitor was really Toni, however, with a second really nice game in a row.  After a Boothe hook, Kokenis first made a nice drive from the left wing for a transition layup, then displayed great anticipation in stealing the ball on the left sideline, somehow keeping herself and the ball inbounds and scoring the fast break layup.  

After a couple of OSU FTs, it was the starters\' turn.  Three consecutive three pointers, Pohlen, Pedersen and Pohlen again, made the lead 26, and the bench kept pushing it out, with Boothe scoring 6 in short order and Kokenis and Tinkle hitting jumpers.  When Sara James, who has had a really tough time shooting this year, hit a 3 to make it 70-30, it was the capper to a good team effort.  Three free throws by Ashley "RPRT (right place, right time)" Cimino finished the scoring.

Other than a couple of short stretches of defensive inattention, a really solid and developmental win.  Great production from the bench (32 points on the night)...

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[Viking_Guy]

While the final score may not be indicative of the flow of the game, its palindromic nature matches the, well, weirdness on the court tonight.

Again, the caveat is Stanford playing without reigning conference POY Nneka Ogwumike, still healing up the sprained right ankle she suffered in the win against USC last weekend and currently listed as doubtful for Saturday\'s tilt against the Ducks.  As I said about the last game, I\'m glad the coaches are holding her out, and hope that she can get some play in the final home game against Berkeley.  In this particular case, the Pac-10 tourney format perversely may not work in Stanford\'s favor - with the Cardinal having clinched the final Pac-10 regular season title, they get a bye into the semi-finals.  Overall a good thing, but that means Nneka won\'t get to warm up against a weaker team, but instead jump right in against an ASU or a USC, more than likely.  Unless she can go against the Bares next week.

Against a game Beavers side tonight, she wasn\'t needed.

First, full credit to OSU.  Even fielding a team this year is an accomplishment given the turmoil at the end of the last season, having their coach fired, then losing pretty much their entire roster, either by transfer or by simply quitting basketball.  First year coach Scott Rueck has put together a hard-working bunch.

And early in the game, that led to a strange sight.  Stanford, giving up an 11-0 run against anyone, let alone a Pac-10 cellar dwellar, on their home court.  After scoring the game\'s opening 6 points, a couple of bad turnovers against the Beavers\' 2-3 zone led to a quick 11 points, scoring on 5 out of 6 possessions, including a 24 foot three-pointer from straight on by Sage Indendi.

That 11-6 OSU lead then blew apart, as Stanford got the ball inside the zone with crisp interior passing, played much more aggressive defense and, well, the talent levels started telling.  The Cardinal scored 17 consecutive points, and really should\'ve had more, but still turned the ball over too much on less-than-crisp passes against a Beavers defense that really tried to get out in the lanes from their zone.

Typical of the play was my favorite bugaboo, the end of half play.  Stanford, having held OSU to one field goal and three points in the final nearly 14 minutes of the half, led 29-14 with the ball and no shot clock.  Again, we didn\'t initiate offense, with Jeanette holding the ball until about 12 seconds were left on the shot clock, then dishing and trying to run off a screen to the corner.  When the shot was closed out, she tried to drive baseline and lost the ball.  Just not at all in sync.

Of course, when the opposition shoots 20% for the first half, and 15% from 3 point range, it may not matter.  And I\'m not at all certain that it was good Stanford defense that did it, although it did prevent OSU from getting many easy looks inside after the opening 4 minutes or so.  Or any looks, really, as other than 2 long Indendi 3 pointers, the Beavers scored all of 8 points.

The second half started the same way as the first, much more balanced than it should\'ve been.  Although Chiney came out and made two great plays, one a nice move inside, and the second a steal and layup as the point person on a 1-2-2 press, OSU came right back, hitting some shots for the first time in a while, and closing to within 37-26 on the first of two free throws by El Sara Greer, one of the few holdovers from the previous regime, with about 15 minutes left.

OSU would score four more points in the next 13 minutes.  Stanford would score 33 in that span.

I\'m not sure what clicked.  A large part of it was the play of Sara Boothe off the bench, who finally came in against a smaller team and simply dominated.  The Cardinal also cut dramatically down on the turnovers against the 2-3 zone, from 11 in the first half to 5 in the second.  And OSU simply seemed to be in "chuck and duck" mode, hurling up one desperate 3-point heave after another.

The ignitor was really Toni, however, with a second really nice game in a row.  After a Boothe hook, Kokenis first made a nice drive from the left wing for a transition layup, then displayed great anticipation in stealing the ball on the left sideline, somehow keeping herself and the ball inbounds and scoring the fast break layup.  

After a couple of OSU FTs, it was the starters\' turn.  Three consecutive three pointers, Pohlen, Pedersen and Pohlen again, made the lead 26, and the bench kept pushing it out, with Boothe scoring 6 in short order and Kokenis and Tinkle hitting jumpers.  When Sara James, who has had a really tough time shooting this year, hit a 3 to make it 70-30, it was the capper to a good team effort.  Three free throws by Ashley "RPRT (right place, right time)" Cimino finished the scoring.

Other than a couple of short stretches of defensive inattention, a really solid and developmental win.  Great production from the bench (32 points on the night)...

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[Viking_Guy]

... and good distribution (5 players in double figures, led by Boothe\'s 16 in 25 minutes - a really good sign).

Chiney had a solid game - 10 points, 9 boards and 5 steals, both overplaying inside and at the point of both a 1-2-2 press and a 1-3-1 zone.  Her athleticism makes both of those defenses possible, and gives opposing coaches another look to worry about.  Could be valuable going forward.

As I mentioned, another good game for Toni - 5-7 from the field and a couple of spectacular plays offsetting some issues running the offense against the zone, although she\'s one of the few Stanford players willing to drive against the zone to force it to react.

Boothe with 16 and 6.  Kayla with 13 and 5.  All in all, a well-balanced attack.

To go with a defense that, while it was playing against a fairly offensively challenged team, still managed to hold an opponent to under 25% shooting for the game and under 20% from 3 point range.  

Only two real caveats to a solid win.  First, gave up too many offensive rebounds.  Part of that was that OSU was missing so badly the boards were taking long and strange caroms, and part of it was trying to rebound out of zone defenses, and Nneka\'s absence was another brobdingnagian factor.  But a couple of sequences had the Beavers with 3 and 4 shots on a single possession.

The second caveat:  I\'m a little concerned about Jeanette.  Not anything health or shot-wise, but she seems to be pressing a bit.  A couple of overly-aggressive passes, a couple of bad turnovers in the first half, including one where she put Lindy in an absolutely untenable spot on the left sideline that LaRocque somehow managed to salvage at great risk to life and limb, only to have Pohlen promptly turn the ball over again into a fast break layup - she had 6 assists tonight, but 5 turnovers.  She hit a couple of threes in the second half and seemed to be a bit smoother, but it would be nice to see her have another couple of solid games going into the post-season.

As a team, however, 22 assists on 30 baskets.  With at least a few of the non-assisted baskets being steals into fast break layups, that\'s some pretty outstanding passing.

Again, a solid win, but with plenty of room for nit-picking.  The kind of game that I\'m betting Tara really likes.  And a lot of good playing time for the bench, and for various rotations without Nneka, that really should stand the Cardinal in good stead.

Onto Saturday\'s track meet.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

... and good distribution (5 players in double figures, led by Boothe\'s 16 in 25 minutes - a really good sign).

Chiney had a solid game - 10 points, 9 boards and 5 steals, both overplaying inside and at the point of both a 1-2-2 press and a 1-3-1 zone.  Her athleticism makes both of those defenses possible, and gives opposing coaches another look to worry about.  Could be valuable going forward.

As I mentioned, another good game for Toni - 5-7 from the field and a couple of spectacular plays offsetting some issues running the offense against the zone, although she\'s one of the few Stanford players willing to drive against the zone to force it to react.

Boothe with 16 and 6.  Kayla with 13 and 5.  All in all, a well-balanced attack.

To go with a defense that, while it was playing against a fairly offensively challenged team, still managed to hold an opponent to under 25% shooting for the game and under 20% from 3 point range.  

Only two real caveats to a solid win.  First, gave up too many offensive rebounds.  Part of that was that OSU was missing so badly the boards were taking long and strange caroms, and part of it was trying to rebound out of zone defenses, and Nneka\'s absence was another brobdingnagian factor.  But a couple of sequences had the Beavers with 3 and 4 shots on a single possession.

The second caveat:  I\'m a little concerned about Jeanette.  Not anything health or shot-wise, but she seems to be pressing a bit.  A couple of overly-aggressive passes, a couple of bad turnovers in the first half, including one where she put Lindy in an absolutely untenable spot on the left sideline that LaRocque somehow managed to salvage at great risk to life and limb, only to have Pohlen promptly turn the ball over again into a fast break layup - she had 6 assists tonight, but 5 turnovers.  She hit a couple of threes in the second half and seemed to be a bit smoother, but it would be nice to see her have another couple of solid games going into the post-season.

As a team, however, 22 assists on 30 baskets.  With at least a few of the non-assisted baskets being steals into fast break layups, that\'s some pretty outstanding passing.

Again, a solid win, but with plenty of room for nit-picking.  The kind of game that I\'m betting Tara really likes.  And a lot of good playing time for the bench, and for various rotations without Nneka, that really should stand the Cardinal in good stead.

Onto Saturday\'s track meet.

VG

[M T]

Viking Guy gives such good reviews, the rest of us are almost speechless.

In the spirit of making this more than just everyone else just absorbing what VG says, here\'s some comments of my own:

The game was almost remarkable in that the refs didn\'t get noticed.  Good job!  (But that brings up the question as to whether Stanford played like the half-time exhibition:  no contact.  Stanford tied its season low in free throw points.)

I\'ve felt that we\'ve seen the future of Stanford more in the past two games (with Nneka out).  This could have been a year in which we were a 3 man team, but the others have really been helping.

As said, Toni was the spark plug.  She\'s done what we might have hoped Melanie would do.  We\'ve not been much of a fast break team, but in this game we had our season high of 14 fast break points (2nd is only 8pts)

I\'m glad Sarah Boothe got some good playing time, and got high point.  Her hook isn\'t that pretty, but it is nice when they go in.  I thought she played reasonably intelligently, but I think she should use her body more to block out.   MAYBE, Tara had made not fouling a point of emphasis for her for this game.  She did get only the one foul, with just 2 minutes left.  That might explain a low level of aggressive play.

VG said "First, gave up too many offensive rebounds." [meaning OSU got too many OR].   Actually, our defensive rebounding was slightly above our average (we got 74% of the rebounds under their basket compared to avg of 70%; at OSU, we only got 56%).  We did much worse than our average on our offensive rebounds.  We only got 27% (2nd worse of the year) when we average 42%.

On that same note, despite OSU\'s 12 OR, they got 0 second chance points.  That\'s the first time this year we\'ve not allowed any second chance points.

As a result of our poor offensive rebounding, we only got 2 second chance points ourselves, very much less than our average of 15.

The rebounding & 2nd chance points woes can be clearly attributed to our missing Nneka.  Sarah B. is just not talented in that area.  But both Stanford\'s and the opponent\'s points in the paint were about the average in Stanford games.

Once again, the end-of-game squad was mostly pulling away.  Those players may not get much playing time late in the tourney, but their quality of play must improve the practice levels for the first stringers.

Another interesting thing was that the scoring was spread around.  At one point in the second half, Kayla had 13 points and the other 4 players in the game had 10 points each.


How good is the team?  Well, when we actually wish for more games in the PAC-10 tourney so we can tune up more, then we\'re clearly believing that no one can sneak in there and surprise us, AND that we\'ve got the depth to overcome injuries such as sprained ankles.

But I am a bit concerned that we don\'t seem to be dominating teams early in the same way we did earlier in the season.

-----------
I looked back at the DePaul game, which I didn\'t watch.  I knew DePaul shot lights out, but I hadn\'t realized that we only hit 37% of our 2-pt attempts.  Other stats of note from that game. Season high 18 TO.  Season high 22pts by our opponents off turnovers.  Opponents tied season low with 11 fouls.  Season high of 16 assists by opponents. Season high 66% 2-pt percentage by opponent. Near season high 50% 3-pt percentage by opponent.

[M T]

Viking Guy gives such good reviews, the rest of us are almost speechless.

In the spirit of making this more than just everyone else just absorbing what VG says, here\'s some comments of my own:

The game was almost remarkable in that the refs didn\'t get noticed.  Good job!  (But that brings up the question as to whether Stanford played like the half-time exhibition:  no contact.  Stanford tied its season low in free throw points.)

I\'ve felt that we\'ve seen the future of Stanford more in the past two games (with Nneka out).  This could have been a year in which we were a 3 man team, but the others have really been helping.

As said, Toni was the spark plug.  She\'s done what we might have hoped Melanie would do.  We\'ve not been much of a fast break team, but in this game we had our season high of 14 fast break points (2nd is only 8pts)

I\'m glad Sarah Boothe got some good playing time, and got high point.  Her hook isn\'t that pretty, but it is nice when they go in.  I thought she played reasonably intelligently, but I think she should use her body more to block out.   MAYBE, Tara had made not fouling a point of emphasis for her for this game.  She did get only the one foul, with just 2 minutes left.  That might explain a low level of aggressive play.

VG said "First, gave up too many offensive rebounds." [meaning OSU got too many OR].   Actually, our defensive rebounding was slightly above our average (we got 74% of the rebounds under their basket compared to avg of 70%; at OSU, we only got 56%).  We did much worse than our average on our offensive rebounds.  We only got 27% (2nd worse of the year) when we average 42%.

On that same note, despite OSU\'s 12 OR, they got 0 second chance points.  That\'s the first time this year we\'ve not allowed any second chance points.

As a result of our poor offensive rebounding, we only got 2 second chance points ourselves, very much less than our average of 15.

The rebounding & 2nd chance points woes can be clearly attributed to our missing Nneka.  Sarah B. is just not talented in that area.  But both Stanford\'s and the opponent\'s points in the paint were about the average in Stanford games.

Once again, the end-of-game squad was mostly pulling away.  Those players may not get much playing time late in the tourney, but their quality of play must improve the practice levels for the first stringers.

Another interesting thing was that the scoring was spread around.  At one point in the second half, Kayla had 13 points and the other 4 players in the game had 10 points each.


How good is the team?  Well, when we actually wish for more games in the PAC-10 tourney so we can tune up more, then we\'re clearly believing that no one can sneak in there and surprise us, AND that we\'ve got the depth to overcome injuries such as sprained ankles.

But I am a bit concerned that we don\'t seem to be dominating teams early in the same way we did earlier in the season.

-----------
I looked back at the DePaul game, which I didn\'t watch.  I knew DePaul shot lights out, but I hadn\'t realized that we only hit 37% of our 2-pt attempts.  Other stats of note from that game. Season high 18 TO.  Season high 22pts by our opponents off turnovers.  Opponents tied season low with 11 fouls.  Season high of 16 assists by opponents. Season high 66% 2-pt percentage by opponent. Near season high 50% 3-pt percentage by opponent.

[CrazedZooChimp]

Do you guys take notes during the game?  Even when I really pay attention I can never remember all the plays in detail that you seem to, VG.

Thanks very much for the write-ups, both of you!  I was certainly impressed watching the UCLA game how well the team seemed to play even without Nneka.  Hopefully she comes back rested and healthy for the tournament.

[CrazedZooChimp]

Do you guys take notes during the game?  Even when I really pay attention I can never remember all the plays in detail that you seem to, VG.

Thanks very much for the write-ups, both of you!  I was certainly impressed watching the UCLA game how well the team seemed to play even without Nneka.  Hopefully she comes back rested and healthy for the tournament.

[Viking_Guy]

WBBFanMT makes a good point about the percentage of defensive rebounds; I guess it was just the two sequences where the Beavs got multiple offensive rebounds that stuck out in my head.  But Stanford\'s interior defense against a team without a lot of height (El Sara Greer, OSU\'s only real post threat, is 6\'2", I believe) meant they had to take those rebounds back outside.

One thing to watch out for, and part of my reason for concern about Jeanette "pushing": a couple of times last night, she leaked out before the ball had been secured, and her mark snuck in for the board.  One worry about rebounding is when other teams\' guards crash, while their forwards drop; the Card sometimes seems a little too anxious to get into transition.

On Sara, the hook is interesting, in that she doesn\'t have a set "spot" where she starts that move; she uses it from anywhere.  But I said earlier this year, the two things she needs to work on, hand strength, going to Garvin\'s point, and leg strength.  I think part of her issues with fouling is that she tends to use her upper body on defense too much; when bigs are leaning or moving their upper body, they\'re much more likely to be called for a foul.  Part of that may be her missing time rehabbing her injury from last year.

Good point about the officiating; it was nice not to notice it, especially in comparison to what I was hearing from the men\'s game. Haven\'t listened to many games, but Drew Shiller really lit into the refs on the critical block/charge call at the end of the game with the score tied.  Has he done that before?

VG

[Viking_Guy]

WBBFanMT makes a good point about the percentage of defensive rebounds; I guess it was just the two sequences where the Beavs got multiple offensive rebounds that stuck out in my head.  But Stanford\'s interior defense against a team without a lot of height (El Sara Greer, OSU\'s only real post threat, is 6\'2", I believe) meant they had to take those rebounds back outside.

One thing to watch out for, and part of my reason for concern about Jeanette "pushing": a couple of times last night, she leaked out before the ball had been secured, and her mark snuck in for the board.  One worry about rebounding is when other teams\' guards crash, while their forwards drop; the Card sometimes seems a little too anxious to get into transition.

On Sara, the hook is interesting, in that she doesn\'t have a set "spot" where she starts that move; she uses it from anywhere.  But I said earlier this year, the two things she needs to work on, hand strength, going to Garvin\'s point, and leg strength.  I think part of her issues with fouling is that she tends to use her upper body on defense too much; when bigs are leaning or moving their upper body, they\'re much more likely to be called for a foul.  Part of that may be her missing time rehabbing her injury from last year.

Good point about the officiating; it was nice not to notice it, especially in comparison to what I was hearing from the men\'s game. Haven\'t listened to many games, but Drew Shiller really lit into the refs on the critical block/charge call at the end of the game with the score tied.  Has he done that before?

VG

[fyao]

I hope Nneka doesn\'t play until she is better, period.  Last year, Jayne Appel\'s injury was mismanaged and she played too early, just to win the Pac-10 tourney.  Then she got progressively worse, until she shot 0 for 12 in the National Championship game, when she was needed the most.

[fyao]

I hope Nneka doesn\'t play until she is better, period.  Last year, Jayne Appel\'s injury was mismanaged and she played too early, just to win the Pac-10 tourney.  Then she got progressively worse, until she shot 0 for 12 in the National Championship game, when she was needed the most.

[sheriand]

It\'s hard not to have flashbacks to Jayne\'s situation and the painful end to last year\'s season.   Nneka looked good (as far as one can tell) at the game last night and seemed to be moving easily, without the boot.   I agree completely that they should let her rest and recover as long as possible, and it seems that\'s what they are doing.  We won\'t need her against the Ducks, nor next week against Cal.    I don\'t think we will really need her in the tournament either, but is she\'s ready to start playing again after a long layoff, it might be good for her to get some minutes.

[sheriand]

It\'s hard not to have flashbacks to Jayne\'s situation and the painful end to last year\'s season.   Nneka looked good (as far as one can tell) at the game last night and seemed to be moving easily, without the boot.   I agree completely that they should let her rest and recover as long as possible, and it seems that\'s what they are doing.  We won\'t need her against the Ducks, nor next week against Cal.    I don\'t think we will really need her in the tournament either, but is she\'s ready to start playing again after a long layoff, it might be good for her to get some minutes.