Posts: 3,699
Threads: 74
Joined: Jan 2016
Traveling this week and stayed up way past my "bed time" to watch last night. Glad I did - fun game to watch. I know "defense wins championships," but when our offense gets cooking, I don't mind if we give up more points; it's more fun that way.
Great observations and recaps. A few quick additions from the road:
Player assessments:
-I'm loving post-season Smith - where has she been this past season? Does she need the thrill of the elimination game to get her going? She's been a completely different player lately, and she has played with such poise, avoided silly fouls, and was knocking down shots from all over the place. I feel like McPhee has stepped back the past few games and as a result Smith has been our go-to scorer. I wonder if Smith is better at keying in when she knows the ball is usually coming to her? I feel like both she and McPhee are at their best when they're getting feed after feed after feed, like the momentum builds on itself. Whatever it is, I'm hopeful post-season Smith will make an appearance on Friday against the Cardinals!
-I felt like Williams and Sniezek were rarely in together after the first quarter, and it seemed like Tara was actually opting for size, because for about 75% of the time from midway through the second quarter, it was either Williams or Sniezek and then Carrington, McPhee, and two of our bigs. I assume this was deliberate since neither was in foul trouble, but it was interesting to see. Because Williams has run the point much of the last two games (Sniezek was in foul trouble against the Zags), it's become noticeable how much she's grown at that over the season. Her passes are really crisp, and she has great court vision. It's incredible to think that that comes on top of her scoring abilities. She is easily our most complete 1 or 2 since Candice Wiggins, and she's only a frosh! She doesn't have Wiggins's height, but I think she's more versatile. It's been a true joy to see her development, and I'm excited to see her and Brown at the 1 and 2 over the next few seasons. Should be quite a show.
-Speaking of Brown, she was just named Gatorade player of the year from Georgia, and Lexie Hull nabbed it from Washington. The future is looking bright!
-Speaking of the future, I'm still seeing all upside potential in Dodson, but I felt like she was the chief cause of FGCU's staying in the game. There were a few three or four minute stretches that featured some combination of fouls or turnovers, and the few times she drew fouls, she was 1-4 from the line. She's had limited playing time this year, is still a frosh, and was up against some really feisty and savvy smaller players that knew how to exploit their size and quickness, but it was still noticeable how much we dropped off whenever Johnson tagged out and she tagged in. She's got tons of potential, but she definitely needs more playing time to get settled into the college game.
-While Carrington also had a few careless turnovers and fouls, she also had those two tremendous strip steals, one of which sent one of their players careening out of bounds. I loved that. Smith's takeaway from the last presser was spot on: "She's the leader of the aggressive club and we're really lucky to have her." I was so relieved to see her nail two treys- it helped put to rest concerns about her status given a few rocky shooting outputs in recent games.
-Jerome hasn't had a lot of playing time in the latter half of the season, but I'm really impressed with her too. Like Williams, she really seems to see the court well and anticipate where she needs to be. High basketball IQ, as Tara has said.
-McPhee had a solid game and some lovely second chance points coming off of rebounds. Her anticipation is amazing. That said, I was surprised to see her get blitzed by Dow a few times late in the game when she was covering her on defense. It might have just been fatigue toward the end of the game, but McPhee has inches and reach on her, so it was surprising to see. That said, she also had that epic block where she grabbed the rebound and then made a fast break layup. Loved that. The commentators were so, so complimentary of her, quite rightly. A solid final game at Maples. And I can't believe four seasons with her have already come and gone - her breakout game against Cal her freshman year feels like it was yesterday. I remember everyone, including myself, thinking, wait, who is this woman? Definitely a preview of things to come. She's been one of my all-time favorites, so it's really sad to see her go.
-Johnson's final game was also very characteristic of her time at Stanford: total. glue. player. I feel like her contributions are noticed by subtraction - it's only when she's off the court that you realize how much we lose. And we're losing a lot next season.
Broad thoughts:
-A few of you mentioned that we seem to do better in transition than when we run sets after they get their defense established, and I definitely have noticed this throughout the season, and especially last night. So here's my question: how much of our success over the course of the season can be attributed to the Princeton versus just player growth? I feel like we were scoring on around 80% of our transition offense plays and something like 40% of our sets. This is especially so when Williams is running the point, because she has laser vision and really anticipates well, and Smith is fast enough to get there to receive those cross-court passes. I feel like given how much zone we have faced and our increasing tendency to push the pace, I'm still not totally sure how much our Princeton has been responsible for our offensive growth. I have full faith that it's the right offense given our future players, but I'm curious if anyone else has noticed this too?
-Also, when we run more transition offense it means we're more vulnerable on the subsequent defensive play because we don't always get set before they shoot. I'm beginning to think our relatively weaker defensive performances lately, paradoxically, are due to our offense clicking better than it was earlier in the season, especially when Williams is running the point. I'm totally fine with this, and I think it explains why our perception is that our defense hasn't been as sharp the last few games, but the one thing to be mindful of is that when our transition shooting is off, we really expose ourselves on the following defensive play. I noticed this a lot in the Oregon game. For this particular game it wasn't a problem because we were making 80% of those shots, but when we miss a lot, we can be really exposed on the other end. Just a thought.
-Loved our rebounding this game, although it was in part a natural consequence of an opponent who shoots a ton of treys, so I think that explains probably half of the differential right there. That said, I love the Johnson "it's my damn ball" motto, and boy has Carrington embraced it.
-Contrary to what someone else said, I definitely didn't feel like the commentators were rooting for FGCU. They had a lot of admiration for them, but I felt like our team, and esp. Williams, McPhee and Smith, were being showered in praise. To me it seemed like the most positive in-game coverage we've gotten all season.
-Finally, as usual, amazing scouting by our coaches. The game plan against FGCU was smart and high percentage, as 81 noted. Our ability to strategize for opposing teams never ceases to amaze me.
