[TheWildJacko]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

[TheWildJacko]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

[JohnR34231]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

No win is unacceptable, but we sure have managed to turn the term "comfortable lead" into an oxymoron.

[JohnR34231]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

No win is unacceptable, but we sure have managed to turn the term "comfortable lead" into an oxymoron.

[TheWildJacko]

It’s true, but I also just kind of feel like at this point, that’s March. Teams are going to fight like heck to keep their seasons alive. South Carolina and Creighton both blew large-ish leads and let their opponents get close before pulling out wins today. In the regular season, a “bad win” can affect your seeding; in March, you win and you advance—doesn’t really matter how, as long as you keep it up.

[TheWildJacko]

It’s true, but I also just kind of feel like at this point, that’s March. Teams are going to fight like heck to keep their seasons alive. South Carolina and Creighton both blew large-ish leads and let their opponents get close before pulling out wins today. In the regular season, a “bad win” can affect your seeding; in March, you win and you advance—doesn’t really matter how, as long as you keep it up.

[teejers1]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

Please stop with the ref blaming.  I thought the refs gave Stanford far more favorable whistles than they did Maryland.  And Maryland stunk shooting from the outside.  And Stanford STILL almost gagged away a ginormous lead.  (How puckered would we all have been had Maryland hit that trey midway through Q4 when down 11?  And it was wide open . . . and on-line, just a tad long).

Texas is licking their collective chops.  Stanford is going to need a lot better ball handling and care against the 'Horns.  And toughness - physical and mental.

I thought Lexie played well (which I didn't think I'd say after her awful start); Jones was good; and Brink pretty good.  She can't foul out with that much time left (and think about it - she DNP for a big part of 1H with that shot to the ribs).  The rest?  Meh.

[teejers1]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

Please stop with the ref blaming.  I thought the refs gave Stanford far more favorable whistles than they did Maryland.  And Maryland stunk shooting from the outside.  And Stanford STILL almost gagged away a ginormous lead.  (How puckered would we all have been had Maryland hit that trey midway through Q4 when down 11?  And it was wide open . . . and on-line, just a tad long).

Texas is licking their collective chops.  Stanford is going to need a lot better ball handling and care against the 'Horns.  And toughness - physical and mental.

I thought Lexie played well (which I didn't think I'd say after her awful start); Jones was good; and Brink pretty good.  She can't foul out with that much time left (and think about it - she DNP for a big part of 1H with that shot to the ribs).  The rest?  Meh.

[crackpot]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

Please stop with the ref blaming.  I thought the refs gave Stanford far more favorable whistles than they did Maryland.  And Maryland stunk shooting from the outside.  And Stanford STILL almost gagged away a ginormous lead.  (How puckered would we all have been had Maryland hit that trey midway through Q4 when down 11?  And it was wide open . . . and on-line, just a tad long).

Texas is licking their collective chops.  Stanford is going to need a lot better ball handling and care against the 'Horns.  And toughness - physical and mental.

I thought Lexie played well (which I didn't think I'd say after her awful start); Jones was good; and Brink pretty good.  She can't foul out with that much time left (and think about it - she DNP for a big part of 1H with that shot to the ribs).  The rest?  Meh.

Cam really needs to get her ribs under control and not be fouling so much with them.

[crackpot]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

Please stop with the ref blaming.  I thought the refs gave Stanford far more favorable whistles than they did Maryland.  And Maryland stunk shooting from the outside.  And Stanford STILL almost gagged away a ginormous lead.  (How puckered would we all have been had Maryland hit that trey midway through Q4 when down 11?  And it was wide open . . . and on-line, just a tad long).

Texas is licking their collective chops.  Stanford is going to need a lot better ball handling and care against the 'Horns.  And toughness - physical and mental.

I thought Lexie played well (which I didn't think I'd say after her awful start); Jones was good; and Brink pretty good.  She can't foul out with that much time left (and think about it - she DNP for a big part of 1H with that shot to the ribs).  The rest?  Meh.

Cam really needs to get her ribs under control and not be fouling so much with them.

[chimera]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

I agree with this 100%.  I hated the way the 4th quarter went but it doesn't mean much for the next game.  We got way ahead and started letting up while MD, an excellent offensive team, was desperate and cranking things up.  We also had key players in foul trouble, which hampered the defense.  If you have watched the tournament closely you will find so many games were teams were down pretty big and came back.  It is not at all uncommon. I don't care how ugly the end was, it was a win.  I think we could play better, could have shot better, could have protected the ball better, sure.  Maybe ball handling will be an issue against Texas, maybe it won't, and maybe if it is we still win.  We also shot horribly against them at Maples.  I am happy.  We won.  Nothing is easy at this stage.

[chimera]

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

I agree with this 100%.  I hated the way the 4th quarter went but it doesn't mean much for the next game.  We got way ahead and started letting up while MD, an excellent offensive team, was desperate and cranking things up.  We also had key players in foul trouble, which hampered the defense.  If you have watched the tournament closely you will find so many games were teams were down pretty big and came back.  It is not at all uncommon. I don't care how ugly the end was, it was a win.  I think we could play better, could have shot better, could have protected the ball better, sure.  Maybe ball handling will be an issue against Texas, maybe it won't, and maybe if it is we still win.  We also shot horribly against them at Maples.  I am happy.  We won.  Nothing is easy at this stage.

[BillBradley]

- Great win for the Card. It was over in the third. I'm not going to read anything into the 4th quarter. The game was never in doubt, as much as the announcers tried to create drama. Tara coaches to run the clock down when we have a big lead. She knows the only way you can lose a game like that is to give the ball back to the other team without running much time off and one way to do that is to shoot a lot. So we didn't. We basically tried to dribble out the clock on every possession from the 5 minute mark on. We hardly turned it over against the press, yet every time we broke it we never attacked because we wanted to pull it back out and run the clock.  It's like a football team who is ahead by 35 going into the 4th quarter and just runs it 3 times and punts every possession, not even trying to score. Sure you can say "they didn't even score in the 4th quarter!" or "the other team outscored them 21-0! in the 4th!", but is that really the story? Also, let's not forget - Maryland is a top team at full strength who averages 79 points per game. They had 36 at the end of the third. It was an absolute thrashing. 

- Haley was fantastic tonight. If she plays like that and we get typical performances from everyone else, we are going to be really tough to beat.

- Loved how great Kiki played and how she squared off against their All-American Reese. Fearless! 

- More awful refereeing. 45 fouls and both teams best players either foul out or are in foul trouble all game. Just what everyone wants. 
Cam's third foul was quite possibly the worst of the season. I really feel badly for her (and our team) when those calls go against her. She was destroying them. 15 points, 8 boards, 5 blocks in 19 minutes...

[BillBradley]

- Great win for the Card. It was over in the third. I'm not going to read anything into the 4th quarter. The game was never in doubt, as much as the announcers tried to create drama. Tara coaches to run the clock down when we have a big lead. She knows the only way you can lose a game like that is to give the ball back to the other team without running much time off and one way to do that is to shoot a lot. So we didn't. We basically tried to dribble out the clock on every possession from the 5 minute mark on. We hardly turned it over against the press, yet every time we broke it we never attacked because we wanted to pull it back out and run the clock.  It's like a football team who is ahead by 35 going into the 4th quarter and just runs it 3 times and punts every possession, not even trying to score. Sure you can say "they didn't even score in the 4th quarter!" or "the other team outscored them 21-0! in the 4th!", but is that really the story? Also, let's not forget - Maryland is a top team at full strength who averages 79 points per game. They had 36 at the end of the third. It was an absolute thrashing. 

- Haley was fantastic tonight. If she plays like that and we get typical performances from everyone else, we are going to be really tough to beat.

- Loved how great Kiki played and how she squared off against their All-American Reese. Fearless! 

- More awful refereeing. 45 fouls and both teams best players either foul out or are in foul trouble all game. Just what everyone wants. 
Cam's third foul was quite possibly the worst of the season. I really feel badly for her (and our team) when those calls go against her. She was destroying them. 15 points, 8 boards, 5 blocks in 19 minutes...

[M T]

Sigh.... Thanks, TWJ, for reminding us this was a top team we were playing, and (IIRC) the #1 team in offense.
Those were thankfully meaningless acorns in the 4th quarter.  The sky isn't falling.

From near the end of the 3rd quarter, the win probability was 99.5% or better.  We played a battle of attrition (as maximizes our win chances) and did win.  As a team, you're battling both the opponent and the officials.  You can't guard closely or you'll foul out and put them on the foul line. The refs seeming do call more (non-intentional) fouls on the leading team. Yeah, hitting 5 of 10 FT in the last quarter could be improved - we were 66.7% for the game.  Not great, but ok (TX: 69.5%, SC: 67.2%, Creighton:  73.3%).  Using season averages, for the players&FTs that were attempted, we would expect to hit 14.82 points, but instead got 14.

If you want to get ulcers, try cheering for Texas.  They just barely scraped by a #6 seed - 1 point difference in the last minute.  They weren't at a win probability of 99% until the literal last second.  Now they're going up against what most people think is a better-than-#6 seed.

Other than Anna being trapped & tied up in the desperation defense (And I think there was a Haley pass.), we did OK.  Anna probably learned not do that Sunday.

Texas is a good team.  Indeed, if Stanford beats Texas, I think the NC game may be easier.

[M T]

Sigh.... Thanks, TWJ, for reminding us this was a top team we were playing, and (IIRC) the #1 team in offense.
Those were thankfully meaningless acorns in the 4th quarter.  The sky isn't falling.

From near the end of the 3rd quarter, the win probability was 99.5% or better.  We played a battle of attrition (as maximizes our win chances) and did win.  As a team, you're battling both the opponent and the officials.  You can't guard closely or you'll foul out and put them on the foul line. The refs seeming do call more (non-intentional) fouls on the leading team. Yeah, hitting 5 of 10 FT in the last quarter could be improved - we were 66.7% for the game.  Not great, but ok (TX: 69.5%, SC: 67.2%, Creighton:  73.3%).  Using season averages, for the players&FTs that were attempted, we would expect to hit 14.82 points, but instead got 14.

If you want to get ulcers, try cheering for Texas.  They just barely scraped by a #6 seed - 1 point difference in the last minute.  They weren't at a win probability of 99% until the literal last second.  Now they're going up against what most people think is a better-than-#6 seed.

Other than Anna being trapped & tied up in the desperation defense (And I think there was a Haley pass.), we did OK.  Anna probably learned not do that Sunday.

Texas is a good team.  Indeed, if Stanford beats Texas, I think the NC game may be easier.

[joemontes]

Although Stanford's 4th quarter mediocrity against a desperate Maryland team fighting for its NCAA life was ugly, I'm actually glad it happened, because now they should really be focused on WINNING EVERY QUARTER as A GOAL vs Texas in the Elite 8, even when they are comfortably ahead.

[joemontes]

Although Stanford's 4th quarter mediocrity against a desperate Maryland team fighting for its NCAA life was ugly, I'm actually glad it happened, because now they should really be focused on WINNING EVERY QUARTER as A GOAL vs Texas in the Elite 8, even when they are comfortably ahead.

[TheFarm07]

- Great win for the Card. It was over in the third. I'm not going to read anything into the 4th quarter. The game was never in doubt, as much as the announcers tried to create drama. Tara coaches to run the clock down when we have a big lead. She knows the only way you can lose a game like that is to give the ball back to the other team without running much time off and one way to do that is to shoot a lot. So we didn't. We basically tried to dribble out the clock on every possession from the 5 minute mark on. We hardly turned it over against the press, yet every time we broke it we never attacked because we wanted to pull it back out and run the clock.  It's like a football team who is ahead by 35 going into the 4th quarter and just runs it 3 times and punts every possession, not even trying to score. Sure you can say "they didn't even score in the 4th quarter!" or "the other team outscored them 21-0! in the 4th!", but is that really the story? Also, let's not forget - Maryland is a top team at full strength who averages 79 points per game. They had 36 at the end of the third. It was an absolute thrashing. 

Maybe because of the size of the lead, we had a brobdingnagian cushion and the game was "not in doubt," though I question this conclusion too. But we played not to lose rather to win the game. Why change a winning formula when it's working?

Yes, don't take shots at the beginning of the offense late in the game with a lead, but there's a brobdingnagian amount between shooting carelessly in the first few seconds of a possession and what we did in the fourth on both ends of the floor.

Yes, Tara is a HoF coach and who am I to question her methods? But no one is infallible even if they are the winningest coach in wbb history.

I hate leaving things up to chance. What if Maryland nailed a couple of three pointers they missed halfway through the fourth and narrowed the gap even more? Then a blown call (or non-call) could have truly made the difference.

As much as people on the board are complaining about the refs during this win, imagine if a call was the deciding factor at the end of the game. I don't want to leave it to the refs to decide a game, especially in a contest that we were up by 23 after three quarters.

And yes, other teams have made comebacks during the tournament. Obviously, everyone knows that time of the year, you lose and your season is over and no one won't give up, even if down by twenty.

I feel like, as the team that is in the lead, we shouldn't forget this mentality either. Sometimes, I feel like we are caught off guard that our opponent is still showing fight even down by a big margin late in the game.

I know we can't be perfect for all 40 mins, but it seems like our level of play went on a scale of 1-10, from an 8-9 most of the game down to a 1-2 in the fourth and if we just dropped back to average, rather than terrible, than it wouldn't be so bad.

Louisville in the ACC tournament learned the hard way about giving up a brobdingnagian lead; they had a 16-pt advantage in the fourth quarter against Miami and saw their opponents go on a 17-0 run to end the game.

[TheFarm07]

- Great win for the Card. It was over in the third. I'm not going to read anything into the 4th quarter. The game was never in doubt, as much as the announcers tried to create drama. Tara coaches to run the clock down when we have a big lead. She knows the only way you can lose a game like that is to give the ball back to the other team without running much time off and one way to do that is to shoot a lot. So we didn't. We basically tried to dribble out the clock on every possession from the 5 minute mark on. We hardly turned it over against the press, yet every time we broke it we never attacked because we wanted to pull it back out and run the clock.  It's like a football team who is ahead by 35 going into the 4th quarter and just runs it 3 times and punts every possession, not even trying to score. Sure you can say "they didn't even score in the 4th quarter!" or "the other team outscored them 21-0! in the 4th!", but is that really the story? Also, let's not forget - Maryland is a top team at full strength who averages 79 points per game. They had 36 at the end of the third. It was an absolute thrashing. 

Maybe because of the size of the lead, we had a brobdingnagian cushion and the game was "not in doubt," though I question this conclusion too. But we played not to lose rather to win the game. Why change a winning formula when it's working?

Yes, don't take shots at the beginning of the offense late in the game with a lead, but there's a brobdingnagian amount between shooting carelessly in the first few seconds of a possession and what we did in the fourth on both ends of the floor.

Yes, Tara is a HoF coach and who am I to question her methods? But no one is infallible even if they are the winningest coach in wbb history.

I hate leaving things up to chance. What if Maryland nailed a couple of three pointers they missed halfway through the fourth and narrowed the gap even more? Then a blown call (or non-call) could have truly made the difference.

As much as people on the board are complaining about the refs during this win, imagine if a call was the deciding factor at the end of the game. I don't want to leave it to the refs to decide a game, especially in a contest that we were up by 23 after three quarters.

And yes, other teams have made comebacks during the tournament. Obviously, everyone knows that time of the year, you lose and your season is over and no one won't give up, even if down by twenty.

I feel like, as the team that is in the lead, we shouldn't forget this mentality either. Sometimes, I feel like we are caught off guard that our opponent is still showing fight even down by a big margin late in the game.

I know we can't be perfect for all 40 mins, but it seems like our level of play went on a scale of 1-10, from an 8-9 most of the game down to a 1-2 in the fourth and if we just dropped back to average, rather than terrible, than it wouldn't be so bad.

Louisville in the ACC tournament learned the hard way about giving up a brobdingnagian lead; they had a 16-pt advantage in the fourth quarter against Miami and saw their opponents go on a 17-0 run to end the game.

[jonnyss]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post) “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

[jonnyss]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post) “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

[TonyLima]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow. Just wow.

---

45 fouls were called.  While they were evenly distributed between the teams, they disrupted the flow of the game and many were either bad calls or should have been no calls.  Usually in the tourney the refs let the teams play.  Not tonight.

Agree 100%. Zebras had way too much influence in this game.

---

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

A W is a W.

[TonyLima]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow. Just wow.

---

45 fouls were called.  While they were evenly distributed between the teams, they disrupted the flow of the game and many were either bad calls or should have been no calls.  Usually in the tourney the refs let the teams play.  Not tonight.

Agree 100%. Zebras had way too much influence in this game.

---

that foul call on lacie might be the worst of the night.  (it has a lot of competition though!)

Happy with the win but the inability to score and all the missed free throws in the 4th quarter was so ugly.

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

A W is a W.

[BillBradley]

Here's the presser. Nothing very scintillating. Cam walks in with ice on her ribs. That's not good. Tough to play this game with sore ribs. I'm with Crackpot - she needs to quit throwing her ribs at the other team.

Maryland Coach Frese: "They are the deepest and most talented team I've faced this season." She also goes on and on about our length and how that affects her players. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbuW6gEwnA

[BillBradley]

Here's the presser. Nothing very scintillating. Cam walks in with ice on her ribs. That's not good. Tough to play this game with sore ribs. I'm with Crackpot - she needs to quit throwing her ribs at the other team.

Maryland Coach Frese: "They are the deepest and most talented team I've faced this season." She also goes on and on about our length and how that affects her players. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbuW6gEwnA

[TheWildJacko]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow indeed!!

[TheWildJacko]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow indeed!!

[Jskass]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

[Jskass]

Yes just pleased we hung on to win but need to work on free throws and ball handling again. Wish we had brought Agnes in earlier defensively but really blaming the refs for not calling fouls on MD enough (how
many takedowns and arms to the throat) vs. what they called on us.

[treetop11]

Observations:

We win by a much bigger marginjust with better officiating and making our FTs. Got to say that I agree with Bill Bradley and his comments all around. Teejers is an outlier regarding the refs. We certainly did NOT get the benefit and arguably we got hurt more by the refs. But besides some phatom foul calls on us as noted byu othe posters, what ticked me off most about the refs was their too often stoppage of play, too long of stoppages, and the number of fouls called on both teams - they made the game choppy. From a fan standpoint, I didn't like it and I think it hurt us in the 4th and benefited MD. I saw an article on ESPN about the mens tourney and complaints about crappy officials. Part of the problem are the rules and part is the level of officiating is weak. 

Bill B. mentioned ow our slow down in the 4th hindered our O and that affects out D too. He's right and also about it being the right thing for Tara to do. When teams do that it always disrupts the O and get stagnant. And since we didn't have Cam, our "security blanket" in the post and soomeone to put max pressure on Reese was not there. However, had we made our FTs, the slow down would have been less of a problem. Made Fts would have kept a comfortable lead, made MD hurry up and take bad shots, perhaps make MD make other mistakes. 

Anna pplayed fantastic D! Tara highlighted it in the press conference as a major key to our win. OTOH, Anna probably had one of her worst O games in a while. Besides missed shots and FTs, I think she need to be more aggressive on O and her decision-making was not as sharp. Also, I ahve marveled at her passing all year and she wasn't as good tonight. Still on balance, I'll take that D over the O anytime. Still I hope she is more of a threat on Sunday.

Lexie and others not named Brink seemed to be short often on their shots, especially in the first half. Maybe some opening region nerves or slightly off adjusting to the travel and new arena. Brink however was absolute swishes on her shots. Jump had an off game. She was rushing her shots trying to make an impact and mosst were off balance. I want to see her get that corrected and rain threes on Sunday. I would also like to see Lacie be more of a factor on O. It's good that she playes her role and doesn't try to do too much, but I would like to see a little more either from 3 pt., drives, or back door cuts. 

We dominated in stats except in fouls, FTs, and TOs. Cut down the fouls and TOs and be at least a little better from the line, and we will win solidly over Texas. 

Noted in the press conference that Tara and players pointed out the values of our depth, diverse talent/skills in that depth, and the chemistry of our players. These were things I discussed in a previous post and I was happy that they confidently think the same, especially the chemistry because fans can't really know that, only guess. 

Finally, I was very impressed at how gracious and good sportsmanlike that the MD coach and players were in the press conference. Our players are well spoken and bright and the MD players were equally so. I developed a liking for the MD players and they definitely weren't dumb female jocks, they could easily fit in with our Stanford team with their intelligence and character from what I saw.

[treetop11]

Observations:

We win by a much bigger marginjust with better officiating and making our FTs. Got to say that I agree with Bill Bradley and his comments all around. Teejers is an outlier regarding the refs. We certainly did NOT get the benefit and arguably we got hurt more by the refs. But besides some phatom foul calls on us as noted byu othe posters, what ticked me off most about the refs was their too often stoppage of play, too long of stoppages, and the number of fouls called on both teams - they made the game choppy. From a fan standpoint, I didn't like it and I think it hurt us in the 4th and benefited MD. I saw an article on ESPN about the mens tourney and complaints about crappy officials. Part of the problem are the rules and part is the level of officiating is weak. 

Bill B. mentioned ow our slow down in the 4th hindered our O and that affects out D too. He's right and also about it being the right thing for Tara to do. When teams do that it always disrupts the O and get stagnant. And since we didn't have Cam, our "security blanket" in the post and soomeone to put max pressure on Reese was not there. However, had we made our FTs, the slow down would have been less of a problem. Made Fts would have kept a comfortable lead, made MD hurry up and take bad shots, perhaps make MD make other mistakes. 

Anna pplayed fantastic D! Tara highlighted it in the press conference as a major key to our win. OTOH, Anna probably had one of her worst O games in a while. Besides missed shots and FTs, I think she need to be more aggressive on O and her decision-making was not as sharp. Also, I ahve marveled at her passing all year and she wasn't as good tonight. Still on balance, I'll take that D over the O anytime. Still I hope she is more of a threat on Sunday.

Lexie and others not named Brink seemed to be short often on their shots, especially in the first half. Maybe some opening region nerves or slightly off adjusting to the travel and new arena. Brink however was absolute swishes on her shots. Jump had an off game. She was rushing her shots trying to make an impact and mosst were off balance. I want to see her get that corrected and rain threes on Sunday. I would also like to see Lacie be more of a factor on O. It's good that she playes her role and doesn't try to do too much, but I would like to see a little more either from 3 pt., drives, or back door cuts. 

We dominated in stats except in fouls, FTs, and TOs. Cut down the fouls and TOs and be at least a little better from the line, and we will win solidly over Texas. 

Noted in the press conference that Tara and players pointed out the values of our depth, diverse talent/skills in that depth, and the chemistry of our players. These were things I discussed in a previous post and I was happy that they confidently think the same, especially the chemistry because fans can't really know that, only guess. 

Finally, I was very impressed at how gracious and good sportsmanlike that the MD coach and players were in the press conference. Our players are well spoken and bright and the MD players were equally so. I developed a liking for the MD players and they definitely weren't dumb female jocks, they could easily fit in with our Stanford team with their intelligence and character from what I saw.

[81alum]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Anna is so important to us.  Against Texas, we could use 3 Annas.

Last year, we barely won our last three games, starting with the improbable come-from-behind win against Louisville, followed by two one point wins with opponents' last second shots not falling.  Winning the last three games was hard a year ago, and will be hard this year.  My biggest memory from a year ago was that I was filled with relief rather than with joy, and that is the feeling I have now after getting past Maryland.

Last year's S16 game was against Missouri State and was a 27 point win.  I think we drew an unusually difficult S16 matchup this year.  Maryland was a far more serious threat than Missouri State.  Thinking about it that way, we should again feel fortunate to have won.

If we beat Texas no one will remember our fourth quarter let down against Maryland.  If we lose to Texas this fourth quarter will be remembered as an ominous sign.  So the answer is: beat Texas.

[81alum]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Anna is so important to us.  Against Texas, we could use 3 Annas.

Last year, we barely won our last three games, starting with the improbable come-from-behind win against Louisville, followed by two one point wins with opponents' last second shots not falling.  Winning the last three games was hard a year ago, and will be hard this year.  My biggest memory from a year ago was that I was filled with relief rather than with joy, and that is the feeling I have now after getting past Maryland.

Last year's S16 game was against Missouri State and was a 27 point win.  I think we drew an unusually difficult S16 matchup this year.  Maryland was a far more serious threat than Missouri State.  Thinking about it that way, we should again feel fortunate to have won.

If we beat Texas no one will remember our fourth quarter let down against Maryland.  If we lose to Texas this fourth quarter will be remembered as an ominous sign.  So the answer is: beat Texas.

[Maple Leaf]

Stanford’s struggles have revealed its depth, helping it reach the Elite Eight – The Athletic

Article on the Maryland game from the Athletic, maybe behind the paywall.

[Maple Leaf]

Stanford’s struggles have revealed its depth, helping it reach the Elite Eight – The Athletic

Article on the Maryland game from the Athletic, maybe behind the paywall.

[teejers1]

Observations:

We win by a much bigger marginjust with better officiating and making our FTs. Got to say that I agree with Bill Bradley and his comments all around. Teejers is an outlier regarding the refs. We certainly did NOT get the benefit and arguably we got hurt more by the refs. But besides some phatom foul calls on us as noted byu othe posters, what ticked me off most about the refs was their too often stoppage of play, too long of stoppages, and the number of fouls called on both teams - they made the game choppy. From a fan standpoint, I didn't like it and I think it hurt us in the 4th and benefited MD. I saw an article on ESPN about the mens tourney and complaints about crappy officials. Part of the problem are the rules and part is the level of officiating is weak. 

Bill B. mentioned ow our slow down in the 4th hindered our O and that affects out D too. He's right and also about it being the right thing for Tara to do. When teams do that it always disrupts the O and get stagnant. And since we didn't have Cam, our "security blanket" in the post and soomeone to put max pressure on Reese was not there. However, had we made our FTs, the slow down would have been less of a problem. Made Fts would have kept a comfortable lead, made MD hurry up and take bad shots, perhaps make MD make other mistakes. 

Anna pplayed fantastic D! Tara highlighted it in the press conference as a major key to our win. OTOH, Anna probably had one of her worst O games in a while. Besides missed shots and FTs, I think she need to be more aggressive on O and her decision-making was not as sharp. Also, I ahve marveled at her passing all year and she wasn't as good tonight. Still on balance, I'll take that D over the O anytime. Still I hope she is more of a threat on Sunday.

Lexie and others not named Brink seemed to be short often on their shots, especially in the first half. Maybe some opening region nerves or slightly off adjusting to the travel and new arena. Brink however was absolute swishes on her shots. Jump had an off game. She was rushing her shots trying to make an impact and mosst were off balance. I want to see her get that corrected and rain threes on Sunday. I would also like to see Lacie be more of a factor on O. It's good that she playes her role and doesn't try to do too much, but I would like to see a little more either from 3 pt., drives, or back door cuts. 

We dominated in stats except in fouls, FTs, and TOs. Cut down the fouls and TOs and be at least a little better from the line, and we will win solidly over Texas. 

Noted in the press conference that Tara and players pointed out the values of our depth, diverse talent/skills in that depth, and the chemistry of our players. These were things I discussed in a previous post and I was happy that they confidently think the same, especially the chemistry because fans can't really know that, only guess. 

Finally, I was very impressed at how gracious and good sportsmanlike that the MD coach and players were in the press conference. Our players are well spoken and bright and the MD players were equally so. I developed a liking for the MD players and they definitely weren't dumb female jocks, they could easily fit in with our Stanford team with their intelligence and character from what I saw.

Your complaining about officiating is legendary (and can be counted on like the sun rising in the a.m.).  And if you don't think Stanford benefitted immensely by early and dubious calls against Maryland's two best players (who had to sit out big chunks of 1H), we'll just have to disagree on that (and I suspect we will).

The point about Maryland missing VERY OPEN treys in Q4 is so easily overlooked by those saying Stanford won "comfortably."  If even one of those had been hit, the pucker would have been amped, and with two more, well . . . who knows?  And those critical misses were NOT due to Stanford's great defense - Maryland just missed 'em.  Thankfully for Stanford.

But I do agree that Anna played great defense.  That was a constant.  The only play on O that had me smh from Anna was when she drove to the paint from left perimeter, had an open 6-footer, but opted to try a pass to the right corner that went out of bounds (take that shot).  And Kiki had some nice plays, but she needs to be careful about those big swinging swipes she takes at the ball when defending.  Those invite whistles.

We'll see about Texas.  Of course Stanford can win - they probably will even be favored by Vegas.  But they'll need to take better care of the ball and be tougher, mentally and physically.

P.S.  Prechtel has been relegated to an afterthought.  My sense is that Ashten feels she needs to score in the first half minute or two she is allocated, lest she won't play again.  Thus, she takes a looooong trey (didn't go, but almost did) and that was that.  Belibi and Kiki are playing reasonably well, so that's good.  Hopefully we won't need a bench player going off from long range in Elite 8 to advance to FF this year (though I guess Jump is technically a bench player now, but teams rarely lose sight of her).

[teejers1]

Observations:

We win by a much bigger marginjust with better officiating and making our FTs. Got to say that I agree with Bill Bradley and his comments all around. Teejers is an outlier regarding the refs. We certainly did NOT get the benefit and arguably we got hurt more by the refs. But besides some phatom foul calls on us as noted byu othe posters, what ticked me off most about the refs was their too often stoppage of play, too long of stoppages, and the number of fouls called on both teams - they made the game choppy. From a fan standpoint, I didn't like it and I think it hurt us in the 4th and benefited MD. I saw an article on ESPN about the mens tourney and complaints about crappy officials. Part of the problem are the rules and part is the level of officiating is weak. 

Bill B. mentioned ow our slow down in the 4th hindered our O and that affects out D too. He's right and also about it being the right thing for Tara to do. When teams do that it always disrupts the O and get stagnant. And since we didn't have Cam, our "security blanket" in the post and soomeone to put max pressure on Reese was not there. However, had we made our FTs, the slow down would have been less of a problem. Made Fts would have kept a comfortable lead, made MD hurry up and take bad shots, perhaps make MD make other mistakes. 

Anna pplayed fantastic D! Tara highlighted it in the press conference as a major key to our win. OTOH, Anna probably had one of her worst O games in a while. Besides missed shots and FTs, I think she need to be more aggressive on O and her decision-making was not as sharp. Also, I ahve marveled at her passing all year and she wasn't as good tonight. Still on balance, I'll take that D over the O anytime. Still I hope she is more of a threat on Sunday.

Lexie and others not named Brink seemed to be short often on their shots, especially in the first half. Maybe some opening region nerves or slightly off adjusting to the travel and new arena. Brink however was absolute swishes on her shots. Jump had an off game. She was rushing her shots trying to make an impact and mosst were off balance. I want to see her get that corrected and rain threes on Sunday. I would also like to see Lacie be more of a factor on O. It's good that she playes her role and doesn't try to do too much, but I would like to see a little more either from 3 pt., drives, or back door cuts. 

We dominated in stats except in fouls, FTs, and TOs. Cut down the fouls and TOs and be at least a little better from the line, and we will win solidly over Texas. 

Noted in the press conference that Tara and players pointed out the values of our depth, diverse talent/skills in that depth, and the chemistry of our players. These were things I discussed in a previous post and I was happy that they confidently think the same, especially the chemistry because fans can't really know that, only guess. 

Finally, I was very impressed at how gracious and good sportsmanlike that the MD coach and players were in the press conference. Our players are well spoken and bright and the MD players were equally so. I developed a liking for the MD players and they definitely weren't dumb female jocks, they could easily fit in with our Stanford team with their intelligence and character from what I saw.

Your complaining about officiating is legendary (and can be counted on like the sun rising in the a.m.).  And if you don't think Stanford benefitted immensely by early and dubious calls against Maryland's two best players (who had to sit out big chunks of 1H), we'll just have to disagree on that (and I suspect we will).

The point about Maryland missing VERY OPEN treys in Q4 is so easily overlooked by those saying Stanford won "comfortably."  If even one of those had been hit, the pucker would have been amped, and with two more, well . . . who knows?  And those critical misses were NOT due to Stanford's great defense - Maryland just missed 'em.  Thankfully for Stanford.

But I do agree that Anna played great defense.  That was a constant.  The only play on O that had me smh from Anna was when she drove to the paint from left perimeter, had an open 6-footer, but opted to try a pass to the right corner that went out of bounds (take that shot).  And Kiki had some nice plays, but she needs to be careful about those big swinging swipes she takes at the ball when defending.  Those invite whistles.

We'll see about Texas.  Of course Stanford can win - they probably will even be favored by Vegas.  But they'll need to take better care of the ball and be tougher, mentally and physically.

P.S.  Prechtel has been relegated to an afterthought.  My sense is that Ashten feels she needs to score in the first half minute or two she is allocated, lest she won't play again.  Thus, she takes a looooong trey (didn't go, but almost did) and that was that.  Belibi and Kiki are playing reasonably well, so that's good.  Hopefully we won't need a bench player going off from long range in Elite 8 to advance to FF this year (though I guess Jump is technically a bench player now, but teams rarely lose sight of her).

[WBB fan]

Lots of worthwhile commentary, back and forth debate re what if, why, ref good or bad, etc. above. I agree with some, disagree with others, but find it all enlightening. Re refs, I found myself questioning many of the calls, but my questions were biased in favor of the Card -- natch. And some of those turnovers? What were people thinking? But some turnovers were in fact earned by the aggressive and good play of MD. That Stanford won says a lot about this team. MD is a very good team, one that The Athletic said should have been the #2 seed of the 16 teams in the Sweet Sixteen, right behind Stanford as #1. If you believe that, this should have been the championship game, not a Sweet Sixteen semi-final. I'm not sure they are THAT good, but they are certainly better than they were seeded, and the Card deserves a lot of credit for this win.

One thing that I don't recall pointed out in the comments so far is that the reason we were able to overcome all those turnovers -- a brobdingnagian rebound margin -- 50 for Stanford, 32 for MD. All those rebounds meant that Haley had a double-double, but two others (Lexie and Cam) were very close to that, and Fran had 7 rebounds in 19 minutes and Kiki 5 in ten minutes. And then there was the better shooting than MD (46% for Stanford, 34% for MD). Bottom line -- Stanford won this game. Yes, let's not have a repeat of the 4th quarter, but it was preceded by 3 quarters of really great play.

[WBB fan]

Lots of worthwhile commentary, back and forth debate re what if, why, ref good or bad, etc. above. I agree with some, disagree with others, but find it all enlightening. Re refs, I found myself questioning many of the calls, but my questions were biased in favor of the Card -- natch. And some of those turnovers? What were people thinking? But some turnovers were in fact earned by the aggressive and good play of MD. That Stanford won says a lot about this team. MD is a very good team, one that The Athletic said should have been the #2 seed of the 16 teams in the Sweet Sixteen, right behind Stanford as #1. If you believe that, this should have been the championship game, not a Sweet Sixteen semi-final. I'm not sure they are THAT good, but they are certainly better than they were seeded, and the Card deserves a lot of credit for this win.

One thing that I don't recall pointed out in the comments so far is that the reason we were able to overcome all those turnovers -- a brobdingnagian rebound margin -- 50 for Stanford, 32 for MD. All those rebounds meant that Haley had a double-double, but two others (Lexie and Cam) were very close to that, and Fran had 7 rebounds in 19 minutes and Kiki 5 in ten minutes. And then there was the better shooting than MD (46% for Stanford, 34% for MD). Bottom line -- Stanford won this game. Yes, let's not have a repeat of the 4th quarter, but it was preceded by 3 quarters of really great play.