Preview:
Stanford travels to Indiana to play Sunday at 11 am Pacific.
Since the preseason rankings, Stanford has climbed back in at 24/23, while Indiana has fallen out of both polls and is receiving a dwindling number of votes. This no doubt reflects Stanford’s (seemingly) impressive victory over Gonzaga (though not so impressive given Gonzaga’s injuries and continued struggles) on national television, while Indiana lost an overtime game at home to Harvard and then went on the road to lose 46-56 at Butler. Suffice it to say that Stanford has slightly overperformed expectations and Indiana has dramatically underperformed.
Of course none of that will matter on Sunday. Two teams have to play each other, and the outcome will not be determined based on “expectations.”
Indiana came to Maples last year as a highly touted team behind star Mackenzie Holmes and got demolished 96-64. In that game Kiki and Cam each had 20 points, but Bosgana and Agara also scored in double digits. Mackenzie Holmes has since graduated, was drafted, had knee surgery, missed the whole WNBA season, and is now back at Indiana as a graduate assistant. So we may see her on the sidelines. Indiana also graduated another starter, but have three of last year’s starters back.
Of those three the most recognizable to Stanford fans is Sydney Parrish. We saw her for two years when she was at Oregon, and she led Indiana scoring against us last year. She is back for a fifth year of eligibility this year. The 6’2” guard has been in a three point shooting slump but is still managing better than 11 points per game.
So far this year it has been Yarden Garzon who has led Indiana. She is averaging 15 ppg and has thus far made 8/17 treys. Garzon is a 6’3” guard from Israel who is a match-up nightmare. A sharpshooting guard with a post's height.
Indiana’s second leading scorer is Lilly Meister, at 12ppg. Meister is a 6’3” junior forward who shot 71% last year, but she barely played at Maples last year.
Indiana also starts another 6’3” forward and a 5’7” guard. For the most part, they will be the taller team. At some place on the floor we will have to have a shorter player guarding a much taller player. Who that is will be a matter for Kate to figure out. Last year Brink and Iriafen overwhelmed Forbes, but since all three are gone I am left wondering if there are any useful lessons to be learned from a year ago.
We would all like to know how a talented team like Indiana managed to lose to Harvard and Butler, and whether we can also take advantage of a weakness that those teams exploited. Against Butler, Indiana had a paltry 6 assists and 16 turnovers, and shot only 17/50. Two starters were in foul trouble with 4 each. Without seeing the game, those stats have all the hallmarks of a disruptive defensive scheme and a lot of physical contact—maybe something like UC Davis did to us.
Kate Paye's strength has always been defensive game planning and picking apart film. Harvard and Butler gave her a lot of material. Whether we can hold Indiana to 46 points as Butler did is an open question. At this point I am most concerned with getting our offense back on track, since Indiana also has the advantage of seeing what UC Davis did to us, and Indiana has a substantial height advantage.
Let the chess match begin!
Stanford travels to Indiana to play Sunday at 11 am Pacific.
Since the preseason rankings, Stanford has climbed back in at 24/23, while Indiana has fallen out of both polls and is receiving a dwindling number of votes. This no doubt reflects Stanford’s (seemingly) impressive victory over Gonzaga (though not so impressive given Gonzaga’s injuries and continued struggles) on national television, while Indiana lost an overtime game at home to Harvard and then went on the road to lose 46-56 at Butler. Suffice it to say that Stanford has slightly overperformed expectations and Indiana has dramatically underperformed.
Of course none of that will matter on Sunday. Two teams have to play each other, and the outcome will not be determined based on “expectations.”
Indiana came to Maples last year as a highly touted team behind star Mackenzie Holmes and got demolished 96-64. In that game Kiki and Cam each had 20 points, but Bosgana and Agara also scored in double digits. Mackenzie Holmes has since graduated, was drafted, had knee surgery, missed the whole WNBA season, and is now back at Indiana as a graduate assistant. So we may see her on the sidelines. Indiana also graduated another starter, but have three of last year’s starters back.
Of those three the most recognizable to Stanford fans is Sydney Parrish. We saw her for two years when she was at Oregon, and she led Indiana scoring against us last year. She is back for a fifth year of eligibility this year. The 6’2” guard has been in a three point shooting slump but is still managing better than 11 points per game.
So far this year it has been Yarden Garzon who has led Indiana. She is averaging 15 ppg and has thus far made 8/17 treys. Garzon is a 6’3” guard from Israel who is a match-up nightmare. A sharpshooting guard with a post's height.
Indiana’s second leading scorer is Lilly Meister, at 12ppg. Meister is a 6’3” junior forward who shot 71% last year, but she barely played at Maples last year.
Indiana also starts another 6’3” forward and a 5’7” guard. For the most part, they will be the taller team. At some place on the floor we will have to have a shorter player guarding a much taller player. Who that is will be a matter for Kate to figure out. Last year Brink and Iriafen overwhelmed Forbes, but since all three are gone I am left wondering if there are any useful lessons to be learned from a year ago.
We would all like to know how a talented team like Indiana managed to lose to Harvard and Butler, and whether we can also take advantage of a weakness that those teams exploited. Against Butler, Indiana had a paltry 6 assists and 16 turnovers, and shot only 17/50. Two starters were in foul trouble with 4 each. Without seeing the game, those stats have all the hallmarks of a disruptive defensive scheme and a lot of physical contact—maybe something like UC Davis did to us.
Kate Paye's strength has always been defensive game planning and picking apart film. Harvard and Butler gave her a lot of material. Whether we can hold Indiana to 46 points as Butler did is an open question. At this point I am most concerned with getting our offense back on track, since Indiana also has the advantage of seeing what UC Davis did to us, and Indiana has a substantial height advantage.
Let the chess match begin!
![[Image: ?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia2.giphy.com%2Fmedi...ipo=images]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia2.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2Fv1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExMjVid2kyeGJrcjE4NTZybjVhdjNubjJsMmN0MWJndHh3bTdlYnZ4bSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n%2FCtV6C08Nq6Swo%2Fgiphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=0d8a67951a882b615d45d8100836f3a341011b71e7cf7fa49ce1ca9bcecb7726&ipo=images)