[MV72018]

1706932677[/url]']
*

1706931923[/url]']

1706931294[/url]']
We are tied at 21.  Watkins has 19 of USC's 21 points.  Ridiculous.  Kiki 0.  Cam 3.

Watkins is really good. Cam is short on all her shots. Bosgana best game in a while. Jump has her shot so far. Refs aren't letting anybody flop.

Some of us are old enough to remember MWB v Wake Forest and Tim Duncan. Stanford won by swarming Duncan, daring others to score. Perhaps a tip for the second half.

---

1706932481[/url]']
Halftime and it's tied at 31.  This is a brawl.  Juju has 25 points and is making everything she throws up, unless Cam blocks it.  Cam has 6 blocks, 10 rebounds, and 5 points.  She has no fouls, so a triple-double with blocks is very possible.

We have to figure out a way to slow down Juju.  She is going to score, but she cannot beat us herself (right?)

SC has some serious foul trouble.  Marshall and Davis both have 3 fouls.  Juju has 2 and should have more with her flops.

Double or triple team Watkins. Leave Cam and Jump under the boards.

I was at that Wake Forest game, and had a recollection of it tonight as well… except for an entirely different reason. It struck me that Gottlieb’s plan was to absolutely maul Brink (and, to some extent, Kiki) and not care how many fouls were called on their bigs.  That was Monty’s strategy against Duncan. It worked then and it worked tonight. Cam didn’t have a horrible night, but she was clearly rendered much less of a force than she generally is.

Too bad Tara didn’t come up with something anywhere near as effective against their star.

The strategy that works when Curry is going off is to press him with two guys to get the ball out of his hands and make someone else shoot. Tara tried various single defenders on JuJu but she never sent two defenders after her to try to make someone else shoot. Not a very good defensive scheme, IMO. And the single defenders assigned to guard JuJu gave her too much room to get off shots from the perimeter. None of the defenders had anything near the athleticism/agility/quicks to pressure JuJu tightly on the perimeter. Hence, she got off her shots easily, without having to make the defenders pay by faking and taking it to the hoop for a layup.

[MV72018]

1706932677[/url]']
*

1706931923[/url]']

1706931294[/url]']
We are tied at 21.  Watkins has 19 of USC's 21 points.  Ridiculous.  Kiki 0.  Cam 3.

Watkins is really good. Cam is short on all her shots. Bosgana best game in a while. Jump has her shot so far. Refs aren't letting anybody flop.

Some of us are old enough to remember MWB v Wake Forest and Tim Duncan. Stanford won by swarming Duncan, daring others to score. Perhaps a tip for the second half.

---

1706932481[/url]']
Halftime and it's tied at 31.  This is a brawl.  Juju has 25 points and is making everything she throws up, unless Cam blocks it.  Cam has 6 blocks, 10 rebounds, and 5 points.  She has no fouls, so a triple-double with blocks is very possible.

We have to figure out a way to slow down Juju.  She is going to score, but she cannot beat us herself (right?)

SC has some serious foul trouble.  Marshall and Davis both have 3 fouls.  Juju has 2 and should have more with her flops.

Double or triple team Watkins. Leave Cam and Jump under the boards.

I was at that Wake Forest game, and had a recollection of it tonight as well… except for an entirely different reason. It struck me that Gottlieb’s plan was to absolutely maul Brink (and, to some extent, Kiki) and not care how many fouls were called on their bigs.  That was Monty’s strategy against Duncan. It worked then and it worked tonight. Cam didn’t have a horrible night, but she was clearly rendered much less of a force than she generally is.

Too bad Tara didn’t come up with something anywhere near as effective against their star.

The strategy that works when Curry is going off is to press him with two guys to get the ball out of his hands and make someone else shoot. Tara tried various single defenders on JuJu but she never sent two defenders after her to try to make someone else shoot. Not a very good defensive scheme, IMO. And the single defenders assigned to guard JuJu gave her too much room to get off shots from the perimeter. None of the defenders had anything near the athleticism/agility/quicks to pressure JuJu tightly on the perimeter. Hence, she got off her shots easily, without having to make the defenders pay by faking and taking it to the hoop for a layup.

[CompSci87]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

[CompSci87]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

[GK3]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

I thought our defensive scheme for the game was either not well thought out, or not well executed, maybe some of both. SC is the kind of team we have a lot of trouble with. For a lot of the game I thought our offensive scheme was to pass  the ball around, as time ran out, give the ball to Brink, outside, not inside, and have her shoot.  Nice if she was making them, but she wasn't.  We wasted a lot of possessions with that tactic.
We still suffer when we run up against a team that can take our bigs out of the game inside.

[GK3]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

I thought our defensive scheme for the game was either not well thought out, or not well executed, maybe some of both. SC is the kind of team we have a lot of trouble with. For a lot of the game I thought our offensive scheme was to pass  the ball around, as time ran out, give the ball to Brink, outside, not inside, and have her shoot.  Nice if she was making them, but she wasn't.  We wasted a lot of possessions with that tactic.
We still suffer when we run up against a team that can take our bigs out of the game inside.

[M T]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

I thought the double teams on Watkins were effective, but I believe they were all inside the 3pt line.  IMO, none of our defenders defended her closely at the 3pt line, not close enough to stop the pop 3-pointer.  I thought the double teams contributed to her relatively weak 4th quarter.

Do I recall someone here complaining how few points the rest of the starters got besides Brink & Iriafen in an earlier game?  Three of USC's starters totaled 2 points, while their bench contributed a total of 2 points.

One of the things I hate about a loss is the negative comments by the same small set of posters.  I think such comments are totally undeserved.  I remind people that you can choose to ignore posters.

I saw the point at which one poster says that Brink said she was tired (it was right after she asked to be taken out).  I can't say I could read the lips to say that, but perhaps.  She didn't play like she was tired.  Her shots were typically short, but she played 37 of 40 minutes, had 19 points, 15 rebounds, 8 blocks, 3 assists, 4 TO, 3 fouls, while having 3 posts foul out on her.   Yeah, I too wish she'd had 40 points, but that's a good night.  I saw Brink playing to avoid fouls much of the game -- a good sign.

To me, Watkins won the game for USC with exceptional shooting.  Our players did not lose it by playing badly.  The refs did not totally give away the game.

If I were the coach, I would have started fouling with about 90 seconds left.  Preferably off-ball fouls.  USC held the ball too long during that time.

---

BobK said he was waiting to see this:

The refs were Kevin Bacon, Tiffany Bird, and Michol Murray (Box score misspells her name).

Q1 6:55 Brink saves a blocked shot by USC from going out of bounds. No one gets control of the ball before she touches it while she is out of bounds. The refs apparently overruled the shot clock operator and ruled that a Stanford possession, reseting the clock to 30 seconds.  USC gets the ball under their basket with 30 seconds on the shot clock.

The question is, did Stanford have ball control after the shot but before the out of bounds?  The only possible call would be Brink's trying to save the ball from going out of bounds (Brink should not have done that, but that's a different matter). The only rule that might apply is "4.8.2 A team shall be in control when (b) While a live ball is being passed between teammates".  Since Brink's trying to save the ball did not go to a teammate (it went straight to a USC player, that rule clearly doesn't apply. The rule that does apply is 4.8.4 "There shall be no comtrol during: © A try for goal after the ball is in flight; (d) The period that follows any of those acts (a-c) while the ball is being batted in an attempt to secure control."  There was no rule that caused control to change, so the clock should not have been reset.

Q1 3:57 Brink could have been called for a foul.

Q1 3:13 Look at Watkins foot work in her spin.  After her dribble, she has both feet down, and then takes a hop on her right foot (travel #1), pivots around to the left using her right foot as a pivot, puts her left foot down and  then pivots on the left foot, putting her right foot down again (travel #2).  This is covered in the NCAA WBB 2024 Rules Points of Emphasis "The only legal way a player may hold the ball while taking two steps is to end the dribble with neither foot in contact with the playing court and then land on one foot followed by the other foot; the first foot to land on the playing court is the pivot foot"

Q1 2:16 (Q1 0:37, Q2 9:09, Q2 8:50, ...) Unfortunately, a typical problem we had against Watkins.  She comes down the court to the foul line and stops & pops.  Harriel gives her about 7 feet spacing and can't recover to stop the shot.  We should have bene playing her tighter. But what if she gets by the defender?  Brink is between Watkins and the basket.

Q1 1:15 Brink should have been charged with a foul (with a review for an intentional foul).

Q2 5:46 Another travel. Player ends the dribble with her left foot down at the top of the key, right foot in the air to land about the FT line.  Her left foot lands again to power her up for the shot.  That's a travel.

Q2 4:55 Iriafen gets a rebound and goes up for a shot. Akunwafo grabs her arm as she's going up. The shot misses and Iriafen doesn't bother going for a rebound as she expected a foul called.

Q2 3:16 The ref called a double dribble on Jump.  Jump had ended her dribble, but when the ball got free, it was not a dribble (and so not a second dribble).  Had she dribbled it, it would have been a double dribble.
9.7.1 "A dribble is ball movement caused by a player in control who bats, pushes or taps the ball to the playing court once or several times."
Losing the ball and having it touch the floor is not sufficient for a double dribble to be called.  After she lost the ball, Jump touched it (which is not a double dribble) to tap it to another player.  There was no second dribble.

Q2 1:41 Big shove knocks Iriafen about 2 feet during the rebound.

(Despite my setting 3 recordings for the 3 programs listed during the two-hour slot, Sling didn't give me a recording that worked even for the full first hour.  Maybe it was a blessing.)

For anyone that recorded the full game, I think you'll see that at the very end of the game when Bacon calls the ball as rolling out of bounds, it never went out of bounds.  The exterior of the ball was over the out-of-bounds, but the ball never touched out-of-bounds (I had a very good angle, better than Bacon).  It felt like a fitting mis-call to end the game.

[M T]

That's a thought, might have been worth trying. Stanford did double Juju at times, but not high and early as teams do to Steph. The later doubles didn't seem effective. I remember one time when Juju was trapped along the baseline and it looked like we might turn her over, but she got the ball to a big for an open layup.

I thought the double teams on Watkins were effective, but I believe they were all inside the 3pt line.  IMO, none of our defenders defended her closely at the 3pt line, not close enough to stop the pop 3-pointer.  I thought the double teams contributed to her relatively weak 4th quarter.

Do I recall someone here complaining how few points the rest of the starters got besides Brink & Iriafen in an earlier game?  Three of USC's starters totaled 2 points, while their bench contributed a total of 2 points.

One of the things I hate about a loss is the negative comments by the same small set of posters.  I think such comments are totally undeserved.  I remind people that you can choose to ignore posters.

I saw the point at which one poster says that Brink said she was tired (it was right after she asked to be taken out).  I can't say I could read the lips to say that, but perhaps.  She didn't play like she was tired.  Her shots were typically short, but she played 37 of 40 minutes, had 19 points, 15 rebounds, 8 blocks, 3 assists, 4 TO, 3 fouls, while having 3 posts foul out on her.   Yeah, I too wish she'd had 40 points, but that's a good night.  I saw Brink playing to avoid fouls much of the game -- a good sign.

To me, Watkins won the game for USC with exceptional shooting.  Our players did not lose it by playing badly.  The refs did not totally give away the game.

If I were the coach, I would have started fouling with about 90 seconds left.  Preferably off-ball fouls.  USC held the ball too long during that time.

---

BobK said he was waiting to see this:

The refs were Kevin Bacon, Tiffany Bird, and Michol Murray (Box score misspells her name).

Q1 6:55 Brink saves a blocked shot by USC from going out of bounds. No one gets control of the ball before she touches it while she is out of bounds. The refs apparently overruled the shot clock operator and ruled that a Stanford possession, reseting the clock to 30 seconds.  USC gets the ball under their basket with 30 seconds on the shot clock.

The question is, did Stanford have ball control after the shot but before the out of bounds?  The only possible call would be Brink's trying to save the ball from going out of bounds (Brink should not have done that, but that's a different matter). The only rule that might apply is "4.8.2 A team shall be in control when (b) While a live ball is being passed between teammates".  Since Brink's trying to save the ball did not go to a teammate (it went straight to a USC player, that rule clearly doesn't apply. The rule that does apply is 4.8.4 "There shall be no comtrol during: © A try for goal after the ball is in flight; (d) The period that follows any of those acts (a-c) while the ball is being batted in an attempt to secure control."  There was no rule that caused control to change, so the clock should not have been reset.

Q1 3:57 Brink could have been called for a foul.

Q1 3:13 Look at Watkins foot work in her spin.  After her dribble, she has both feet down, and then takes a hop on her right foot (travel #1), pivots around to the left using her right foot as a pivot, puts her left foot down and  then pivots on the left foot, putting her right foot down again (travel #2).  This is covered in the NCAA WBB 2024 Rules Points of Emphasis "The only legal way a player may hold the ball while taking two steps is to end the dribble with neither foot in contact with the playing court and then land on one foot followed by the other foot; the first foot to land on the playing court is the pivot foot"

Q1 2:16 (Q1 0:37, Q2 9:09, Q2 8:50, ...) Unfortunately, a typical problem we had against Watkins.  She comes down the court to the foul line and stops & pops.  Harriel gives her about 7 feet spacing and can't recover to stop the shot.  We should have bene playing her tighter. But what if she gets by the defender?  Brink is between Watkins and the basket.

Q1 1:15 Brink should have been charged with a foul (with a review for an intentional foul).

Q2 5:46 Another travel. Player ends the dribble with her left foot down at the top of the key, right foot in the air to land about the FT line.  Her left foot lands again to power her up for the shot.  That's a travel.

Q2 4:55 Iriafen gets a rebound and goes up for a shot. Akunwafo grabs her arm as she's going up. The shot misses and Iriafen doesn't bother going for a rebound as she expected a foul called.

Q2 3:16 The ref called a double dribble on Jump.  Jump had ended her dribble, but when the ball got free, it was not a dribble (and so not a second dribble).  Had she dribbled it, it would have been a double dribble.
9.7.1 "A dribble is ball movement caused by a player in control who bats, pushes or taps the ball to the playing court once or several times."
Losing the ball and having it touch the floor is not sufficient for a double dribble to be called.  After she lost the ball, Jump touched it (which is not a double dribble) to tap it to another player.  There was no second dribble.

Q2 1:41 Big shove knocks Iriafen about 2 feet during the rebound.

(Despite my setting 3 recordings for the 3 programs listed during the two-hour slot, Sling didn't give me a recording that worked even for the full first hour.  Maybe it was a blessing.)

For anyone that recorded the full game, I think you'll see that at the very end of the game when Bacon calls the ball as rolling out of bounds, it never went out of bounds.  The exterior of the ball was over the out-of-bounds, but the ball never touched out-of-bounds (I had a very good angle, better than Bacon).  It felt like a fitting mis-call to end the game.

[qwerty49]

I had a bad feeling about this game when our first 2 possessions ended with Cam missing a 3.

What makes Juju’s performance remarkable was that she sat for a while in foul trouble early on.

Shame on us for not taking advantage of that.

I thought Bosgana did a good job defending Juju early on. I really don’t understand why TVD put Lepolo on her.

Other teams try to get Cam and/or Kiki in foul trouble and blanket Jump.  But we seem not to have a way to make their star play D and maybe get in foul trouble and limit her effectiveness that way? Sorry, it just seems like we got outcoached tonight.

[qwerty49]

I had a bad feeling about this game when our first 2 possessions ended with Cam missing a 3.

What makes Juju’s performance remarkable was that she sat for a while in foul trouble early on.

Shame on us for not taking advantage of that.

I thought Bosgana did a good job defending Juju early on. I really don’t understand why TVD put Lepolo on her.

Other teams try to get Cam and/or Kiki in foul trouble and blanket Jump.  But we seem not to have a way to make their star play D and maybe get in foul trouble and limit her effectiveness that way? Sorry, it just seems like we got outcoached tonight.

[Hoops9092]

We just don't seem to have that player on our team who can defend a scoring wing like Watkins. I thought Ogden did the best defense on her, but Courtney has had such limited time this season that on the offensive end she wasn't able to do much. 

I thought back to when we would play Maya Moore and we had Chiney to guard her. Juju is special and she knew Stanford didn't have any match-up for her defensively.

[Hoops9092]

We just don't seem to have that player on our team who can defend a scoring wing like Watkins. I thought Ogden did the best defense on her, but Courtney has had such limited time this season that on the offensive end she wasn't able to do much. 

I thought back to when we would play Maya Moore and we had Chiney to guard her. Juju is special and she knew Stanford didn't have any match-up for her defensively.

[81alum]

Press conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jboetbk9N9M&t=2s

There were questions about how we defended Watkins, but Tara focused more on our offense.  Hate to pat myself on the back--but this is exactly how I felt watching the game.  We might have been able to figure out a way of slowing Juju down a little better, but we really really should have done better on the things we could more easily control.  Any time you score only 58 points you really should expect to lose, in my opinion.  Here are a few quotes I pulled out:

Tara:  "It is early enough in the season that our team can learn and listen and improve.  We cannot expect to beat a really good team taking the shots that we took, turning the ball over the way we turned it over, not getting O-boards, and not keeping THEM off the glass....We did not give ourselves a chance....It's disappointing.  We are better than that....I think you will see a much more competitive game on Sunday."

"Once you start taking bad shots then even your good ones don't go in."

"We could have survived her 51 points if we are running offense and we are not turning the ball over and we are getting on the O-boards and we are playing the way we are capable of."

Brink: "I think losing is part of the game, and how you recover from it is how you show who you really are.  I'm not too down about it.  I think Juju had an amazing game.  For me, I had a bad night, and I'm not going to get too down on myself.  I'm proud of how we came back."

Is this the best freshman performance you've seen?  Tara: "Yes, this probably goes right at the top.  She's very talented." 

Brink denied that USC was any more physical than any other team.

Tara on Sunday.  "We need much better shot selection number one.  We need people really running offense and moving the ball.  We are not a one player team like they are.  We had some people with open shots and didn't make them.   Playing harder, playing smarter, and I have confidence that we will."

[81alum]

Press conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jboetbk9N9M&t=2s

There were questions about how we defended Watkins, but Tara focused more on our offense.  Hate to pat myself on the back--but this is exactly how I felt watching the game.  We might have been able to figure out a way of slowing Juju down a little better, but we really really should have done better on the things we could more easily control.  Any time you score only 58 points you really should expect to lose, in my opinion.  Here are a few quotes I pulled out:

Tara:  "It is early enough in the season that our team can learn and listen and improve.  We cannot expect to beat a really good team taking the shots that we took, turning the ball over the way we turned it over, not getting O-boards, and not keeping THEM off the glass....We did not give ourselves a chance....It's disappointing.  We are better than that....I think you will see a much more competitive game on Sunday."

"Once you start taking bad shots then even your good ones don't go in."

"We could have survived her 51 points if we are running offense and we are not turning the ball over and we are getting on the O-boards and we are playing the way we are capable of."

Brink: "I think losing is part of the game, and how you recover from it is how you show who you really are.  I'm not too down about it.  I think Juju had an amazing game.  For me, I had a bad night, and I'm not going to get too down on myself.  I'm proud of how we came back."

Is this the best freshman performance you've seen?  Tara: "Yes, this probably goes right at the top.  She's very talented." 

Brink denied that USC was any more physical than any other team.

Tara on Sunday.  "We need much better shot selection number one.  We need people really running offense and moving the ball.  We are not a one player team like they are.  We had some people with open shots and didn't make them.   Playing harder, playing smarter, and I have confidence that we will."

[jonnyss]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

[jonnyss]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

[GK3]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

[GK3]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

[Card10Fan]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

With Watkins, why not deny her even getting the ball? Make literally any other USC player beat us but her. If her supporting cast hit perimeter shots and SC wins - so be it. I'd rather that strategy than make no meaningful, successful, adjustments guarding Watkins. It seems that was the strategy that we would let her get her points and our offense would be enough to outscore her and still win the game. Not the case.

---

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Rice had 2 points against Cal with zero assists and four turnovers. Everyone can have an off night.

[Card10Fan]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

With Watkins, why not deny her even getting the ball? Make literally any other USC player beat us but her. If her supporting cast hit perimeter shots and SC wins - so be it. I'd rather that strategy than make no meaningful, successful, adjustments guarding Watkins. It seems that was the strategy that we would let her get her points and our offense would be enough to outscore her and still win the game. Not the case.

---

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Rice had 2 points against Cal with zero assists and four turnovers. Everyone can have an off night.

[PVTree]

One of the amazing things about Juju last night for me is that she had very few layups. Most of her shots were jumpers, some even contested where I thought that I was glad she took the shot because it probably wouldn't go in the bucket only to see it score more points for them.

An amazing shooting exhibition, and I didn't think we played too bad a defense in her. The scheme may have been wrong, but the defender was close to her in many of her shots.

She had 51, Forbes 12, 2 others 2 points, and that's all their scoring. We could have won as Tara said (survived Juju's 51), but our offense was bad. We lost because of our O, not our D.

[PVTree]

One of the amazing things about Juju last night for me is that she had very few layups. Most of her shots were jumpers, some even contested where I thought that I was glad she took the shot because it probably wouldn't go in the bucket only to see it score more points for them.

An amazing shooting exhibition, and I didn't think we played too bad a defense in her. The scheme may have been wrong, but the defender was close to her in many of her shots.

She had 51, Forbes 12, 2 others 2 points, and that's all their scoring. We could have won as Tara said (survived Juju's 51), but our offense was bad. We lost because of our O, not our D.

[MV72018]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

[MV72018]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

[PalmTree]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

Guessing GK3 meant Kiki (Rice), but yeah - also JuJu, Hidalgo, (fill in blank).  As I said, which you also reiterated above, we are who we are.....

[PalmTree]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

Guessing GK3 meant Kiki (Rice), but yeah - also JuJu, Hidalgo, (fill in blank).  As I said, which you also reiterated above, we are who we are.....

[JohnR34231]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

Guessing GK3 meant Kiki (Rice), but yeah - also JuJu, Hidalgo, (fill in blank).  As I said, which you also reiterated above, we are who we are.....

No doubt our recruiting has fallen off in the last couple of years.
Not sure why. Hopefully Tara knows and can fix it.

[JohnR34231]

watkins was 6/11 from 3 and 14/26 overall. most of the 2's were long, mid-range shots, not layups. it's hard to win a game against a performance like that. in my memory, we've only seen that kind of play twice before, from allison feaster and from kelsey plum. 

i don't think the issue was bad defense. watkins was guarded well on most shots. she was just steph curry last night, unguardable. the only defense that worked pretty well was double-teaming juju, so i wish we had done it more. as i recall it wasn't leading to a flurry of made, open 3s by usc's other guards.

imo we had a chance of winning with bosgana rather than ogden playing the 3. elena has good and bad nights. last night she was pretty good. not that elena stopped watkins; none of our defenders did. rather that she gave us some offense - 6 points in 9 minutes. another 6 points from elena rather than ogden's zip in the same minutes sure would have helped. imo we were too rigid with our protocol of start the halves with elena, then rarely or never play her again. 

i agree that we seemed off, too. quite a few missed bunnies - some of them from the physical defense but not all. plus, cam, kiki, and brooke missed most of the open mid-range shots that they had consistently been making in recent months - right from the beginning of the game, even before they got beat up.

I think that this years team is really missing better guard play and a guard who can score consistently.  We have three players averaging in double figures, and Jump is barely at that level.  So we depend significantly on our bigs and when that isn't working we sort of fall apart. The threat of Iriafen and Brink should give us more opportunities to score from outside, but that isn't happening.  Our bigs are good enough that we can beat most teams relying on them, but against better teams, we have issues. 
I don't think that this is something that Tara can fix.  She has the players she has.  Where would we be if Kiki had chosen Stanford?

Presumably you mean "if JuJu had chosen Stanford."

Guessing GK3 meant Kiki (Rice), but yeah - also JuJu, Hidalgo, (fill in blank).  As I said, which you also reiterated above, we are who we are.....

No doubt our recruiting has fallen off in the last couple of years.
Not sure why. Hopefully Tara knows and can fix it.

[2006alum]

Just want to echo what Tara and others have said here - it was our offense more than our defense that let us down. Most of JuJu's makes were lower percentage midrange jumpers that she was just drilling all night. If we have to give her something, and she can make most of those, not sure what else to say. (Though I think Lepolo just didn't have the length to challenge those kinds of shots effectively, and agree that Bosgana should have had more time on JuJu.)

Mostly our offense was just so jumbled and anxious. Felt like everyone was jacking shots as soon as they had an opening or trying to make things happen where there wasn't an opening. And I will give Gottlieb credit - her defensive strategy to swarm the post, foul regularly while cycling through a cast of bigs, and dare our guards to create something on their own worked.

Not looking as forward to tomorrow as I was on Thursday, because while we won't be facing Juju, and UCLA is not as stacked in the front court as U$C, Bruins 3-12 are not going to combine for 4 points the way the Trojan did, so we better right the offensive ship quickly.

[2006alum]

Just want to echo what Tara and others have said here - it was our offense more than our defense that let us down. Most of JuJu's makes were lower percentage midrange jumpers that she was just drilling all night. If we have to give her something, and she can make most of those, not sure what else to say. (Though I think Lepolo just didn't have the length to challenge those kinds of shots effectively, and agree that Bosgana should have had more time on JuJu.)

Mostly our offense was just so jumbled and anxious. Felt like everyone was jacking shots as soon as they had an opening or trying to make things happen where there wasn't an opening. And I will give Gottlieb credit - her defensive strategy to swarm the post, foul regularly while cycling through a cast of bigs, and dare our guards to create something on their own worked.

Not looking as forward to tomorrow as I was on Thursday, because while we won't be facing Juju, and UCLA is not as stacked in the front court as U$C, Bruins 3-12 are not going to combine for 4 points the way the Trojan did, so we better right the offensive ship quickly.

[BobK]

UCLA may only have 7 players tomorrow

[BobK]

UCLA may only have 7 players tomorrow

[TonyLima]

UCLA may only have 7 players tomorrow

??? I may have missed something.

[TonyLima]

UCLA may only have 7 players tomorrow

??? I may have missed something.

[qwerty49]

Just want to echo what Tara and others have said here - it was our offense more than our defense that let us down. Most of JuJu's makes were lower percentage midrange jumpers that she was just drilling all night. If we have to give her something, and she can make most of those, not sure what else to say. (Though I think Lepolo just didn't have the length to challenge those kinds of shots effectively, and agree that Bosgana should have had more time on JuJu.)

Mostly our offense was just so jumbled and anxious. Felt like everyone was jacking shots as soon as they had an opening or trying to make things happen where there wasn't an opening. And I will give Gottlieb credit - her defensive strategy to swarm the post, foul regularly while cycling through a cast of bigs, and dare our guards to create something on their own worked.

Not looking as forward to tomorrow as I was on Thursday, because while we won't be facing Juju, and UCLA is not as stacked in the front court as U$C, Bruins 3-12 are not going to combine for 4 points the way the Trojan did, so we better right the offensive ship quickly.

Just wondering what the scout was on Juju — does she normally take all those jumpers, or does she drive a lot. Or yes to both, LOL.

[qwerty49]

Just want to echo what Tara and others have said here - it was our offense more than our defense that let us down. Most of JuJu's makes were lower percentage midrange jumpers that she was just drilling all night. If we have to give her something, and she can make most of those, not sure what else to say. (Though I think Lepolo just didn't have the length to challenge those kinds of shots effectively, and agree that Bosgana should have had more time on JuJu.)

Mostly our offense was just so jumbled and anxious. Felt like everyone was jacking shots as soon as they had an opening or trying to make things happen where there wasn't an opening. And I will give Gottlieb credit - her defensive strategy to swarm the post, foul regularly while cycling through a cast of bigs, and dare our guards to create something on their own worked.

Not looking as forward to tomorrow as I was on Thursday, because while we won't be facing Juju, and UCLA is not as stacked in the front court as U$C, Bruins 3-12 are not going to combine for 4 points the way the Trojan did, so we better right the offensive ship quickly.

Just wondering what the scout was on Juju — does she normally take all those jumpers, or does she drive a lot. Or yes to both, LOL.

[BobK]

The two previous games I saw she also she drove she shot threes she rebounded and put back and shot from the elbow. But she often shoots 35% or so.

[BobK]

The two previous games I saw she also she drove she shot threes she rebounded and put back and shot from the elbow. But she often shoots 35% or so.

[jonnyss]

The two previous games I saw she also she drove she shot threes she rebounded and put back and shot from the elbow.  But she often shotsc 35% or so.

i think you mean she often shoots 35%, right? 

in some ways sc and stanford faced the same defense: the post was jammed, forcing both sides to shoot from mid-range. i believe cam, kiki, and brooke all had a better mid-range scoring % than juju in the previous month. last night, juju was on fire from mid-range and cam, kiki, and brooke couldn't buy a basket from mid-range. kind of a fluke, but sc's fluke.

[jonnyss]

The two previous games I saw she also she drove she shot threes she rebounded and put back and shot from the elbow.  But she often shotsc 35% or so.

i think you mean she often shoots 35%, right? 

in some ways sc and stanford faced the same defense: the post was jammed, forcing both sides to shoot from mid-range. i believe cam, kiki, and brooke all had a better mid-range scoring % than juju in the previous month. last night, juju was on fire from mid-range and cam, kiki, and brooke couldn't buy a basket from mid-range. kind of a fluke, but sc's fluke.