WBB 2026-2027 season - Printable Version

WBB 2026-2027 season - Printable Version

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RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - liveoak - 04-21-2026

(04-21-2026, 03:42 PM)qwerty49 Wrote:
(04-20-2026, 12:12 PM)stopandpop Wrote: Hopefully, we'll see a different offense.

I don't recall Kate being a very exciting PG at all and I don't expect her offense to be any different than what was in her head way back in the day. It always seemed to me that our relative success was due to individual stars outshining the limitations of the system.

To my recollection, Kate was a two guard behind either Molly Goodenbour or Jamila Wideman. I remember her for tough defense and good 3-pt shooting in her later seasons.

I thought during last season that she would be well served to bring in someone new to construct and run the offense.

(04-21-2026, 04:13 PM)81alum Wrote:
(04-21-2026, 04:04 PM)2006alum Wrote:
(04-21-2026, 03:52 PM)81alum Wrote:
(04-20-2026, 09:07 PM)PVTree Wrote: What really hurt is losing all our experienced upperclass: NuNu, Ogden, and Clardy... Throw in MAS too.
And all of them graduated (dunno about MAS). I am beginning to think we may never keep another starting player for 4 years again.
If we have a good team culture and success on the court, I think we'll lose the occasional grad transfer but there's no reason to think it'll become an epidemic.
/
I think there are two reasons to think it will be. First, Stanford has made it possible for its players to graduate in 3 years. That would have been impossible or difficult in decades past. And second, there will always be lucrative deals with piles of money awaiting our graduating WBB players. Turning down the money to stay for a fourth year when they already have the degree--that may not happen even for a coach they like. On the other hand, if it really is all about the coach, maybe this helps to explain Kiki's decision, knowing she would be playing for Paye in her senior year. I guess we will only find out if we get a good coach and see whether it really makes any difference or not.

I'm happy to see our players graduate, whether in three or four years. If they graduate in three years and still want to play (and want to stay at Stanford), why can't Stanford pay them enough to stay for the extra year? I'm sure someone could find the money to pay them...

This assumes, of course, that the graduating players like the coach and teammates enough to play for the extra year.

(04-21-2026, 07:37 PM)2006alum Wrote: Well at least the homerism is back in action. The idea that either of these pickups is better than Somfai is pretty funny, but I understand the value of motivated reasoning on a fan board. To the extent MAS seems worse than de Vries, one might ask why MAS was more successful on an equivalent stage to Stanford (the Big Ten) as a freshman than she was two years later as a junior with us. I suspect the honest answer is lack of player development and X's and O's. Will be very interesting to see how the half of last year's team that fled develops next year compared to our lot. If they aren't announcing any changes to the coaching roster, there is no rational reason to think things are going to be different next season.

I didn't see MAS as a freshman, but she was played as a post at Stanford. I don't remember her playing on the wing, which may be an indication of her shooting ability. In the ACC, the posts are taller and more athletic than her. I remember her having a hard time scoring against taller posts

A different offensive system may help her. I think and hope she will shine in the Ivy League.

triangle2 - triangle2 - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 07:37 PM)2006alum Wrote: Well at least the homerism is back in action. The idea that either of these pickups is better than Somfai is pretty funny, but I understand the value of motivated reasoning on a fan board. To the extent MAS seems worse than de Vries, one might ask why MAS was more successful on an equivalent stage to Stanford (the Big Ten) as a freshman than she was two years later as a junior with us. I suspect the honest answer is lack of player development and X's and O's. Will be very interesting to see how the half of last year's team that fled develops next year compared to our lot. If they aren't announcing any changes to the coaching roster, there is no rational reason to think things are going to be different next season.

There have been quite a lot of comments about Stephenson being freshman of the year in the Big 10 - but, context matters in assessing that season for her. She played for a really bad Purdue team that was 5-13 in conference. Somewhat as a consequence, she got to put up a lot of shots and play a fair number of minutes as a freshman - 29.7 mpg while starting 33 games. But, her stats were not great, particularly shooting - she had a eFG of 41.8 and overall shooting percentage of 41.4%. eFG close to 40 is fairly poor, particularly for a post. Compare her eFG to freshman seasons for Eschmeyer (51), Agara (54.2), Sotelo (53.1), and de Vries (47.2).

The other piece of context is that Stevenson seemed to come in as a last-minute transfer - the result of some departures and recruiting misses. I think she was recruited late for a position of need after we were unexpectedly depleted in the post as a result of the departures of Iriafen and Betts. So, we took Stevenson despite some evident limitations (size, shooting, athleticism).

Sophomore year, she took fewer shots because she wasn’t asked to be a primary scorer, but her shot selection improved (probably because she didn’t have the green light a lot) and so her eFG improved to something at least decent for a post (47.8 as a sophomore, and 50 as a junior). And it was reasonably predictable that once Eschmeyer and Somfai arrived, Stevenson wasn’t going to get a lot of shots junior year. I don’t think the best explanation is bad coaching; I just don’t think Stevenson had a lot of potential to improve on the offensive end. (I appreciated her defense, screening, and smarts though. She seemed to understand the read action better than most.)

I do think it’s unlikely that either Sotelo or de Vries have Somfai’s upside, but it’s entirely possible that one or the other of them might fit in better and be more efficient. de Vries eFG as a sophomore was a really great 57.9. Sotelo’s regressed to 47.6 but her got more shots and more minutes compared to her freshman year. (One of the reasons why de Vries eFG is so good is that she’s a good shooter, and eFG credits you for shooting 3’s well.) (Another comparison: Somfai’s eFG was 46.3, but with an overall shooting percentage of 40.9%, so eFG gives her some credit for 3-pt even though we would not ideally want a player shooting 29.3% from 3 to be throwing those shots up.) I think it’s more likely than not that Somfai matures and her game gets more efficient, but it would not be all that surprising if it doesn’t. With her evident rebounding skills, TCU might not care, but she’s going to be in competition for shots there…

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - Goose - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 11:50 PM)liveoak Wrote: I'm happy to see our players graduate, whether in three or four years. If they graduate in three years and still want to play (and want to stay at Stanford), why can't Stanford pay them enough to stay for the extra year? I'm sure someone could find the money to pay them...

This assumes, of course, that the graduating players like the coach and teammates enough to play for the extra year.

It also assumes that it makes academic sense for the player to stay another year. IMO in most cases it doesn't. Unless you can get into a graduate program at Stanford that you actually want, you are arguably wasting a year of free tuition. I can also point out, as BC often does, that it is easy to say "someone" can find the money to pay them, but you and I aren't doing it. Even if there is money available, it may be better spent in other places. OTOH other schools may see it differently and be willing to pay more.

Receiving your degree is a type of "natural" separation point from Stanford. There are forces that may want you to stay, and they may be strong. However there also may be good reasons to go. The player may "like" Stanford just fine but still chooses to go do something else. The vast majority of people receiving degrees do exactly that. Athletes aren't different.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - TonyLima - 04-22-2026

NY Times ranks Stanford. Not good.

RE: DaddyG - Papa John - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 10:11 PM)DaddyG Wrote: This is MAS’ father so of course I admit that I am biased. For those of you taking shots at my daughter, let me remind you that she had 330 points and 180 rebounds as a freshman in the Big 10 and was both freshman of the year and honorable mention All Big 10 that year. She can run, jump, shoot and score. She can defend and rebound. All of those things were well documented before she came here. And please remember the Big 10 is a better conference than the ACC, at least according to the number of teams who made the NCAA tournament the last two years.

Besides her, this year’s team was full of highly regarded players including multiple McDonald’s All Americans and the second best recruiting class in the country last year. And they got along very well with each other both on and off the court. They are high-quality kids.

Seven underclassmen are leaving the program; including the two undergraduate captains and many of the players who played the most minutes and were the top scorers and rebounders. They are going to TCU, Michigan, UNC, Cal, Tennessee, Maryland and Columbia, which are all highly regarded in WBB.

FYI, MAS chose Columbia because it is a great school (still needs to finish her degree) and they have a strong program (won the WBIT by beating BYU by double digits).

So apparently, the women’s college basketball world believes these 7 girls can play, just like the quality players who are staying.

I would caution anyone on this forum against taking shots at any player, whether they are leaving or staying. There are a number of factors that contribute to whether a kid plays well or not at a particular program or with a certain coaching staff.

Thank you for your post.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - jonnyss - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 09:19 PM)BostonCard Wrote:
(04-21-2026, 08:52 PM)jonnyss Wrote: perhaps you didn't watch the wbit quinnipiac game? to my eyes it was the only game in which kate gave mas the green light to drive, and the results were eye-opening: 10 points on 100% shooting and 9 rebounds in 16 minutes play. suddenly she wasn't hesitant (slow) at all. i suspect the coaches had shackles on mas for her tenure at stanford. one of several problems with having a coaching staff of mostly ex-stanford players might be, do the coaches have experience with any style of play other than tara-light?
-

Just curious what the evidence is that the difference was Paye giving Stevenson the green light on that particular game versus not (every other game). Isn’t the more likely explanation that MAS had a decided advantage against a mid-major team defender? I think the coach just randomly deciding to unshackle a player for one and only one game doesn’t really pass Occam’s razor.

BC

evidence? is this a criminal trial or perhaps a clinical trial of a medication? i wrote "to my eyes," ie i was offering an subjective opinion, as do the great majority of posts on this forum.

my eyes said that for 95% of the season, MAS received the ball in the mid or high post, facing away from the basket, and looked to pass. that she quite rarely attempted to drive or shoot seemed to my eyes no green light from the coach. to my eyes she had the green light in the Quinnipiac game and looked great.

but anyway, wouldn't my point hold? that anyone predicting, based on last year's stats, that a transfer from a mid-major will do much better than MAS might consider the competition.

(04-21-2026, 10:11 PM)DaddyG Wrote: This is MAS’ father so of course I admit that I am biased. For those of you taking shots at my daughter, let me remind you that she had 330 points and 180 rebounds as a freshman in the Big 10 and was both freshman of the year and honorable mention All Big 10 that year. She can run, jump, shoot and score. She can defend and rebound. All of those things were well documented before she came here. And please remember the Big 10 is a better conference than the ACC, at least according to the number of teams who made the NCAA tournament the last two years.

Besides her, this year’s team was full of highly regarded players including multiple McDonald’s All Americans and the second best recruiting class in the country last year. And they got along very well with each other both on and off the court. They are high-quality kids.

Seven underclassmen are leaving the program; including the two undergraduate captains and many of the players who played the most minutes and were the top scorers and rebounders. They are going to TCU, Michigan, UNC, Cal, Tennessee, Maryland and Columbia, which are all highly regarded in WBB.

FYI, MAS chose Columbia because it is a great school (still needs to finish her degree) and they have a strong program (won the WBIT by beating BYU by double digits).

So apparently, the women’s college basketball world believes these 7 girls can play, just like the quality players who are staying.

I would caution anyone on this forum against taking shots at any player, whether they are leaving or staying. There are a number of factors that contribute to whether a kid plays well or not at a particular program or with a certain coaching staff.

thank you!

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - pauloalto - 04-22-2026

Time for an update with three new incoming transfers: Ilse de Vries, Ines Sotelo, and Charlotte Tuhy
and one new commit: Gracyn Gilliard

[Image: WBB-April24.jpg]

as of April 24

RE: DaddyG - martyup - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 10:11 PM)DaddyG Wrote: This is MAS’ father so of course I admit that I am biased.

Hi DaddyG. Congratulations on the success of your daughter on the basketball court. I always appreciated her enthusiasm and relentless pursuit of rebounds. If you had anything to do with instilling in her the competitive spirit she exhibited on the court, props to you.

I agree that people should be careful when making posts that criticise or judge players. However, this is a sports board in which members discuss topics that by necessity involve judging and commenting on the abilities and performance of Stanford athletes. I would bet that you would agree that your daughter was not the best athlete on this year's team. However, a case could be made that she put out the most effort. I hope she does well, is happy, and has fun at Columbia.

As a player parent, do you have anything you can share about the team culture under KP that might have led to such an exodus of players?

RE: DaddyG - Card10Fan - 04-22-2026

(04-21-2026, 10:11 PM)DaddyG Wrote: This is MAS’ father so of course I admit that I am biased. For those of you taking shots at my daughter, let me remind you that she had 330 points and 180 rebounds as a freshman in the Big 10 and was both freshman of the year and honorable mention All Big 10 that year. She can run, jump, shoot and score. She can defend and rebound. All of those things were well documented before she came here. And please remember the Big 10 is a better conference than the ACC, at least according to the number of teams who made the NCAA tournament the last two years.

Good luck to MAS at Columbia. I think a consensus on the board was that Columbia seemed like a perfect fit for her and makes a lot of sense. Most of the disdain on this board and the paid Stanford board is with the coaching staff and Stanford leadership for allowing these 7 players to get away and seemingly choosing the current coaching staff over trying to steady the ship and start with fresh WBB leadership. We all have a deep appreciation for Stanford University and especially the storied WBB program which currently feels like it's circling the drain.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - BostonCard - 04-22-2026

jonnyss dateline='[url=tel:1776888109' Wrote: 1776888109[/url]']
evidence? is this a criminal trial or perhaps a clinical trial of a medication? i wrote "to my eyes," ie i was offering an subjective opinion, as do the great majority of posts on this forum.

my eyes said that for 95% of the season, MAS received the ball in the mid or high post, facing away from the basket, and looked to pass. that she quite rarely attempted to drive or shoot seemed to my eyes no green light from the coach. to my eyes she had the green light in the Quinnipiac game and looked great.

but anyway, wouldn't my point hold? that anyone predicting, based on last year's stats, that a transfer from a mid-major will do much better than MAS might consider the competition.

I was not disputing your observation, just your conclusion. I think it is a big leap from “MAS received the ball in the mid or high post, facing away from the basket, and looked to pass” to MAS was shackled by the coach (but for some reason not the one game she did well on). The one thing that didn’t change between all the games Stanford played was the coach, and while of course she may have been experimenting to see what worked given the depleted state of our roster, why not go back to it against BYU?

What did change between most of our games and the Quinnipiac game was who was guarding Stevenson, so, to me, the most likely explanation here is that there was a mismatch against a weaker defender and Stevenson was able to repeatedly exploit it. But, with a different player guarding Stevenson against BYU she wasn’t and reverted to mostly passing.

BC

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - CompSci87 - 04-22-2026

(04-22-2026, 05:24 PM)BostonCard Wrote: What did change between most of our games and the Quinnipiac game was who was guarding Stevenson, so, to me, the most likely explanation here is that there was a mismatch against a weaker defender and Stevenson was able to repeatedly exploit it. But, with a different player guarding Stevenson against BYU she wasn’t and reverted to mostly passing.

Nice point. You beat me to posting something similar. What I saw for most of the season was MAS being guarded by a taller defender, who gapped her a bit; i.e., stayed between her and the basket, fairly close but not too close. The gapping strategy discourages driving to the basket because it's hard to get around the defender. At the same time it discourages shooting when the defender is taller and can still contest your shot. This leaves passing and dribbling away from the basket as the most open options.

It can help to fake a shooting motion or make a jab step to fake a drive attempt. This may get the defender to move or lean off balance, or freeze momentarily. I don't remember seeing that work for MAS much.

In the Quinnipiac game, I noticed right away that MAS's defender was guarding her closely, plus I think she was smaller than MAS. MAS took full advantage, mostly by driving around and past her to the basket... where Q didn't have a big player waiting to block her shot either.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - Hieronymus - 04-23-2026

I know players in the portal can still make decisions at this point, but I am very concerned about only 10 players on the roster right now. 1. You don’t know how fast the Frosh come along and it’s not a highly touted class. 2. A couple of injuries and things will get dire in a hurry even if the Frosh are immediately good.

Really need another transfer or 2 inbound. And I guess start planning the walk on tryouts now.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - stopandpop - 04-23-2026

(04-23-2026, 08:51 AM)Hieronymus Wrote: I know players in the portal can still make decisions at this point, but I am very concerned about only 10 players on the roster right now. 1. You don’t know how fast the Frosh come along and it’s not a highly touted class. 2. A couple of injuries and things will get dire in a hurry even if the Frosh are immediately good.

Really need another transfer or 2 inbound. And I guess start planning the walk on tryouts now.

Agree. Need 2.

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - BobK - 04-23-2026

We don't need walk ons We played with 8 last season

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - 82lsju - 04-23-2026

(04-23-2026, 10:04 AM)BobK Wrote: We don't need walk ons We played with 8 last season

might want a few more players for practices

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - BobK - 04-23-2026

Stanford WBB has used me. For practice for years. Plus we are 11
See above on the new commit

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - stopandpop - 04-23-2026

(04-23-2026, 12:40 PM)BobK Wrote: Stanford WBB has used me. For practice for years. Plus we are 11
See above on the new commit

new commit?

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - petersalas - 04-23-2026

https://x.com/gracyngilliard/status/2047401092187832648?s=46&t=4RIjvxZZM4wjQaSyTEUwgA

(04-23-2026, 01:03 PM)stopandpop Wrote:
(04-23-2026, 12:40 PM)BobK Wrote: Stanford WBB has used me. For practice for years. Plus we are 11
See above on the new commit

new commit?

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - BobK - 04-23-2026

I meant used men. Excited as just got another commit. Two today

RE: WBB 2026-2027 season - SearchingForTheTruth - 04-23-2026

Two new commits.

Incoming first year Gracyn Gillard 5' 11" G/F originally committed to Davidson.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2026/04/23/indiana-miss-basketball-gracyn-gilliard-commits-to-stanford-ihsaa-girls-basketball-recruiting/89649358007/

Charlotte Tuhy 6' 1" rising Sophomore from American University. https://aueagles.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/charlotte-tuhy/7073