WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm

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RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 10:40 PM)MV72018 Wrote: No one since Wiggins to take it to the hoop and finish or dish.

It is a small thing, but McPhee was fabulous taking it to the hoop.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - chimera - 03-03-2023

My last thought is that the team may be too predictable on offense and maybe even on defense. Maybe Tara pulled a "Shaw" for all you FB people. The offense since conference season started has been for the most part plodding and deliberate, not active and aggressive. What do we generally do? Mostly dribble around hunting for passes in to Brink inside and if that doesn't work handing the ball to Jones and watching her try to create a shot. We can't seem to screen Jump open very well against good defensive teams either. We turn the ball over on what look to us fans like "silly" passes, but maybe they look silly because we are making things more difficult by being too predictable? I know every team runs an offense that is going to be fairly predictable. Ours seems to be easier to defend late in games, which may be a sign the opponent got us figured out over the course of the game too easily. Anyone have thoughts on this?

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Card10Fan - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 10:40 PM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.

Finally, someone talking sense here rather than seeing things through relentlessly rose-colored glasses. I've been saying all year that Jones has been playing lackluster O too often. (Tonight she was not only 5 for 15 but only had 3 assists.) It finall caught up with us. In addition, Tara's coaching in Q4 left much to be desired. To put it bluntly, she got her clock cleaned by the UCLA coach. No flexibility, no well designed strategy, adjustments, or key plays in crunch time. Same old, same old. Yes, Tata has won 3 NATIs, which is laudable, but the game has changed and, as far as I can see, she hasn't changed that much. Our team is relatively SLOW and UNATHLETIC compared to our elite opponents, including UCLA. We've relied on size and three-point shooting. No one since Wiggins to take it to the hoop and finish or dish. Haley seems overrated to me. To make it in the WNBA she will need to develop a shot she can make reliably. Acrobatic layups and rebounds won't be enough, and passes to back door cutters will take her only so far in the WNBA.

Nevertheles, it was still a good season. Maybe now Tara will make changes, skills of available players permitting, that will allow us to make a deep run in the Dance. Otherwise an early exit looms. Perhaps it will prove a good thing in the long run for us to have lost this game. Perhaps that will shake things up and make the coaches see the need for serious changes, in recruiting if not with this squad in upcoming games. Most importantly, kudos and congrats to what seems to be a wonderful, intelligent, and endearing group of teammates.

I thought 4th quarter Stanford coaching was pretty bad. I didn't see any meaningful defensive changes other than putting Agnes in to help on the perimeter which made no difference. Why not try a few possession of zone, throw on a press (anything to break up a team's rhythm). We never do that. Tara can be too inflexible in her ways. When something is working GREAT, when it's not working anymore. ADJUST

I do get the sense it's been a frustrating season for the coaches trying to put the pieces together. But, that's why they get paid the big bucks is to figure it out and to gel and blend talent that they recruited. We've almost regressed over the course of the season collectively, which is unheard of for a Tara coached team.

I was not at the game but watched on Pac12 network. Maybe I'm mistaken but it almost looked like late in the game Brink was on the verge of tears.The camera zoomed in on her when we were down late. Brink is the one player that really really really plays like she wants it bad. She's a winner and winning clearly matters to her. I don't necessarily get that same sense that it matters as much to some other upperclassman. I know everyone wants to win but to some winning matters more than anything. But that's just my observation. I also think Brink is going to be an excellent pro for many years because of that attitude and desire.

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=184189

postgame quotes

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - JohnR34231 - 03-03-2023

If you want an example of how there are a lot of good teams in the conference but no great ones, look no further than Wazzu's victory over Colorado tonight after our game.

A team we absolutely dominated a month ago on their home floor has now made it to the finals of the tourney by upsetting the 2 and 3 seeds.

The number 7 and number 5 seeds are now playing for the conference tourney championship.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - cardfan1996 - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 10:38 PM)BostonCard Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 10:08 PM)chimera Wrote: Oh come on, UCLA doesn't go as deep as Stanford does and Close is no genius at subbing. I don't see the times played in the stats yet but against UA, UCLA played their starters over 30 minutes and this was game three for them. They went to over time in their first game. Stanford has gone deeper than them most games. There is no reason anyone on our team should be all that tired, certainly not more tired than UCLA. Jones and Jump play a lot, probably a bit too much, but sitting another minute or two shouldn't make a vast difference. This isn't UConn where he rides his starters plus one sub for 40 minutes.

Minutes aren’t up yet, but both teams played 10 players and bench points were Stanford 21, UCLA 9. I would be surprised if there was a large discrepancy in the distribution of minutes between the teams.

BC

It’s Haley’s rest that is at issue. Think of all the cumulative minutes she has logged this year. She is not a robot. Personally I think she should have put a stop to it in November when it was apparent Tara’s grand vision of her as a point guard was not working out for her and her numbers and draft status were falling. She was being bullied online for not being able to close out games the way people were accustomed to seeing her in previous years. She is someone Stanford depends on to close out games and is historically more effective in that role rested going into the 4th. This year, she is taking on even more responsibility and ballhandling. No one plays 40 minutes in the pros even if they are down going into the 4th quarter. Stef Curry takes his rest so he can have his legs in the 4th to make his shot. Times have changed. What Tara has been doing for the last 35-40 years has not changed but it is no longer best practices for athletes, and it hasn’t been for the last decade. Alot of the big programs have their kids wearing wearables that provide information when that kids need to rest.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - MV72018 - 03-04-2023

(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.
Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - MV72018 - 03-04-2023

A revealing stat: we made 13 FTs, 7 by Cam, 5 by Haley, and 1 by Lauren. None by any of our wings.

Translation: our three point shooters just don't or can't take it to the hoop. So, when they're guarded tightly on the perimeter, the trey shooters either need great screens, which we are not good at doing, or they need to take it to the hoop to loosen up the D on the perimeter. We only shot 11 trey attempts tonight, making only 4 (to UCLA's 7).

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - treetop11 - 03-04-2023

Our 4th Q was abysmal, no other way to say it and Jump had her worst game of the season. As noted by a couple of others, our offense was totally stagnant in the 4th. Players just stood around and Ucla didn't have to do much to guard us. Don't know what happened to our D or maybe just Ucla making shots.

Regardless of our abysmal play in the 4th, the fact is that the refs handed the game to Ucla. Others have talked about the three calls late and many bad calls/non-calls earlier, so I won't repeat except for that out of bounds call. That should have been an easy reversal; could the refs been that incompetent or did they intend to miscall it? We would have had the ball with one timeout and plenty of time to score. We obviously don't know whether we could have pulled the game out, but ball to Ucla was a dagger. People can say things like you just need to overcome the refs or playing better would have the bad calls inconsequential, but as a fans an viewers, we deserve proper officiating to see what could have been an incredible finish. I've had it with P12 refs and actually with the P12 conference office which I long have detested because they are overpaid adminstrative yokes around the necks of the schools and they screw up so many things, not just officiating. I have been on the fence about other teams leaving the conference and the Pac becoming non existant, but no Ihope the Bigs (10 and 12) lure away more Pac teams and the conference collapses and the confererence folks lose their jobs.

People arr being overly harsh on Tara and the team's prospects moving forward. I could make good arguments against the negative posts, but it would not make any difference. I'm not as pessimistic as some about the team and what it will do in the NCAAs, nor do I feel a need to scapegoat
Tara.

I understand chimera's upset with the changes in college WBB and much of college sports overall. I feel much he same but not ready to not watcc our variosus teasm.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - BostonCard - 03-04-2023

UCLA’s bench played 51 minutes. Stanford’s bench played 57 minutes. Agree that Jones playing all 40 minutes was probably too much, but other than that, I don’t really see much of a difference between how Close substituted and how Stanford did. Both teams had four players playing 30+ minutes.

BTW,for all the complaints about the fourth quarter offense, we shot 5/10 from the field, 1/1 from three and 4/4 from the line. The big issue wasn’t our shooting; it was that we didn’t take many shots due to turnovers.

BC

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - cardfan1996 - 03-04-2023

It’s not just offense but defense too. Fatigue definitely affects Haley’s already spotty defense. Haley and Fran didn’t switch quick enough, and Fran was late on contesting maybe 2-3 3pters. Reminds me of the UConn game. And the worse thing Tara does is give Haley no one to guard as her primary responsibility. Haley didn’t guard switches or Rice in the midrange

And of course, my general complaint of the lack of boxing out and help on rebounding from the perimeter.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - TheWildJacko - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 12:09 AM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.
Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.

Please, in the future, if your inclination is to comment on how our team is not talented or they don't "want to win," consider not posting. Just give it a thought.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Stanfanforever - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 12:09 AM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.
Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.

What a ridiculous opinion on Betts .
Leads the team and it’s not close in points per minute and is obviously being under utilized .
There are players being given consistent mins with 0 production .
Boston is the exact type player Betts would excel against . Boston is not fast .
She’s taken one “4/5” foot jump shot and made it .
The reason she can’t be as effective on this team as she could he on others is that the best player on the team wants the same space and we have 0 creative players who can shoot also so everyone just packs the paint .
Our shooters are sooo easy to take out the game as that’s literally all they can do. Our best shooter is incapable of driving to the basket .
To call her slow is ludicrous , fastest 6-7 player I’ve ever seen getting up and down the court .
Look at the Oregon big - that’s slow .
When do you actually ever see her scored on but we have players getting mins playing 0 defence.
If you think a number one recruit will stick around being hugely unvalued you are crazy .
99% of teams would love to have her and be glad to use her too .
Check the stats and especially fg% of our “main players” again last night before going in on unused freshman .

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - cardfan1996 - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 06:28 AM)Stanfanforever Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 12:09 AM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.
Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.
What a ridiculous opinion on Betts .
Leads the team and it’s not close in points per minute and is obviously being under utilized .
There are players being given consistent mins with 0 production .
Boston is the exact type player Betts would excel against . Boston is not fast .
To call her slow is ludicrous , fastest 6-7 Feb sie I’ve ever seen getting up and down the court .
Look at the Oregon big - that’s slow .
When do you actually ever see her scored on but we have players getting mins playing 0 defence.
If you think a number one recruit will stick around being hugely unvalued you are crazy .
It’s not like you can say she’s on a championship team anymore .
99% of teams would love to have her and be glad to use her too .

Betts has improved a great deal since the beginning of the year on limited minutes. But Boston and Cardoso are not just big but quick and agile. As Mike Neighbors said, what makes S. Carolina special is “their bigs can guard your guards and their guards can guard your bigs.” I’ve seen both Boston and Cardoso chase down guards from behind and block them (Boston did so again today). Betts may very well get to their level in a couple of years (she will need to hire her own trainer to do so) but she is not going to be able to score on them or defend them this year. How do I know that? She struggled vs the bigger USC post and Utah’s unnamed and random big girls. Both were able to physically push her around and off her spot. Boston and Cardoso are at least twice as strong as any of those girls (an understatement to be sure) plus Cardoso looks Betts in the eye. There is no size mismatch Betts can exploit. S. Carolina won’t even need to bring a double or help (but I have yet to see them do so for any player they are defending - star or not). They just held Angel Reese, a prolific rebounder and Top 5 pick next year, to 14 pts and 4 rebounds playing her 1 on 1.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-04-2023

The presser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgJrKAZ6cMw

Tara seemed as tired as I have ever seen her. As usual, Tara keeps all her press conference comments quite general. You learn more about her mood than about Xs and Os from these things. Haley was eloquent as usual. No comments or questions on the officiating.

Tara: "This has been a really challenging last five weeks for our team....For us to be on the road four of the last five weekends, to play Mondays and Thursdays...what our team can benefit most from is some rest. We'll go home, take three days off--at least--and just let people get refreshed....We expect to be in the NCAA tournament, expect to have an opportunity to play at home--hopefully two games--we have to fix some things--there's no doubt. "

Jones: "Pac 12 is the toughest conference in the country, we are proud to have won the regular season, we didn't get the tournament which is a tough pill to swallow, but it just prepares us for what is next, our season doesn't end here. We want to continue to play together as a unit. This is a special team and I don't think we are anywhere close to our ceiling....If we are able to get things together in these next few weeks...make adjustments, this and that, whatever it may be, then I think we have a lot of good stuff ahead of us throughout the rest of March and beginning of April."

Here is an interesting factoid not related to the presser:
Loss against USC: 2nd game of the weekend
Loss against Washington: 2nd game of the weekend
Loss against Utah: 2nd game of the weekend
Loss against UCLA: 2nd game of the tournament

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Stanfanforever - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 06:44 AM)cardfan1996 Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 06:28 AM)Stanfanforever Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 12:09 AM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:18 PM)BosCard Wrote: The tournament will decide this season. Either we will redeem ourselves and get to the Final Four or more. Or we will lose in the Sweet Sixteen and it will be a toilet bowl season relative to the potential of this team.
Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.
What a ridiculous opinion on Betts .
Leads the team and it’s not close in points per minute and is obviously being under utilized .
There are players being given consistent mins with 0 production .
Boston is the exact type player Betts would excel against . Boston is not fast .
To call her slow is ludicrous , fastest 6-7 Feb sie I’ve ever seen getting up and down the court .
Look at the Oregon big - that’s slow .
When do you actually ever see her scored on but we have players getting mins playing 0 defence.
If you think a number one recruit will stick around being hugely unvalued you are crazy .
It’s not like you can say she’s on a championship team anymore .
99% of teams would love to have her and be glad to use her too .

Betts has improved a great deal since the beginning of the year on limited minutes. But Boston and Cardoso are not just big but quick and agile. As Mike Neighbors said, what makes S. Carolina special is “their bigs can guard your guards and their guards can guard your bigs.” I’ve seen both Boston and Cardoso chase down guards from behind and block them (Boston did so again today). Betts may very well get to their level in a couple of years (she will need to hire her own trainer to do so) but she is not going to be able to score on them or defend them this year. How do I know that? She struggled vs the bigger USC post and Utah’s unnamed and random big girls. Both were able to physically push her around and off her spot. Boston and Cardoso are at least twice as strong as any of those girls (an understatement to be sure) plus Cardoso looks Betts in the eye. There is no size mismatch Betts can exploit. S. Carolina won’t even need to bring a double or help (but I have yet to see them do so for any player they are defending - star or not). They just held Angel Reese, a prolific rebounder and Top 5 pick next year, to 14 pts and 4 rebounds playing her 1 on 1.

Not sure what games you are watching .
Cardoso is a catch and layup role player at best who takes advantage of having a whole roster of threats around her plus I guarantee doesn’t look her in the eye as she has inflated her height like everyone else.
To call her faster than Betts is ludicrous.
You need to watch closer.
When you say she “struggled” you mean missed a shot or two and played great D on them im guessing ?
Boston is a great player and a unicorn but is about to be gone and with the some of our main players lack of production against better teams we won’t be facing her again .

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - 81alum - 03-04-2023

I think we all ought to be on high alert for trolls sowing seeds of discord on social media, hoping to start rumors. Be particularly skeptical of negative speculation from posters with short track records.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - cardfan1996 - 03-04-2023

Are we talking about the same Kamilla Cardoso at 2:27 of this clip? Because I really feel like you are talking about a different player than I am.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGphr-TEjdM&pp=ygUwUyBjYXJvbGluYSB1Y2xhIHdvbWVuJ3MgYmFza2V0YmFsbCBjYXJkb3NvIGJsb2Nr

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - TheWildJacko - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 07:08 AM)Stanfanforever Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 06:44 AM)cardfan1996 Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 06:28 AM)Stanfanforever Wrote:
(03-04-2023, 12:09 AM)MV72018 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 09:39 PM)81alum Wrote: Agreed about the importance of the Big Dance now. We just have to see how far our coming 2 seed can carry us. I guess I would be content with the 2008 model when we knocked off #1 seed Maryland and made it all the way to the title game, but I worry about the 2013 model (loss to Georgia in the sweet 16).

We have enormous talent on this team, but it has not completely come together and jelled all year. It has been a very uncharacteristic year as far as improvement goes. We now have 5 losses for the season, with the likelihood that we will wind up with six. That is high for Stanford WBB, but is especially surprising with our current talent level.

Let's see if a little time for sober reflection and intense practice can give us a much better 2nd tourney than our first.

In all sincerity, I disagree that there is "enormous talent" on this team. Cam, Jump, and Jones, YES. But I don't see enormous talent beyond that. Jury is still out on Betts; she has great size but is slow and couldn't cover Boston-type opponents. Don't yet see much ability to shoot when she's further than 4-5 feet away. Btw, I agree with another poster that Cam is the only one on the team who plays with relentless intensity. SC is light years ahead of SU on that front. Teams reflects their coaches personalities. I venture to predict that the women's game is going to get progressively more intense and feisty over the next five years. It's not going to be (relatively) mellow, low-contact, and "polite" like it used to be. It's going to require teams that want to win to adapt to the new reality.
What a ridiculous opinion on Betts .
Leads the team and it’s not close in points per minute and is obviously being under utilized .
There are players being given consistent mins with 0 production .
Boston is the exact type player Betts would excel against . Boston is not fast .
To call her slow is ludicrous , fastest 6-7 Feb sie I’ve ever seen getting up and down the court .
Look at the Oregon big - that’s slow .
When do you actually ever see her scored on but we have players getting mins playing 0 defence.
If you think a number one recruit will stick around being hugely unvalued you are crazy .
It’s not like you can say she’s on a championship team anymore .
99% of teams would love to have her and be glad to use her too .

Betts has improved a great deal since the beginning of the year on limited minutes. But Boston and Cardoso are not just big but quick and agile. As Mike Neighbors said, what makes S. Carolina special is “their bigs can guard your guards and their guards can guard your bigs.” I’ve seen both Boston and Cardoso chase down guards from behind and block them (Boston did so again today). Betts may very well get to their level in a couple of years (she will need to hire her own trainer to do so) but she is not going to be able to score on them or defend them this year. How do I know that? She struggled vs the bigger USC post and Utah’s unnamed and random big girls. Both were able to physically push her around and off her spot. Boston and Cardoso are at least twice as strong as any of those girls (an understatement to be sure) plus Cardoso looks Betts in the eye. There is no size mismatch Betts can exploit. S. Carolina won’t even need to bring a double or help (but I have yet to see them do so for any player they are defending - star or not). They just held Angel Reese, a prolific rebounder and Top 5 pick next year, to 14 pts and 4 rebounds playing her 1 on 1.
Not sure what games you are watching .
Cardoso is a catch and layup role player at best who takes advantage of having a whole roster of threats around her plus I guarantee doesn’t look her in the eye as she has inflated her height like everyone else.
To call her faster than Betts is ludicrous.
You need to watch closer.
When you say she “struggled” you mean missed a shot or two and played great D on them im guessing ?
Boston is a great player and a unicorn but is about to be gone and with the some of our main players lack of production against better teams we won’t be facing her again .
Like I said I doubt very much any number 1 recruit would hang around on a team being so undervalued.

Way to praise Betts and then turn around to trash the rest of the team. "It's not like you can say she's on a championship team anymore?" Did you forget we're regular season co-champs? 2021 national champions (with much of the same returning cast)? 3-time national champion coach?

Do you have inside info on Betts transferring? If not, don't speculate on it here. Do you know Cardosa is inflating her height? If not, really unnecessary accusation to make. The annoying thing is, I actually agree with you that Tara could be using Betts more, and that she's a fantastic player. Although, not on Boston's or Cardosa's level yet. And why would she be? They've got several years of experience on her.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - Softball Fan - 03-04-2023

I bet that Betts stays at Stanford all four years regardless of playing time. She has improved dramatically both in aggressiveness and confidence. Betts will continue to grow into her body and get better at holding onto the ball and possibly even her reaction time.

I feel Tara has done a good job at slowly getting Betts involved in the games. At the beginning of the season Betts was not ready for big minutes in big games. She has to know that. To overplay her early in the college DI season would have been a mistake IMO because it would have impacted her confidence in herself and possibly the confidence her teammates would have in her.

I predict next season Betts gets much more playing time. And in her junior year I expect fans will be complaining Tara is using Betts too much the way they complain Tara is using Jones too much.

Admittedly I am a casual WBB fan. This loss doesn't have an emotional impact on me the way a crucial WVB loss would have. I understand some serious WBB fans are hurting right now and rightfully so. By the start of next season this loss will be mostly forgotten and I expect you will once again be excited about the start of a new season.

RE: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA Friday 6pm - oldalum - 03-04-2023

(03-04-2023, 07:08 AM)Stanfanforever Wrote: I doubt very much any number 1 recruit would hang around on a team being so undervalued.

we're talking about a specific person, not a generic #1 recruit. Maybe: she likes her teammates, coaches, friends and school? And has embraced a team mentality as opposed to a me-first mentality? And believes she has improved a lot, both from coaching and from practicing against some really good players? And has seen her minutes and importance increase over the season? And understands that she was the #1 recruit based on potential, not on being able to come in and play like Aliyah Boston from the start? And doesn't base important life decisions on one season? We'll find out soon enough. But to me, on the bench she seems very engaged with the team, no sign of sulking. I also thought it revealing when Brink and Belibi, on a post-Oregon game interview with the 3 commentators in Vegas, essentially referred to Betts as their love-child and talked in glowing terms about how much she has improved this year. They've clearly taken her under their wing. I'm skeptical she's going to leave all this. Contrary to the usual mantra, in this case it really is a 4-year decision, not a 1-year decision.